Tenth Musee

I wish I could say I’m taking a vacation, but alas, that probably won’t happen until the Fall or Winter, given my current waiting list. In the meantime, though, I can smell like I’m on vacation.

A couple weeks ago, Kathy told me about this new product line she loves called 100% Pure.  She got some samples or something to review on Lovely Safemama and gushed about how great it was so I had to order some of my own.  Kathy likes the pink grapefruit scent (which suits her, really — she’s totally a Spring/Summer) but I’m more of a vanilla, musk, spice kind of girl (more of a Fall/Winter).  Yet another in a long line of ying-yang things about us.

I checked out their different products and decided, based on Kathy’s recommendation, to try a scrub and the body cream.  I’m not really one for heavy creams or body butter — it’s a little too much for me, but this came in a pump bottle, so I figured I’d give it a go.  I chose both Tahiti scrub and Tahiti body cream for my scent.

They’re not cheap — about $17-$22 for the scrub and another $17 for the body cream, so my initial reaction on receipt of the product was “Man, that scrub jar sure is small.” (Ok, it was more like “WTF? Deluxe, my ass!”) The product description said it was “deluxe” sized so I assumed that meant it was more product — the photo kind of implied it.  It was slightly less expensive than the other scrubs not marked “deluxe”, so I thought it was some kind of a bargain.  So that was a lesson — my jar was 6oz compared to Kathy’s pink grapefruit scrub, which was 13oz.  I’m still not sure why this is, unless it’s because the ingredients are somehow more luxe, which wasn’t made clear.

I let the company know about this little marketing confusion and how disappointed I was that I got such a small jar, but conceded that I should have read the description more thoroughly. I’ve not received a response, but they might not have gotten to it yet.

That little quirk aside… sweet holy moses with a side of fries.  The smell is so good, I could just roll around in it. It smells like your skin after a day at the beach. It smells like very tall drinks with umbrellas.  It smells like slipping Paco the cabana boy your room key.  It smells like nutty, buttery, vanilla, coconut, cocoa butter, hot hot sex.

Surprisingly, I was unimpressed with the scent at first blush, when I unscrewed the top to take a sniff, but once I got in the shower and started stirring up the scrub, I was almost high with how good it smelled. The cream fragrance was just as good once it had a chance to warm up on the skin.  I couldn’t get enough of myself.

As far as the effectiveness of the products, I really love the scrub. I can tell I’ll go through the jar pretty quickly, but if you are reasonable with the amount you use each shower, it should last a while. Instead of an oil I needed to stir, which is what I was expecting based on Kathy’s description, there was a thick shea butter cream on top of the scrub that I mixed in with scrub bits hidden underneath.  The scrub lasts a while in the shower and is doing wonders for those little dry bumps on your thighs or elbows that come from sitting in an office chair for hours on end.

When you get out of the shower, there’s still plenty of oil/cream on your skin to towel off and follow up with the body cream. I love that it’s in a pump and it’s thick enough to do the job without being heavy and goopy like a body butter.  And like I said, I can’t stop sniffing my skin… which sounds weird now that I say it like that.

I do think they need to make a change in their marketing verbiage (and I hope to get a follow up email), but I would totally order again. I want to try some of the other scents. I tried the samples of shower cream and gel that came with my order, but was unimpressed with the lather, so I think I’ll skip that. But the scrub and creams are to die for, seriously.

You can order online at 100% Pure or find their stuff in some flagship Bath & Bodyworks stores and online.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go find Paco.