Soap & Glory skincare review:

Back in May I decided to 'invest' in my skincare products and try something new.  Although skincare (specifically moisturising every day) has always been important to me, I usually find myself buying the first moisturiser that I see on special offer without considering how well it will actually work.  Although Soap & Glory is not a particularly high end skincare brand, their products are definitely pricier than I'm used to.  As a bit of an experiment, I decided to take home three different products and find out for myself if they're really worth the extra money.

Source: here

The Feel Good Factor moisturiser gets rave reviews on the Soap & Glory website, and I agree that it is an effective moisturiser which does what it says on the tin.  Using a daily moisturiser with SPF is vital (yes, even in rainy Scotland!), and Feel Good Factor delivers on that front.  The product has a slightly runny consistency, but not too watery, has a pleasant smell and absorbs fairly quickly into the skin.  However, there weren't really any stand out features for me, and (despite being the same size as the majority of other moisturisers) the tube didn't seem to last as long as my moisturisers usually do.  Overall, I felt a little cheated, as I have purchased comparable moisturisers for less than half the price of Feel Good Factor.

I'm not sure that I've entirely made my mind up about the Face Soap and Clarity facial wash yet, but my initial impressions are a little doubtful.  Don't get me wrong, it certainly washes my face, and is fairly good at removing make up as well, which some might argue is the whole point of the exercise.  Still, I have never had spot prone skin, and since beginning to use this face wash I have noticed quite a few nasty blemishes popping up.  This has happened in the past with other daily washes that just didn't agree with me, but I expected more from Soap & Glory.  The sparse exfoliating beads suspended in the product look pretty in the bottle, but are a little ineffective outside of the bottle, and just seem to end up everywhere but my face.  Honestly, I would much rather use a separate facial exfoliator when and where I need to.  The scent and consistency of Face Soap and Clarity are pleasant enough (minus the beads) and you need much less of the product for one wash than you might initially suspect.  This confuses me, though, as (yet again) I feel like I am getting through this bottle much faster than my last Garnier face wash, which seemed to last me months!

Finally, the Smooch Operator lip butter balm was the biggest disappointment out of my three purchases, simply because the consistency of the product means I can't actually use it! I tend to prefer stick lip balms to those packaged in pots (like Smooth Operator) as they are much easier, faster and cleaner to apply, but the majority of potted lip butters will warm up under the fingers with a little perseverance.  I gave Smooch Operator a lot of perseverance on several occasions, and I still can't say that I have truly tried the product enough to comment on its effectiveness.  Maybe it's just me who's had this issue (again, lots of enthusiastic reviews on the S&G website!) but I've honestly given up on it.  In any case, paying £6 for a lip balm is, in retrospect, somewhat ridiculous.  Especially when it is one that I will never be able to use...

So, would I recommend these products?  I do think that Feel Good Factor is an effective moisturiser, and I do think that Face Soap and Clarity is a pleasant enough face wash.  I've found that, at the very least, the products do what they claim to do.  Who knows about Smooch Operator, though.  That will forever remain a mystery...  The packaging on all of these products is great, but I can't help but feel that all I was paying that extra money for was the cute packaging and the brand name.  

These are only three items in Soap & Glory's enormous range, and maybe there are some gems in there that I am yet to discover.  I know for a fact that their Hand Food is the best hand cream I have ever used, and it is (in my eyes) both a miracle product and well worth the money.  Although I'm not sure that my most recent purchases were worth my hard earned cash, I luckily saved a little bit of money by taking advantage of Boots' three for two offer on Soap & Glory products (you get the cheapest item free).  The offer is available online as well as in store if you want to check any of their products out for yourself and save some money at the same time!

Have you found any amazing Soap & Glory products?