Jaqua Beauty Cocoa Buttercream Frosting Shower Cream

I had loved the Jaqua Beauty company in years past and I am very excited to see that the company has re-opened their website and I can order all of my favorite products again!  I have raved about the Buttercream Frosting fragrance many times before on here and you all know that I will never fall out of love with those products.  The last time that I ordered from Jaqua, I picked out my favorite Buttercream Frosting Body Butter and then also order a scent that I had used years ago but hadn't seen since, Cocoa Buttercream Frosting.  And it is every bit as good as I remembered, this takes all the best aspects of the Buttercream Frosting fragrance but then adds hint of yummy milk chocolate.  What could be better?!

I have been using this fragrance almost every night for the past week and I love it more and more every single time.  I bought the fragrance in two products, the Shower Cream and the matching Body Butter.  The Shower Cream is a great choice for dry winter skin, it produces a rich lather and helps to avoid my skin having that "stripped" feeling after I get out of the shower.  "Our Signature Cocoa Butter Shower Cream is a rich and creamy shower wash filled with good-for-your skin ingredients such as Marshmellow Root Extract, Macademia, Evening Primrose Oils, and Vitamins B5, A, and E.  Turn your shower into a yummy indulgence!"  The fragrance notes are: Cocoa, Creamy Buttery Vanilla Bean, Hint of Honey. 

If you have dry skin, this is a great formula for the fall and winter months.  Even if you don't have dry skin, you will appreciate how soft this product leaves your skin when you emerge from the shower.  I use about a nickel-sized drop of this product on a shower pouf and this amount produces more than enough foam to cover my entire body, I used too much the first time and felt like I was wasting the product.  Many creamier body washes don't foam very well unless I use at least a quarter-sized drop and I followed that assumption and therefore squeezed too much out of this product to begin with.  A nickel-sized drop is the perfect amount to use for this product (as long as you use a shower pouf, I don't know how much would be needed for a washcloth). 

I loved how this product left my shower smelling like chocolate cake batter, it drifted through my whole upstairs and creates a wonderful smell.  I am almost inspired to bake a real cake after I use this product.  This product doesn't leave quite as much fragrance on my skin though, I have to use with the matching Body Butter (a product that deserves its own post another day!), I wish that the fragrance lasted longer on my skin, this is one of my only two complaints with the product.

My other complaint is about the packaging, the squeeze tube could be a better quality.  Some of the product leaked out in my shower when I stored it as I normally store my tube shower gels and I was unhappy that I lost some of the yummy product inside.  I now store this tube upside down so that I can avoid this issue for the rest of the product life.  I miss the old packaging that was upright, I never had any problems when I used this line the first time.  I would love to see Jaqua improve the packaging quality of this product.

You will love this body wash if you like hydrating body washes and any type of body wash that smells better than cake batter.  I love this version of the traditional Buttercream Frosting fragrance but I still think that original is my all time favorite from Jaqua.  This company made my day when they reopened their website and I look forward to do even more shopping from them in the next few months.

photo courtesy of Jaqua

Jaqua Bath and Body Blooming Bergamot Illuminating Dry Oil Spray

For many years in college and right after I graduated, I used the Jaqua Bath and Body line of body products and lip glosses.  When I worked at Bath and Body Works in my senior year of college, the company picked up the Buttercream Frosting line of body products for one holiday season and I fell in love with the line after trying it for the first time.  I used it for quite a long time afterward and still have a few last pieces in my body product collection.  For the past few months, the Jaqua website had been "under construction" and both myself and many people on the Makeup Alley boards were afraid that the brand had been shut down for good.

Things have changed though and for the better!  Several weeks ago, I got an email about this company being re-opened but only through a website.  I wish that I could still buy these products in stores however I will settle for having to order them online.  I visited the website almost as soon as it opened and had a bit of a mixed reaction to their new website.  On one hand, I was happy that many of the products remained upchanged and that Buttercream Frosting is still readily available whenever I need to order it.  On the other hand, I was expecting something different and perhaps a few new products and next to nothing has changed.  I guess that I was just assuming that there would be new products and scents that were developed in the time that this company was closed and I was ready to order something brand new.  So I was a bit disappointed that nothing new is available...

The only product that I ordered so far is the Blooming Bergamot Illuminating Dry Oil Spray, I will be ordering more Buttercream Frosting products before winter but I wanted something that I could use in the late summer and early fall months.  I had used a Dry Oil Spray from this company when I first began trying the products from this company, it had some type of herbal lemon fragrance and the Blooming Bergamot seemed very similar in texture and fragrance to that spray.  I am happy to report that this new Dry Oil Spray hasn't changed at all in formula and it is still the product that I loved the first time around. 

"Signature Jaqua Spa Santa Barbara Illuminating Dry Oil Spray is formulated with Shea Butter, Avocado Oil, Meadowfoam Seed Oil, and Vitamin E to calm and protect the skin while helping it rejuvenate and shine.  Think tangy scented Blooming Bergamot!  feels dry, never greasy.  Perfect for sun kissed skin!"  The fragrance notes are: Bergamot, Mandarin, and a hint of Rose, Lemon, and Grapefruit. 

I use this product on my skin as soon as I dry off from the shower, applying it while skin is slightly damp allows it to sink in deeper and help to aid the hydration properties.  I recommend starting with a small amount of this product and then adding more if you wish.  I spray it once on what ever body part that I am looking to moisturize at that moment and then rub it in.  I do not recommend spraying a ton of this on and just letting it sink in, it will absorb but it will take a long time and may absorb fully depnding on how dry your skin it to being with.  I use more of this product in this winter, however even then I still do not cover myself in sprays, I spray it on once or twice and still have to rub it in.

This product creates a great finish on my legs during the summer months, I use it before I wear a skirt to go out at night and it helps to enhance to my fake tan and improve their overall appearance.  I will order another bottle of this before next summer as I use it much more than I thought I would during the warm weather.

I am glad that Jaqua is back up and running and I will order more Buttercream Frosting products soon.  I do hope that more new products are on the way in the upcoming months though...

photo courtesy of Jaqua

Jaqua Buttercream Frosting

I still have to remind myself that even though I am covering everything Spring related, it is still in the dead of winter and usually below freezing every single day. So even though my mind is in Key West and flirty little dresses, my skin is more than happy to remind everyday that it is living in the middle on Pennsylvania and not Florida. And if I don't moisturize it every single night? It rebels until it hurts, it has even hit a point where it become red and itchy if I don't get something on it right away. So you might say that this is the time of the year when I think about body products even more than I think about pink lip gloss.

Jaqua's Buttercream Frosting products manage to do two very important things this time of the year. They really hydrate my skin so that I don't want to claw it all off and they manage to may me smell like a cupcake and therefore bring my mood way up on the elevator. Here is the overall description of the fragrance itself, "Sometimes a scrumptious cake, baked with care, and lovingly frosted with fluffy white buttercream is the only thing that will do! These Buttercream Frosting delights are for all those times we can resist the cake, but not the frosting!" I first bought this product when it was sold on Christmas at Bath and Body Works and quickly ended up with all the products carried in this scent and buying back ups of them all for when I ran out of the first group. My favorite product of the group is that one that we will look at first, the Buttercream Frosting Sinfully Rich Body Butter.

"Requested by Christina Aquilera and featured in Pregnancy Magazine (May 2007)! A truly decadent scent, which reminds us of the happy occasions when our mothers let us lick the frosting off the beaters. Your skin will love how this ultra-hydrating butter with Shea Butter absorbs into your skin. Your senses will love the fragrance from Jaqua's Signature Collection!" This product is a super rich cream that absorbs quickly into the skin and leaves tons of fragrance behind. This has always been one of my favorite moisturizers and I was very excited to buy the rest of the products in the line to match it.

This fragrance also comes in a variety of other sweet smelling products. I have also purchased the body wash, hand cream, and the fragrance that matches the body butter. Of the three of those items, I like the body wash the most because it creates very little foam and doesn't strip and dry out my skin. The hand lotion is very take-it-or-leave-it. The scent is pure frosting goodness in the tube but turns when I put it in (no other product does this). I also find it to be a tad on the greasy side and not the best hydrator that I have ever used. The fragrance was simply just too sweet and contained only the frosting note. It would have been much better if it contained some other type of gourmand notes to make it more complex (like Pink Sugar). I ended up using it several times then giving it away soon after I bought it. Also, in previous seasons, this fragrance came in a candle and a bar soap, both of which I purchased.

If you are only able to purchase a few pieces from this collection, I recommend the body wash and the matching body butter. Also, I have found that anyone that I have ever given these products to as a gift has been simply thrilled with them...and Jaqua puts gifts with these products in on their website (if anyone wants to do any hinting before Valentine's Day). Now I just need to see if my skin will survive to see St. Patrick's Day.

photo courtesy of Jaqua

5 Favorite Shower Gels

I love reading lists of people's favorite items so I decided to create a couple of my own.

Philosophy Senorita Margarita 3 in 1 - smells exactly like the real thing, it super bubbly, and never dries my skin out.

Bathed & Infused Green Tea Infused Body Wash - rinses clean, smells fresh, helps me wake up in the morning, creates lots of foam, and rinses super clean.

Jaqua Buttercream Frosting Shower Syrup - smells like rich frosting, hydrates my skin, and produces tons of foam.

Bath and Body Works Coconut Lime Verbena Shower Gel - rinses clean, creates lots of bubbles, have been using this scent for years now, smells like lime and creamy coconut milk, and this is the shower gel that I have repurchased the most amount of times in my life.

Philosophy Amazing Grace 3 in 1 - very hydrating, rinses clean, fresh scent never interferes with any other fragrances, and I can never get sick of this fragrance.

photo courtesy of Bath and Body Works