I first discovered Rituals in a spare few minutes at St Pancras station in London. It’s the terminus of my line, so I'm there often. I wandered into this nice looking shop, and before I knew it, I’d come away with a bag full of things. Whooops.
My love affair has continued with the brand, which I love for their beautiful and sophisticated scents, the efficacy of their products and the packaging (of course). Now, they’re not particularly cheap, but they aren't ridiculously high end prices either, and the quality makes the price worth it, in my opinion. Also, they usually run promotions or gifts-with-purchase which makes the experience a little less painful on the wallet, plus if you buy in-store there’s usually a lovely sales assistant who will slip a couple of samples in your bag, too*.
So what’s on my Rituals menu currently and what do I think of them?
Energy Bubbles Organic Ginseng & Indian Rose Foaming Cream Bath // I could sit in a bath that smelled this good for hours and hours and hours. This gives a reasonable amount of foam and left my skin feeling fairly soft, but you want this for the scent which will stay on your skin all day.
Himalaya Wisdowm Holy Basil & Organic Fresh Mint Detox Himalaya Scrub Salt // this ones smells good too, but also does remarkable things to dry skin. It's a decent, chunky salt based scrub so you can really go to town with this if you want. This won't wimp out on you. The only trouble with scrubs is that sometimes all the scrubby bits fall off before you can really get going with them. Well, Rituals have solved this problem rather neatly and it comes in the form of....
Shanti Shower Indian Rose & Organic Sweet Almond Oil Nourishing Shower Paste // a genius paste which you apply to your skin first, so that the scrub sticks to it! Ok so this sounds a bit like a gimmick, and who knows perhaps it is, but when the gimmick smells this good and leaves your skin feeling in such good condition, I'll take it. To be fair, you can also use this by itself with a scrub mitt for a slightly more frugal exfoliating experience, but let's be honest, you didn't come here to save money, did you?!
Miracle Scrub Ginseng & Ginkgo Biloba Ultra Softening Hand Scrub // I was fairly unsure of how much of a miracle a hand scrub could be, but hats off to Rituals, it is actually a little bit miraculous. This has smaller pieces of salt in it to give an effective scrub, but it's also got lots of moisturising components like shea butter and sunflower seed oil in it to leave your skin feeling moisturised afterwards as well. This exfoliates and moisturises all at once, so you don't even need to use hand cream after! Now that, my friends, truly is a miracle.
Nail Cuticle Treatment // I've raved about this pen before so I will be brief. Basically this is a brush-pen with a base which you twist, so that a thick cuticle treatment goes into the brush. You then apply this to your cuticles. I've made it sound horribly unappealing but I promise, the results are excellent and one of the best things about it is how easy it is to use on the go.
Nail Varnish Corrector Pen // does what it says on the tin. I find this to be a fairly gentle formula (acetone and paraben free, FYI) and again, very portable.
Nail Varnish in Happy 2014 // this here nail polish is not only a very well performing glitter nail polish but it's also a talisman. This has little to do with the brand or the product so I won't go into details, but it's a meaningful little polish for me and my bestie.
*By way of illustration, here are all the items I brought home with me one day in January, following a particularly positive personal review at work (ie, I'm allowed a splurge)...
I bought: Reflection hand wash, Eucalyptus car perfume, and Hammam Body Mud (gift wrapped at the back) for a total of £34. I received a mini Yogi Flow shower gel, 3 foundation samples, 3 (generous) Sakura scrub samples, and a £5 voucher. Not bad, I say.
Other recommendations from the brand:
Hammam Secret Fragrance Sticks // I adore this scent, and loved having the fragrance sticks in my flat. I did try the shower gel too but unfortunately I found it was a little too overpowering for me.
Zensation shower foam // beautiful delicate scent and silky smooth on application, this is excellent.
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On my wish list
Candles // Hammam Secret and Under A Fig Tree would probably be my top picks to try.
Yin bed and body mist // for some reason the idea of a calming bed mist just draws me in. Call me a marketeers dream, if you must...
Clothing // oh my, this could get serious. They've got comfy looking jumpers, leggings, gloves, socks…
All the above products can be found on the Rituals website, here. I decided not to link to each product individually, for fear of becoming a little bit too like QVC-by-blog. And this way, you get to stumble across lots more beautifully scented things to buy find essentials which you definitely need.
Is there anything you're keen to try from Rituals?
-Rachel
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