Tuesday 8 July 2014

Compare the Pair: Kit Cosmetic's Body Exfoliant vs. Soap & Glory's Flake Away

I have decided that I love body scrubs. They smell delicious and leave your skin feeling oh, so soft -- who couldn't love them? I've had two kinds for a little while now: Kit Cosmetics' Body Exfoliant and a travel size of Soap & Glory's Flake Away. I enjoy them both, but I don't always have the time to use them and I was curious about the difference that they made on my skin, so I thought a comparison was in order.

Packaging


Soap & Glory's Flake Away & Kit Cosmetic' Body Exfoliant
It's not the nicest statement in the world, but first impressions are usually made on what you see. Kit's Body Exfoliant is in a generic white tub with a screw-top lid that keeps all the product safely inside. It's not the most glamorous or exciting packaging in the world, but its plainness suggests that more money was put into the product than into the appearance, meaning that it may well get the job done.

Soap & Glory's Flake Away comes in the cutest pink packaging I've ever seen -- it'll definitely catch your eye if you're a girly girl. It shouts attractive and pretty no matter where you look at it -- and let's not overlook the sassy text. It's the kind that will invoke a chuckle to escape your lips (or, at the very least, a smile).

Scent


Kit's Body Exfoliant has a really lovely citrus scent, as it contains mandarin peel, lemongrass and bergamot essential oils. I find that I smell the mandarin most, but it's not overpowering, which I like. I don't like eating fruits such as mandarin and orange because the scent is so strong, but this I can handle. It also avoids the "citrusy bathroom cleaner" smell that can occur sometimes with strongly scented products, so that's another plus.

The Flake Away boasts Shea butter, sweet almond oil and peach seed powder -- I think what I smell most is the Shea butter, but I don't exactly have the best nose so I might be off. It's definitely sweeter than the Body Exfoliant.

Consistency


Soap & Glory's Flake Away and Kit Cosmetics' Body Exfoliant
The Body Exfoliant has a much firmer consistency than the Flake Away. That's not to say that the Flake Away will slip-slop through your fingers (it shouldn't), but the Body Exfoliant will kind of mould with your hands a little better, if that makes any sense. I would say that this is due to the sugar particles being finer in the Flake Away than they are in the Body Exfoliant.

A closer look at Soap & Glory's Flake Away.
A closer look at Kit Cosmetics' Body Exfoliant

Value



Kit's Body Exfoliant retails at $34.95 for 250g (8.81oz) of product. In comparison, Soap & Glory's Flake Away will only cost you $16.95 for a 300ml (10.14 fl. oz) tub, or $5.95 for a 50ml (1.69 fl. oz) tub -- more product for a lot less money!

This being said, however: the Body Exfoliant is made in Australia, and Kit Cosmetics is (as far as I can tell) an Australian company. Purchasing a Kit brand product will support the Australian economy as well as Australian jobs, which might be something you want to take into consideration if you're economically minded and don't mind paying the extra cash. However, if your bank account is thirsty for money, don't feel guilty for buying from Soap & Glory. They're a UK-based company, which is also totally cool (being the mother country and all), and unless you're buying it directly from their site, it should still help -- albeit to a lesser extent.

The Roadtest


It's all very good and well to talk about consistency, scent and how cheap it is, but how well do the two work side-by-side? To see how well they serviced my needs, I decided to give them a roadtest by... shaving my legs! (TMI, Sarah, gosh!) Exfoliating is a great way to prep your skin, especially your legs. Doing so should allow you a closer shave, as well as preventing, or at least reducing, the number of in-grown hairs.

So, I started off by using one scrub on each leg: on my left, Kit's Body Exfoliant; on my right, Soap & Glory's Flake Away. I applied them as per the instructions, then rinsed it all off. I could immediately feel a difference on my skin.

My right leg definitely felt as though the dead skin had been taken off -- it was smooth and supple, kind of a "my skin but better" feeling. My left leg, on the other hand, felt almost unpleasant in comparison. The Body Exfoliant had left behind a kind of oily residue, described on the website (but not the packaging) as "a silky veil on the skin" -- so it was supposed to do that. Personally, I'm not a fan of that feeling, because although my skin is smooth, it doesn't really feel like my skin. For other people, however, it may be the bomb dot com.

Shaving was a fun adventure. I avoided putting anything else on my legs, to make sure that the "result" of the scrubs weren't affected in any way. My right leg was easy enough -- it took me a little longer than normal, precisely because I didn't have anything on it, but I got the job done and I had a delightful-looking and delicious-smelling leg that I immediately planned to cover with a pair of tracksuit pants for the entire winter.

My left leg, however.

Oohhh, my left leg!

My razor glided along with a smoothness that had my surprised and excited. 'Woo hoo!' I thought, 'This will be over in a jiffy!' Nope. The oily residue left behind on my leg meant that it was coating the blades on my razor, and it was the most painstaking and infuriating attempt at shaving my legs. Worse than that, it actually clogged my razor, so I wasn't able to get the hair back out. It was, more or less, a nightmare. In the end, I just decided to give up shaving my legs and chuck out my razor cartridge, because it was out of commission entirely.

Another issue I encountered relates to the consistency. Being about as elegant as a bear in a china shop, I did drop some of each product onto the floor. Both dissolved with the shower water, but the Body Exfoliant made the floor very slippery -- that's due to the very oils it has to leave the 'silky veil' on your skin. I had to be careful that I didn't fall over!

And the winner is...?


Without a doubt, it's Soap & Glory's Flake Away! It's cheaper, you get more product, and it's great for exfoliating no matter how much hair you have on your body. Kit Cosmetic's Body Exfoliant still has it's good points, and other people may prefer it, but ultimately I don't think it's the product for me.

Have you tried either of these scrubs before? Which ones would you recommend?

Sarah xo

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