Guest Review by Joeybunny - Press Sample - Dove NutriumMoisture Body Washes

Hi everyone, Elvira here. Joeybunny has graciously done a review of some Dove body washes for you all. I seriously believe that if I were to tackle this assignment it would have been a three sentence review and not helpful at all. So please, all thanks go to Joeybunny and her awesome review of these new body washes from Dove!

Dove has created a new line of body washes with something they’re calling “NutriumMoisture”, which according to my bottles is “proven most effective natural nourishment” for the skin. According to the nice people at Dove, they’ve figured out a way to “restore skin’s natural moisture while cleansing”. This sounds pretty sweet, admittedly. There’s a lot of times I’ve used a body wash that has only stripped my skin of moisture. Not fun. Apparently Dove realizes this is a major flaw in body washes, and that the majority of body washes on the market that claim to moisturize the skin don’t (by stripping away lipids in the skin’s protective layer), and only really just create the appearance of moisturized skin (by adding heavy moisturizers that don’t really help). Ok, this sounds pretty true also. Following so far? You’re probably asking just how Dove decided to solve this problem. Well, this NutriumMoisture technology apparently sinks really deep down into the skin layers due to “a breakthrough formula of soybean oil and natural lipids that can nourish deep down.” Also, Dove says their new body washes have been “clinically proven to significantly reduce dryness and improve moisturization.”

So I decided to experiment with these body washes. To be as fair as possible, I decided to use each one for a week, at least once a day and NOT use body lotion of any kind afterwards. My skin is naturally super dry, so this was a major risk I was taking here! Also, I decided to use them all as my shaving cream because I figured that would be a really good test of how well this stuff is moisturizing my skin (ever try to shave your legs when they’re dry and scaly? EEK). Finally, I decided to enlist my best friend (who is a male, and could care less about body wash technology) to help me out. He used each of the three washes at least once, and I recorded his opinions.

Week One - Dove Deep Moisture Nourishing Body Wash with Nutrium Moisture: First off, I’m sorry but I HATE the smell of this. I thought Dove would have tried to make this smell good, but no. It’s strong and perfumey and too flowery for my tastes (you readers know from Elvira’s perfume reviews that I prefer strong, masculine, NOT FLOWERY scents). At least the scent doesn’t linger. I noticed that the body wash did something strange: it sunk into my skin! Like a lotion! Hm, maybe Dove wasn’t joking about this “nourishing deep down” stuff. I noticed upon first use that razor bumps on my legs disappeared, and I had a super smooth shave. My legs were so touchable! And that feeling lasted hours after my shower. A week of this body wash and my skin tone was noticably more even, I didn’t get ANY razor bumps when I shaved, and I really did not need any additional body lotion.

Best friend’s opinion: He loved how lathery this body wash was (“Us men, we like a lot of lather because it makes us feel cleaner!”), but he too noticed the smell was strong (“It’s really perfumey, but it doesn’t smell too bad - I don’t know why you said it stinks.”). My darling lather-lover was also quite pleased with how soft his skin was afterwards (“OMG FEEL MY BUTT!”). Clearly, he’s quite the handful.

Week Two - Dove Gentle Exfoliating Nourishing Body Wash with Nutrium Moisture: I love the smell of this. This one, Dove got right. It smells like a softer version of Irish Spring soap (clearly, I really do love masculine scents). The exfoliating microbeads were gentle but did exfoliate - in fact, this did a better job as a shaving cream than the Deep Moisture Body Wash did. I was hooked on this body wash. It was just as moisturizing as the Deep Moisture version (on second thought, maybe a little less so, but I was still able to skip lotion), but had the added benefit of exfoliation. My legs looked great, as did my elbows. By the end of week two, I was seriously amazed with how good these body washes are. Who goes two weeks in the summer without lotion?! I do, people. I do.

Best friend’s opinion: He pointed out something I didn’t realize; this body wash is better NOT used with a loofah but a washcloth (“JOEEEEEEY the little scrubby things get lost in the loofah holes, so it’s kind of useless. ”). He also agreed with me about the smell (“OMG it DOES smell like Irish Spring! I like this!), and he was also pleased with how his skin felt.


Week Three - Dove Sensitive Skin Nourishing Body Wash with Nutrium Moisture: I had such high hopes for this body wash, after the success with the first two. I was hoping this one would be super moisturizing, since it’s apparently soap-free. Nope, nope. I was wrong. Sorry Dove, but this body wash blows. First off, the smell is worse than the Deep Moisture Body Wash. This stuff smells synthetic as hell; really it’s a bizarre smell - kind of like Tide detergent. Ew. Secondly, my skin actually felt dry after using this; I finally had to break my no-lotion rule because my skin had a tight feeling to it. Also, shaving with this is a no go - for some reason, my razor bumps reappeared. I even replaced my blades to no success. There’s something about this formula that my skin does not like. Very disappointing.

I even knew it was a fail when my best friend couldn’t say anything about it besides noting that it lathered a lot. Sigh.

Regardless, two out of three ain’t bad, Dove! I am really enjoying the Deep Moisture and Gentle Exfoliating Body Washes. If I had to pick a favorite, it’d come down to scent, so Gentle Exfoliating wins! I’ll definitely be purchasing it when mine runs out.

All images from www.dove.us