Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Good Bye Old Friend


This morning I was digging through my bath and body bin (yes I have a whole bin) looking for my dry oil spray when I stumbled across an empty jar of my favorite product in the world. The Body Shop Rice Bran Body Scrub. Years ago, The Body Shop decided to discontinue this product much to my dismay and I have never fully recovered from it.

Rice Bran Body Scrub was a creamy scrub made from rice grains that smelled like vanilla pudding and left my skin smooth and soft as butter. This was the type of product that I used almost every day. It was the perfect scrub, not too coarse and not too soft. Never slippery and left you silky smooth and moisturized and it rinsed away squeaky clean.

When they discontinued it they didn’t tell anyone. It just started disappearing from their shelves which had me on the hunt at every Body Shop in the Tri-State area. I had friends and family searching from DC to CA for that stuff but I only managed to stockpile two additional jars. About six months after it had disappeared from US Stores my mother returned from London with one jar in tow. She found it hiding in the Body Shop in Heathrow Airport. Of course it was the very last jar in the store but she knew how crazy I was about the stuff and she was surprised they still had it.

Needless to say, I have never found a product that comes anywhere close to the original. I contacted the Body Shop and they were sure that it would not return. One associate said it didn’t sell very well, which I guess is the case with most cosmetics that go to the beauty product graveyard.

So in honor of my beloved Rice Bran Body Scrub, I will occasionally feature a product in the Gone But Not Forgotten category.

Rice Bran Body Scrub...you will be missed

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I feel your pain. Crabtree & Evelyn used to make a Scotch Heather potpourri that I was addicted to. Alas, it went the way of your body scrub.

Anonymous said...

Oh, woe are we, the Rice Bran Scrub users! I seem to have made my final tub of the scrubbing goodness last until just a month ago! The Body Shop should've polled the populous before ending the production. And maybe re-marketed it under a different label; mine would have lasted longer if not for my boyfriend, who co-opted my supply. Good luck finding a replacement; we'll miss you ricey!

Unknown said...

Rice Bran Body scrub was by far the best skin care product I ever used. It softened my skin like nothing else. If you still have that jar, would you mind posting the ingredients? I remember some and would like to make my own. I foudn your comments while searching for the ingredients online. I just odered the rice bran and rice bran oil, I believe it also has sweet almond oil.

Thanks!