AHAVA Mineral Botanic Velvet Cream Wash (Orange & Frangipani)

Hello dear ones!

Introducing the AHAVA Velvet Cream Wash from Dead Sea Laboratories in Orange and Frangipani.

Orange & Frangipani...Sounds so exotic huh?

Add the "dead sea" element and won't you be curious what this potion can do?

We all know what orange is (it's both a fruit and a color =). But what is a frangipani?

If you have seen the Philippine calachuchi, then you have seen the Western frangipani.

The common name "Frangipani" comes from an Italian noble family (literally meaning "breads-breaker(s)" in Italian), particularly named by a sixteenth-century marquess who invented a plumeria-scented perfume. Many English speakers use the generic name "plumeria" - named in honor of the seventeenth-century French botanist Charles Plumier, who traveled to the New World documenting many plant and animal species. (Wikipedia)

I passed by the AHAVA kiosk in Glorietta several times --- (if you have read my previous posts, you would say that this is one of my favorite and most frequented malls in Makati City) and used to wonder how pricey their items could be considering that these are supposed to have formulations straight out of the Dead Sea.

True enough, I found out that you will need to shell out an average of a thousand pesos (about $25) for most of their products. But that was my lucky day (January 18, 2013) since they were offering significant discounts of up to 70% off on the original price. Since my Johnson's baby milk bath are only a few baths away from running empty, I decided to give their velvet cream wash a try.

And that's what led me to Orange & Frangipani (;

The label says: For normal to dry skin, SLS/SLES free

Size: 15 fl. oz (500 mL)

Where bought: AHAVA kiosk - Ground Floor, Glorietta 4, Ayala Center, Makati City 
Price: Php 1,195 less 70% discount = Php 358.50 (Big YAY!)

Ingredients: Aqua (Water), Sodium Trideceth Sulfate & Sodium Lauroamphoacetate & Cocamide MEA & Sodium Chloride & DMDM Hydantoin, Maris Sal (Dead Sea Water), Helianthus Annus (Sunflower) Seed Oil, Citrus Aurantium Dulcis (Orange) Flower Oil, Plumeria Alba (Frangipani) Extract, Parfum (Fragrance), Tocopheryl (Vitamin E) Acetate, Cyamopsis Tetragonoloba (Guar) Gum, Citric Acid, Guar Hydroxypropyltrimonium Chloride, PEG-5 Cocoate, PEG-8 Dicocoate, PEG-9, Iodopropynyl Butylcarbamate, Methylisothiazolinone.

Ahava means 'Love' in Hebrew. And I can say that after using this velvet cream wash for four months, I love love love it. 

The smell: I chose this combination over Honeysuckle & Lavender 'cause I want that energizing scent at the start of my mornings. AHAVA's orange and frangipani is not too strong for my sensitive nose. Most of the new shower creams, gels and washes initiated me into a sneezing spree before I finally got used to them after one week or two. AHAVA's cream wash didn't make me go through that.

During the bath: The wash is not as foamy as most body washes but I think that's because it does not contain SLS or SLES, short for Sodium Lauryl Sulphate or Sodium Laureth Sulphate. SLS and SLES are found in most bath and body products we use from head to toe: toothpaste, facial foam wash, shampoos, body wash, liquid soaps, lotions and generally most products that produce foam. 

The science: I do not want to be too clinical about SLS and SLES; you can read more about this here: Sorting Fact From Fiction. Simply put, I TRY to avoid these plus those ingredients with PEG, Polyethylene, or anything with -eth (as in sodium laureth sulphate) in my bath and body routine. These are the stuff that are supposed to be contaminated with 1,4-dioxane, one of the principal components of the chemical defoliant Agent Orange, used by the Americans during the Vietnam War to strip off the jungle canopy to reveal their enemy --- if that doesn't keep you away from these foamy products, I don't know what would. 

Well, reality tells me (at least for now) that these stuff are quite hard to avoid. I just check to see that these are NOT the main ingredients. If these SLS, SLES, PEG and -eth stuff are presented in the latter part of the Ingredients List, that may mean that these are hopefully in very low almost-non-toxic levels. Hopefully...(or let's try to look some more for 100% organic SLS/SLES/PEG-free products, shall we?)

After the bath: The AHAVA SA told me that this AHAVA's dead sea formulation is moisturizing that I will not need a lotion. I didn't believe this at first until those days when the morning rush made me forgo the minutes I'd spend for lotion slathering. So it's true, I can indeed skip lotion! 

Usage: It's soo economical. Just a few squeezes of the cream (about the size of a 25-centavo coin or a dime) are enough to complete my bath ritual. That's why the 500-mL bottle lasted me for more than four months of everyday usage. 

My bottle is almost empty now and I'm left with this Hamlet dilemma: to buy or not to buy. Without the discount, it's really pricey for a body wash. But with the 70% discount, I spent less than 100 pesos per month for a wash that I used everyday --- Isn't that really good? A luxurious cream wash with dead sea formulations for the price of a drugstore brand. 

My take now is to check back on the AHAVA kiosk for discounts. If there's a significant discount offer, then I wouldn't think twice of getting another bottle. There are other interesting variants from their website --- www.ahava.com: Lotus & Chestnut, Waterlily  & Guarana, and Hibiscus & Fig. I hope these are available in the Philippines AND offered with discounts (;

So until then...AHAVA to you all!

Disclaimer: I am not a beauty blogger. I do not recommend or rate products per se. I only share my experiences while using them and the whole thought process behind getting, using, falling in love or hating the product. I leave the beauty blogging to the experts; in fact, I go back to their reviews from time to time though I may not necessarily agree with all of these --- What's good for her may not be necessarily good for me. I am a confessed novice in every way --- I only try to view each experience with "new eyes" and reflect some more on how beauty can be a gift that should be experienced rather than seen. So don't take my word for it --- What works for me may not necessarily work for you --- but go ahead and take that adventure! The risks we take do make our lives interesting. =)