True Blue Spa's Spa Mania: Wonderful Hand Care Set

True Blue Spa's Spa Mania collection from Bath & Body Works is a set of hand care products in a really nifty silver case. Traveling as much as we do, I am always on the look-out for easily packed cases. This one happens to rawk hard. I'll tell ya all about everything that comes inside this case, but the truth is that these items are not what I now use the case for at all. I've found that this case is perfect for bath and shower items.

See, the case is waterproof and inside it has three smaller enclosures which are also waterproof. Absolutely marvelous for damp net/ball/sponge thingies, small tubes and bottles of shower gels, and other implements such as the toenail/fingernail brush that did come with this set. I love this case! that alone was worth the $17 purchase price of this set.

Now on to the contents....

Toenail/fingernail brush ~ This is your everyday, ordinary, and quite average small brush to keep on the shower ledge for giving your nails a good scrubbing to get rid of any embedded grime under them. It works. Hell, there's hardly any way for an item like this to not work, short of the bristles falling out. I assure you, the bristles are quite firmly implanted in the cute blue acrylic handle. I do still use this item. It's OK.

1-2-3 Nail Buffer ~ OK, what a 3-in-1 buffer is, is a rectangled thingy with buffers on three sides, each of varying coarseness. Side one roughs up your nails and gets rid of any ridges and what have you. Side two is a little finer to even out those ridges a bit more, and side 3 then tops it all off with a nice shine to your natural nails for those days you just don't feel like breaking out the nail polish.

In theory, this sounds marvelous. In reality, it just doesn't live up to its claims at all. The thing is, it seems to work on some of my nails, but not all of them. I end up with a few nails which do look great, and a few which look just plain dull. So, this thing is inconsistent.

Being a glutton for punishment, I kept trying to use this thing for about a month. I kept thinking maybe it was user error rather than Buffer error. Nope. I attempted to use it about twice a week for that month to no avail... then it fell apart. Yes, that is correct. After 8 uses the buffers just started separating off the base brick thingy. How annoying is that?!?

So what we have here is a cute little blue item which sounds good on paper but which does not deliver on any of its promises... and then flat gives up and falls apart.

Mini Nail Lacquer ~ This cute-as-hell little bottle of nail polish is shaped kinda like a tulip. the bottle looks great, but the polish inside is nothing special. My set came with the color they call Cashy, a sheer yet kinda sparkly white shade. I hated it. It looked perfect in the bottle, but that did not transfer to the nail at all. I mean it was streaky and blotchy on my nail. I took it right back off immediately and sent this bottle to a friend of mine's kid. heh. Hate it.

Sleight Of Hand Renewing Hand Scrub ~ This is basically an exfoliant for your hands. It comes in the clear tube with the pretty blue True Blue Spa logo. You squeeze a bit out into your hand and then work it like you would a lotion. After that just rinse (NOT wash), and then pat dry with a soft towel. Voila! Wonderfully soft hands.

The gentle ex-foliating effect comes from the Jojoba Beads. No roughness here folks. It really is gentle and feels just wonderful. Great job here at getting rid of those nasty dry skin cells.

Shea Butter supplies additional softening & conditioning, as well serving to protect your skin from the daily elements. This is why you rinse, but don't actually wash it off. If you have exceptionally dry skin you can put an additional layer of your favorite hand cream on over this, but the Sleight of hand serves fine on it's own for normal to slightly dry skin.

For those folks who don't care for the amazingly delightful scent of Shea butter, they have put some Orange Peel Extract into the scrub for both it's soothing effect and light, airy smell.

The scent is not over-powering. I'd say this is one of the least noticeable Shea products I own. The initial scent is orange, and disperses rapidly after rinsing and drying your hands to a nice mellow ummm how to word it... the words spring day come to mind for some reason. Oh just try it. It's really nice.

This 2.5oz tube has lasted me 4 months now. Love it.

Look Ma New Hands ~ What this hand lotion consists of is Paraffin, to lock in moisture and also to help protect your hands from harsh weather like we sometimes experience in Sweden. My skin dries out bad when I'm at home, so this ingredient is a big plus for me. It even seems to actually work. Just make sure you take your rings off before using this. That paraffin doesn't do much for my black diamond ring at all. ohj.

Olive, Avocado, and Apricot Oils are in this for their moisturizing properties. These are fairly standard ingredients these days, in hand lotions. They do seem to work well enough.

Then we have Vitamin E to protect against those free radicals they tell us are floating about, which we can't see. Well, I have no clue if this is really helping anything but I do like Vitamin E for other things, and it certainly can't hurt.. I don't think.

Bath & Body Works sez: With regular use, this moisturizing lotion with glycerin and paraffin helps protect against wind and cold, and leave skin soft, smooth and just like new.

I say: Yeah. Yeah it does. It does what it says it will do.

So why am I ambivalent? First off, I don't like the scent all that much. I am not going to list every little ingredient here, you can find that at the B&BW site I'm sure... but suffice it to say that the interaction of them all produces a slightly sour smell. It isn't over-powering, and it does lessen a great deal once applied, but I just don't really care for it at all.

Secondly, Look Ma, New Hands should possibly be renamed Look Ma, Greasy Hands!. Or maybe Look Ma, My Coffee Cup Slipped Out Of My Hands Again... or even... OK I'll spare you. You get my drift, right? It leaves my hands down right slippery. I hate that feeling. I will use it at home until the bottle is empty, but it will no longer take up precious space in my travel bags. No Sale.

So. Some of the items I liked, some I didn't like so much. that case though... oooh nice. So, I'm going with 3 stars over all for this set. If you need a nice travel case for bathing items, then don't hesitate on this one. It is absolutely perfect, you can always wrap up the crap items inside for gifts...