Rarely do I want to exit my shower smelling like I just fell into a vat of Chinese dried herbs. In fact, those familiar will understand when I say, smelling like I just showered in bak kut teh – a Malaysian herbal pork rib soup.
But that was the conclusion I reached when I used this body wash from Tony Moly – a Korean cosmetics brand. I picked this one up in Seoul simply because I’d never seen a shower gel infused with herbs before this. I kid you not. They actually have dried herbs in the bottle! Check out the pictures below if you don’t believe me 🙂
See what I mean?
I believe one of the stick things might be ginseng root which is quite commonly used as an inexpensive ginseng substitute. I’m not sure what the rest are called, but it totally set me aback when I saw the herbs floating in there. It looks so surreal. I only ever see these herbs floating around in my herbal soups!
Here are some I recognise – dong kwai strips and some goji berries or wolfberries (kei chi). The smell of dong kwai is very strong in this shower gel. I believe its supposed to help you relax and reduce skin infection. I say its not one for the faint-nosed.
After using this, my whole bathroom smelt like I’d been boiling herbal soup, and I smelt like I just fell in a vat of it. Its not unpleasant, if you don’t mind the smell of herbs like dong kwai. But if you do, better don’t go near this one 🙂
There were other shower gels in the Tony Moly Mother Nature Body Wash series. They have dried bits of fruit and vegetation in them too but I got the Oriental Herbs one because it was the most interesting. Not something I’d necessarily repurchase though but it was interesting enough to make me purchase it once.
In a nutshell
Its a body wash. What else can I say? In Oriental Herbs, the smell of herbs lingers on the skin. Not unpleasant if you don’t mind smelling of herbs but can be, if you do. Best used in the evening.
Pros: Shower gel cleans well
Cons: Strong dried herb smell
Have you tried anything like this? Its fascinating right? It sure washes off any smells of the day, although the smell does linger, so its perhaps best used before bed. I did wonder why I was having food dreams …
Paris B
Tony Moly Mother Nature Body Wash retails at 13,500 Won (RM37) for 300ml and comes in a variety of scents. Tony Moly is unavailable in Malaysia at time of writing.
oh..how interesting!…i wouldnt mind other herbs..but not chinese ones…ahha…don’t know why… but really do find TOny Moly interesting…. hope to read ur review about their snail cream when ur done with it 🙂
There were some other ones with orange peel and lemons or other strange things in there. I do plan to write about the snail cream soon! (and you remembered 😛 )
hehe..yup…coz i saw that ur using it…but no worries…take ur time with it… 🙂
My husband loves bak kut teh, and you know me being a vegetarian, he is kinda deprived from it, this might a good gift for him, or if I use it, he might find me delicious muaahhahah.
LOLOL!!! Who knows eh? 😀 I think he’ll love this one for sure
I’m not sure about KL but Tony Moly is actually available in Johor. There’s a small counter in JB City Square Shopping Mall, though I don’t seem to have spotted it anywhere else. I’m not sure how the prices compare to in Korea / other Korean brands but they seem pretty affordable! Most of the skincare fall into the 60-70ish rm range, with some higher and others lower. I didn’t browse the bath section so may have missed this but I’m one of those terrified of Chinese herbs (thanks to Mum forcing strange looking and smelling potions down my throat as a child) so I would have run away from this anyway.
That’s great to know Lynne. I personally haven’t seen any Tony Moly around here in KL but perhaps I’m not looking hard enough in the corners 🙂 They are generally very affordable (as most Korean brands are) and I LOLed at you saying you’d run away from this one 😀 I used to hate chinese herbs too but these days, I’m less averse 😀
YUmmylicious…I don’t mind giving this Tony Moly Mother Nature Body Wash a try! Will go check out Singapore’s Tony Moly and it’s ingredient list as well. Recently saw Body Shop came up with a Earth Lover (?) series of body wash too which smell yummy.
Oh do check out if its available in Singapore 😀 I took a sniff at the Body Shop ones but I found them too sweet so I opted to pass on them 🙂
That sure is interesting! Dried chinese herbs in a body wash! I’d like to try it out at least once in my life. 🙂
LOL You should if you get the chance 😀 Its very interesting (can’t say its nice coz it isn’t all THAT nice 😛 )
Hahaha this might be a little too adventurous for me! I can imagine my housemates going ‘something smells really bad in the house’ :s