Oh! My! God! The Body Shop’s new Chocomania range has finally hit SA shores – just in time for V-Day – and its EVERYTHING I hoped it would be. Sweet, but not sickening and fabulously chocolatey, but not in a synthetic ‘plasticky’ way. It’s also subtle enough to wear to work without making those averse to gourmand-type scents (think Angel) want to vom when you arrive at your desk, resplendent in all your cocoalicious glory…
Anyway, before I get sucked into babbling on about the product, let me tell you a bit about the launch. It was held at Rococoa, a sweet li’l chocolaterie/deli in The Palms in Woodstock.

Initially, I really struggled to find the place and got lost in the dodgest part of town which was tres terrifying. I’d also cleverly starved myself throughout the day so as to gorge on a wheelbarrow full of choccie without having to put in extra treadmill time. (Yes, yes… I’m a shining example for healthy, balanced eating…) Thus, when I arrived, I was addled with post-traumatic stress and my world was somewhat white and fuzzy around the edges. This meant I didn’t quite catch everything that was said in Rococoa’s whirlwind tour du chocolat and can only remember random factoids like ‘the best chocolate cotains more cocoa mass which is why it melts more readily on your tongue’ and ‘cocoa originated in the Amazon’. (I took this in in between spasms of hunger pangs and flashbacks to the evil street kids that had threatened to kill me for my GPS.)

Fortunately, just when I thought I was going to black out in Rococoa’s mock tropical jungle display (amidst giant faux cocoa trees, nogal) we got whisked into the kitchen to taste an array of yummalicious choccie. Yay!

The whole room was like a Charlie and The Chocolate Factory-inspired dream; think cutesy chocolate sculptures…

…and ‘fountains’ gushing choccie…
After all that, we sat down to learn about Chocomania while passing around the products to sniff and feel their textures while doing our best not to eat them.
Of everything I got to try I was most impressed with the scrub (R110) and shower cream (R65). The scrub is a sugary one that smells like chocolate brownie batter (oh yes!) and is super-dense with lots of little ‘scrubbies’. Unlike other slightly ‘wimpier’ Body Shop scrubs – those that are too creamy and don’t have a high concentration of granules (here’s looking at you Brazil Nut!) – this one seriously gets down to business. You can also bump up its scrub factor even further by applying it to slightly damp – as opposed to wet – skin. As for the shower cream… well… what’s not to love?! It looks and smells like Hershey’s chocolate syrup and is just the thing to make a boring morning shower something to look forward to. It’s now going to become one of my standard ‘gifts for girls’ because I can’t imagine anyone receiving it and not totally loving the shizz out of it.

When it comes to moisture, you’ve got two options; an indulgent Chocomania Body Butter (R120) and a lighter body lotion (R99). The body butter is the ‘star’ of the collection and contains a whopping 13 Community Fair Trade ingredients, the most ever used in one single The Body Shop product. Still, I’ve never been into butters (my skin just doesn’t get dry enough to justify them) so I actually prefer the latter. I like its super-light, gel-like texture (it’s very similar to the brands’ Sweet Lemon Whip body lotion, another all time favourite) that sinks into your skin within seconds of application. Also, you’d think that the body butter would be slightly more chocolatey-smelling, but I think it’s the other way round. Call me crazy, but I think the lotion has more of a ‘chocolate’ scent while the body butter is a bit more ‘cocoa buttery’.

The last two items in the collection are a chocolate-scented heart-shaped soap (R30) and lip butter (R45), but neither rocked my world. I’m all about the scrub, shower cream and body lotion. Oh yeah…

In all, if you love chocolate and dig The Body Shop, you’ll go absolutely cray cray for Chocomania. Despite the fact that it’s going to be a permanent part of the line (initially I thought it was limited edition), the initial stock is going to sell out within seconds. Thus, if you want it, my advice is to get in store and nab it fast. Like right now. Seriously. Get your ass of the couch and RUN bitches! (I plan on buying every last one of their shower creams and keeping them in my ‘gift pile’ so if we meet in the shop you’d best be prepared to fight me for it. You should also know that I’m not averse to biting…) 

Big, fat, chocolatey kiss, 

Leigh

X x x