Weekend Beauty - Bath & Body: Jo Malone Sweet Lime & Cedar Body Cream and Shower Gel

Here is a shameful confession for you: I am too lazy to moisturize. I wait until my already dry skin becomes totally parched, go through a week of panicked use of body creams and lotions, get some kind of result and lapse into laziness again. It is just too much effort! (I wish I somebody would do it for me, why am I not Cleopatra?) There are times, however, when I get so enamored with a scent of a product that I use it regularly and it doesn't feel like an effort. Never has been my skin more smooth and moisturized than when I had Amouage Gold Body Cream. What gorgeous, rich fragrance, so very similar to actual perfume, what luxurious texture...but I digress. This is about my newest obsession, Jo Malone's Sweet Lime & Cedar bath and body collection. The cologne, released last year, although lovely, was a tad too harsh for me. I never thought I would say it, but it was too woody. I fact, it was borderline too masculine on my skin, and you know that I wear masculine scents! And it was a shame really, because I was very attracted to the Thai overtones and adored the notes of cardamom, tamarind and coconut that made the citrusy composition that much more interesting. If by any chance you had the same issue with the cologne, get the cream. It has none of the arid woodiness of the former and, altough it retains the overall dry quality of the blend, is a touch sweeter and "creamier"-smelling. The coconut is more pronounced as is cardamom. Combined with lime, the effect the notes produce is mouthwatering. This is a creamy, dreamy exotic drink of a fragrance, refreshing more so than sweet. I will need a whole lot of this cream for warm weather to wear in lieu of a perfume (or under perfume, see below). The texture of the cream answers all my requirements: it is non-greasy, non-sticky and absorbs very fast. The matching shower gel smells a little bit more citrusy, brighter somehow, to my nose, which is a good thing, as it would be perfect to wake me up in the morning. There also exists, in the collection, a dry body oil, but that would be too much for the lazy me. I will leave that for when I am Cleopatra. Jo Malone advises to layer Sweet Lime & Cedar products with their Nutmeg & Ginger, which, I imagine, would do wonders to bring out the sweet piquancy of the notes. It would also go well with any citrusy or citrusy-, fresh-floral fragrance. For example, the fragrance of the cream compliments perfectly my beloved Puredistance. It also gets on like a house on fire with Malone's Dark Ambre & Ginger Lily, enhancing the spicy quaity of the latter and making the perfume a little less sweet. More on Kohdo Wood colognes tomorrow. Sweet Lime & Cedar collection is available at Jo Malone, $75.00 for 175ml of body cream, $50.00 for 250ml of shower gel.