When the new store & Other Stories was due to open, it was like Christmas on crack for fashionistas. The newer, more high-end version of our beloved H&M was met with a crescendo of enthusiasm but sadly I, sorry little wannabe style-setter that I am, was, ahem, rather at the back of the queue. To be precise, i only visited last week.

When I got there I was indeed bowled over by the store, the aesthetic, and the promise of a more streamlined yet individual wardrobe. At a price. This girl has & Other Stories tastes on an H&M budget (despite what the website says, I still can’t equate a £45 polyester scarf with ‘affordability’).

I did, however, manage to snap up some sparkly socks for a fiver (which I’m going to pair with black sandals for my work Christmas party – oooh, daring!) and this rather wonderful scrub.

Reasons to love a body product from a fashion store? Let me enlighten you:

1. The packaging. I love the medicinal look for the jar and the label, almost like something your doctor might prescribe if they were concerned with aesthetically pleasing medication. Looks pretty nifty on ye olde edge of the tub (that is how the cool kids are talking, isn’t it?).
2. The smell. Citrus doesn’t sound like it should work with brown sugar but it absolutely does. The citrus notes come through first with the gorgeous richness of the sugar following on. If they could make this into an identical scent, I’d buy it.
3. The consistency. Lovely and rough, you know this will slough off dry skin like the proverbial hot knife through butter. Lovely for keeping your skin secretly soft underneath fluffy jumpers.
4. It works! This is a genuinely good scrub, and I have tried many low cost ones. I only really do low cost on body exfoliants because if I weren’t so lazy I would make my own for practically nothing, so why I would spent serious chunks of my beauty cash on a pricey number is beyond me. Stick with this: at £7 it’s a nice little bargain price, touching almost into what I like to call the ‘baby luxury’ end of the market. In short, you won’t be ashamed for people to see this, which brings me to my last reason…..
5. It’s from & Other Stories. C’mon, would you have read this far if I said it was from Poundland? OK, maybe you would, but the product is inherently more interesting because it comes from a store with genuine cache. And let’s face it, if you haven’t got the dosh for their wonderful neoprene clutches and £45 polyester scarves, then a £7 punt on a body scrub is going to afford you a bit of purchasing pleasure.

Yummy – but only for the bod!

*This product was purchased and used entirely without the endorsement or request of the brand in question. Pity Party will only review products we genuinely like, although we can be bribed with food to say silly things about celebrities. #justsayin

Kathryn

My passions are for fashion, style, books, music, and family.