What has happened to Body Shop?

[puddingsforsandy]

Yes I know it was sold off a long time ago but it's unrecognisable in terms of products and prices. Half of the stuff I used to buy years ago like their body butter and perfume oil have really gone up in price. The perfume oil must have changed ingredients as the smell is so weak compared to a few years ago. Their makeup is Mac prices.

The sale stuff are rubbish and still expensive.

Does anyone here still shop there?

No the prices put me off. Even the sale prices as you said are laughable. My local one is always trying to fob off the body butter every week

Actually, I've had the opposite experience - in the branches near me, the staff are very helpful and friendly and I've had some good deals. I really rate their hemp hand cream for dealing with dry skin in the winter.

I went in yesterday, would agree that even sale items are often overpriced.

They had in the window a nice gift bag of smellies that I would have expected to be around £15-20, it was £35 (cut down from £50 )

It breaks my heart because I absolutely adored it as a teenager. I used to buy the £1 size bottles and I think I had nearly everything they sold at one point! I loved it a while back when the brought back some of the old stuff, I stocked up but it's all gone now. I would genuinely spend a decent amount in there each month if they had that kind of thing in there now. But as it is I agree, everything is too expensive and not that great.

I think that the loyalty card is the best around! Always 10% off, a five pound gift on your birthday and you work your way up to a five pound ad a ten pound gift with each stamp. Also there are always offers on the end of the receipts, £10 off a £25 spend etc you just need To be smart about it!

Disclaimer - I used to work there and am so passionate about their activism work and the way they look after their staff and give staff all new products to try out before they launch :)

i quite like the bath gels and tend to buy lots so they're cheaper,also use the outlet for stuff. i find it pretty much the same as it was, make up was never cheap there. of course though it's changed alot since the 80s

When I was a teen (now 32) body shop was my "must go" place for cheap but nice make up/shower gels etc etc. they used to sell a strawberry body scrub in a tube for £2-I loved it. Now I think it's insanely overpriced -same/similar scrub is now over £8 and smaller, make up is average but pricey for the quality and no good deals or sales. I haven't purchased anything for years.

Peppermint foot balm is the only thing I get from there now.

It's a completely different shop now. Still has a place in the world but nothing like it was in the early nineties. I remember you could choose a wicker basket and fill it up with exciting things which the shop assistant would then wrap up for you to give someone as a present. I liked the animal soaps.

Used to shop there lots but I never go on there now-it's v overpriced. I liked their vitamin c skin recover serum but it's £14! They aren't exactly an upmarket brand! The bottles still look like the sort teenage girls have on their shelves-I would want to pay teenage prices!
I wonder how they are doing profits wise? Who does shop there?

Reviver serum, not recover!

Still has a place in the world but nothing like it was in the early nineties.

In the nineties it had this thing called 'ethics'.

Then it was sold to Nestle/L'Oreal.

Which kind of makes a mockery of everything it was supposed to represent.

I used to love Body shop in the 80s. I liked their Rose Musk perfume oil, camomile shampoo, cocoa butter body lotion and peppermint foot lotion. I agree it's really gone downhill since then. And the fact thst it's owned by a big multinational makes it a bit pointless going there anymore. It used to be s bit special because of its ethical credentials.

I use a few of their things.

Like their aloe Vera face stuff and their bronzing powder. Have always found staff to be lovely and helpful too.

Used to use their honey shampoo until they changed it.

They do really good online discount codes up to 50% off your order & free delivery when you spend £5, that's when I buy my stuff.

I occasionally go to their outlet at Ashford designer village place and stock up on the mango body butter (good for my dry legs) but mostly I agree that they have lost their niche.

However, I used to work with their corporate resonsibility department and they were lovely and gave us lots of free products for homeless young people, so that was nice.

I hadn't appreciated the nestle link to L'oreal

That is the very opposite of what Anita stood for

I never buy from the shop. They always have 50% off codes for online shopping with free delivery which is when I stock up on hand creams and shower gels

I used to like the pick and mix bath pearls.
It was always teenage pocket money prices now its pretending to be Clinique only not doing it very well

I think Lush is to teenagers what the body shop was to us as teenagers!

It offers really poor value for money. It used to be great for affordable treats. It's years since I even bothered looking in.

They're products are now in the majority awful.

I would say that their cleansing oil is good and the cleansing balm is good if you have dry skin.

However, their body butters have gone down hill massively. Lots of the new ones flake off into waxy little balls, the scents are weak and artificial, and many of the body products have caused a reaction on my skin which isn't sensitive. I had a long chat with a shop manager who told me lots of people now say this and that there are lots of returns.

I bought the gingerbread shower gel to feel Christmassy, it's watery, smells of cola bottles, doesn't lather and leaves no scent. I binned it.

They do have a few good products but I can't imagine its enough to support a large chain like that for much longer.

I have awful memories of being taken in there in the early 90s by my mother so she could buy white musk perfume which I HATED. Now the only hand cream I use is their hemp hand protector as nothing else touches my dry skin! I love the loyalty card too. But I was a bit when they sold out to L'Oreal. Meh, it's not what it was, but they still do some things well.

It really is far too expensive now. The products are a bit crap but have Clinique prices. I struggle to understand who shops there TBH.

It's a shame isn't it? I used to love browsing around in there when we were teens even though we'd only buy a tiny thing in the end. I think their stuff is still nice - someone gave me a bottle of 'white musk' at xmas which I am really enjoying wearing again but the look of the place is so bare and minimalistic it's off-putting.

I think Lush have stolen their niche but if you want to talk about overpriced then Lush would win hands down!

Oh and I don't care about the prices, or the moral values, I'd happily pay Space NK prices and shop there every week if they worked but 95% of its shit! It's Bayliss & Harding in shop form.