Baylis & Harding is shit isn't it?

[DuckWillow]

It's all I see in the shops, beautifully packaged and expensive sets. However having sampled them I am always left underwhelmed.

The bottles look like they've been made as cheaply as possible. They buckle the moment you've opened them.
The fragrances are so minor as to be virtually unnoticeable.
Same with the creams and body lotions.
They always seem all style and no substance.

Or am I being unreasonable?

As an aside they are among the most donated unused items our charity gets for raffles. So they do have a use

Even Molton Brown is pretty crap.

To be honest tho everywhere else i look there is nothing but positive reviews where as this dodgy looking website has multiple threads that are exactly the same full of weird people banging on about how bad it is and how good molton brown is crazy 😂

It’s the ultimate in passive aggressive gifts, if you want to say “I despise you” say it with Baylis & Harding.

I have no idea why Molton Brown is considered so great, they use SLES (not as harsh as SLS's but still) and parfum (which could include anything, sometimes up to 200 different chemicals) and when they had it at a hotel I stayed at I really didn't like the smell. I wouldn't pay £22 for a body wash that wasn't organic. If I want something luxury I'd get it from the Cornish place - Trevarno organics.

I don't know what Bayliss and Harding is like though, sounds awful.

Do people really think this stuff is expensive? It’s clearly cheap supermarket crapola..

Zombieee

I buy the handsoap as it's cheap and great for daily use. Yabu. It's just a cheap brand. You know what you getting.

I agree with @Tal45. Everyone’s in love with Jo Malone candles and Molton brown body and I don’t understand why. Layering scents together (especially in the shower?! You’re washing it down the drain) is not how you go about having a pleasant aroma. The best way to smell good is using unscented body wash & moisturiser, and using an expensive non synthetic, non toxic perfume that’s actually worth the money. It will allow your natural scent and pheromones to mix with the perfume which makes it smell more individual.

Paraffin candles also leech soot and chemicals into the air, I can’t imagine paying £60 to worsen my asthma.

I think it’s fine for an everyday, big standard hand wash or similar. But it’s not something I’d give as a gift.

Can I derail here slightly and say that Yankee candles are also vastly overpriced and shit.

@MyOtherProfile

YABU. One of their handsoaps is my favourite ever soapy smell. A brown blokey kind of smell - ginger and pepper or something. Haven't got a clue about the rest of their stuff as I've never used it.

The Ginger & Lime one is amazing. People always comment on the smell of it when they come around.

Why would someone resurrect a zombie thread about cheap soap?

Its crap. It's designed to look "posh" for people who want to spend more than nothing but not loads.

Ah! It’s not great quality but it has a bittersweet memory for me.

I taught ESOL and had a very quiet man in one class, it was an Entry level class so none of them spoke much English and he was part of a UN resettlement scheme and came from an African country in the throes of civil war. He’d have gone through god knows what.

None of them had much money, frequently they wouldn’t have coats at first.

I was always concerned as to whether this man was engaged and enjoying the classes and did put effort into who I would pair him with and building his confidence when he did speak etc. but he remained a quiet and impassive one. He arrived without friends or family and lived in shared accommodation.
The day we broke up for Christmas he handed me a card with beautiful words and he’d wrapped a present. It was so kind but I was conflicted as he really, really shouldn’t have and moreover we rightly weren’t supposed to accept gifts. However I didn’t think he would have understood all that and the money was spent, so I accepted and thanked him.
It was a Baylis and Harding gift set and I still can’t get over him spending money he shouldn’t have buying it, wrapping it, and giving it to his teacher for Christmas. He was a single Muslim man so it can’t have been a cultural norm, at that time of year at least, and it wasn’t a wife doing it for him.
I could never regift it and it moved house with me still in the box 😂
We all struggled with the gifts rule in that department; so many kind students from cultures of generosity bearing homemade dolma, baklawa or knitted slippers and shawls…

I suspect a lot of teachers, grandparents and mums get B&H from proud children just starting to buy presents on their own account who are pleased to get something so big and fancy looking for so little money. It’s the kind of gift my grandma preferred. She preferred things that had come from us rather than something more expensive and better that she expected my mum had chosen and sorted out for us.

Sometimes it will be thoughtless but sometimes it will be people thinking “Ooh! That looks nice and I can afford it!”

It’s a rare gift I’m not at all grateful for.

It just handwash like carex and other cheaper handwash, it's quite cheap to buy for normal household soap but it not what you would buy as a present.

I quite like the slightly more expensive Goodness range because the fragrances are nicer. I stopped buying them as our local council doesn't rcycle black plastic.

I've gone back to bar soaps now (not B and H). I like them better than liquid soaps, but the scummy sinks and extra cleaning is a definite minus.

@RiotAtTheRodeo

Why would someone resurrect a zombie thread about cheap soap?

Good point.

Its a cheap thing to buy in most supermarkets and small shops, which handy for the firm, as people see the bottles etc, and it becomes a quick pick up for many people to buy for their Granny, Mum, or neighbour, or whoever, when they cant be bothered to think of a proper gift. You always see some in charity shops though. I bought some in a charity shop,, three bottles of bubble bath for 50 pence, to give to a neighbour one Christmas, ha ha. She was probably the person who took them to the shop in the first place !!

Since I'm here though, I will say that Molton Brown is lovely.

I like the lemongrass and ginger really nice. I dont get JM hype. I have bought M Brown nice but pricey. My treat is White Company products fab

Alright @Tal45 enough with the crypto advertising- you’ve just ensured that I will Not buy anything from the Cornish shop - can’t stand this sort of advertising strategy. 🤣

We have Molton Brown upstairs in the bathroom, I generally get a few bottles in the sales but I prefer the cheap soap like B &H or carex in the kitchen as the smell of MB is a bit overwhelming if preparing food

Lindt wasn't a cheapo brand when I was a child, it was an expensive, premium import from Switzerland, @dipstyque. You could only buy it at the chocolatier counter in the big department stores, alongside the handmade chocolates - the little boxes of chocolate animals, and tiny chocolate eggs at Easter. It cost about 10x the price of Cadbury's!

B&H cinnamon handwash was awful. it was a christmas gift.

I don't buy the toiletries but buy the soap for bathrooms in bulk, smells nice, quite cheap and doesn't make my skin dry like some soaps.