Dona bath milk - bath and shower gel by System JO - review by Apirka

Milk has long been used for bathing, to soften the water and the skin. System Jo's Dona bath and body line certainly takes advantage of that with their Bath Milk, available in six different "scents". All of the Dona products claim to be natural and paraban, petro. derivative and cruelty free, and the Bath Milk actually has the shortest ingredient list of the whole line.

Ingredient list for Mangosteen Bath Milk:
Dry Milk Powder, Magnesium Sulfate, Hydrolyzed Collagen, Garcinia Mangostana (Mangosteen) Fruit Powder, Fragrance

Ingredient list for the Camu Camu Bath Milk:
Dry Milk Powder, Magnesium Sulfate, Hydrolyzed Collagen, Myrciaria Dubia (Camu Camu) Fruit Powder, Fragrance

The Dona Bath Milk is a loose, smooth and strongly scented powder. It does not feel gritty, but it does have quite a few lumps in it. It is easy to pour or scoop from the container. I personally found it much easier to use a spoon to scoop the product up and place in a small strainer sitting in the lid. The strainer helped evenly distribute the milk powder throughout the water and allowed me to break the lumps up with my fingers.

Both the Mangosteen and Camu Camu bath milks smell quite strong in the container, but the smell isn't as strong in the water or on the skin. The Mangosteen smells like a citrus and tropical fruit smoothie. To me, Camu Camu smells like play dough and those shortbread cookies in tins or cardboard boxes available during the winter holidays.

This product is for external use only, do not ingest; I didn't taste this, neither should you.

You can dump the product into the tub or scoop it out with your hand, though be sure to keep water out of the container so the bath milk doesn't melt. Personally, I found using a large table spoon and a small metal strainer quite effective. The spoon allowed me to scoop up the desired amount of product without making a mess and the strainer evenly distributed the milk bath throughout my bathtub and caught the large clumps (allowing me to break them up so they would dissolve better in the water).

Because there are no bubbles and the product is blended into the water, the milkiness should not dissipate and should last until the tub is emptied. The product also didn't appear to leave any residue in my tub or on my skin. Its softening effects were minimal, but I didn't use a very large amount in my baths.

The Dona Bath Milk arrives in the standard plastic bag Eden uses to ship liquid or spill-able products in. The 8oz tub has a black screw-off lid and a brown label with a black lace print over top. The label bears the product's name, "scent", brief instructions, ingredient list and addresses for System Jo. The tub is very discreet, doesn't scream "SEX" and can be left out in plain sight or given as a gift.

I'm definitely more of a bubble bath person and have never actually taken a milk bath before, but I can't resist bath products and snapped up two of the Dona Bath Milks in Mangosteen and Camu Camu. Upon opening the containers, the scents are very strong. Sadly, they only softly scented the water (depending on how much is used) and I couldn't notice any scent at all on my skin afterward.

Both bath milks have quite a few lumps in them, so taking the advice from other reviews, I purchased a simple, small metal strainer for $2 at Wal-Mart. I placed the strainer on top of the lid, so as not to make a mess, and used a large table spoon to scoop the product into the strainer. Using the strainer allowed me to easily distribute the bath milk throughout the entire tub and caught those lumps, allowing me to crush them up with my fingers.

I only used about 6 spoonfuls of the milk, which produced a softly scented and lightly cloudy, bluish water. Again, because I didn't use a "generous" amount, the skin-softening effect was minimal. Using more of the product will result in a milkier bath, more skin softening and stronger scented water. The bath milk didn't leave any residue in my tub or on my skin, so I did not need to rinse the tub or myself off after my baths. The product also didn't aggravate my skin in any way, so I assume that this would be safe to use everyday.

Here can you see how lightly cloudy and blue the water looks after using only 6 large spoonfuls of the bath milk. The bubbles were temporary.

Overall, this is a good quality product that produces a relaxing, skin softening bath. I would recommend this to other bath lovers and will probably pick up the other scents once I use up the ones I already have.