The Oceans of the Orient

Shunga Oriental Bath Crystals are great for anyone who appreciates a relaxing and sensual bath. These luxurious salts will turn your bath water blue and bubbly like you're bathing in the ocean. This salt is made up of Dead Sea Salts, which help to condition your skin and are great for your body. Almond oil will leave your skin silky and smooth.

Run your lover a nice romantic bath and pour a little of these salts in the tub for them. Join them if you wish. You can also slip into a seaside escape after a long day, or any time you need to relax a little. This doesn't just have to be for romantic situations!

The ingredients are: Sodium chloride (Dead Sea salts), Sodium lauryl sulfate, Sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate, Fragrance, Glycerin, Carthamus tinctorius (Safflower oil), Prunus dulcis (Almond oil).

Overall, this is a very simple formula compared to other bath products on the market. The only issues anyone may face are those related to the glycerine, and the fragrance. If you have especially sensitive skin, you may want to use only a little in your bath.

When you open the container, you'll see a bag of blue salt. The salt does have a bit of a moisture content to it. (I'm guessing this is because of the oils.) The grains of salt resemble those of coarse sea salt. When poured into the water, the crystals sink to the bottom, but dissolve pretty quickly, turning the water a lovely royal blue color.

Each kit comes with a mini seashell scoop to make dispensing easy. Simply fish out a scoop or two and sprinkle it in your bathwater. After the bath, it leaves skin feeling moisturized and soft without any oily residue left on you or your tub.

Before I had even opened the can all the way, I was eagerly greeted by the fragrance, even though the salts are in a plastic bag. The scent was pleasant, but pretty strong. I purchased this hoping that the scent would be similar to KamaSutra's Treasure of the Sea, but it really wasn't at all. These Shunga salts are very perfume-like, floral, and feminine. KamaSutra, however, what much more oceanic, subtle, and gender-neutral. The scents are pretty hard to place, as I can't even begin to describe them, other than Shunga smelling like an "ocean water" perfume.

When I poured a couple of scoops into my bathtub, the scent wasn't as overwhelming as it was in the can. After I got out of the bath, I could barely smell it on my skin.

I was surprised at how blue my water was after just one scoop of this stuff. When you pour it into running water, it will start to bubble up. The bubbles can be compared to a light bubble bath. Sadly, they're usually completely gone within 5 minutes. The blue color of the water does not stain bathtubs, skin, or anything else. After stepping out of the bath, you'll be left with super silky skin.

These salts come in a 20oz. can. I found that just one scoop was all that was needed to enjoy the full color and scent. With that said, this can should give you ocean blue baths for quite a while. I'd guess that there are somewhere around 15-20+ uses in this one can.

The salts come in a gorgeous round tin with a paint-can type lid that closes pretty tightly. The tin has beautiful erotic Japanese art on it. It also comes with a little ceramic coin on a ribbon. You'll want to hand the ribbons over the edge of the can when closing the lid to make it easy to open next time.

There's also a cute shell scoop included with the salts, and a floating candle. The candle isn't meant to go in your bath, but can be used in a small dish on the side of the tub.

The Ultimate Showdown! Shunga Bath Crystals vs. KamaSutra Treasure of the Sea!

Best overall scent: KamaSutra. Shunga's Ocean scent was incredibly perfume-like and super feminine. KamaSutra's was more of a gender-neutral, oceanic scent.

Best color: KamaSutra. Shunga was a rich, artificial-looking blue, while KamaSutra had much more of a lighter, blue-green color which resembled a tropical sea color.

Best ingredients: Shunga takes a win and a loss here. Its main ingredient is Dead Sea Salt, but it does contain glycerin. KamaSutra contains algae, but a lot of mysterious "sulfates".

Best after bath skin feel: Shunga. My skin felt a lot softer after this than the KamaSutra.

Best bubbles: KamaSutra gets my vote for this one. It creates slight sea-foam bubbles which last quite a while. Shunga has bigger bubbles, but they're gone after about 5 minutes.