The exotic new range from The Body Shop: ABSINTHE!

So this morning, when I was about to browse about Chocomania skincare range (yeah, I'm looking for skincare made with chocolate; but maybe I'm gonna blog about it next time), I found out from the official US The Body Shop website there's a set of new products in the store, made with ABSINTHE!

MY GOSH, HOW EXOTIC IT IS! I want to try these so bad! But I doubt this range would pass the shipping to my home country in Indonesia, and even Brunei (where I currently live now), because absinthe is a kind of alcoholic substance (and it's illegal in most countries!). But skincare products made with absinthe? I don't think it can make us drunk when we use it, haha!

To be specific, this new absinthe range is actually a set of hand care products, consisted of hand cream, hand wash, hand gel and hand butter. The Body Shop claims this specifically to 'purifying' your hands (I don't really get what it means, by "purifying your hands". Like... Purify the hands? How? But maybe it means, 'to make your hands fresher and moisturised, as if you're just finish taking a bath, hahaha!). It doesn't state what kind of skin this suits best, so I guess it can be used for normal to very dry skin. One reviewer said, the texture is lighter than the hemp, so I guess the quality is also as better as hemp hand care (for very dry skin).

What is absinthe, actually?

"Absinthe is historically described as a distilled, highly alcoholic beverage. It is an anise-flavoured spirit derived from botanicals, including the flowers and leaves of Artemisia absinthium (a.k.a. "grand wormwood"), together with green anise, sweet fennel, and other medicinal and culinary herbs. Absinthe traditionally has a natural green colour but may also be colourless. It is commonly referred to in historical literature as "la fée verte" (the green fairy)." -- Wikipedia

The Body Shop always prioritises that all of their products are using natural ingredients as the main ingredient for their products. But as for absinthe, hmm... I don't think they're using real absinthe, as in alcoholic substance for this. And, yes! After I checked about the ingredients, it's the extracts of Artemisia Absinthium plants (which consist of grand wormwood, green anise and fennel) that they use for this range. Perhaps if they put 'green anise', or 'wormwood', it doesn't really really accurate to state the main ingredient, so they still label this range as 'absinthe'! (Yeah, now I get it :D)

By the way, this is not the first time The Body Shop launched a product made with controversial main ingredients. Years ago they already launched hemp skincare range:

This is best for very dry skin. 

But this hemp range doesn't available in all countries. I guess it's because the hemp mistaken as weed? Just because it derives from the same plant, like weed. But seriously, I find it ridiculous to ban this. When you're using hemp for skincare, you won't get stoned like how the weed reacts in your body as you smoke it; so, it's not dangerous, at all.

If they mistaken hemp as weed, then I guess they'll mistaken the absinthe range made with alcoholic substance, and not the artemisia absinthium plants!

And by the way, I found this too: the summary on history of absinthe!