On Her Vanity Table: Citra Mangir Body Scrub Review: From the Classic Series

One day, I was hanging out with a friend, and I stepped into a mini market, in an unfamiliar area in town. And I was lucky, because finally I found a beauty product that I thought I would never find it again:

My, my! This is one of the recently discontinued Citra products: the Mangir body scrub! This must be one of the last body scrub from the series that ever distributed before Citra came with new packaging design in all of their products... Because sadly, they stop producing this again :(

Citra Mangir series

For me, the fragrant of Citra mangir series smells authentically 'Indonesian', much more than the bengkoang variant (Indonesian name for Mexican turnip. However it's not a Mexican plant, as it's also native in Indonesia!). That's because mangir is a ancient Javanese beauty secret used by the aristocrat women for a glowing, fair yellowish-white skin (or as the Indonesian call it, kuning langsat skin tone). It's also used to make skin softer.

What is mangir actually? In the old days, Javanese princesses loved to exfoliate their skin, using a natural scrub made from crushed traditional herbs and plants, usually raw rice, turmeric and other herbs from ginger family. This powdery scrub is what they called as mangir. The orange-and-yellow colours from most of the herbs are what makes the skin fairer and more glowing.

Sounds like it would smell awful as it's made from raw herbs, but no — I believe, (even without the chemical perfume added into it), there's something in mangir ingredients that makes it smells nice as a traditionally made powder. Besides Citra, nowadays there are a lot of local Indonesian skincare and beauty brands use mangir in their product.

And few years ago, Citra has reformulated their mangir series, in which they add olive oil to 'improve' the smell, without losing the whole mangir fragrant. The olive oil is meant to moisturiser your skin more, besides it's known to make your skin fairer. (:

The Citra Mangir body scrub

The contain is 200 ml, just like the other Citra body scrubs. As you can see from the package design, the image was from Citra old product design. New product design features the Citra logo in small size. The scrub is in pale yellow colour, something like white-and-golden sand colour, and obviously, it smells like the Citra mangir lotion. The bead particles are little harsh, so I'm not using this scrub everyday (even though I love it so much! Haha :) it's effective too, I notice it makes my skin supple, and lightens some dark spots on my body, makes them less visible after two weeks I'm using this.

The Mangir variant is also known as Citra Lasting Glow because the mangir itself is proved to make your skin naturally glowy... Mangir Jawa & Minyak Zaitun are literally Javanese mangir and olive oil.

Citra's icon of a lady on the other side of the Lasting Glow scrub pot ♥

And using Citra mangir body scrub won't feel complete without applying Citra mangir lotion after that! Like, I love the smell so much that I must use the same lotion variant so the fragrant stays longer... I could pretend that I'm just having a spa treatment like a Javanese princess in the old days; hahaha! And it's always recommended to put on body lotion or body butter to moisturise your skin after you scrub your body, as scrubbing can make your skin dry. (:

Some personal comments...

This is my favourite Citra body scrub among the other two: bengkoang (Indonesian name for Mexican turnip) and green tea. I love this one — it has the nicest, exotic smell as it is made from two traditional ingredients that are very familiar in the Javanese society: the Javanese mangir and olive oil. In fact, the mangir series is the most exotic one among other Citra variants!

Why am I write that? Because, when Citra was first commercialised in 1980s, the mangir lotion was their very first product ever — long, long before they introduced their second product in the 90s: the bengkoang lotion. When I notice since recent years, the bengkoang one is very popular, almost all Citra commercial ads are featuring the bengkoang series, and they even made a complete bengkoang collection that consists of the lotion, liquid soap, bar soap, body scrub and even face cleanser!

I understand, though, bengkoang series might be the craze among Indonesian ladies as it can whiten the skin. However, the Citra mangir product shouldn't be forgotten too... It's the very first Citra product somehow. In the last 6 years, they actually made mangir body wash and body scrub, but again, they produced no more and I never understand why. Could it just because mangir is less popular? I doubt it so.

Below is the Citra mangir hand and body lotion in the new packaging, with Citra mangir body scrub. I hope one day the body scrub will be back in stores, with new product design... Still I can't understand why Citra discontinued this lovely product.

And not forget, I love the packaging colour for mangir variant. It's like gingery orange or yellow... Like a golden colour. Or if you notice, it's sorta nude colour, a recent colour trend in makeup and fashion.♥