Pure Fiji Coconut Milk Bath Soap

"Island Bliss," says the bottle. Indeed! Pure Fiji's Coconut Milk Bath Soak ($33.95) will transform your bathtub at home into a spa. Luxuriously smooth and creamy, this hydrating coconut milk soak contains a bounty of nutrients essential to the support and good health of your skin. Fresh coconut milk with a blend of exotic nut oils rejuvenate, nourish, and rehydrate dry skin leaving it supple smooth and revitalized. Add 1/4 of a cup of this island bliss to running water and relax on a wave of island magic!

The product lives up to the hype. I prefer to shower in the summer, but now and then, I need to soak in a long, hot (yes, hot) bath. I felt that need this week on a chilly morning when I couldn't get warm. Sneeze after sneeze told me to enjoy a nice hot bath and warm up. I know that hot water will dry out my skin, so I had an opportunity to try the Coconut Milk and Bath Soak that Pure Fiji had sent me. It was heavenly. I didn't want to get out. The water felt great, the scent was intoxicating, and the creaminess of the water assured me that I would not need a body moisturizer when I emerged.

Pure Fiji is a great company. Based in Suva, Fiji, Pure Fiji uses the finest quality plant oils and extracts in each of their products. The line does not contain ingredients that commonly cause allergies or problems for sensitive skins, uses organic materials whenever they can, and does not test on animals. All Pure Fiji containers are recyclable.

Here's a little more about the company, abstracted from their Web site. Pure Fiji works to ensure that their products will benefit customers through exceptional performance and value, while positively impacting the people and economies of the local communities from which the raw materials are sourced. Pure Fiji believes this is achievable by using ingredients from renewable resources and eco-friendly packaging.

Pure Fiji takes makes every effort to minimize their carbon footprint, and where appropriate, enhance Fiji's unique ecosystem. Botanical ingredients, such as their blend of nut oils, are wild-harvested, which means they select the nuts from trees that grow in their natural habitat. That practice reduces their requirement for energy-dependent irrigation and fertilization methods. Bottles used in packaging are PET, which are an environmentally responsible choice that requires 24% less energy to produce and generates 40% less solid waste than glass bottles. Gift packaging is made by hand using natural fibers, such as handmade paper or delightful woven baskets.

These enlightened philosophies also played a big part in the design and construction of Pure Fiji's state-of-the-art factory and its daily production processes. Passive solar dryers are employed, and oils are cold pressed in the villages that supply them. Spa linens and staff uniforms are sun-dried, eliminating the need for electricity. Pure Fiji even recycles the chaff and seed casings from the nuts in the factory gardens - which act as a nursery for Pure Fiji's tree planting programs along the coastline, a source of a variety of flowers and herbs for use in their spa, and even supply fresh vegetables for the factory staff to use in their meals.

The coconut line is only one of Pure Fiji's fragrant product lines. Imagine your favorite tropical scents. Pineapple, frangipani, mango, anyone? I'll bet you'll find one at Pure Fiji's Web site. Can you beat that? A great company, a great bath soak, and a certainty that your self-pampering is not an assault on our ever-threatened environment.

Photos courtesy of Pure Fiji