After test driving bobe's (an acronym for "beyond ordinary bath essentials") Pumpkin Cheesecake Fabulous Soy Whipped Butter and Hot Apple Cider Lip Balm, I'm officially obsessed with the brand. Seriously, it's become a problem. I find myself wanting to try every product bobe has ever released, salivating over some of the delicious scent options available for each body cream and body wash, combing through the "Customer Reviews" section to see what products the majority of consumers recommend, and looking up articles on the web to see just how many people belong to the Sisterhood of Bobe (okay, so I made that last part up — there is no Sisterhood but, come to think of it, maybe there should be… ).
Launched in 2005 by Marlese Sears, bobe offers fresh, custom-made bath and body products in a wide array of unique scents. The company is owned and operated by Sears (yay for female entrepreneurs!!), who whips up some fantastic products using mostly natural ingredients. The master mixologist has created so many scents and flavors, she puts Philosophy to shame.
Take, for instance, the Soy Fabulous Whipped Body Butter, a delightfully fluffy body cream that moisturizes and smooths skin. The body butter is available in over 50 scents, among them: 7-Up Pound Cake, Frosted Sugar Cookie, Vanilla Pear, Pink Lemonade, Green Tea & Cucumber, Chai Tea Party, Shea & Honey, A Perfect Rose, Lavish Lilac, White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookie, Coconut Craze, Warm Banana Bread and more.
The Lip Balm, meanwhile, is available in 72 scents, including Hot Apple Cider, Egg Nog, Banana Cream Pudding, Carnival Candy Apple, Iced Carrot Cake, Tropical Mango, Tiramisu, Juicy Gummy Bear, White Grape Juice, and more.
The Pumpkin Cheesecake body butter's sweet, warm scent is perfect for the holiday season: it's got that spicy-but-sweet combination, which makes it a little naughty but so irresistibly nice. And, while I tend to hate bath and body products that smell like desserts, I actually adored this one. The fragrance won't overwhelm you (trust me, you won't feel like you raided a Sara Lee factory and gorged yourself with their desserts) but, instead, will make you feel confident and sexy, like those who approach you will be enchanted by your aroma and want to straight-up devour you (which they will!).
The Hot Apple Cider lip balm is also incredible — it contains soybean wax, natural beeswax, coconut oil, hemp seed oil, vitamin E, shea butter, natural beeswax, olive fruit oil, castor seed oil, and a number of other botanicals and minerals that nourish, hydrate and protect your lips (which is a must-do for these cold winter months when lips crack faster than eggs on a frying pan). The lip balm glides right on (you won't have to press too hard as with so many other lip balms) and it doesn't leave any excess product (the texture is neither too hard or too mushy; it's pretty much perfect).
The most uncanny thing, of course, is just how accurately Sears has managed to reproduce this vast array of scents. The Chai Tea Party Soy Whipped Body Butter will make you think of Starbucks' Chai Lattes, the Hot Apple Cider lip balm will make you want to curl up by a fire place with a nice warm cup and the Pumpkin Cheesecake body butter might just make you reach for the apron and get to cooking.
Forget Willie Wonka's stupid chocolate empire — I want a golden ticket to bobe's factory!
Pumpkin Cheesecake Soy Whipped Body Butter, $10; Hot Apple Cider Lip Balm, $3.75. Available at BobeBathEssentials.com
