The Body Shop 3 Minute Shower Challenge - was it ever a challenge!

Even Marmalade seems impressed with it!

Last weekend I asked for a volunteer to shower with me for a week to take The Body Shop 3 minute shower challenge - my new friend Anh from Montreal stepped up and we've made it through the week - albeit maybe not easily!

What did cushion the blow was the awesome package that The Body Shop sent each of us - when they offered samples of all the body washes, Anh and I thought that meant, little travel sizes - but we received full sized bottles of all of the scents - Score! We also received a sponge and bath poof.

While 3 minutes may seem like forever when you are waiting for a class to end, mother-in-law to go home or car alarm to stop wailing, it is not a lot of time if you are trying to shampoo, condition, cleanse, shave and perform whatever other weird little rituals you may have going on in your shower!

But he was actually just plotting a way to get himself the poof - Success!

Ahn is some kind of speed demon because she actually did it!  She even brought her alarm clock into the shower to make sure (I hope it's not electric!).  I just was not managing it at all, at the 3 minute mark I would still have a head full of conditioner and only be half washed - until I realized the secret was turning off the water in between steps.  Get wet, turn off the water.  Apply shampoo, turn on the water. Rinse it out, turn off the water.  Apply conditioner, wash body, turn on the water.  Wash it all off - done - and while the whole thing takes longer than 3 minutes - the water is only running for 3 minutes! Downside: well, there is no hot water pounding on your body for 10 minutes, which was my favourite thing to have first thing in the morning - especially Mondays (Monday was sooo hard!)

What Anh and I both agreed we do like are the body washes - The Body Shop Shower Gel for Earth Lovers - they are gentle, smell lovely but not too strong, make our skin soft and smooth and make us feel fresh.  We also both had the same favourite scents: Apricot & Basil, Lemon & Thyme and Watermelon & Eucalyptus and neither of us liked the Mint & Cucumber - too cucumber, I felt like I was taking a shower in a salad!

Will I continue 3 minute showers now that the challenge is over?  I will - but I might have to up it to 5 minutes on Mondays - without a good dose of hot water on a Monday morning, I'm just too cranky for words and even the earth doesn't want that!

- Lisamarie & Anh -