Trader Joe’s Hot Cocoa Whipped Body Scrub Review
Trader Joe’s Hot Cocoa Whipped Body Scrub ($6.99) is a new, limited-edition hot cocoa scented body scrub that launched for the Holiday 2023 season (psstt they also have a new Candy Cane Body Butter). A slew of Trader Joe influencers on Instagram started posting this on Tuesday but they are all located on the West Coast. Typically when I see these things launch in CA I know that within a day or two it’ll pop up here in New York. I expected the Hot Cocoa Whipped Body Scrub to hit the shelf today but I took a chance and went to my TJs yesterday and lucky I did because they had it. And more lucky still is the fact the shelf was almost cleared out when I got there (see my pic below for proof haha). I asked about the new Trader Joe’s Brazil Nut Body Trio and sadly, they told me it was sold out.
If you can’t find this I’m here to tell you that you don’t need it. You can safely, comfortably, and without FOMO just skip it.
As you may know there is a new Dove Holiday Treats Collection at Walmart but what you may or may not know from my prior posts is that Target sneakily released a Dove Hot Cocoa Scrub which is disappointingly small but smells quite yummy. If you’re absolutely dying at the idea of a hot cocoa scrub I urge you to purchase that one or head onto Etsy as there a million wonderful creators that you can find a deliciously scented hot cocoa scrub from. I gotta admit I do think about it is brands release almost identical items at almost the same time. Isn’t it weird that Dove launched a Hot Cocoa Scrub and soon after TJ? And I refuse to believe it’s coincidental because we see this a lot in the beauty world. Are they spying on each other? How do they know what the other one is doing? I need to know the answers to these mysteries. I feel like next year Tree Hut will probably give us a Hot Cocoa Body Scrub! I’m surprised they didn’t this year!
I love Trader Joe’s. I love them for creating this fun, whimsical little items around the Holidays and throughout the season. I look forward to purchasing all their items and it’s very, very rare I get an item I don’t like but I’m sorry to say the Hot Cocoa Whipped Body Scrub is a miss. This is $6.99 and a little smaller for a scrub at 8 oz in size. When you’re comparing this to a Tree Hut Scrub that is $7.99-$10 at 18 oz it does seem a smidge expensive for our old friend Trader Joe!
This smells very yummy! Chocolatey and delicious. More on the chocolate side of the fence than the hot cocoa one but still yummy! Sadly, that’s about the only thing I can say nice about it. It looks wonderful in the jar! All whipped up perfectly. But it’s very dense! I really had to dig to get it out. That didn’t bother me TOO much but when I started using it I was just so let down. It does not melt down at all! I used super hot water, I scrubbed hard, but I felt like I was rubbing plastic on my skin! It just broke off into pieces without melting and made a big old mess on my beautiful shower tile. I couldn’t even get it to break down and rinse down the drain! I ended up picking pieces off the shower floor after using it because I didn’t want it hanging out in my pipes. The grains are smallish and didn’t do much in the way of exfoliation since I couldn’t get it to actually break down. It was just a really hot mess of a product. If you’ve ever used Lush Fun or Lush Shower Jelly it sorted of reminded me of those products (not texture wise but just in the fact they refused to melt down and end up a chunky mess on the shower stall floor).
I purchased two of these. I really didn’t need two since I had already had the Dove scrub as well but since it was LE I got tempted. Guess what? I’m returning one. I RARELY return anything but this has to go back! It’s really formulated poorly. I have no doubt Trader Joe’s will hear about it from their fans and maybe next year redeem the formula but right now this gets a thumbs down from me.
Have you tried it?
Trader Joe’s Hot Cocoa Whipped Body Scrub is available now!