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Natural Hero Hot Ginger Muscle Soak

5
£9.99

VERDICT:

5
10
Pleasant smelling froth-free bath soak that can relax and help with muscle recovery
Weight: 
153g

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Natural Hero Hot Ginger Muscle Soak is a 100% natural bubble-free, pleasant smelling athletic version of a Radox bath. With a blend of premium grade ginger root, rosemary, and sweet fennel essential oils the soak is designed to be an indulgent, moisturising and natural experience to recharge and relax you, and also enable a little bit of, erm, massage in the bath.

In the Natural Hero box you get six little 18ml Muscle Soak bottles and each is sufficient for one bath. Pour the vial into the tub and you're denied any froth or bubbles but you do get a subtle scent of ginger which is warming, soft, soothing and a world away from the Arabian Dreams, Sensuous Kumquat or whatever clinically scented bathing concoction someone in a chemistry lab has mixed up for you to glop into the tub after a long day and sink into foamy dreams of a hunky man whisking you away on a white charger. Maybe.

The five essential oils in the Muscle Soak are designed to ease muscle tension and condition the skin, and the blend can also be used directly on to the skin to massage any knotty problem muscles. Ginger root, rosemary, sweet fennel and starflower combine to somehow be both uplifting and soothing.

It's nice stuff, and that's coming from someone that's not a fan of bathing potions as a genre, with their cloying artificial perfumes. To have something that smells natural and doesn't foam up into a candles and glass of Chardonnay bath-time scenario is a blessed relief. Hot Ginger Muscle Soak does encourage turning a post-ride bathe into more of a lengthy affair though with all those essential oils producing a relaxing aroma that promotes sinking in and lingering. An accompanying pint of tea might be allowed.

While the claims of the Hot Ginger Soak's ability to recharge muscles weren't particularly noticeable and somewhat hard to quantify, any extended bathing can only be good to relax tired muscles and help recovery. Save a little dribble of the gingery fluid in the bottle and use it to help rub at any muscles that might need some extra attention after a tough ride: it makes an effective massage oil.

All those essential oils do a very good job of moisturising your skin, so you definitely feel all sleek and soft after a prolonged ginger soak. An advantageous consequence of this is that if you're partial to a leg shave in the bath then your warmed and softened pins will enjoy a really close and satisfying shave. Probably not the bath-time benefit Natural Hero intended, but hey. Be careful when standing up to do the bit round the back of the knee though as the slightly oily character of the Muscle Soak can make the bath surface a bit slippery.

Verdict

Pleasant smelling froth-free bath soak that can relax and help with muscle recovery if you give your legs a bit of a rub. Also handily helps with a cyclist's shave.

road.cc test report

Make and model: Natural Hero Hot Ginger Muscle Soak

Size tested: xx

Tell us what the product is for, and who it's aimed at. What do the manufacturers say about it? How does that compare to your own feelings about it?

Hot Ginger Muscle Soak is a100% natural bubble-free, great smelling, feel-good formula that recharges and relaxes you, that's according to Natural Hero. The blend of premium grade ginger root, rosemary, and sweet fennel essential oils enables massage in the bath whilst nourishing sweet almond and starflower essential oils also condition your skin.

Well, it does smell nice, your legs feel moisturised after a soak and it is relaxing, the recharging claims are a little harder to put a finger on

Tell us some more about the technical aspects of the product?

Ingredients are - Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Polyglyceryl-3, Diisostearate, Prunus Aygladus Dulcis Oil (Sweet Almond), Borago Officinalis Seed Oil (Starflower), Zingiber Officinale (Ginger) Root Oil, Foeniculum Vulgare (Fennel) Oil, Rosmarinus Officinalis (Rosemary) Leaf Oil, Limonene (Ginger Root, Fennel & Rosemary Leaf) Citral, Geraniol, Linalool, Citronellol.

Rate the product for performance:
 
5/10

Nice enough to soak in but can't be sure about those recovery claims really.

Rate the product for durability:
 
2/10

Six baths, that's not much. You could be stingy and just use half a bottle per soak though.

Rate the product for comfort, if applicable:
 
8/10

You're in a hot bath, it smells nice, your skin feels silky afterwards. What's not to like?

Rate the product for value:
 
2/10

That's a lot of money per indulgent bath, natural oils or not.

Tell us how the product performed overall when used for its designed purpose

It smelled great and made for a pleasurable and relaxing bathe; the claims of recharging are a little harder to quantify.

Tell us what you particularly liked about the product

The pleasant smell and moisturising qualities.

Tell us what you particularly disliked about the product

Nothing, bit pricey though.

Did you enjoy using the product? It didn't set my bath-time on fire but did make for a better leg shave.

Would you consider buying the product? No.

Would you recommend the product to a friend? Not really, it would make a nice gift though.

Overall rating: 5/10

About the tester

Age: 42  Height: 180cm  Weight: 73kg

I usually ride: It varies as to the season.  My best bike is: The one I\'m on at the time

I've been riding for: Over 20 years  I ride: Most days  I would class myself as: Experienced

I regularly do the following types of riding: road racing, cyclo cross, general fitness riding, fixed/singlespeed, mtb, Fun

 

Jo Burt has spent the majority of his life riding bikes, drawing bikes and writing about bikes. When he's not scribbling pictures for the whole gamut of cycling media he writes words about them for road.cc and when he's not doing either of those he's pedaling. Then in whatever spare minutes there are in between he's agonizing over getting his socks, cycling cap and bar-tape to coordinate just so. And is quietly disappointed that yours don't He rides and races road bikes a bit, cyclo-cross bikes a lot and mountainbikes a fair bit too. Would rather be up a mountain.

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