Beauty Products that Smell Like Coffee: Barista Bath and Body got a write-up in WWD last year for its innovative products, and the brand was featured at Cosmoprof’s Discover Beauty section as a brand to watch. I spoke to the founders, a mother/daughter team, who were lovely, but I’m afraid I don’t understand the product.

All the products–shampoo/conditioner, body wash, scrub, soap, lip balm–smell like coffee and are formulated with the caffeine-laden beverage. Coffee has some anti-oxidant properties, and the brand is touting these in their product line. When I expressed concern about the smell lingering, one founder pointed out that coffee actually gets rid of bad smells (it’s used as a palette-cleanser at perfume counters), but is that because it has such a strong smell itself? Also, all the products are a dark brown color, reminding me of Neutrogena’s very clinical T-Gel shampoo. While I was assured it was safe for all hair colors, I was still nervous to try it on my blonde mop.

The quality of all the products is excellent, especially the soap, which contains coffee grounds for a bit of exfoliation. And the names, like Triple Shot, Grind, and Buzz, are really clever. But the bottom line is, the coffee smell does linger, and it’s disconcerting. I don’t really want to smell like a giant latte all day. To be fair, I hate any beauty product that smells like food, with the exception of vanilla-scented lipsticks (probably because I end up ingesting so much of the stuff, so it may as well taste like frosting.)