I took Bob’s £40 refillable body wash abroad expecting a gimmick. One poor hotel shower changed my mind — here’s how it performed.
I’ll admit that my first reaction after being introduced to the Bob refillable body wash was not overwhelming excitement. It was closer to: why, exactly, do I need this?
It is a fair question. Most hotels provide soap and shower gel; a conventional bar of soap is hardly difficult to pack, and few travellers set off wondering whether their body-washing arrangements require further engineering.
That was certainly my position before I actually travelled with Bob.
Then, on my recent first overseas trip with it sitting in the wash bag, one rather unglamorous hotel room changed my mind almost instantly.
Why Bob initially seemed like a solution looking for a problem
Bob is a refillable body-wash system built around a solid cleansing bar housed inside a reusable applicator. The £40 Shower Pack includes the applicator, two Bob Bar refills and a Shower Mount.
The obvious travel benefits are easy enough to understand. There is no liquid bottle to leak over your clothes, no shower gel taking up space among your liquids, and no half-empty plastic container being carted backwards and forwards through airports.
All sensible.
But sensible does not automatically make something necessary.
Before using it properly, I suspected Bob might fall into that sizeable category of travel products that solve a problem most of us have survived quite happily without solving. Hotels have toiletries. Soap exists. Problem over.
Or so I thought.
The hotel room that changed my mind about Bob
My opinion changed during my first overseas trip with the product.
A couple of high-profile events in the area had put considerable pressure on hotel availability, leaving me with little choice but to book somewhere rather less desirable than I would normally have selected. It was one of those occasions where location and availability win the argument and standards are quietly asked to wait outside.
After checking in, I inspected the room and discovered the extent of the bathroom provision.
Sitting on the towels at the end of the bed was one small, rather forlorn tiny round bar of soap.
That was it.
No useful selection of toiletries. No decent body wash waiting in the shower. Just a little disc of soap carrying rather more responsibility than it had probably anticipated.
And that was the precise moment Bob suddenly made complete sense.
Instead of wondering why I had bothered bringing it, my reaction became: thank heavens I packed it.
That change of opinion matters, because Bob’s strongest argument may not be that you will need it during every hotel stay. You probably won’t. Plenty of hotels provide perfectly good shower products and, on those trips, bringing your own body wash can seem unnecessary.
The point is that travel does not always go according to the version imagined while packing at home.
Hotels change. Availability disappears. The last remaining room near an event may not have quite the amenities you expected. Sometimes you simply end up somewhere that considers a solitary bar of soap to be a comprehensive wellness programme.
On those occasions, having your own shower system suddenly stops looking excessive.
Even the Bob Shower Mount proved its worth
There was another surprise.
Of all the parts included with Bob, the Shower Mount had initially struck me as one of the easiest to dismiss. The applicator and solid refill make immediate sense; a wall mount feels rather more optional.
Not in this particular bathroom.
The shower cubicle offered virtually nowhere useful to put anything. There were none of the shelves or storage ledges you take for granted until somebody removes them.
The Bob Shower Mount therefore went from accessory to genuinely useful piece of kit within minutes.
It attaches to the shower wall and gives the applicator somewhere secure to sit during and after use. In a well-appointed bathroom that may seem like a minor convenience. In a cramped hotel shower with nowhere sensible to place your toiletries, it is surprisingly valuable.
That experience also changed how I viewed the product as a whole. Bob makes more sense as a complete travel system than it does as an elaborate way of holding soap.
The solid bar solves the liquid problem. The applicator makes it easier and more pleasant to use. The protective lid contains everything in your luggage, while the mount deals with storage once you reach the shower.
None of these jobs is revolutionary. Together, however, they are rather well thought out.
What is the Bob refillable body wash actually like to use?
Practicality would count for very little if the washing experience itself were poor.
Thankfully, that has not been my experience.
The Bob Applicator uses soft bristles that help work the solid bar into a satisfying lather while also providing exfoliation. I found the brushes particularly effective: noticeable enough to make the product feel different from simply rubbing a bar of soap over your skin, but soft enough to remain comfortable in regular use.
The fragrance was another pleasant surprise.
Bob offers several refill bars, including The Morning Man with lime and peppermint, The Evening Man with sandalwood and geranium, The Ordinary Man with lime and patchouli, and The Modern Man with almond and tonka bean.
The names may be laying the men’s-grooming credentials on with a fairly generous trowel, but the important part is that the soap itself smells genuinely good.
The bars are made with 96% natural ingredients and are vegan, with no parabens or sulphates. Bob also says they have been formulated to work in harmony with the skin’s pH.
From a user’s perspective, however, the more immediate test is simpler: does it produce a good wash, feel pleasant against the skin and leave you wanting to use it again?
For me, yes.
A much better proposition for carry-on travel
The solid format becomes particularly persuasive for anyone travelling with hand luggage.
Liquids are one of those airport inconveniences we have all become so accustomed to managing that reducing them by even one item feels disproportionately satisfying.
Bob can simply go into the wash bag without the usual concern about a bottle leaking. Its secure lid keeps the applicator enclosed, and there is no need to decant body wash into a smaller travel container before departure.
That is hardly going to transform aviation. It does, however, remove one small piece of faff.
And good travel products often succeed precisely because they remove faff rather than adding features.
Bob says the applicator has been designed to last for up to 3,650 washes, while replacement bars can be bought separately, including through a subscription starting from £14 per month. That makes the £40 initial price easier to understand as an investment in the applicator rather than a remarkably expensive bar of soap.
Whether a monthly refill subscription makes sense will depend entirely on how frequently you travel and use it. For occasional travellers, buying replacements as required is likely to feel more proportionate.
Bob refillable body wash: pros and cons
Pros
- Solid refill means no leaking bottle in your luggage
- Particularly useful for hand-luggage travel
- Soft bristles provide effective exfoliation
- Produces a good lather
- Pleasant fragrance
- Secure lid makes it easy to pack
- Shower Mount is far more useful in basic hotel bathrooms than it first appears
- Refillable system avoids repeatedly buying plastic body-wash bottles
Cons
- £40 is considerably more than a normal bar of soap and travel container
- Many good hotels will already provide perfectly adequate toiletries
- The refill system ties you into buying compatible Bob Bars
- A monthly refill subscription will not suit occasional users
Who is Bob best for?
Bob makes most sense for frequent travellers, people who regularly fly with hand luggage and anyone who prefers using their own toiletries rather than relying on whatever happens to be waiting in the hotel bathroom.
It also has a strong case as an emergency item.
That is ultimately where my own view has settled.
I am not suggesting that every hotel stay requires a Bob in the shower. Most do not. If you regularly stay somewhere with excellent bathroom products, it may spend the night sitting quietly in your bag.
But that is no longer how I judge its usefulness.
I judge it by the occasion on which the hotel does not have what you expect.
One unexpected change of accommodation, one very basic bathroom or one lonely little soap waiting on the towels is enough to make having your own proper shower product feel like an unusually good decision.
Is the Bob Shower Pack worth £40?
Before travelling with it, I would have struggled to justify spending £40 on a body-wash system. After travelling with it, I understand the proposition considerably better.
You are not really paying £40 for soap. You are paying for a reusable travel system designed to make carrying and using your own body wash cleaner and more convenient.
There are cheaper ways to achieve broadly the same thing. A bar of soap and a travel case will perform the basic task for a fraction of the cost, and that should not be ignored.
But Bob is appreciably more refined than that solution. The applicator feels good in use, the brushes add useful exfoliation, the refill smells excellent, the lid keeps everything contained and — much to my surprise — the wall mount genuinely earns its place.
Most importantly, I have now used it in exactly the sort of situation I had previously assumed would never arise.
That changes a review.
Bob has gone from a product I wondered why anybody really needed to something that will now travel with me as a matter of course. I hope most hotels make it redundant.
But the next time one doesn’t, I already know which item in my wash bag I’ll be happiest to see.
