Dona is a line of bath and body products by well known brand System JO. Each product is infused with aphrodisiacs and designed to be used in conjunction with one another to create a ritual for the "mind, body, and sensuality." The ritual consists of five steps: relax, cleanse, nourish, illuminate, and engage. The Chromotherapy bath treatment is part of Step One, Relax. The treatment colors the water and adds aroma to it.

You may be wondering what Chromotherapy is. Chromotherapy is another word for color therapy. It is the use of color to balance a person's energy. Those who practice Chromotherapy believe that the body has chakras. Each of these chakras has a color that relates to it. When a chakra becomes imbalanced, it can be remedied by using that chakra's color. The chakras and their colors are as follows:

First - Red - Base of the spine
Second - Orange - Lower abdomen, genitals
Third - Yellow - Solar Plexus
Fourth - Green - Heart
Fifth - Blue - Throat
Sixth - Indigo - Middle of the Forehead
Seventh - Violet - Crown of the Head

There has not been much research done on Chromotherapy to say for certain if it works or not. Some of the effects seen may be due to placebo. Nevertheless, you may find the colors and aromas of the Dona Chromotherapy products to be relaxing, even if they don't balance out any chakras.

Dona Chromotherapy can be used by people of any gender that enjoy baths and bath products. You should, however, be sure to check the ingredient listing for possible allergies or sensitivities.

The Chromotherapy treatment is a liquid. It reminds me of food coloring. It's the same consistency as water, only heavily pigmented. This pigment did not cause any staining when used in the tub. I did notice that if I didn't rinse the bottle off after using it some of the dye would run down the bottle and pool at the bottom. This did cause a little ring around it. I was able to get it up with soap and water. It had only sat for a day. If left longer than that, there may be potential for staining.

The liquid pours out of the container very quickly. It is easy to accidentally pour half of the bottle into the tub without realizing it (I know 'cause I did it!). Make sure to use an easy hand when pouring. You can use the cap to measure out how much you're using if that helps.

The liquid leaves no residue on the skin. It is not sticky or greasy as it's just a liquid.

I have this in three aromas: Blue Lotus, Mangosteen, and Pomegranate. The word is that the products are named for the aphrodisiac ingredient in them, not the way the product smells. So "Mangosteen" doesn't mean it smells anything like the Mangosteen fruit. It simply means that Mangosteen is the primary aphrodisiac in that product.

The Dona scents are very hard to describe. Each one is unique and like nothing I have ever smelled before. I will do my best to describe them, but I'm sure I won't nail it exactly. They're really scents you have to experience.

Blue Lotus

This one smelled okay when I first sniffed it in the bottle. Then I used it in the tub and hated it. It is the strongest of the three I have. It fills the entire bathroom and continued to do so for a thirty minute bath. It never weakened in aroma. It doesn't cling to the skin once you get out, but the water stays strongly scented through the bath.

Blue Lotus smells mostly floral to me. It maybe reminds me of honeysuckle and jasmine flowers. It's a very sweet smelling floral. It's almost like you took a flower and dipped it in sugar. There's a bit of a fruity honeydew undertone to it, another sweet smelling fragrance. I like sweet smells, but this was overkill for me. I felt like I was bathing in a sugar bath.

Mangosteen

Mangosteen is one of my favorite aphrodisiacs in the Dona line. It has a primary scent that's citrus like. Perhaps like a mixture of nectarines and oranges. It has some sweet undertones that take down the tart citrus smell and make it more traditionally fruity. It reminds me of a fruit salad with citrus in it.

This is (sadly) the weakest of the three I have. I had to put my nose almost in the water to smell it within seconds of pouring it into the tub. I could smell it when I poured it, but that was it. By the time I was done a thirty minute bath, it was as if there was never an aroma put in at all.

Pomegranate

Pomegranate is another one of my favorites. This is the only one of the three that I know what the namesake smells like and I can attest to the fact that it smells nothing like a pomegranate. Pomegranates smell tart and this does not. The Pomegranate aphrodisiac reminds me of a cucumber melon combined with a green tea scent. It's sweeter than the traditional versions of these, but not a sickly sweet. It smells clean and fresh to me.

The Pomegranate is another weaker aroma. It's stronger than the Mangosteen, but nowhere near the Blue Lotus. It can be smelled after pouring for about five minutes. After that time, I had to put my nose to the water to smell it. After about twenty minutes, I couldn't smell it at all.

The Colors

The Chromotherapy treatment is not marketed by Dona as a product with the ability to heal ailments or anything like that. Rather it's marketed as something to help enhance or change mood. Each color is supposed to change mood in a different way. I'll go through the aphrodisiacs and what they are supposed to do first and then I'll give you my experience with the ones I have.

Acai - Purple - To enhance creativity
Blue Lotus - Blue - To relax and create peacefulness
Camu Camu - Green - To create clarity and give a sense of renewal
Goji Berry - Yellow - To stimulate the brain and libido
Mangosteen - Orange - To remove inhibitions
Pomegranate - Red - To create positive energy and fight fatigue

This seems to match up with what I have found in my own research on Chromotherapy treatments. There is also aromatherapy, but that doesn't seem to be used in these aside from the aphrodisiac claims.

I do want to take a moment to note that these products won't really do anything for your skin and aren't intended to do so. They are simply meant to change or enhance mood.

My Thoughts

I have a certain level of belief that colors and scents can change the mood that you're in. I wouldn't count on looking at blue to calm me down if I was having a panic attack, but in a regular state of mind looking at blue things does seem to be relaxing. In the same way, lavender is soothing to me. So I'm open minded to the ability of these products to do what they claim to do.

My favorite color is the Blue Lotus. I do find blue water to be one of the most relaxing things. It reminds me of a vacation to the beach with crystal clear blue waters. After my bath, I felt much calmer than I did before. However, the Blue Lotus smell is intolerable to me, essentially voiding any good the blue dye would do me.

The Pomegranate scent is lovely, but I was not a fan of the red coloring. To be honest, it felt like I had committed a murder and was taking the bath to wash the blood from my hands. I felt so Lady Macbeth. Nice for literary purposes, but not so great for my mood. I guess I felt more awake afterward from being paranoid that someone might come in and think I'd killed someone or was bleeding terribly. Then again, maybe I'm just overly morbid.

The Mangosteen scent was disappointing as it's one of my favorites but was so weak in the Chromotherapy treatment. The orange color was kinda a meh thing. It wasn't as lovely as the blue, but wasn't as horrifying as the red. If the scent was stronger, I could see using this one more often. My inhibitions didn't really feel any different after my bath.

So that you can see what the colors look like, here are some photos of each:



The red looks much more red in person. The photograph on that one didn't come out so well. The rest are accurate as pictured. All photos are taken with one cap of the treatment. For actual use, you can customize the amount based on how much color you want in the water. I use between 3-5 depending on my mood.

The Chromotherapy treatment looks a little different than the rest of the Dona line because it's done in white lace as opposed to the colored lace designs of the others. They do not have external packaging, just the bottle itself. The front says "Dona An Aphrodisiac Infused Ritual Step #1 Relax Sensual Chromotherapy" with the name of the aphrodisiac on it. The back has a small blurb about the product and how it has natural ingredients. It also has the ingredient listing.

You get 4.25 fl oz of product in each bottle. How long this lasts depends on how much you use in each bath. Since you can choose how much you use depending on how much color you want, this will vary from person to person.

The ingredients are (for Pomegranate version):

Purified Water (Aqua), Fragance, PPG-25 Buteth-26, Hydrogenated Castor Oil, Punica Granatum (Pomegranate), Phenoxyethanol, Ethylhexlglycerin

May Contain:

FD&C Red #40, FD&C Green #4, FD&C Yellow #5, FD&C Yellow #6, FD#C Blue #1.

PPG-25 Buteth-26 - A polyoxypropylene, polyoxyethylene ether of butyl alcohol. It is a skin conditioning agent as well as a fragrance ingredient.

Hydrogenated Castor Oil - A hard vegetable wax. It is used as a skin conditioning agent and to control viscosity.

Phenoxyethanol - A glycol ether. It is both a preservative and fragrance ingredient.

Ethylhexlglycerin - A glyceryl ether. It is a natural preservative that is used in place of parabens. It is derived from glycerin.

I personally have glycerin sensitivities and did not have any issues with this product. However, I cannot promise that will be the case for all users. I do use this very sparingly, not everyday just to make sure I don't overkill my system.

If you're looking for something to soften your skin, there are other Dona products that will be suited for that need. This product is all about relaxation and mood. It's my personal belief that most things will work only if you believe they will. In other words, your mind controls you. If you go into it thinking it's a silly idea, then it likely won't do anything but smell good. If that's okay by you, then by all means get it. If you're looking for a mood enhancer, make sure you go into the product with the right attitude. It may or may not work, but always keep an open mind.

I don't take a lot of baths. Most of this is because I'm sensitive to almost all bath product ingredients and just sitting in water is no fun. Even though Dona is a "natural" line, there are still products in it I cannot bathe in. I was happy to see the Chromotherapy treatment didn't include anything that looked overly irritating to my sensitivities. Since my therapist (don't judge!) is always telling me to do more relaxing things, I thought this was a good opportunity to do so.

I'm so so on this product. If I could combine the Blue Lotus color with the Pomegranate scent (or the Mangosteen but make it stronger), this would be a five star product without question. However I have little nit picks about each one as they are. The Blue Lotus aroma is just bleh. I cannot stand it. The color is my favorite though. The Pomegranate is probably my favorite aroma since it's stronger than the Mangosteen, but the red is so off-putting. The Mangosteen I can't feel one way or another about. The scent is good, but weak. The color is just alright. It doesn't do anything for my mood. I really want a blue colored Pomegranate or Mangosteen. Like, badly. I think I'll be buying some other colors in my next order. Purple or green, something closer to blue. I think that would bring this up to a five star product if the scents aren't totally gross.

As for the aphrodisiacs, I don't ever feel more sexual after using Dona products. My husband isn't a fan of any of the scents that I've gotten other than Camu Camu (which I'm not too big on). As such, he isn't more sexually drawn to me when I use these products either. You'll find little scientific data on the validity of aphrodisiacs in general, so I'll leave it up to you to decide if these products work in that way. As with the Chromotherapy, I suppose it will depend on the individual and how much belief they have in it's ability to work.

Because this product has so much potential if I can find the right color and aroma mix, I'm giving it four stars (despite the fact that I don't like my current combos). If the new treatments I order turn out to be wonderful, I'll either edit or do a follow up on this review with that info.