AVEENO SKIN RELIEF BODY OIL SPRAY REVIEW

A review of the popular Aveeno brand Skin Relief Body Oil spray

The Happy Sage purchased this product.

I'm a sucker for a body oil. In fact body oils were the first product that I developed when I started my natural skincare business and it took me absolutely ages to get the right formula. A body oil has to be able to be applied to the skin and sink in fairly quickly and not leave any residue that will come off on clothes. I've tried countless body oils in my time, some good and some bad, but they are still one of my favourite products to test.

I was recently asked what I thought about Aveeno products. To be honest I wouldn't normally touch their products with a barge pole as they are full of 'paraffinum liquidum', a highly refined mineral oil. Although this is a pure form and has a great track record for dry and sensitive skins (it works by stopping water from evaporating from the skin), in my eyes it is a dead product as it does not give anything beneficial back to the skin. However, it is cheap which is why you will find it in loads of products.

Find out about which 15 ingredients you should avoid in your skincare products.

However, I digress. I was asked about the Aveeno Skin Relief Body Oil Spray so I had a look at the ingredients as was pleasantly surprised. No liquid paraffin. So read on for my Aveeno Body Oil Spray review.

Aveeno Skin Relief Body Oil Spray - ingredients

Glycine soja oil, Avena Sativa kernel (oat) oil, Simmondsia Chinensis seed oil, lecithin, ascorbyl palmitate, tocopherol, parfum.

Glycine soja oil is soybean oil. It's an affordable oil used in many products as a base oil as it is moisturising and anti-inflammatory. Most soybean oil for the cosmetic industry will most likely be GM produced, but the jury still seems to be out on whether this is a good or bad thing for the skin.

Oat oil and jojoba oil are great for dry and sensitive skin and I have used both in product development with great success.

Lecithin is softening and helps to boost hydration as well as acting as an emulsifier (to help ingredients mix together).

Ascorbyl palmitate is one of the forms of vitamic C used in skincare, but not a particularly good one.

Tocopherol is basically vitamin e, good for skin and also used to help stabilise and increase the shelf life of oils as it is an antioxidant.

Parfum. This can cover a multitude of things but it is usually a synthetic fragrance. some companies insist that it is naturally dervived but it can have up to 200 other ingredients in it! Parfum is also one of the main causes of allergies in skin care and cosmetic products, so absolutely not something you should be using if you have sensitive or dry/cracked skin.

I've mentioned the problem of companies using fragrance before in products aimed specifically at sensitive skin, take a look at my review of Ben and Anna's deodorants for further information.

So basically, the formula is not that bad, apart from the fragrance, so in the spirit of being fair to mainstream products, I decided to give it a go.

Aveeno Skin Relief Body Oil Spray - the claims

Aveeno say the spray:

• instantly nourishes very dry, sensitive skin.

• clinically proven to intensely moisturise

• suitable for sensitive skin

• 98% naturally derived ingredients

• 96% agreed skin felt instantly soft.

• fast absorbing formula with a silky finish

• improves skin elasticity and uneven skin texture

• suitable for a massage

Aveeno Skin Relief Body Oil Spray Review

The product sprays well out of the pump bottle with a reasonably fine mist. It spreads well and sinks in fairly quickly but there is still a bit of oiliness to it when I get dressed over half an hour later. I wouldn't say it was fast absorbing, but it does have a sort of silky finish to it

My skin does feel moisturised and soft, but I wouldn't say intensely. Skin elasticity does improve with continued use but I don't think it improves uneven skin texture.

The major downside is the smell, which is absolutely horrific. It's a sickly synthetic powdery aroma that lingers on you all day. I hate it with a passion and the first time I put it on I could hardly wait to get home to shower it off. I then started using it only on my legs but the smell would still waft up even with jeans on and then my jeans would smell of it!

It's very effective as a moisturiser and my sensitive skin didn't react to it (although I would not go anywhere near my face with it). I used it on my arms (once) and legs (frequently) and it was effective on dry skin, leaving my legs soft and smooth.

I take issue with the claim you can use it as a massage oil. I see this claim time and time again for body oils. A body oil, by design, should sink in quickly and absorb without greasiness so that you can get dressed soon after application. The whole point of a massage oil is that it does not do this. A massage oil needs to be made from oils which take a long time to sink in other the person carrying out the massage will find themselves applying oil every few minutes as they won't be able to carry out the long strokes without juddering to a halt through lack of oil. I would not recommend this as a massage oil (unless you want to use most of it).

However, the smell is so bad that I will never use the rest of the bottle. This is a shame because it's very reasonably priced, but I am giving the rest of this away and I won't be using it again.

To tell you how bad I think the smell is, my daughter came to stay and used it all over her body after a bath and I couldn't have her sitting anywhere near me!!

So if you don't mind the smell of this product then it could work well for you if you have dry or itchy skin, however if you have sensitive skin then I'd do a patch test first as parfum is one of the main causes of allergic reactions from skincare products.

Sadly the Aveeno Body Oil Spray is not for me and it won't be going in to The Happy Sage Recommended Products Directory.

Aveeno Skin Relief Body Oil Spray - available from Boots and most supermarkets, approximately £9 for 200ml.

You like body oils you might be interested in:

• review of Wildsmith Skin Stillness Body Oil.

• review of Neal's Yard Wild Rose Dry Body Oil

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