BIO OIL - Does the Beauty Crew rate it or hate it?

Bio Oil - it's one of those things.  If you check out the reviews it's a pretty divisive product.  The Marmite of beauty if you will.  You love it, or you hate it.  And yet it's also fair to say, it's achieved cult status.  So we thought we better give it a go.

Merilyn - Founder, CEO, Queen.

God I HATE doing this! Hate HATE not loving (or even liking) a product that seems to have such a cult following and that clearly many many people do like…but...I Just.Can’t.Bond.With.It!

It claims to helps improve the appearance of scars, stretch marks and uneven skin tone. It is also said to be effective for ageing and dehydrated skin.

Well to me it smelt really ‘soapy’ and yes ok it’s an ‘oil’ but it just sort of sat on my skin and didn’t really absorb very quickly.  I didn’t feel I could just rub it into my skin as is as I really wanted to just rub it off.

So I did what I did with a lot of body oils which was to use it in the shower. So step out of the water, rub it in, then go back under the shower and let the water penetrate it into my skin.

To be fair that made it a better experience for me but i’m still not sold. Sorry to all those Bio Oil fans out there, I won’t be joining you. 

Natalie - First Lady.

Look, I'm not going to claim I'm an all-natural, home grown kind of gal.  If science can do something better, I'm all for it.  But Bio Oil?  After trying it with an open mind it just irks me for so many reasons.  Settle in, there's a rant ahead.

Bio implies, to me anyway, nature, life, something living.  So I was hoping for I dunno, a plant oil or something.  Yet upon reading the ingredients, Bio Oil is essentially Mineral Oil - liquid paraffin, a petroleum distillate; the bi-product of oil refinery.  Natalie usually doesn't do petro chem, she especially doesn't slather herself in it twice daily.  So, possibly through no fault of its own, we got off on the wrong foot.  

Now according to their website, mineral oil, being oxygen-free, allows the plant extracts and vitamins to retain their potency.  But the problem is, Bio Oil didn't easily absorb into my skin, in fact it just sat on top.  So it's probably blocking pores and creating a watertight barrier, which in turn would dehydrate the skin, right?  And yet, by golly gosh does it soak into clothing!  Do not wear merino on top of Bio Oil.  Seriously.  

I think me and Bio Oil were destined to not get along when I read the ingredients list. 29 ingredients.  From what I can tell (and I'm not an ingredients expert by the way) the second ingredient (the first being Mineral Oil) is there to make the mineral oil penetrate the skin more.  Four of the ingredients are botanicals, which makes the other 23 are fragrance and fillers.  So other than mineral oil is there anything with enough concentration to, firstly penetrate the skin and secondly have enough potency to make a difference? 

My experience of Bio Oil is simply - it did nothing but stain some clothing and make me feel super greasy.  No skin changes, no impact on scarring or stretchies.  I didn't feel good using it and I didn't enjoy the thought of using it.  Why would I use 29 quite random ingredients when I could reach for my Rosehip Oil and reap the benefits of one kick ass ingredient that absorbs beautifully and works?  

Kellie - Head Pixie

I like to think I’m quite generous in my feelings and reviews about beauty products. Often I can see how something that’s not right for me can be good for someone else, I mean it’s not like we’re all created from the same cookie cutter. However every now and then I try a product that does so little… nay, nothing… that I wonder how it’s so popular.

Bio Oil is one of those products. It claims to help improve the appearance of stretch marks, scars and uneven skin tone. On paper that sounds like the product for me! I have stretch marks on my hips and thighs due to an eating-all-my-feelings growth spurt in my teenage years. I have scars from squeezing zits on my face. (SO NAUGHTY!). And uneven skin tone due to spending time in the sun when I was a youngster. (Again with the naughty...)

 So the interest was real when it came to reviewing this product… I prefer not to apply oils to my face in the morning (Pixie quirk) so applied this every night. Three weeks later I hadn’t seen any reduction in scars or uneven pigment and my thighs were as snail-traily as ever. My face broke out a bit, but my thighs felt moisturised, which is nice. That being said paying the price of Bio Oil for moisturised thighs isn’t worth it – not when I can buy cheaper and just as effective methods of moisturisation from the supermarket.

All in all this was one of those rare disappointments, and I wouldn’t feel right recommending it to anyone.

Okkkkk, well, safe to say Bio Oil isn't a hit with the Beauty Crew - have you tried it?  What did you think?  Share your Bio Oil experiences below!

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