Bodycology Sparkling Grapefruit Body Butter: Affordable Moisturizer

Hi everyone!

Happy Monday! How's the weather in your neck of the woods? It's really warm in my hood and learning my lesson from last week, I am guzzling water with gusto. Until recently, I do not suffer from dry skin. Unless it is winter and I turn on the heat, my body pretty much do not need that much moisturizers. A bottle of body moisturizer lasts me for a very long time and I have to admit that I buy collect them without giving so much use. It's a wasteful hobby that only benefits the companies but in the process, I figure out what my skin needs.

Body lotion, moisturizer, etc consist of two main components: fat and water. These two compounds do not mix (or immiscible as they say in chemistry class.) However, once you shake them hard and long enough, they emulsify for a moment before separating again. An emulsifier's job is to hold them apart and thus form a creamy mixture that we use to moisturize. Now, there are different types of fat you can use to make lotion. In the industry, petroleum products are common since they are cheap and available as gasoline by-products. Contrary to popular belief, a moisturizer's job is to keep moisture from escaping from your skin. Moisturizers that contains hyluronic acid or glycerin attract water in the air to keep your skin moist. However, petroleum-base products just lock water in your skin and sit on top of it. As a result, your skin may feel oily, grimy, and kind of unclean.

Among the petroleum-base moisturizers, La Mer perhaps is the most famous. While it does a good job as a moisturizer, petroleum-base lotion may exacerbate acne (and in my case, it is true!) So, for a long time, I could not get a lotion that my skin loves but once I figure out what moisturizer is, I decide to try something that does not contain petroleum products. My first try was Palmer's cocoa butter body lotion, which smells like chocolate and my skin really loves. It took me a while to finish that giant bottle but during that winter, my skin was so moist! After that, I mostly use whatever oil available at home to moisturize my body and while it was good, I crave for a good lotion.

Then came Bodycology, a brand that I swear to pass a thousand times when I went grocery shopping. Bodycology is a budget brand whose products sold at mass market stores such as Walmart and drugstores like Walgreens and CVS. The products are sold around $4 USD at generous sizes. In a sense, they are similar to Bath and Body Works but a lot cheaper. And maybe the product packages look so similar to BBW, I fail to notice them. Then one day I desperately needed a body lotion and my hunting ground Big Lots got a whole bunch of Bodycology stuff for cheap, so I scooped a jar of body butter up for $2.50.

Bodycology Sparkling Grapefruit Body Butter

The reason I needed a body lotion so badly was I had a heat rash on my shin that did not seem to go away without hydrocortisone. After doing some research, shea butter is a good natural moisturizer that heals rashes very well. A lot of people with eczema and other dry-skin related problems give glowing testimonies after using shea butter. I was so desperate that I wanted to buy a one-pound block of raw shea butter at Coastal Scents! (But then, how can I finish one pond of shea butter?!) In a sense, this Bodycology body butter product came at the right time: it does not contain petrolatum but 20% of pure shea butter, the same amount as that of a BBW body butter that's sold at $20!

Grapefruit extract is an interesting fragrance. Like other citrus notes, grapefruit energizes you and makes you feel cheerful. (Some of the aromatherapy products that label to make you feel more optimistic do contain grapefruit extracts.) Moreover, people who smells grapefruit fragrance perceives the wearer to be younger than her age! How great is that? Not only do you feel more positive, you also look younger in other people's eyes when you wear grapefruit note.

In my own experience, Bodycology grapefruit body butter is fabulous. After the initial application, my skin calmed down a lot and I felt more energized. After three days, the rash healed completely. I only use very little amount of body butter to moisturize my body as it is very concentrated. This body butter is great as a hand moisturizer as well. My cuticles feel a lot better with it. So far, nothing strange happens to my skin and it does not feel over-moisturized either. All that for $2.50!

America's Next Top Teddy Bear Model!
Smile with yo eyez!

My teddy bear Bibi decided to make a cameo on my blog before going for some grooming (ie, being inside a pillowcase for some washin' and dryin'!) This was the best picture of his photoshoot, in the other ones he looked cranky beyond words!


(Ok, I should stop watching America's Next Top Model! This is too much, haha!)

Ingredients: water, Butyrospermum parkii (shea butter), glyceryl stearate and PEG-100 stearate, cetearyl alcohol and polysorbate 60, cetyl alcohol, Helianthus anuus (sunflower) seed oil, fragrance, cyclomethicone, propylene glycol, Theobroma cacao (cocoa) seed butter, tocopheryl acetate (vitamin E), retinyl palmitate (vitamin A), carbomer, disodium EDTA, triethanolamine, DMDM hydantoin, red 40, yellow 60.

I am very surprised that Bodycology does not use parabens as preservatives. More and more drugstore products are gearing towards paraben-free these days. In some cases, they are as good as the high end versions with much cheaper price tags.


I wish you a wonderful week ahead. If you feel down, sprit a bit of grapefruit oil as a pick me up and your day will feel much better. Also, grapefruit oil is caffeine free!


Take care and stay gorgeous,
Your Makeup Blogger


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