Is the $2.98 Bottle of Lotion Better at Moisturizing Skin Than Palmer's Coconut Oil Lotion?
When shopping for toiletries, we naturally think that the cheaper products won't do the job we need it to do, right? As a result, this makes us spend a little extra money in hopes of looking and feeling good. I decided to test this out with my lotion. I use Palmer's Coconut Oil lotion, and I love the way it moisturizes my skin and helps it stay super smooth. Palmer's even makes the same claim as me! They say their lotion soothes and moisturizes skin. Because the lotion does such a good job from a popular brand, it is around $6.00. However, I wanted to see if the $2.98 Up & Up bottle served the same purpose, moisturizing skin and giving it a smooth feel.
The Chemistry Behind the Lotion
Palmer's Coconut Oil lotion has three main substances in their lotion: coconut oil, sweet almond oil, and monoï oil. Below, I will go into detail about these substances and the benefits they serve for the lotion.
Coconut Oil:
Coconut Oil is a mixture of things, so it doesn't have a chemical formula. However, the main
component in coconut oil is Lauric Acid(C12H24O2).
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| Lauric Acid molecular structure |
Sweet Almond Oil:
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| Vitamin E molecular structure |
Just like coconut oil, sweet almond oil is made up of many different fatty acid and vitamins, so as a result there is no chemical formula. Sweet almond oil is made up of vitamins E, A, potassium, proteins, fatty acids, and zinc. However, sweet almond oil is made up of mainly vitamin E(C29H50O2). Vitamin E is a fat-soluble antioxidant and essential nutrient that supports the immune system when taken orally; it's also very good for the skin. Also, vitamin E is very good at protecting the skin from UV damage. As a result, the huge amount of vitamin E included in sweet almond oil makes it what doctors call a "natural skincare superpower." The fatty acids in sweet almond oil helps to retain moisture and is great at healing rough or chapped skin. Sweet almond oil is advertised in Palmer's Coconut Oil lotion to soothe and comfort skin, thanks to vitamin E, sweet almond is able to do this.
Monoï Oil:
Monoï oil is an infused perform-oil that derived from soaking the petals of a Tahitian gardenias flower in coconut oil. The oil is known most for its ability to soften both hair and skin. As mentioned before, the benefits of coconut oil are already known. However, this Tahitian gardenias flower is known to be Tahiti's national flower that serves many purposes. The flower is also known as the Tiare flower, and must be soaked in coconut oil for at least 15 days in order for the oil to be created! The flower is known to be used in many medicines, and is good at soothing skin. This is no surprise, as its advertised purpose in the Coconut Oil lotion is to hydrate and pamper the skin.
Personal & Environmental Safety
According to EWG's Skin Deep Cosmetics Database, the Coconut Oil lotion is classified as a low hazard for the environment and humans.There are contamination concerns, and can cause irritation if it comes in contact with the eyes. The hugest concern is the fragrance in the lotion, which just means there are a mixture of scents in the lotion that haven't been listed. This is problematic because there could be any chemicals and mixtures in the lotion that aren't good for the body and costumers don't know. This fragrance can cause irritation as mentioned before, and can cause organ system toxicity. Organ system toxicity just means it isn't good for the organs and immune system, but this would only happen if the lotion was consumed inside of the body. I HIGHLY doubt that anybody would be eating the lotion! Therefore, the mixture of different scents that aren't listed is poor for the environment. Everything else in the lotion does not suggest any safety issues, both personally and environmentally.
Procedure:
1. Apply Palmer's Coconut Oil Lotion to the skin daily after taking a shower
2. Take pictures of arms directly after applying the lotion to skin
3. Use Mr. Paul's skin moisture tester on arms in school to record the percentage of moisture
4. Wear lotion for about 12 hours daily
5. Record how skin feels throughout the day & how the consistency of the lotion was
6. Take pictures of skin again around the 12th hour of wearing the lotion to compare the differences in skin
7. Repeat steps 1-6 using generic Up & Up brand lotion
| Generic Up & Up lotion immediately after applying |
| Palmer's Coconut Oil lotion immediately after applying |
| Palmer's Coconut Oil lotion 12 hrs after application |
| Generic Up & Up lotion 12 hrs after application |
| Palmer's Coconut Oil | Genetic Up & Up Brand | | |
| | Moisture Perentage: 45% | Moisture Percentage: 25% | | ________________________________________|_____________________________________________ Observations(look, touch, feel, smell): | Observations(look, touch, feel, smell): Smells good, smooth and soft consistency. My | Really thick consistency, rough & not really soft. skin feels smooth and soft, and slightly shinier. | For some reason it made my skin appear lighter on My skin feels a lot smoother and radiant. The | camera. I got ashy really quickly, and my skin felt lotion felt smooth on my skin all day and made | rough and hard after the 7th hour. Later in the shower me very comfortable. | my skin had a lot of dirt on it (I think this relates to the | lotion because I never experienced that.) | |
*Bare with the chart, I had to make it myself!*
There were visibly no differences between the two lotions, but the way they each made my skin feel was of course very different. I think there may have been something in the generic brand that my skin didn't agree with, because the lotion made me very itchy after a while and for me, that was super uncomfortable for 12 whole hours. I think my results came out the way they did because the generic Up & Up brand's lotion had similar ingredients to the Palmer's Coconut Oil lotion, however the main ingredients like coconut oil, monoï oil and sweet almond oil wasn't included in the generic brand's lotion. All three of the ingredients included in Palmer's lotion is actually natural stuff from the earth, so I can infer that the use of those natural ingredients helps to soothe and nourish the skin better! Up & Up had ingredients like mineral oil, citric acid, caramel, and things like that. Citric acid is actually a pretty weak ingredient, and is found in many fruits. It is a very good cleaning agent, but it isn't the best thing to use for moisturizing skin. Mineral oil is classified as group 1 carcinogen for humans; m meaning that it is group 1 (potentially very dangerous!) in cancer causing agents from potential radiation or even from disrupting the human metabolic process. Legally, there is a cap on how much mineral oil humans are able to consume. After a while, it can become unhealthy to use the lotion as the mineral oil could possibly be detrimental to someone's health. This probably isn't the best thing to put on skin either, as too much of the lotion could possibly cause damage to the skin! On the other hand, caramel is good for smoothing out skin. The ingredients included in the generic Up & Up brand is very different from the three important ingredients in the Palmer's lotion. The ingredients in Palmer's form together to make a really smooth consistency, while those in the Up & Up brand don't. The coconut oil, monoï oil, and sweet almond oil gets the job done with their natural healing and soothing properties. Therefore, the Palmer's lotion clearly does the advertised job, and the generic brand has a few changes that may need to be made, especially in their ingredients, before it is as effective as Palmer's lotion.
Proposed Improvements
After doing an extensive amount of research on Palmer's, there wasn't much out there about the company that was negative. However, Palmer's tell us if you test your products on animals! PETA has no information on that, and I would like to know if you do. Also, find better fragrances to mix together so that you aren't harming the environment with your final fragrance concoction that you guys use for the lotion. Yes it smells good, but I'm certain that there's a way to make the lotion smell good while also taking good care of our environment. Let's take care of the Earth that takes care of us!!
Video
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| Watch my video, where I discuss everything mentioned in the blog |
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