The Details

The Product:

It's a thick, almost ointment style cream. I came out of the tube with a greyish streak which put me off but my pain issue is that it sat on my skin and didn't absorb at all.

The Claim:

Body Glove Healing Hands claims to be a moisturising body cream enriched with Vitamin E and Sun Protection

In terms of my big three requirements for a moisturiser, this cream hit the mark. It includes emollients; humectants and occlusives including water, petrolatum, liquid paraffin, lanolin and glyceryl monostearate.

The Body Glove was born from providing occlusive creams. So all the occlusive ingredients sit right near the top of the ingredients list. It makes for a heavy, nonabsorbent formulation that I hate so much I didn't even wear it for a full hour before I had to get it off me.

The sunscreen had the two chemical sunscreens you would expect: avobenzone, Ethylhexyl Methoxycinnamate. Both are unstable SPF's so the directions to apply two or three times a day would leave you hands with both sunburn and wrinkles.

The Science:

The science is pretty much the same as the Natures Nourishment ito SPF.

The cream includes two sunscreen ingredients up near the top of their ingredients list. That tells us that it comprises a fair portion of the ingredients. The sunscreens that are included are both chemical sunscreens: Ethylhexyl Methoxycinnamate and Butyl Methoxydibenzoylmethane. Herein lies the dilemma.

Neither of these sunscreens is especially stable. Ethylhexyl Methoxycinnamate's efficacy degrades at around 10% over 35 minutes.

Butyl Methoxydibenzoylmethane is not photostable. That means (bizarrely for a sunscreen) that it degrades at a rate of 36% over an hour.

What does it mean? This would be a big "NO" if I was using it as a day cream as it's intended. As a hand cream, I asked myself how long I expected the SPF to last?

My conclusion was that I wash my hands (and consequently reapply the cream) frequently enough that the SPF degradation was of no concern.

*these sunscreens aren't great for the environment.

Star Ingredients:

The star ingredients that are listed as:

Vitamin E is a bit of a mixed bag. There is a good body if evidence that Vitamin E contains antioxidant properties. It's often touted for having properties to stop or heal scarring. Alas, there isn't any real evidence to back up the claim. Finally, Vitamin E is also a preservative. Frequently you are being sold vitamin E as a star ingredient but its inclusion is mostly for shelf-life. In this instance it's 5th from the bottom of the ingredients, so don't expect life-changing benefits.

Advanced Sun Protection. Were this Myth Busters I think we could safely say this one is busted. There's nothing advanced in the ingredients and if used as directed there would be inadequate sun protection.

Medilan is a form of purified lanolin which is a great ingredient but not actually a "breakthrough" as suggested. In fact Medilan's website state it is widely used. They also don't mention hypo-allergenic. As always with the lanolin - it's a pretty common allergen so patch test.

The Packaging:

A printed tube.

Instructions in English:

Yes

Scent:

It's fragrance-free which is good. Fragrance-free doesn't mean it doesn't smell though it has a chemical smell which, for me, was neither pleasant or unpleasant.

Cost (ZAR):

Around R52 for 50ml. It didn't meet my criteria but came close.

Availability: Dischem.