Is Skintastic Fantastic?
Written: Jun 20 '01 (Updated Oct 30 '03)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Less toxic than others; works as well as others; smells better than others.
Cons: More expensive than others; confusing information on the bottle.
The Bottom Line: I am recommending this product but please read my review for the contradictions. It is less toxic than others, one reason I am recommending it.
|
|
|
| jo.com's Full Review: Off! Skintastic Insect Repellent Spray |
I am reviewing OFF! Skintastic. I will review it without making comparisons until the end with OFF! Deep Woods.*
•Made by Johnson Wax OFF! Skintastic is an insect repellent with aloe vera, although how much we don’t know.
•It specifically says, which I find interesting that, “OFF! Skintastic IV is specially formulated with a lower level of active repellent ingredients and aloe vera to feel and smell better on your skin."
•Does that mean that because it has a lower level of active repellent ingredients it doesn’t work? No, I don’t think so. I think Skintastic works as well as any other repellent I have used and I am somewhat comforted that we are told that it repels mosquitoes, biting flies, ticks, no see-ums, gnats and chiggers up to 2 hours after putting it on your skin. What that tells me is that it may not be as harmful or toxic as other products. Since this works for 2 hours, it seems as if it should be reapplied and other repellents say not to reapply.
I would rather reapply a safer product than have to worry that the toxic one is eating my skin. But that is just my opinion and my take on Skintastic. I am reading between the lines here. I haven’t spoken to anyone from the company. It does say that frequent reapplication is unnecessary so that is a bit confusing to me. Perhaps they mean more frequent than every 2 hours.
In spite of the fact there is less DEET they still want you to wash it off with soap and water when you come indoors. I would rather reapply a safer product than have to worry that the toxic one is eating my skin. If you are confused by this so was I. There are a lot of contradictions about this product. It has lower levels of repellent ingredients but you still need to wash it off. It works for up to 2 hours but frequent application is unnecessary. So which is it? You can't have it both ways.
After writing the above paragraph I notice that there is no expiration date on OFF!Skintastic. Between the time application confusion as I said above and the lack of an expiration date I decided I would take them up on their offer to call with questions so I did. I called the 1-800 number given on the bottle: 1-800-558-5252 and asked about what I considered some confusing directions regarding the application.
Customer service was very nice and helpful. I think she was a bit confused also when she looked up the product in the computer. I was told that because it only has 7% DEET (That is the active ingredient, which stands for Diethyl-meto-tolermide) it will need to be reapplied after swimming or heavy perspiration but they don’t want you soaking yourself with it unnecessarily. Basically she said to use my own judgment when it comes to applying. (So the "no need for frequent application is not exactly true if you are swimming or sweating.)
I also asked about there being no expiration date. I was told to give her the code number on the back of the bottle, which I did and was told that my product had another 2 years of life. It would be nice to know that before I left the store with it. Short of calling them from CVS how would we know if the store accidentally stocked an old product?
•At $6.29 for 6 ounces it is a bit more expensive than other OFF! Products (Deep Woods is $4.99) but this comes in a nice plastic bottle which is recyclable and a pump stray which I like. Although there is a cap on the top of the spray nozzle, it comes off very easily so make sure you keep it way out of reach of your children. Also make sure when you spray it on yourself, that they aren’t at eye level or it might spray into their eyes.
•You can spray this on clothes and they prefer you to do that rather than under clothing. It is safe for anything other than rayon, spandex or other synthetics. Basically it is fine on cotton, wool or nylon. This product may damage anything else.
•They ask that if you put it on your face to spray it on your hands and then apply to the face but not to spray it on children’s hands. You cannot use this near heat or open flame; it can cause eye irritation, in rare cases, a skin reaction and do not apply it to your eye area or lips.
•They ask that for disposal you wrap the container and throw it in the trash although as I told you there is a 2 on the bottom, which is a recyclable plastic in Massachusetts. I found a cautionary statement a good idea and that is a warning not to reuse the bottle for anything. It is a nice, easy to use, plastic bottle and I suppose it may be enticing to use it for other sprays, even just water for your plants…but don’t!
•The product I have is unscented and there really is no strong odor. I do detect an odor and it smells a bit like alcohol. It isn’t bad and it doesn’t smell as bad as many other insect repellents.
In summary, I mentioned above that I would refrain until now from comparing it to OFF! Deep Woods. Which one fared better? In my opinion Skintastic is the better of the two. First if you read my review of Deep Woods you will know I was very angry I could barely read the directions on the back. This container makes it much easier. It is clear with black writing so it shows up. The print isn’t any larger and it wasn’t simple but I didn’t have to go outside to read the label.
Second, the fact it has less DEET probably means it is less toxic. I am not a scientist and have done no research on how much DEET is acceptable but it would make sense that less is better. However, we are still warned to wash it off with soap and water as soon as we don’t need it anymore so it is still considered toxic. They both work, in my opinion, equally as well. Neither is totally bug proof. The mosquito or biting fly that really wants to get to me will or will find the one area I didn’t spray it.
You cannot spray this into the open air; it doesn’t work that way so you can’t surround yourself with insect repellent. I can live with a few bug bites but as I said in my OFF! Deep Woods review, I think you will find me at the health food store the next time I go to buy an insect repellent. If Skintastic had an expiration date I would have given it a rating of 4 because it does work; it does have less DEET and I can read the label. The date is an important piece of information. Without that I must bring it down to a 3. If you have any questions about this product, feel free to e-mail me.
Off! Deep Woods
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.