Olay Body Wash Review

Doing a quick review just because I was surprised at how soft and smooth my skin is right now.

Quick background: I'm over a decade long user of whitening soaps, which worked quite okay with my body skin until my pregnancy when my skin became hypersensitive to sunlight. I would normally be okay with spending an entire day under the sun, and get my fair complexion back in a few days just by bathing with whitening soaps. Pregnancy and breastfeeding though changed all of that. I now have sun spots all over my arms, chest and legs, that never go away no matter how pale I get. Whitening soaps just no longer work. Might also be because of age, and years of foregoing sunscreen catching up on me. My skin became dull and sallow, and nowhere near its bright and blinding white glory days.

Last year, while mulling over my body care products, I realized whitening soaps just might not be the answer. I'm getting older, and my skin may be having something of a quarter-life crisis. I thought of taking drastic measures a la Cristine Reyes and get my entire body skin peeled off with bleach. The thought did not last long, as I don't exactly have P100k needed for the peel. (Don't quote me on this, I don't really know how much Cathy Valencia charges, I remember it was somewhere around P5,000 per elbow in 2010! Heh.)

So then I thought I'd go the glutathione route. Which I did take a couple of times in the past decade. A bottle of Glutathione was usually enough to get rid of my tan lines and dark spots but I figured old age and hormone-fuckery might neutralize gluta the way they did with my go-to whitening soaps. I did try Relumins at some point, and got as pale as I wanted, but the sun spots and dark spots remained.

So then I gave up on my body skin. And then regretted it because I use acne and anti aging products on my face, which whether I like it or not, bleached my face. Bleached Face + Dark Body do not really go well.

So then I got depressed. And thought I'd probably just wear long sleeved turtle-neck shirts and full tights under the Philippine sun for the rest of eternity.

And then Shopee entered the picture.

And changed my life forever.

Sorry, I know I said this will be a short review.

Quick Review, as promised: Olay body washes are the bomb. Buy them. Shopee sells them in bundles. Sometimes at 50% off. I don't know if Lazada does, too. I'm too lazy to check. But I get my stuff on Shopee and I promise, if you're 30 and older and your body skin is a total jerk and refuses to get back to how it was when you were in your 20s, Olay body washes might just do the trick.

Longer, more sensical review: I've so far tried two variants. Olay Rose and Milky White Body Wash as pictured above. And Olay Whitening Moisture With Pearl Extracts Body Wash pictured below.

Initially, I did not think much of body washes. I've tried other brands before like:

• Dove - meh
• Eucerin - THIS IS THE BEST FOR SENSITIVE SKIN, WORKS MIRACLES FOR ECZEMA AND SUNBURN
• Nivea - meh
• Body Shop Moringa Line - meh
• Bath and Body Works - meh
• Johnson's Baby Bath Milk - USE THIS AS FOOT SOAK IF YOU MISS GETTING A FOOT SPA
• Cussons Moisture Plus Shower Cream - meh

And probably half a dozen more that I no longer remember. Aside from Eucerin, and Johnson's Milk, I was never truly impressed with body washes. They were all either too dishwashing soap-like that they leave the skin feeling tight and dry, or too hair conditioner-like that they leave the skin sticky and unclean.

Olay, though, has the right balance of clean and soft. Skin feels fresh and smooth, not taut, not icky. I wasn't expecting much with the skin whitening part, because I have already surrendered to my sunspots and dark spots. However, months into using the body wash, I was pleased to discover I was slowly, veeeery slowly getting back to my old body skin texture.

I reviewed the ingredients, and there was really nothing special about Olay. I think what made it work for my skin was that it is gentle, so it does not make my skin rebel and bitch. It's also pleasant to use because it smells and feels so nice, so I may be letting it sit on my skin longer than I let soap suds sit on my skin. Using a soft bath sponge, versus soap, may also be the reason, as the gentle exfoliation may be getting rid of rough dead skin cells. All in all, I think the reason it's effective is because it makes bathing such a pleasurable experience that I've stuck with the product long enough for me to see its full effects. Note that it took months for my skin to get to this level of niceness. I no longer achieve this level of niceness with soap.

Do I recommend it? Absolutely. If you're blessed with youth, you might not see stellar results, but if you're older and are now dealing with dryness, texture issues, spots and dullness, this is worth a try.

5 stars out of 5