A couple of months ago, I shared an updated Skincare Routine (HERE) where I reviewed the African Botanics Pure Marula Oil. Here's what I wrote:
Bronzer Bunny suggested many times that I try the African Botanics Marula Oil because she is a big fan of the line in general and she also knows how much I love my oils! She was kind enough to give me this luxury sample size, but I didn't try it until I decided to eliminate Emu Oil (review HERE) because of the rash. Woooow...I thought the Emu Oil was really good, but this Marula Oil is even better!! It's lightweight, is nicely moisturizing and absorbs easily even without spritzing water beforehand. It makes my skin very soft and naturally glowy, but not shiny-over-the-top.
What I most loved about Emu Oil is that it seemed to heal my skin, and this Marula Oil does as well as Emu if not better. Case in point: once I started using Marula Oil, my rash diminished in size and frequency and did so much more quickly than anything else I had been using (except cortisone cream). I also had some weird rough patches on my shins (it's like the hair follicles were growing out of themselves or something? Idk but it wasn't regular dry skin) that cortisone cream wasn't doing much to help. Enter Marula Oil and those rough patches are almost gone.
And if all that wasn't good enough, I haven't had an active breakout after using the Marula Oil for a couple of weeks. I've had some clogged pores here and there, and some random sore spots that never came to pimple fruition...nothing that isn't normal or that I can directly attribute to the Marula Oil. And all those have gone away after using my spot treatments. But with any other oil I've tried I always had a zit at one point or another, even if they were less frequent. I also feel this has helped speed the fading of old acne marks, moreso than anything else in my routine.
On the aging front, I've also been using this on my crepey eye lids, and it's helped a little :-) Nothing short of plastic surgery or lid replacements will completely get rid of the crepe, but I'll take what I can get ha ha!!
I purchased a full size already, though I opted to go the Garden of Wisdom route. The African Botanics version is $80 for just over 2oz, and the GOW is $12.30 for 1oz. Plus, the African Botanics has added fragrance, which I'd rather not have and I'm not fond of the way it smells. Think I mostly don't notice it now (it's been over 2 months) but I still catch a whiff of it every so often and...well...I'd rather not. I'm assuming the GOW version will work the same on my skin, but in the off chance it doesn't I'll be more than happy to purchase the African Botanics one despite the fragrance and price, I'm loving it that much. Fingers crossed though!
***All items purchased by me. Affiliate links included.***
African Botanics Pure Marula Oil, Garden of Wisdom Marula Oil, 1/2 oz dropper bottle with Garden of Wisdom Marula Oil
Crossing my fingers in this case didn't help!! Perhaps I should've crossed them more often or also crossed my toes too?!! Oh, but what happened???
After using the Garden of Wisdom Marula Oil for about a week, I noticed I was getting more clogged pores than I had previously had. As time went on, the rash on my forehead became progressively worse and I suddenly had irritation bumps on my cheeks. The bumps on my cheeks grew worse, both in number and in size of the affected area. I thought it might be a sample I used but it didn't get any better after stopping said sample. Cortisone cream seemed to provide some relief, but wouldn't quite go completely away and my skin started to have somewhat of a sandpaper feel. UGH. Also the GOW version didn't quite have the same hand feel, nor did it seem to feel as silky?? Hmmm...maybe that was in my head...but I do know there was something different in how it felt upon application.
So I stopped using the Garden of Wisdom Marula Oil and tried to go back to the Garden of Wisdom Passion Fruit Seed Oil. The reaction got a little better, but was just really really slow in getting back to normal and it seemed like I was getting clogged pores again and actually had a few zits. So I bit the bullet and ordered the African Botanics Pure Marula Oil. The price made less painful by a 20% off coupon I found (while Googling) to Beautybar.com, oh plus no tax and no shipping. Still...$64 is a lot more than the GOW version, so I was a little disappointed.
Buuuuuuut!!! I also feel very relieved because my skin is almost back to normal!!! It's taken a good couple of weeks but I finally feel like my face looks and feels like it did when I was using the African Botanics Pure Marula Oil before...really healthy, with that natural luminosity and clarity others may not notice but I certainly do. And that's what matters :-) I still stand behind everything I wrote before, which is more firmly cemented now that I have tried another brand. Oh, and I don't notice the added fragrance anymore so that's good!
I'm not particularly sure why the Garden of Wisdom version didn't work as well?? The African Botanics site says the Marula Oil they use in their products is organic (HERE), while the GOW version is not (HERE). Perhaps they are sourced from different parts of Africa and that makes the difference? I don't know. However, I do know that I'm now stuck with 2+ bottles of the GOW Marula oil, because I thought it would be fine and didn't want to be caught without a bottle. Another lesson in not buying backups lolol :-)
Whatever version you decide to try, I'd still recommend getting a dropper bottle to decant into. These provide much better control over how much is dispensed. I buy mine in bulk from Amazon (no particular seller just whoever comes up cheapest and as Prime eligible).
African Botanics Pure Marula Oil may be purchased from Beautybar.com, Spacenk.com, Bloomingdale's. It can also be purchased but is currently out of stock at Skinstore.com, Dermstore.com and Beauty.com. If you don't want to commit to the full size, and are perhaps interested in trying a few other African Botanics products, SpaceNK has a trial set of several AB products for 50% off, HERE.
I'm super curious now to try the African Botanics version with Neroli Oil. Has anyone tried this one?? What do you think and how is it different??