Juara Candlenut Body Creme-Retail $35
Juara is a relatively new brand for me, and it turns out that Juara is an Indie brand that focuses on vegetarian skincare based in Indonesian culture. They commit themselves to being free of:
parabens, sulfates, pthalates, mineral oils, gluten, artificial colorants, harsh chemicals, and animal testing.
Specs:
- Size: 7.5oz
- Scent: Noticeable nutty, musky scent that lingers.
- Packaging: Tub
- Consistency: Rich Cream
- EWG rating: 4
Ingredients:
Water/Eau, Cetearyl Ethylhexanoate, Emulsifying Wax NF, Cyclomethicone, Illipe (Shorea stenoptera) Seed Butter, Candlenut (Aleurites moluccana) Oil, Avocado (Persea gratissima) Oil, Stearyl Alcohol, Rice Bran (Oryza sativa) Oil, Dimethicone, Carrot (Daucus Carota sativa) Seed Oil, Potassium Hydroxide, Carbomer, Fragrance/Parfum, Phenoxyethanol, Caprylyl Glycol, Glycerin, Glyceryl Caprylate, Phenypropanol.
Performance:
Some of you know that I'm already bad at moisturizing the rest of my body. But Juara kindly gifted their most popular product (this cream) in return for an honest review, so I've been using it on and off. First off, I think most of the time what draws a person to a body cream is the scent. This one has a very unique and noticeable warm, nutty and musky scent that doesn't go away. I usually put this on before bed and I can still smell it in the morning. I'm very picky with scents, and honestly, it's not one that I enjoy. I thought maybe after a couple uses, I'd warm up to it, but it just never ended up happening. Of course, scents are so subjective, and some of you out there might fall in love with this scent.
Texture wise, this cream, although thick, is moisturizing and sinks into the skin easily which is a huge plus. The smoothness noticeably comes from the silicones cyclomethicone & dimethicone in here (EWG 2 and 1, respectively), which may bother some of you out there if you're trying to avoid silicones altogether (a very difficult endeavor). In the end, it did get the job done in moisturizing my body, but the experience wasn't something I looked forward to purely because of the scent. Also, take note that there is fragrance in here, so eczema sufferers/very sensitive skin types beware. I personally don't mind having some fragrance silicones in my body care, but I am careful to avoid applying products with fragrance around the areas I used to get eczema flare-ups. (I think I grew out of it, but then again you never know when it could surprise you and come back!).
Verdict:
I love that this brand commits themselves to avoiding parabens/mineral oils/testing on animals...etc(see above), but at the end of the day, the scent was too strong and off-putting for me. Pass. This would only be worth it to you if you end up falling in love with the scent, since it's definitely a unique one.
Save Some $:
This brand is sold at Birchbox, SpaceNK, Amazon, SkinStore, Bloomingdales, and of course their website, so if you wanted to try it, look out for deals at those retailers. Honestly, I don't have a dupe because the scent is so unique!