Hello fellow TIA devotees, 20-something body oil addict reporting for duty. I was so excited to be offered the chance to try out SkinOwl Body ($59), a body oil for “tired, thirsty skin” that’s designed “to enhance your skin's natural radiance and visibly reduce the appearance of stretch marks, wrinkles, and dark spots.” The directions are fairly standard, massage into damp skin, especially post-shower.

I’ve always been a fan of body oil because I have dry skin, but I don’t like the feel of heavy creams or have the patience for painstakingly rubbing them in. I also like the slight sheen that the skin gets with oil application. That being said, it can be tough to find an oil that is light enough to absorb appropriately and not leave you an oil slick while also being tough enough to tackle areas of seriously dry skin like elbows and heels.

The ingredient list for SkinOwl Body is pretty standard, lots of common moisturizing oils like sweet almond, jojoba, olive, and apricot. There is a very light scent upon application, the closest thing I could compare it to is fruit loops cereal which was odd but not unpleasant, and by the time the oil has sunk in it entirely dissipates, so no conflict with perfume or other scented products.

I used SkinOwl Body exclusively as my body moisturizer each time I showered, I tried it directly after showering prior to toweling off, on damp skin and then air dried (too time consuming), and after doing some toweling off. The wet skin prior to toweling was definitely the best way. You do lose a bit of the oil on the towel but most of it will have sunk in and you really need the water on your skin to help spread the oil around — even with a light toweling I had to use tons of product in order to spread it effectively on dryer skin. I also tried for the sake of experimentation using it on my face as a moisturizer (worked well, but a bit heavy), makeup remover (worked great but again, felt heavy), and shaving “cream” (not good, clogged razor and resulted in razor burn).

All in all I found SkinOwl Body to be a perfectly fine body oil, but there’s nothing really spectacular about it so I was surprised when I looked on the Skin Owl website for the price. It’s not something I would purchase for myself because I feel I’ve used other products that produced similar results for half the cost or less. Although I was only using a large size sample bottle and so cannot speak to truly long term, consistent use, I did not see any improvement in my skin’s appearance in terms of stretch marks or dark spots (wrinkles are not yet a concern). SkinOwl Body moisturized most of my skin effectively and made it feel comfortable and look healthy, left a nice sheen, and did not cause issues with clogged pores (or leave marks on my sheets or towels!) but like many of its product compatriots was not enough for thicker skin and dry heels, elbows, knees, etc. and I needed to supplement with a cream on top. I will definitely keep an eye on SkinOwl products in the future but unfortunately SkinOwl Body isn’t a permanent addition for me.