Why So Many People Buy a £5.99 Body Oil to Keep Mosquitoes Away

The repellent reputation Avon doesn't advertise

If you only read the product page, you would think this is a straightforward moisturiser. Spray it on after a shower, enjoy soft skin, done. But scroll the reviews and a different story takes over. People in Turkey, Bali, Corfu, Thailand and the Scottish Highlands keep coming back to one thing: the bugs leave them alone when they wear it.

One reviewer summed up the appeal well: "There is no better bug repellant! I used to get about 20 bites in an evening when I sat out. Not had one single bite in years and a bonus that it moisturises." Another said her dad told her soldiers use it in hot countries to stop bites, and that since covering her legs in it she has not been bitten once.

This is folklore as much as fact, and one thing is worth flagging clearly: Avon does not market this as an insect repellent, and the source data makes no repellent claim. The product simply contains citronella oil alongside the jojoba and vitamin E, and citronella is something people associate with keeping insects at bay. Several reviewers are careful to say so themselves. "Product is not branded for that so not blaming Avon," wrote one who still got bitten on holiday. Treat the repellent angle as a widely reported bonus, not a guarantee.

Does the bug-repelling actually work?

The reviews land somewhere between enthusiastic and divided. Plenty of holidaymakers swear by it. One spent three weeks in Thailand and got around three bites, none of which reacted badly, while her husband using a citronella spray got far more. Another said it "truly saved" her holiday in Turkey, usually a bite magnet, she came home bite free.

But it is not foolproof, and the reviewers who bought it purely for protection are the ones most likely to be let down. "Bought because it's supposed to be good against mosquito bites. Nice smell, but didn't work. Got bit to death on holiday," one wrote bluntly. Someone in Bali reported the same.

The fairest read is that it reduces rather than eliminates bites for a lot of people, and does nothing noticeable for others. If your reaction to bites is severe, lean on a proper DEET or picaridin repellent and treat this as a pleasant smelling backup, not your front line.

As a moisturiser, it does the simple job well

Strip away the insect chatter and you still have a competent lightweight body oil. The thing reviewers praise most consistently is the texture: it is a dry oil, so it absorbs fast and skips the greasy film you get from heavier oils. "It isn't an oily spray it's a dry oil so absorbs quickly," one noted. Another: "Easily absorbed and isn't oily at all."

The spray format gets credit too. It is quick to apply over arms and legs, handy after a shower while skin is still warm, and small enough to throw in a holiday bag. One thoughtful four-star reviewer described it as ideal for warmer weather "when heavier moisturisers feel too much," while flagging that it will not replace a rich cream for very dry skin. That is a fair expectation to set: this is light hydration with a glow, not intensive repair.

The scent: lovely to most, overpowering to some

The Skin So Soft fragrance is the second biggest dividing line after the repellent question. Most reviewers love it. "Smells lovely not oily on skin," "faintly scented," "lovely fragrance," the praise comes up again and again, and several people say the scent alone is why they repurchase.

A minority strongly disagree. "REALLY strong fragrance. Awful," reads one one-star review titled simply "Reeks." The balanced four-star take splits the difference: "The scent is quite noticeable, clean and slightly sweet. I personally liked it, but it may not be for everyone, especially if you prefer unscented products." If you are sensitive to fragrance, go in knowing it is a scented product and the scent is not shy.

Where the one-star reviews really come from

Here is the part that explains the 29% one-star rate, and it is not what you might assume. The large majority of furious reviews are not about the formula failing. They are about the oil arriving solidified, cloudy, crystallised or full of white lumps. "It was rock solid. No liquid. I can't return!" "Cloudy and full of solid lumps." "Both were solid and not a liquid." The complaint repeats dozens of times.

What makes this frustrating is that Avon's own product page directly addresses it. The oil is stored in a warehouse and can solidify in cold temperatures, and the fix is to leave the bottle at room temperature or sit it in a bowl of warm water until it returns to normal. The brand states this does not affect the product. At least one reviewer proved it: "As left outside in the cold the contents had solidified. After reading some reviews I wondered if it was warmed up it would become liquid again. It certainly did so now happy customer."

So a good chunk of the one-star scores come from people who received a cold, cloudy bottle, could not get a refund inside the return window, and understandably felt cheated, when a warm soak might have salvaged it. A smaller number did receive faulty or leaking bottles with broken pumps, and those are real fulfilment failures. But if your delivery turns up looking wrong, warm it before you write it off.

The pump is the one design flaw worth knowing

Beyond the cold-storage drama, the recurring mechanical gripe is the sprayer. A three-star reviewer who has been through three bottles reported the pump breaking about a third of the way down each time, forcing her to tip it out like a regular oil, "which ends up being messy and making it very expensive per use." Others received bottles missing the spray lid entirely or with a non-working pump.

It does not happen to everyone, plenty of reviewers spray happily to the last drop, but it comes up often enough to mention. If your pump packs in early, you can still use the oil by hand; you just lose the convenience that is half the point of the spray format.

Is it worth £5.99?

For under six pounds you get a 150ml jojoba and vitamin E dry oil that absorbs fast, smells pleasant to most people and, for many, quietly keeps the bugs off. That is a lot of jobs for one cheap bottle, and the loyal reviewers, the ones buying it "regularly" and "always for summer," clearly think the value stacks up. One even uses it to remove the sticky residue HRT patches leave on the skin, which tells you how versatile people find it.

The caveats are simple and worth respecting. Do not buy it as your only mosquito defence if you react badly to bites. Do not expect heavy-duty hydration for very dry skin. And if it arrives solid, warm it before you panic. Set those expectations and a 3.73 average undersells what is, for the people using it as intended, a likeable budget staple.