Weleda: Sea Buckthorn Replenishing Body Lotion Review



Weleda is a brand that I admire a lot. It's surprising that I've ever written only one post on it - the Weleda Pomegranate Regenerating Hand Cream.

There are many things about Weleda that I find endearing - its roots, its philosophy, its holistic approach to health and skincare, its use of Biodynamic Farming methods (which encompasses much more than just organic farming), its fair trade partnerships and of course, its truly wide range of natural products. This is one brand that I think communicates very well with its consumers, which in turn has certainly helped shape my view of the brand. Is that down to fantastic marketing communications or just plainly effective propaganda? For now, I'd settle for the former.

Weleda revamped its collection of body lotions some months back. They tweaked the formula here and there and made a radical change to the packaging.

The old Weleda Sea Buckthorn Body Lotion packaging looked like this:


The new one looks like this:


The Weleda body lotions come in four variants: Citrus, Wild Rose, Sea Buckthorn and Pomegranate. I bought the Sea Buckthorn one as I had already been using this variant in the old version.

Here's what Weleda says about it:

The creamy Sea Buckthorn Replenishing Body Lotion protects dry skin from moisture loss, activates your skin’s self-regulating functions and leaves you with lasting replenishment and renewed vitality.

This unique composition contains organic sea buckthorn’s natural vitamins, carotene and unsaturated fatty acids, which support your skin’s vital barrier functions. Combined with organic mallow extracts, shea butter and macadamia seed oil it helps dry skin regain its vitality and look smoother and softer.


Price: €13.75 for 200 ml

Ingredients
Water, Sesame Seed Oil, Alcohol, Shea Butter, Glyceryl Stearate SE, Glycerin, Sea Buckthorn Oil, Fragrance*, Macadamia Oil, Mallow Extract, Xanthan Gum, Tapioca Starch, Cetearyl Alcohol, Limonene*, Linalool*, Citronellol*, Benzyl Benzoate*, Benzyl Salicylate*, Geraniol*, Citral*, Farnesol*.
* from natural essential oils

The ingredients are 100% natural and 97% organic.

Shea butter, macadamia oil and mallow extract. The old version didn't have these. It also had a more runny consistency and I went through the bottle like lightning. The new version is a tad creamier, I find.


Speaking of bottles, it's obvious that Weleda has put a lot of thought into the new packaging. The body lotion now comes in a recyclable plastic bottle that actually houses a thin, flexible bag inside. Weleda calls it "bag-in-bottle" and that together with the vacuum dispensing pump means that the contents don't get exposed to air, which works out great for Weleda's artificial preservative-free product formulations. The pump has been working fine. It makes a squishy sound sometimes but there has been no clumping or clogging so far.

Even the shape of the bottle is comment-worthy. You might have noticed that it's asymmetrical. It seems to have been designed to reflect the squiggly lines of the Weleda logo. If you're wondering what the logo represents, you can read about it here.

I'll tell you one thing that hasn't changed - the scent. I adore the smell of this body lotion. The citrus melange of mandarin, orange and grapefruit oils is a great pick-me-up in the mornings!


The body lotion goes on nicely. I didn't find the old version 'potent' enough - it was perfect for summer but it just wasn't moisturising enough for winter. Anyway, I think there has been some improvement in the moisturising efficacy of the new version. As someone with extremely dry skin when the cold season strikes, I won't call it the super ultimate body moisturiser for in the dead of winter but it's certainly a better version of its predecessor. If your skin doesn't get as dry as mine, then I think this body lotion would work very well for you in any season.

If you've never seen sea buckthorn berries before, this is what they look like:


That's the cover of an old Weleda magazine. I've been a subscriber to their magazine for a couple of years and I've learnt a lot about Weleda, its practices and its relationships with farmers through its publications. Weleda websites are chockful of information too.

Interesting fact: The sea buckthorn that Weleda uses comes from a Biodynamic farm in Tuscany, Italy. Mr. Kurt Künzi has been working with and supplying Weleda with sea buckthorn for over ten years.


Please check my first post on Weleda to read more about its history.

Weleda website

Weleda products can be purchased from your local drugstores and also through websites like Amazon US and Amazon UK.

4 comments:

Mapachito said...

I like Welleda, here in Spain you can find the brand easily, but i prefer another organic cosmetic brands: MuLondon, GreenPeople, Pranarôm and three spanish brands called Fontesanta, Naturset and Matarrania.

Regards ;)

Witoxicity said...

@Inma Mapachito
Hola, Inma! There are many great natural and organic skincare brands out there these days and MuLondon is certainly one that I support wholeheartedly. Thanks so much for recommending the Spanish brands! :)

rachlovespenguins said...

Glad to see you posting again. :)

I was quite surprised when I recently found a gift set with travel-sized tubes of all four body lotions here in a store in the middle of Ohio! I had never heard of Weleda until I started reading here, so it's only because of you that I even knew what I was looking at. Sadly the store I purchased them from doesn't carry the full-sized bottles, but I'm sure I can pick them up somewhere online. They're very nice! :)

Witoxicity said...

Hi, Rachel! How lovely to hear from you! I hope you're keeping well. I'm glad too to be back here. :)

It's really nice to know that you found out about Weleda through my site - that makes it all worthwhile. I love Weleda. The more literature I read about Weleda, the more I admire the company. Ahhh, how lovely that you could get hold of a set of travel-size tubes of their body lotions! It's a great way to sample the different variants. I'm pleased you like them! Anyway, I did a quick check and Weleda products are available in Target stores but you're right, you can easily get them online too. Cheers! :)