Review: V&M Naturals Bikini Bomb Salve

Beach season might be officially over, but we all know that this is the perfect time to score a few deals on discounted beach trips and resort accommodations. And with all the long weekends coming up, not to mention the Holiday Season, it's time again for some beach prepping with V&M Naturals' Bikini Bomb Salve.

 P280 for 40g

Ingredients: Emu oil, Avocado Oil, Jojoba oil, Shea Butter, Mulberry, Papaya, Calamansi and Pineapple extracts, Kojic fruit acid, Vitamin E

Imagine the smell of a waxy candied papaya. It's not unpleasant; but just strange. The ingredients list indicates that this should work via micro peeling then moisturizing dark, dry patches of skin. I'd suggest applying this with a heavy lotion or body butter, to get the full effect. I paired this with the Bare it All Cream.

There's the challenge of getting it out of the tin first, though. I actually started using this on and off in January (hah, isn't it October already?) when the cooler weather had somehow managed to solidify this into a solid pan of wax. I'm guessing that was because of all the oil ingredients. It's a bit easier to use now that it's closer to the consistency of hair styling wax because it's warmer, but still, don't place this in an air conditioned room. The tin helps to exaggerate the temperature either of the two ways, too. If you live somewhere cold, maybe try one of their cream or oil products instead.

Once you get enough onto your fingers (and under your nails, ugh), the next challenge is to get it to adhere to your skin. The SA said that this product is supposed to go on last (after the body butter) but I find it a bit difficult to rub onto newly-moisturized skin. Again, because it's a bit hard, and because the lotion repels the oil ingredients. It goes on towel-dried calluses easily, so I just spread the body butter on top of it

Here it is again, looking decidedly worse for wear with all the scraping

Reluctant as it is to come out of the container, I learned the hard way that it apparently has no qualms about getting bright orange coloring on your clothes and socks, so black socks and ratty old shirts only. (Can papayas even get to that shade of bright orange?) There is a slight stickiness to it, and it doesn't apply as transparent as I'd like. Plus points for not drying out the spots where I didn't use it with body butter.

This is a callus, in case you were wondering.

The promise is improvement in 3 weeks, so I used it for 6, to give it a fair chance against the thicker patches. I tried this on 2 types of skin discoloration
1. a rough patch of skin on my foot (can also stand in for rough, scaly knees -- I wouldn't recommend elbows because of the clothes-staining issue)
2. on my "bikini area"

yes, I wear the same shoes to work every single day

I'll spare your eyes and post only the foot pictures. These are of the hard, dry, and not to mention dark callus patch from sitting with one foot tucked under me.

After 1 Week (Week 1): Looks pretty much the same.

Week 3: Some visible lightening and smoothing. The patch also got softer.

Week 6: More improvement in the smoothing and softening department. A little bit more lightening. That part looks normal now!

There wasn't much progress elsewhere though. 6 weeks and I am still not "bikini ready" because...I didn't notice any lightening at all. (I didn't take pictures because who wants that in their phone) The Salve should have been more effective here since the skin is actually thinner, so there was less work for the product. But, even taking out the hormonal fluctuation factor, and taking into account my walking with my legs slightly father apart than usual for around 2 months (to minimize the rub -- well, it was worth a shot), there was no visible improvement.

 

Full disclosure: I've noticed that there's more dark pigmentation on the side of the chubbier thigh - so the cause for the dark coloring might be beyond what this product can solve. Also, for people who have the same problem area, I know that higher blood sugar darkens the skin on the nape (back of the neck/batok in Tagalog), so it might be related -- I don't have high blood sugar, but all my doctors keep telling me to lose weight!

Verdict:

• Performance Rating  
  
• Foot callus test: 3.5/5
• "Bikini Area: test: 1/5
• Scent: 3.5/5
• Packaging: 3.5/5
• Price: 4/5
• Rebuy:

Unlikely. Well, this worked well on my rough patch/callus but not on the "bikini area" -- not really what you'd expect from something called Bikini Bomb. Not a good idea for the elbows, since you'd be prone to staining everything behind you orange. I took half a point off because the product was so hard to use. I'd recommend this to people who have foot calluses or scaly knees because it did soften up and lighten the callus. I'll still be checking out the brand's other products because they have a lot of other products with the same promised effect - from scrubs to oils, and several cream variations, so stick around for that :)