Botani Olive Skin Serum review

12:55 PM

I've been a total facial oil and serum fiend since I started using rose-hip oil about three years ago, and noticed how well it plumped up my dehydrated and flaky skin. Since then I've jumped to different blends, from jojoba and evening primrose oils to argan and various mixes from REN (lovely, but out of my price range) to Estee Lauder's roll-call of night-time serums and treatments (again, huge money-burners). One type of oil I hadn't tried was olive, produced from cold-pressing pips, not the fruit. I'm aware of some of the benefits of olive oil for dry, damaged and mature skin and for tasty haloumi, having used hair products and body lotions counting it as a high-percentage ingredient in the past, but had never seen a version that is okayed for use on my face until I was sent this dropper bottle by Botani.

Botani is an Australian made and owned company, which always gets my interest up. Also super cool is their dedication to avoiding common product baddies and banning artificial fragrances, colours, petrochemicals and mineral oils, all things I don't want to smoosh into my money-maker (yes, that's my face, not my (equally fine) ass). It's also vegan, with no animal testing. Vegan friendly, I'm pretty meh about, but zero testing on fluffy bunnies can only be good. The serum is also nut-free, although not all of their products are.
I decided to not only try this as a serum under my daily moisturiser and sunscreen (I've got something else on the go for night), but as the box advocates use for psoriasis sufferers, I tested it on The Boyfriend's patches on his arms.

Firstly, I love the dropper bottles a lot of facial serums use. It's easy and lets me measure out want I want with no wastage. Also I can pretend to be a scientist! It's a clear fluid with a different kind of smell - not quite green, not the rotting mustiness of rose-hip or medical tickle of Estee Lauder formulations. I kind of get the sense of olive from it, but there's something else I can't my finger on. The Boyfriend says it doesn't have a smell at all, so there's also that.

Its key ingredient is olive squalene, a lipid produced from olive pips, and which Botani says is similar to squalene found in your skin. I have no idea if this is important, so will be doing more research has I haven't heard it referred to before and Blogger refuses to believe it's a word.

About two drops cover my face, and I'm impressed at how quickly it sinks in. Perfect for morning use as it had an almost dry finish to it and my moisteriser was quite happy to absorb over the top afterwards. I don't have many skin complaints aside from dryness, and it easily took care of that - no flaking by mid-afternoon or tight cheeks, like I would encounter when using the lighter jojoba. I can't say anything for its anti-aging and crows feet banishing claims, as my skin isn't in the market for that yet (and hopefully never will be, as long as I take my glass of virgin's blood each morning,followed by six hours of baby sloth massage). It hasn't broken me out or been too heavy and I'm happy to keep using it as a serum, as it's doing a happy job of moisturing and keep my face smooth and flakey-free. The one thing I would change is the smell and how it reminds me of something, and oh my God, it's driving me crazy not knowing what it reminds me of.

As for The Boyfriend, his response is "What? Oh yeah, my arm's okay, I guess. Dunno. STOP STARING AT ME LIKE THAT!". He's actually been really good at applying daily, and it's definitely helped smooth out the dry, red spots, without further irritation. It's still visible, but it feels to me less rough and that raw red tone has quietened down. If he lets me (and he better, if he wants dinner), I'm going to next apply it behind his ears, where it's more drier, itchier and a lot more troublesome.

Botani Olive Skin Serum is A$31.95 and is stocked by the pay-sucking black hole of Priceline and a few other chemist chains.

This product was sent to me for consideration by Botani. They have in no way influenced my review and opinions are my own. It is also my opinion that Lana Del Rey was trolling the hipsters all along. "Dunno" is The Boyfriend's opinion. See my Disclaimer for more sexy details.