Cocoa Butter VS Rescue Oil For Stretch Marks.

A couple of months ago I was diagnosed with an under-active thyroid which resulted in my rapidly gaining weight and not being able to do very much about it other than panic and cry.  As if this was not bad enough the rapid weight gain meant that I ended up with stretch marks all over my stomach.  There will be women with children out there who do not have stretch marks as bad as mine.  Big, red and angry stretch marks.  Unsightly to say the least but also very itchy.

Stretch marks occur when the skin is stretched quickly over a short period of time - most commonly during growth spurts and pregnancy.  There are not uncommon but when they are red in tone rather than white they can be rather upsetting. I know I am not alone in this one.

I was never a big believer in creams for the likes of stretch marks but people kept telling me to try Bio-oil so I picked up the cheaper alternative of Rescue Oil.  The ingredients in the two do seem to be very different but I have found Rescue Oil quite effective.  If you have used Bio-oil let me know if it is any good.  When I get my first job after university I may treat myself to the more expensive alternative.

On searching for a photo of Rescue-oil I found a review saying that Rescue Oil is the watered down version of Bio-Oil and even though Rescue Oil does improve the look of stretch marks it will take longer to do this than Bio-Oil.

Rescue Oil is around £2.99 but Bio-Oil is about £8.00.  So in a sense you get what you pay for here.

As the name suggests it is oil based which I thought I would dislike as I don't like greasy lotions but it absorbs into the skin really easy and dries quickly.  I usually put it on after a shower and by the time I have got to my room it is near enough absorbed into the skin.  It contains peach kernal so it smells oddly nice.

When it comes to any sort of beauty product I like variation.  I never buy the same shower gel or shampoo consecutively after one finishes.  I will always buy a different one, so when my Rescue Oil finished I decided to try Palmers Cocoa Butter for Stretch Marks.

I have used the original Cocoa Butter in the past but this was my first time using the one specified for Stretch Marks.  It does not smell any different from Cocoa Butter which is nice - lovely chocolatey smell.  Brings some smiles to a rubbish situation.  I felt with this though that it sits on the skin more than the Rescue Oil.  You need to give it some time to dry in before putting your clothes on and therefore I preferred using this product at night but it did see some good results with it but I wouldn't say the results were any better than with the Rescue Oil.

 I got this in Body-Care for just under £5 so a bit more expensive that Rescue Oil but still less than Bio-Oil.  It does last longer than Rescue Oil though and therefore once my current bottle of Rescue Oil is finished I will be purchasing another bottle of this unless I decide to try an alternative.  During research for this post I came across a Johnson's Stretch Mark cream but I have not seen it in stores so I will need to investigate this further.

I would rate both products 4/5 as although they do help sooth the stretch marks and make them a bit more sightly they are no miracle creams but if you have problems with stretch marks I would suggest picking up something for them, if anything to try and prevent more from appearing.