Bio-Oil has been present and visible on the skincare market for just about forever, touting itself as a magical cure-all for all your scars and acne and infiltrating at least one full-page ad in every issue of Cosmo and Glamour. After some failed attempts to apply coconut oil (do not recommend) and jojoba oil (do not recommend, but to a lesser extent) as part of the “oil cleansing method”, I was pretty apprehensive to try this out. But hey, the claim on the bottle was that it was non-comedogenic so, here we are.

For an oil, it’s relatively watery and light weight — very thin. I don’t really love the bottle it’s packaged in, because if you squeeze too tight, you’re obviously going to get way too much product, but just flipping the bottle over on it’s side will only get you one or two drops, which isn’t enough. The smell isn’t obtrusive, it’s very light and sweet, and will linger if bio-oil is the last product you put on your skin.

Speaking of last product you put on your skin, bio-oil absolutely does not play well with anything else! It will pill the living daylights out of anything else you have on your face. For me, this was better to use in the summer at night-time, when my skin needed the hydration, but I wasn’t using any super-heavy moisturizers.

True to it’s word, it did not break me out. Obviously it’s oil, so you have to be careful not to touch anything with your face. I felt like my face was a little bit more hydrated and bouncy when I woke up the next morning.

As far as the scarring goes… I have some pretty severe scarring from acne on my face. In my personal opinion, the Epiduo and the lactic acid that I use are the most effective at clearing that up. The Bio Oil might “help”, but if it is, the results are comparatively very slow from what I’ve seen with lactic acid. Stretch marks, on the other hand.. I have a few long white stretch marks on my torso from losing weight. I used Bio Oil on this for a few weeks and I SWEAR they became less pronounced — less puffy, and less white-colored, more skin-colored. Another case of placebo, perhaps. But if you’re going to buy this stuff anyway, might as well try it, right?

For $9, it’s not a bad product. I certainly like it better during the summer, so I probably won’t repurchase it until then, but if you want to try out oils, I think that Bio-Oil is a good start, particularly if you are acne-prone. ~A

Perceived efficacy: 3.8/5

Longevity: 5/5

How much I actually like this product: 4/5