Name- Vs. Store-Brand Lotions—Which Wins?

Body lotions are often marketed with big claims, but do they actually live up to their promises? ShopSmart Magazine has the answer in its October issue. Testing out 14 name- and store-brand body lotions, ShopSmart came to some pretty interesting conclusions. ShopSmart tested moisturizers from Aveeno, CeraVe, Cetaphil, Eurcerin, Gold Bond, Jergens, Lubriderm, Nivea, Suave and Vaseline. Additionally testers ranked store-brand formulas from CVS, Target, Walgreens and Walmart. Cetaphil Moisturizing Lotion (a favorite among dermatologists) stole the No. 1 spot. Walmart’s version, Equate Moisturizing Lotion, stood out to the editors as the only store-brand lotion worth purchasing. But don’t let the findings deter you from purchasing other off-brand products. “Store brands typically do well in many of our other product tests,” said Lisa Lee Freeman, editor-in-chief of ShopSmart. “However, their performance in our test of body lotions was mostly underwhelming.” In general, the store brand formulas did not compete with their more expensive name brad counterparts. (Target’s Up & Up Extra Healing Moisturizer was the least impressive of the bunch.) But even some name-brand formulas proved to be disappointing for testers like CeraVe Mouisturing Lotion, Jergens Ultra Healing Extra Dry Skin and Lubriderm Daily Moisture Lotion Fragrance Free. A good portion of the brand-name lotions got the job done, leaving skin slightly more moisturized after five hours; Cetaphil being the favorite. ShopSmart’s test also examined the amount of ingredients that each lotion contained. Surprisingly, some contained as many as 33 ingredients. While water and aloe are pretty standard, others ingredients are much less universal and pronounceable. Aveeno’s Active Naturals Daily Moisturizing Lotion was found to include the least amount of chemicals.