Review: Garnier Fructis Triple Nutrition Miracle Dry Oil, Part I (The Formula)

How could I not try out some new products from the brand who brought us this hilarity? I'm not afraid. Well, not too afraid.

What it is:

According to the Garnier marketing materials, this is a combination of "three weightless oils - olive, avocado, and shea" (plus a lot of other stuff they don't mention; see below) that is mean to "transform hair and skin". It is "made for everyday use on your hair, body, and face" and "instantly absorbs in a touch with no oily residue". They claim that it is the first multiuse oil on the mass market, "making revolutionary hair and skin care affordable for everyone".

So, as usual, I will be evaluating this product against both the marketing claims and my own expectations. I have used, and continue to use, hair and face oils, rosehip oil in particular, so I'll be testing this to see how it stands up in comparison. I'd argue that multiuse oils are, in fact, already available for cheap - for instance, olive oil, which is included in this product. You can get a 17 oz bottle of extra virgin olive oil for about the same as the recommended price for 5 oz of this Garnier spray ($5.99), and there's no reason you can't use straight olive oil on your hair or skin. I'm pretty sure that they are expecting you to think of argan oil or maracuja oil or something, but there are lots of cheaper options out there. But of course, those aren't sprays, and they don't "instantly absorb". So let's see what the difference is here!

The first thing I did was do a little research on the ingredients.


I started at the beginning, because (as you know) they are listed in order of volume, so it's really the first half of the list that is most important. I'm using the Cosmetics Ingredients Dictionary on the Paula's Choice website, so you can follow along if you like, since I'm not going to link to every single entry. Here we go, in order:

1. Isopropyl Palmitate: thickening agent/emollient. Can clog pores. Not a bad ingredient, but why is it first, if the oils are supposed to be doing the moisturizing?
2. Isopropyl Myristate: Same as above.
3. Isododecane: A good solvent that prevents water loss from skin. Helps spread the product on the skin.

It is possible that these ingredients improve the performance of the oils by making them thicker . . . and then thinner. I don't know. I'm not a scientist. But these three come first, and only then do we get the oils themselves, which are the following: Olive Oil, Sesame Seed Oil, Avocado Oil, Sweet Almond Oil, Apricot Kernel Oil, and Shea Butter, in that order. More oils than they advertise, even. These are all good moisturizing oils, though olive oil, avocado oil, apricot kernal oil, and shea butter are the best, since they also have antioxidant properties. Olive oil is also anti-inflammatory. At this point I am wondering what the advantage is to mixing all these oils. If olive oil has all these wonderful qualities, aren't we just diluting it with other oils that aren't quite as good?

Right after the oils, we get Fragrance. No surprise, really. This stuff is strongly scented. But that's a lot of fragrance!

Next on the list are Tocepherol Acetate, which is Vitamin E, an antioxidant. Good! I wonder why they don't advertise that elsewhere on the label. Then Benzyl Salicylate, a fragrance solvent. It can be sensitizing, so not good for sensitive skin.

Then we get some known skin-irritants that I think we could do without, like Limonene, Orange Peel Oil, and Benzyl Alcohol. These are presumably in tiny quantities, but still, your pure olive oil isn't going to contain any of them. They're probably fine, but if you have super-sensitive skin, you might want to avoid this.

Anyway, it sounds pretty good so far. Some great oils for the skin, and then some other ingredients that I assume are meant to keep everything mixed together and create a better consistency for a spray. And some fragrance. Next step: actually testing this out. How does this compare to using an ordinary oil product? What are the advantages? STAY TUNED. I'll post the results of my experiments with this product on my body, face, and hair early next week.

Disclosure: I got these products free from BzzAgent.