When I was in my mid-20’s, I had at least 15 bottles of lotion. I was a huge fan of shopping at Bath & Body Works and I would go absolutely nuts during their semi-annual sales. My skin smelled great, but I couldn’t help but notice that its conditioned never really improved beyond the first hour of applying the products.

Eventually I got so overwhelmed with my collection while also feeling so underwhelmed by the performance of the lotions that I quit buying cold turkey. And it took me about 4 years to work through my lotion collection. I now only own two bottles of lotion for myself, and both of those were given to me as gifts.

I’m currently using the Renew lotion and have always been pleased with the results. It’s a stark contrast to my former lotion picks in that it is in a very large container and it is unscented. But my skin feels smooth for hours after applying it. It sits on my bathroom vanity and I usually remember to apply it after taking a shower.

Lotion is an important component for baby massages, which Layah absolutely adores. Darah also loves to apply lotion herself and asks to do so whenever she sees me using it. For my girls, I go natural/organic. I have a goal to eventually set the same standards for my own lotion use,  but I have yet to find an organic product with lasting results for my skin.

Speaking of my skin, I should mention that making my skin feel soft is a very VERY hard thing to do. You see, I have Keratosis Pilaris, which is a very common skin condition that causes lots and lots of little tiny bumps. They don’t itch or hurt, but they also don’t go away. No amount of exfoliating or hydrating will cause them to fade. Trust me, I’ve tried it all, and I’ve done my research on the condition. The bumps are here to stay.

So any lotion I try out on my skin really faces a serious challenge. How do you make bumpy skin feel soft and smooth? I recently headed to Target to do some comparison shopping in the lotion aisle. Want to follow along with my adventure? Click here to see the whole trip and my thoughts about what I saw.

I brought home a product from Nivea, and did a side-by-side comparison of it with the Renew lotion I have been using for the past several months. Below you will see the Renew product on the left and the Nivea product on the right. I immediately noticed how much thicker Renew was, and that left me feeling nervous for Nivea.

After applying both products, I immediately felt both arms, and they both felt quite smooth (remember, “smooth” is a relative term when talking about my skin). I couldn’t tell a difference right away, but I didn’t really expect to at first.

I waited 10 minutes, and then I checked again. I thought that my left arm, which had Renew on it, felt a bit softer than my right arm, which had Nivea. I asked Tim’s opinion (he didn’t know which arm had which product) and he thought the Nivea arm was softer. So we agreed to disagree.

But here’s where things got really interesting. Four hours after applying the product I had Tim feel again. He said, “The right arm (which, as a reminder, is the Nivea arm) feels genuinely soft, and the left arm feels artificially soft…like it has a layer of lotion sitting on top of it.” I was dumbstruck by his observation. And after hearing it, I realized that he was right. The Renew lotion did make my skin feel soft, but it didn’t do a great job of actually absorbing into my skin, whereas the Nivea product penetrated the surface. Below you will see a picture of my right arm. It may not look very different on the surface, but the beauty of this product is that it goes beyond what lies on the surface to provide a more lasting hydration.

After having this experience of wading through the truly overwhelming selection of lotions available, and then realizing that I was being fooled by my own lotion into thinking I was getting good results, I was left with a few thoughts. It is easy to understand why so many women just throw their hands up in the air and either get whatever is on sale or stick with one brand so they don’t have to think about it any more. Even I have been relying on family to give me whatever lotion they like as gifts so I don’t have to mull over my options! And I absolutely believed that a thicker lotion would always mean a better lotion.

I’m surprised by my results, and I feel happy to have a new lotion that I am now using with complete confidence. I look forward to seeing how using Nivea Extended Moisture will impact the overall health and softness of my skin over time.

I would love to hear about your lotion routine. Do you have a favorite product? Are you overwhelmed with the options out there? And have you ever been fooled into thinking that a lotion was improving your skin when it really just sat on top of it to give the illusion of working? Do any of you also have Keratosis Pilaris?

I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ #CBias #SocialFabric. All thoughts and opinions expressed here are strictly my own.