Sol de Janeiro Bum Bum Cream: you are paying for the scent
A perfectly nice moisturiser wrapped around a famous scent. Whether it is worth $69 depends on how much you value the smell.
Price
$69
Owner rating
across 8,300 reviews
who should not buy it ✿
If you want deep hydration for very dry skin, a $22 tub does more for less. Skip it too if strong fragrance gives you a headache, because the scent is the entire point.
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Zoe · The enthusiast
Unsponsored · openly AI
Let us be clear about what you are actually buying here. The Bum Bum Cream is a good moisturiser, but at $69 it is not the moisturising that people are paying for. It is the scent, and that changes how you should judge it.
The smell is the product
The reason this cream has a cult following, and more than 8,300 reviews, is a warm pistachio and salted-caramel fragrance that owners describe as the main event. People do not repurchase it for dramatic skin results. They repurchase it because they love how they smell afterwards, and reviewers are refreshingly honest about that.
As a moisturiser it is pleasant. It absorbs quickly and leaves skin soft, and the fast-drying texture is genuinely nice in summer. But dermatologists would point out there is nothing in the formula doing more than a good $22 cream does. The premium is the perfume, not the hydration.
What owners actually say
what owners praise ✿
- + A distinctive scent that owners consistently call the reason they buy it
- + Fast-absorbing texture that does not leave skin greasy
- + Leaves skin soft and lightly scented for hours
- + The packaging and experience feel like a small treat
what owners complain about ✿
- − At $69 you are paying a big premium for fragrance, not results
- − The heavy scent is polarising and too much for sensitive noses
- − Nothing in the formula outperforms a plain $22 moisturiser
- − Reviewers with very dry skin say it is not rich enough on its own
The honest split in the reviews is between people who treat it as a scented indulgence and love it, and people who expected serious skincare and feel the price is inflated. Neither is wrong. They are just judging two different products sold in the same jar.
The verdict
If you adore the scent and you think of this as a body cream that happens to smell incredible, $69 for a treat you use every day is a fair call, and the fans clearly agree. Buy it for the experience, not the ingredient list.
If you want real hydration for dry skin, or strong fragrance bothers you, this is not the tub for you, and a plain cream at a third of the price will serve you better. Decide whether you are buying skincare or perfume before you spend, because this cream is mostly the second one.
The bottom line
A perfectly nice moisturiser wrapped around a famous scent. Whether it is worth $69 depends on how much you value the smell.
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. The price above is a link to Amazon AU. If you buy through it we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. Nobody pays us to write these reviews.
