Hypothetically Speaking: The Body Shop Vitamin E Moisture Cream

Price/Packaging:

 

18$ for 50ml (1.7fl.oz) or 33$ for 100ml (3.3fl.oz). Unfortunately, this cream comes in a jar, which is not only unhygienic, but also bad for antioxidants in the product (as they will deteriorate within couple weeks after opening the jar).

Ingredients:

 

Water, C12-15 Alkyl Benzoate, Diheptyl Succinate, Bis-Diglyceryl Polyacyladipate-2, Glycerin, Potassium Cetyl Phosphate, Cetyl Alcohol, Phenoxyethanol, Tocopheryl Acetate, Caprylyl Glycol, Cetyl Dimethicone, Glyceryl Stearate, Polyacrylamide, Sesamum Indicum (Sesame) Seed Oil, Triticum Vulgare (Wheat) Germ Oil, Carbomer, Tapioca Starch Polymethylsilsesquioxane, C13-14 Isoparaffin, Parfum/Fragrance, Caprylhydroxamic Acid, Capryloyl Glycerin/Sebacic Acid Copolymer, Benzyl Benzoate, Laureth-7, Disodium EDTA, Hydroxycitronellal, Myristyl Alcohol, Sodium Hydroxide, Stearyl Alcohol, Limonene, Geraniol, Linalool, Citronellol, Cinnamyl Alcohol, Alpha-Isomethyl Ionone, CI 14700/Red 4, CI 19140/Yellow 5.

Excellent (very beneficial ingredients, proven research)

Good (mostly beneficial ingredients, not extensive research available or just not quite outstanding properties)

OK (mostly thickeners, emulsifiers, mild preservatives, pH adjusters, all that is necessary formulation wise, but not a skincare per se) 
Bad (anything that shouldn't be in skincare, irritants and fragrance)

Discussion:

 

Simply - not a good product.
First, there is only one single antioxidant in here - vitamin E. Skin always benefits more from a range of antioxidants, anti-irritants and cell-communicating ingredients, so I would call it a very lackluster formula. But even larger disappointment is that vitamin E is lower on the ingredient list than a preservative (phenoxyethanol). Which means both that you don't get much of antioxidant benefits from this cream, and also that skin can have an irritation from that amount of preservative. On top of that, even that small amount of vitamin E you can get in this cream will be destroyed pretty soon by jar packaging.
Second, there are so many fragrance components in here (all marked in red), that in a long run they will definitely do no good for your skin.
Third, this cream does have a number of emollients and humectants. But there is nothing extraordinary about them. This formulation will probably work for normal to dry skin as a very basic moisturizer.
If you really want to use this cream for some reason, you can of course pair it with antioxidant and anti-irritant rich serum to balance it out. But there are so many great products on the market, that I don't see why you should assault your skin with so many irritating ingredients.

Verdict:

 

Not recommended. In my opinion just using plain plant oil (which is always enriched with vitamin E) will be much better for the skin, than using this cream.

1 out of 5.