What: Purity Baby Aqueous Cream Fragrance Free and Johnson's Baby Aqueous Cream Fragrance Free
Both products are marked "fragrance free" which means no fragrance has been added. Although, not always. And this term is apparently quite controversial.
The terms "fragrance free" and "unscented" aren't very well regulated, and aren't always used in the same way in industry. This blog post from Clicks explains things quite nicely, I thought.
The base ingredients of a product don't smell of nothing, so there will usually still be a bit of an aroma in a fragrance-free product. As the Clicks post said " ....There may still, of course, be some form of scent in fragrance-free sun-care for example, so fragrance-free does not necessarily mean “odour-free.”
When: 4 November 2021
Both bought at Checkers Dorp Street, Stellenbosch
Purity Baby Aqueous Cream Fragrance Free
Price: R29.99/325ml (R9.20/100ml)
Appearance: very thick, firm and glossy. Bright and white. Looks very creamy, completely opague. Looks a bit like double cream joghurt.
Aroma: the pink one (which I usually don't use) has the typical baby powder aroma
Texture: spreads less easily - rather seems to melt on the skin; higher sticky. Feels more oily.
Johnson's Baby Aqueous Cream Fragrance Free
Price: R34.99/350ml (R10/100ml)
Appearance: medium thick, less firm, less glossy. Grey-white colour, with an open texture, and a bit transluscent. Looks a bit like low fat joghurt.
Aroma: very faint sour-associated medicinal/coconut/vanillaaroma
Texture: spreads easily; medium to low sticky. Feels less oily.
General comments:
While both products have similar ingredients, Purity Aqueous Cream has a shorter list than Johnson's. Johnson's seems to have more ingredients with a preservative function.
Interestingly, the baby powder aroma that is usually used in the fragranced/pink version of aqueous creams and other baby products, is derived from Chanel No 5.
Note for further investigation: compare the ingredients list of the "pink" version of both of these creams.