Grape seed
Vitis vinifera
A light, fast-absorbing oil pressed from wine-grape seeds. It is why the cream slides and then disappears.
The cool one
Eucalyptus
Gives the cream its quiet coolness on the skin — noticeable, never fierce.
Eucalyptus globulus
Eucalyptus globulus leaf oil is rich in 1,8-cineole, the compound behind its clean, faintly camphoraceous scent and the cool feeling it leaves behind. In VITAS it is dosed for comfort rather than shock: enough to register as you rub it in, not enough to announce itself to the person sitting next to you.
What you feel
A cool note that arrives a few seconds after you rub it in and fades over the next few minutes. It is a sensation on the skin, not a change in the temperature of the muscle underneath.
Why not menthol or camphor
Both are stronger, cheaper and carry a medicated smell across a room. Eucalyptus gives a gentler version of the same cool sensation, which is the whole point of a cream you can use at your desk.
Where it comes from
Steam-distilled from the leaves of the blue gum tree. In the finished cream it appears on the INCI list as Eucalyptus Globulus Leaf Oil.
Formulation
What is deliberately not in it
Most muscle rubs work by shouting. The 100ml Soothing Cream Gel is built around the things it leaves out. (The roll-on is a different formula — its full ingredient list is on its own page.)
- No methyl salicylate
- No camphor
- No hormones
- No steroids
- No parabens
- No synthetic dyes
The other two
What else is in the tube
Grape seed
Vitis vinifera
A light, fast-absorbing oil pressed from wine-grape seeds. It is why the cream slides and then disappears.
Niaouli
Melaleuca viridiflora
A soft green aromatic from the same family as tea tree. It rounds the eucalyptus so the cream smells like a plant, not a pharmacy.
Pre + post workout
Soothing Cream Gel
Order online with free delivery from HK$250, or pick it up at Watsons and Mannings across Hong Kong.