It puts the lotion in the basket

February 2, 2012 4:08 PM

Is there a substitute for Melaleuca's Renew Lotion that you can buy at an ordinary pharmacy?

I have a friend who's a customer of Melaleuca. She gave me some samples of a lotion they make called Renew which turns out to take care of various minor skin issues I get, especially in wintertime.

I'm not sure what the correct term is for that site, but it's not just a straight-up commercial site – it tries to turn customers into pushy salespeople in an annoying way. I don't want the hassle, I don't want to pester this friend, but I want to get more of that product or a close equivalent.

Bonus points if it's sold in Canada.

posted by zadcat to health & fitness (5 answers total)

There's some for sale on Ebay (Canada) and Amazon (US).
posted by jabes at 4:12 PM on February 2, 2012

Melaleuca's basically Amway. If your friend is involved with them directly instead of just getting the samples from somewhere, I'd say pester them as they'd probably welcome the sales.
posted by barc0001 at 4:47 PM on February 2, 2012

And to clarify, when I say "basically Amway" I mean they're an outfit that operates like Amway, not directly involved with Amway.
posted by barc0001 at 4:49 PM on February 2, 2012

You knew that Melaleuca is the botanical name for the tea-tree genus, right? Based on that I did some picking around on the company website. The ratio of bullshit to information is pretty high, but it does indeed say that "Renew Intensive Skin Therapy" contains melaleuca oil. In ordinary language, tea-tree oil. There is probably a ton of lotion in any sizable pharmacy with tea-tree oil. Try one--if it doesn't work you aren't out much. If it does you've avoided a brush with a deeply unpleasant-looking operation. Yes, the company looks awfully like an Amway clone.
posted by Logophiliac at 9:09 PM on February 2, 2012

Metatalk has a post suggesting we add followups to our 2012 questions, so I'm doing that.

Renew Lotion is really remarkable. Since I posted this query I've tried a few other products claiming to have similar qualities and none of them are as good. Renew doesn't even smell of tea tree oil – it has a sort of nondescript generic lotiony smell – but it magically resolves my minor skin irritations, especially in winter.

I will pester my friend who makes orders to Melaleuca and get some more.
posted by zadcat at 9:40 PM on December 30, 2012