In Depth Baby Product Reviews Led by a Pediatrician
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We tested baby oil from top brands like Johnson's, Badger, Burt's Bees, The Honest Company, and others to find the very best
Credit: Abriah Wofford
By Molly Bradac, and Sue Stufflebeam ⋅ Sep 27, 2024
The Best Baby Oil
Baby oil can be a sweet addition to your baby's routine, giving your baby's skin some loving care and hydration. Our review includes 10 popular baby oils to help maintain that baby-soft skin. To determine the best, we've perused the market, purchased the most popular and promising contenders, and sent them through hands-on testing before ranking the competition. Since babies' skin can be sensitive and prone to skin conditions, we believe baby oil should use ingredients you feel good about, adequately absorb, leave skin feeling soft, and come in a handy bottle that is easy to grab and use. While evaluating and selecting our favorites, we kept these essential qualities and more in mind. We are confident there is a product in our review that works for your needs and budget.
Limited ingredients, EWG verified, satiny feel, pump top, less mess
Scent-free, organic, light consistency, easy to use bottle
Newborn safe ingredients
Organic ingredients, feels effective, pump cap
Budget-friendly,
Thin consistency, not sticky
Rubs in quick, thinner
Nostalgic, cheap
Inexpensive, large bottle
Cons
Expensive
Small bottle
Higher Price
Overpowering scent, thick, color
Age 3 months+ only, soft fragrance
Strong lavender scent, leaking cap
Fragrance added, a strong smell
Petroleum-based, mineral oil, fragrance
Added fragrance, mineral oil, leaking bottle top, messy, hard to rub in
Bottom Line
This oil is a luxurious splurge, with a perfect score for ingredients and a nourishing feeling
This exceptional oil is light and hydrating, with organic ingredients that feel soft and smooth in an easy-to-use bottle
Trusted ingredients make this a winner for baby's skin on day one. It was created by a NICU nurse and is used in hospitals for baby massage and skin care
A leak-free bottle and a reasonable price isn't enough to get past the calendula smell and the off-putting color
With a soft fragrance and compelling ingredients, this oil is a solid, wallet-friendly choice for babies aged 3+ months
While we like the oil consistency and feel, the scent is strong and a potential irritant
While we like the bottle and its thin consistency, the smell is so overwhelming and unnecessary
While the price is right and the look iconic, the petroleum base and strong fragrance are a turn-off for us
The petroleum-based oil with added fragrances and messy bottle top make it an option we don't love
Honest Company Sensitive Body Oil is a great overall choice for your baby's skin. Naturally derived, omega rich ingredients provide a light but nourishing feel. One tester summed it up by saying, “I love that it absorbs fully without leaving a greasy feeling.” Organic, safe ingredients make it a product you can feel comfortable applying to delicate newborn skin. The bottle is a pump action with a dust cover lid. It is a stiffer pump but easy to use and stays clean from the start until an empty bottle.
While the bottle size fits nicely in your hand, it is on the small side and could require frequent purchases. This could make it more expensive over time. If budget is a concern, we think Burt's Bees Nourishing Baby Oil is a good choice for babies over 3 months of age. Burt's does have a light fragrance, so some thought would need to go into if it is the right fit for the price. Overall, we love the Honest oil and have been using it for years on babies and ourselves, finding it to strike the best balance between light, scent-free, and easy to use.
Honest Sensitive Organic Body Oil has a pump cap which provides predictability of oil application, and a light consistency.
Burt's Bees Nourishing Baby Oil is a budget-friendly choice made with quality ingredients. It has a slightly thicker consistency but rubs in fully, leaving a gentle fragrance. One tester loved that the product was "Moisturizing and left a soft and protected feeling all day." Users had mixed opinions on the smell of the oil, with some finding it too strong for a baby and others finding it just right.
Without the added fragrance ingredient, Burt's Bees Nourishing Baby Oil would have ranked higher in our testing metrics. We aren't huge fans of fragrances because the manufacturer is not required to tell you what the individual components of the fragrance are. If you are looking for a fragrance-free oil suitable for newborns and are willing to spend a little more money, we recommend Honest Sensitive Organic Body Oil. This oil is scent and fragrance-free with a light feel that rubs in well and doesn't leave a residue behind. If you don't mind fragrance and your little one is a bit older, we think Burt's Bees is a wallet-friendly choice that can be one for your shortlist.
Burt's Bees Nourishing Baby Oil has a slightly thicker consistency, but rubs in well and leaves a soft protected feeling on the skin.
Ever Eden Soothing Baby Massage Oil was rated highest by our testers for the potential safety and quality of its natural ingredients. This oil has only 4 ingredients, making it one of the fewest in the review where we feel less is more. It can be safely applied to newborn skin, and the locking pump cap makes it suitable for travel. We also loved the light, satiny feeling it left on skin. One tester stated, “My skin felt so soft, I would buy this oil for myself.”
The one downside of Ever Eden is the price. It is significantly more expensive than other oils we tested and could be a deal-breaker for those on a tight budget. If you are looking for a more budget-friendly option that also offers limited ingredients and organic components, the Honest Company Sensitive Organic Body Oil is a great choice without the high-end price. However, if you want a high-quality oil that is newborn-safe and has minimal ingredients with no fragrance or scent, then the Ever Eden is hard to beat.
With a light consitency, Ever Eden Soothing Baby Massage Oil glides on the skin and leaves a soft, satiny feeling
Earth Mama Calendula Baby Oil is a great choice for your newborn baby's skin care. With only three natural organic ingredients it is a product we think you can feel comfortable applying on your baby's skin from day one. We like that this product was developed by a NICU nurse specifically for neonatal skin care. One reviewer stated, “I love that hospitals trust this oil for neonatal massage”. Additionally we appreciate that the bottle is opaque, protecting the contents from light.
While we love that the opaque packaging protects the oil ingredients, we understand there are consumers that might like to be able to visualize the color, purity and volume of oil in the bottle. If you prefer transparency of bottle contents, Honest Company Sensitive Organic Body Oil is a great option and comes in a clear bottle.
The Earth Mama oil is slightly thicker than some other options but not as sticky as some competitors.
Credit: Sue Stufflebeam
Compare Products
Tip: It is best to keep oils in a cool environment and away from direct sunlight to prevent them from going rancid and extending their shelf life.
Baby oil can be a good tool for soothing overly dry skin or allowing for a soothing massage before bedtime.
We purchased each product for hands-on testing and to evaluate performance among the competition with side-by-side comparisons. We did a deep dive on product ingredients and company transparency as part of our process. Also contributing to and influencing our overall ranking was feedback from testers who tested and applied the oils over an extended period for ease of use and how they felt on the skin immediately and over time.
Our testing of Baby Oil is divided into Four rating metrics:
Ingredient Review (40% overall score weighting)
Fragrance and Scent Consideration (25% of weighting)
Consistency (20% of weighting)
Ease of Bottle Use (15% of weighting)
Some of the baby oils we've tested over the years.
Credit: Sue Stufflebeam
Why Trust GearLab
The BabyGearLab Team has been testing baby products since 2012, and it is safe to say that we have become the baby gear experts. Leading this review is Molly Bradac, Senior Review Editor, professional Nanny, and Newborn Care Specialist with over 14 years of experience. Molly's expertise and knowledge of all things baby make her a pro at identifying top-notch products and offering recommendations. Sue Stufflebeam rounds out the team as lead tester on our most recent update. Sue is a neonatal NICU nurse with 26 years of experience tending to newborns and is a mother of three.
How to Pick the Best Baby Oil
Picking a baby oil doesn't need to be complicated. Each of the oils we tested effectively provided hydration and soft-feeling skin. When used for baby massage, each of these oils glided smoothly over the skin for a lovely, nourishing experience.
The mineral oil found in Johnson's baby oil of both varieties is an ingredient we think deserves hesitation, in our opinion.
Credit: Sue Stufflebeam
Consider Ingredients
We prefer products with the fewest ingredients possible to be safe and effective. We think you should look for a transparent ingredient list that is honest and can help you avoid known irritants or potentially problematic ingredients, like mineral oil and other petroleum-based components. With so many oil options, there is no need to accept any option that doesn't align with your ingredient tolerance.
Finding oil with fewer ingredients or natural and organic ingredients is a plus considering you are putting it all over your baby's skin.
Credit: Sue Stufflebeam
What does it smell like?
The oil's smell is an important consideration since you likely plan to slather it all over your baby, and some smells may be very strong. There are a lot of opinions on how oils should smell or even if a scent or fragrance is necessary. Some consumers can't imagine a baby oil without a fragrance. Others feel there is no need for it, and still others found some smells off-putting or overly strong for babies. While we prefer the natural scent of babies and lean toward unscented options, we know some parents enjoy a light scent, and this could be a consideration in your buying choice. However, we caution against fragrances as these can include unlisted ingredients and fail our transparency rule.
Some oils, like the Honest Company, are made with organic ingredients.
During testing, our favorite bottles were the pump top bottles.
Analysis and Test Results
With multiple baby oil products on the market, it can be difficult to know which options are best for you and your family. During hands-on testing, we evaluated important details such as ingredients, scents, consistency, and bottle ease of use.
What's the Best Value?
While none of the baby oils were overly expensive or out of the range of most buyers, that doesn't mean there aren't values to be had. We think the Honest Company Sensitive is a great value. It has everything we like for a reasonable price, and the pump top means it can provide just the right amount without losing product to leaks or overpouring. While the bottle is smaller, it could last just as long as the bigger bottle that might succumb to overuse or leaks. Alternatively, if it is more than you'd like to pay, the Burt's Bees Nourishing Baby Oil is a great alternative, but the bottle top is a disc top, and it does include a scent.
Our testing included baby oils from across the price spectrum. We believe our research will help you chose the best quality product for your budget.
Credit: Sue Stufflebeam
Ingredients
In rating ingredients, we relied heavily on the information from the Environmental Working Group (EWG), which breaks down the health and safety of ingredients in consumer products. We realize that some ingredients lack sufficient data, but we consider this source extensive and insightful. Products with minimal ingredients, no added fragrance, and a transparent ingredient list all ranked higher for us. Above all, we looked for baby oils that did the job without unnecessary or potentially harmful ingredients.
Science shows that newborn skin anatomy is different than adults, mainly in function and structure (fun fact: it is thinner). It continues to change during the first year of life and tends to be more vulnerable than the skin of grown-ups. Therefore, the products you apply to your baby's delicate skin command attention. While evaluating the competition, we looked closely at ingredient labels and ranked products with worry-free ingredients and label transparency higher than those that don't offer transparency.
Johnson's only has two ingredients, mineral oil and fragrance. Mineral oil is a petroleum-based product, and “fragrance” could include thousands of ingredients the manufacturer does not need to tell you about.
Credit: Sue Stufflebeam
When it comes to ingredient safety, we believe a distinction needs to be made between baby oils that contain mineral oil (a petroleum product) and those with naturally derived oils from plants. Products containing mineral oil such as Johnson's Baby Oil, and Johnson's Shea and Cocoa Butter Baby Oil score lower in EWG safety and have an increased potential for allergies and immunotoxicities. Keeping product safety foremost, these products ranked lower for us, even though, admittedly, they remain very popular with consumers (nostalgia anyone?).
Earth Mama has few ingredients, which is what we like to see in products that go directly on the skin.
Credit: Sue Stufflebeam
It is important to point out that not all baby oils are recommended for delicate newborn skin. We looked for products with no added fragrance and ingredients with the best EWG safety scores for newborn skincare and massage. Some baby oils containing fragrance are only recommended for ages three months and up, so it is always important to read the ingredient labels as we did in our testing.
Talk to Your Doctor
We are not medical professionals, and you should discuss products you hope to use on your little one with your pediatrician if you have questions or concerns. It is commonly recommended to avoid using adult formulation products with babies as they are not formulated for sensitive baby skin and can potentially increase the chance of skin irritations. Also, test a small amount on your baby's skin to look for skin irritations before slathering.
Zarbees has more ingredients than some of our other favorites and the lavender could be a potential irritant for some with sensitive skin.
Credit: Sue Stufflebeam
The top-scoring oil for ingredients is Ever Eden Soothing Massage. This option is the only EWG-verified option in the group for ingredients, meaning it doesn't have any concerning ingredients inside. It has fewer ingredients, is fragrance-free, and has a transparent list on the bottle. Coming in close behind are Badger Baby Oil, Earth Mama Calendula Baby Oil, and Honest Company Sensitive Oil. The lowest performers in the group were the Johnson's baby oils. Both use a foundation of mineral oil, which is a petroleum-based product, and the Johnson's Shea and Cocoa Butter has a very strong fragrance with no indication of what chemicals are being used.
Using a soothing and moisturizing oil can be a great addition to baby massages as there is less friction than lotions.
In our review, we tested both scented and unscented products. While smell is a matter of personal preference, we prefer baby oils without added fragrance ingredients and rated them higher. Our testing team scored oils with strong scents lower.
In our opinion, even the term natural fragrance leaves us with reservations as it lacks ingredient transparency, which can be misleading to consumers. Therefore, we prefer products with fewer ingredients and little to no fragrance. We think babies don't need fragrances to smell amazing, and less is more when it comes to products you put on their skin.
Badger Baby Oil includes flower extract and flower oil that both impart scent and could be potential irritants.
Credit: Sue Stufflebeam
Some products in our lineup use flower oils and extracts, ingredients obtained through distillation, or soaking plant material in a substance for a long time. They provide a natural scent and are a safer alternative to synthetic fragrances. Although they are in a carrier oil, the amount is unclear, and it can increase the chance of skin sensitivities.
The top-scoring options are all listed as fragrance-free. These include Ever Eden Soothing Baby Massage Oil, Honest Organic Body Oil, and Earth Mama Calendula Baby Oil. While Badger Baby Oil is fragrance-free, that does not mean it is scent-free; it has a strong, naturally occurring herbal scent that may or may not appeal to all users, which hurts its score in this metric.
Mustela lists “Parfum” or frgrance on the label which means it lacks overall transparency in what is in the bottle.
Credit: Sue Stufflebeam
The lowest-scoring oil was Johnson's Shea and Cocoa Butter Baby Oil, which has a strong fragrance and lacks ingredient transparency on what is included in the fragrance. We worry it could contain skin irritants and that the fragrance might not be everyone's cup of tea. Johnson's Baby Oil, Mustela Baby Oil, and Burt's Bees Nourishing Baby Oil all have ingredient labels that list “fragrance” or “natural fragrance.” While some parents stress they love having baby oil with a smell that they associate with babies, like the familiar and iconic Johnson's Baby Oil, we believe any added fragrance is a potential irritant and really not necessary for baby's skin care. Again, less is more is the mantra of the day.
The Badger Baby Oil has a thicker consistency than most of the competition and it wasn't our favorite after rubbing it in.
Credit: Sue Stufflebeam
Consistency
When considering the kind of oil you want for your baby's skincare, consistency and “feel” can be important. We believe that the best baby oils are hydrating, absorb well, and leave skin feeling soft. We tested each product side by side and over time to determine our favorites.
The Badger oil is one of the thickest in the test group, sliding down the plate at a much slower rate of speed.
Credit: Sue Stufflebeam
Our testers found Ever Eden Soothing Baby Oil to be a standout for its nourishing satin feel. On the thicker end of the consistency spectrum, we liked the protective feeling that Badger Baby Oil and Burt's Bees Nourishing Baby Oil provided. On the thinner end, we liked the ease of absorption and smoothness of Mustela Baby Oil and Honest Sensitive Body Oil. One factor our testers agreed on was that the mineral oil products took longer to absorb and left a lasting oily residual on the skin.
Zarbees has a thinner consistency that flows easily from the cap.
The Johnson's Baby Oil left a shiny sheen and slick feel on the skin, no matter how much rubbing and massage we used.
Potential Staining
Because baby oils are not water-soluble, oil stains can happen on clothing and upholstery. Take care to protect your clothes and fabric surfaces when moisturizing and massaging your baby.
The pump top on the Honest oil make it super easy to use and far less messy than other bottle top types.
Credit: Sue Stufflebeam
Ease of Bottle Use
Having an easy-to-use bottle can make a difference, especially when you have a wiggly baby or only one hand to operate it. Our lineup includes various bottle tops.
Zarbees has a pronounced leak from the open lid. It is easy to see how messy this could get relatively quickly if it gets knocked over during use.
Credit: Sue Stufflebeam
We prefer bottles with a pump top. They are quick and easy to use and pump an adequate amount of oil without the mess of manipulating a greasy bottle.
We think a great pump top is the way to go for baby oil, like that found on the Earth Mama Calendula Baby Oil.
Credit: Sue Stufflebeam
Products that feature a pump include the Earth Mama Calendula Baby Oil, Badger Baby Oil, Ever Eden Soothing Baby Massage Oil, Mustela Baby Oil and The Honest Company Organic Body Oil. Pump tops can be used with one hand, as in applying directly onto baby, or require two hands when the bottle is standing stationary on a surface.
Disc top lids were easy to use, but the bottles tended to get oilier than the pump caps with use
Credit: Sue Stufflebeam
We found that disc-top caps, like that on the Burt's Bees Baby Oil bottle, don't provide as much control “per squirt” and require some attention to avoid pouring out more oil than you intend or need. Over time, our testers found that disc-top bottles tended to become oilier with use, as oil tends to drip down the side of the bottle and collect with each use, requiring some maintenance of the bottle to help prevent a mess.
Some bottles dripped readily when knocked over, making for a messy cleanup.
Credit: Sue Stufflebeam
The two Johnson's products, Johnson's Baby Oil and Johnson's Shea and Cocoa Butter Baby Oil have child-safe twist tops that require you to push down and twist to open.
Without the lid, the Johnson's Baby Oil slowly drips when tipped on its side.
Credit: Sue Stufflebeam
Once the cap is off, there is a squirt top we found difficult to control, frequently dispensing far too much oil at one time. Also, the disc top caps we tested and the Johnson's products readily leaked when tipped over in the open position. The pump top bottles did not leak when on their side, and some have the ability to lock for travel. If you've narrowed down the options using our other criteria, consider how easy the bottle is to use to help in your decision-making. A great bottle can be mess-free and prevent overuse or loss of product, potentially saving you money.
Tip: Oil works best when the skin is moist to trap moisture for ultimate hydration, leaving it soft and moisturized. After bath time is a great time to apply; the oil should absorb quickly with rubbing.
A Note on Infant Massage
Adding baby oil to your baby's routine naturally brings us to the topic of baby massage, which is highly beneficial. It can have a calming effect, increase your baby's sleep quality, and facilitate parent-child bonding. The power of touch is incredible, and if time allows, we suggest taking a few minutes to incorporate massage.
A light, scent-free baby oil could be a nice addition to your little ones night time routine.
Credit: 123rf
Conclusion
Babies' skin can sometimes be dry, and baby oil can be a fantastic way to hydrate and moisturize your baby's delicate skin. If you are ready to add oil to your baby's routine, we are confident our review will provide the necessary details to find a product that meets your needs and budget. While baby oil isn't for everyone, and babies largely do not need an oil, if it is for you, we think there is an option for you in our review.
