Olay Aquaction Long Lasting Hydration Gel Review and Ingredients Analysis: A Light Moisturizing Gel

Olay has launched its Aquaction line, and one of the key products in the line is the Long Lasting Hydration Gel. As a woman in my 20s, I always remember Olay as the brand my mum used, but looking at their products and displays, I'm always impressed how a brand with such a heritage has managed to keep its image and products modern, relevant, and up to date!

The Aquaction Long Lasting Hydration Gel is just such a product of the brand's ability to modernize. It's a light, gel-based moisturizer, that still touts itself as being able to provide hydration and moisture to the skin. A weightless feeling while still providing moisture? Sign me up!

Olay Aquaction Long Lasting Hydration Gel: The latest deep hydrating product from Olay

As you guys know, I always like to start off my skincare analysis by looking at the ingredients list - it really helps to cut through all the review preliminaries and gets straight to the point. So here we go!

The Olay Aquaction Long Lasting Hydration Gel has clearly been formulated to be as lightweight a gel as possible, judging from the list of ingredients. Aside from water, the key ingredients consist of humectants and solvents (to hold the other ingredients in place) that feel light on the skin - Glycerin, Butylene Glycol, Dipropylene glycol are the main ones here, and these are good humectants that are widely used in skincare without making it feel too heavy. If that wasn't enough, there's Alcohol and Cyclopentasiloxane to further thin out the texture. Now I've blogged about alcohol in skincare products before, and if you recall that post, I wrote about how despite the overblown fears online, alcohol is actually safe in cosmetics (of course, don't take 100% alcohol and swab your face with it). Same goes for Cyclopentasiloxane - some people fear silicones because there's a perception that it can clog pores, but for the most part, the commonly-used ones like Dimethicone and so on don't have this effect. In fact, Cyclopentasiloxane actually evaporates from the product once you apply it to your skin. It's incorporated to make the product spread out nicely on skin, but evaporates quickly after that once exposed to air, so after it does its job of spreading out nicely, it doesn't stay on your skin.


Olay Aquaction Long Lasting Hydration Gel: A combination of humectants and silicones ensure lightweight hydration.
I also particularly liked the inclusion of Niacinamide, Allantoin and Panthenol, as these are skin-beneficial ingredients that you don't often find in other similarly-priced drugstore brands (you'll find them more commonly in higher-priced brands). That does make the product stand out a bit more to me - any brand can formulate a light moisturizer with humectants, and if you do browse through my skincare posts you'll indeed see tons of products like that, so I really appreciate that Olay does make the attempt to differentiate their products not just by marketing, but also by the formula. The result is that you have a product that hydrates your skin via humectants and other beneficial ingredients, while also feeling weightless on your skin.


Olay Aquaction Long Lasting Hydration Gel: A light gel with a cooling sensation that sinks quickly into the skin.
As you might expect, because the product is so light, it's definitely going to be geared towards specific skin types. When I tried it out, I found that it provided good, light hydration without any feeling of stickiness or residue - which would be a good thing for those with oily skins, or for those who want a good moisturizer but find the but find the bulk of products on the market too heavy or sticky. On the other hand, if you have dry or very dry skin, then you probably might prefer skincare products formulated with a heavier hand, so to speak - and one of my favourites actually happens to be another Olay product, the Regenerist Micro-Sculpting Cream (I actually used up a complete tub of it, too). As a bonus, the gel also has a cooling sensation when applied to the skin, which is quite refreshing. Perhaps the only drawback I experienced when using the Long Lasting Hydration Gel is the strong floral fragrance. Fragrance is quite a hate-it-or-like-it kind of thing, and I've had some users wax lyrical about the scent (one even said the smell was like "being in a spa"), but for me, I prefer my products scentless. But to each her own, I guess.


Olay Aquaction Long Lasting Hydration Gel: Perfect for young, oily skins, or just for fuss-free hydration in gel form.
My final thoughts? Olay may be better known as the skincare that your mother and grandmother use, but as the Aquaction Long Lasting Hydration Gel has shown, the brand is perfectly capable of producing skincare suitable for the oilier skins of younger people who have a different set of skin concerns. If you have oily or young skin, or if you are just looking for hydration and moisture in a no-fuss, lightweight form, then this is definitely worth checking out.

(Product was sent for review. Review is my complete and honest opinion. I am not affiliated with/compensated by the company.)