I bought three jars of Ascend Skin because I actually liked the idea behind it. A body butter that was supposed to combine moisturizing skincare with a strong, designer-inspired fragrance sounded like something I would genuinely use. I did not buy one and cautiously test the waters. I bought three.
That decision aged badly.
Key Takeaways
- I bought three jars and regret buying that many.
- Mine had virtually no scent, despite the product being heavily marketed around fragrance.
- The texture was surprisingly loose and watery for a product advertised as a body butter.
- Customer support was terrible when I tried to deal with my concerns.
- I would not buy Ascend Skin again.
What Is Ascend Skin?
Ascend Skin sells body butter colognes designed to combine body moisturizer with fragrance. The product is marketed as a two-in-one alternative to wearing regular cologne, with the brand claiming that the butter moisturizes the skin while its fragrance and pheromone blend provide long-lasting scent.
The current product page advertises the body butter at $35 per 140g/5oz jar, reduced from $60. It is available in fragrances including Zeus, Apollon, Helios, and Woody. The company claims the fragrance can last for 8+ hours and describes the formula as containing shea, cocoa, coconut, olive, and sunflower oils, along with sodium hyaluronate, glycerin, vitamin E, allantoin, fragrance, and a pheromone blend.
The marketing is very much centred around smelling expensive without paying designer-cologne prices. That was exactly the appeal for me.
Why I Bought Three
I bought three because I actually expected to like this. The whole concept made sense to me. I like body products that leave you moisturised but also give you a nice scent, because then you are not layering lotion and perfume and hoping everything works together.
Ascend Skin was supposed to do both. And when a product is being sold around different signature scents, designer-inspired fragrances, long wear, and the idea that people will notice how you smell, I expect the fragrance to be very obvious. That was not my experience at all.
My Experience With Ascend Skin
The first thing that disappointed me was the scent. There was basically no scent whatsoever. That is not me saying the fragrance was weaker than I expected or that it disappeared after a few hours. I mean, I opened the product expecting to smell something because fragrance is literally one of the main reasons I bought it, and there was barely anything there.
That immediately made me question why I had bought three. I could forgive a fragrance being slightly different from what I imagined. I could even forgive it not lasting as long as advertised. But when I am buying a product specifically because it is supposed to function as a scented body butter and I can barely smell it in the first place, there is not much left for me to get excited about.
Then there was the texture… I expected a body butter to be, well, buttery. Instead, mine was surprisingly loose and watery. It felt much more like a thin lotion than the rich body butter I had pictured from the product description and marketing.
The product page actually tells customers to gently mix the butter when they first open it because natural ingredients may separate slightly during shipping, and it describes the formula as a fast-absorbing butter that leaves a smooth, non-greasy finish. Mine was still far looser than I expected.
And that combination was what really killed the experience for me. If the texture had been disappointing but the fragrance had been amazing, I could have focused on the scent. If the fragrance had been weak but the butter itself had been rich and luxurious, I could have at least enjoyed it as a moisturizer.
Instead, I had a product that felt watery and gave me virtually none of the fragrance I had bought it for.
The Fragrance Marketing Did Not Match My Experience
This is the part I find hardest to ignore because fragrance is not some secondary feature of Ascend Skin. The company literally markets the product as a “body butter cologne.” It says the scent is designed to last for hours, describes the fragrance as designer-inspired, and promotes the product as an alternative to traditional cologne.
The homepage goes even further, promoting “Twelve Hours On Skin” and describing the product as a designer scent combined with a pheromone blend. So when I say mine had no scent, that is not a tiny complaint about something that happened to be slightly different from the marketing. The scent is the product.
I bought three jars expecting three opportunities to smell good. Instead, I was sitting there wondering if I had somehow received three jars of unscented body lotion.
And Then There Was Customer Support
The customer service experience made the whole thing even worse. When I had an issue with a product I had bought three of, I expected customer support to at least make the situation easier to resolve. It didn’t.
Trying to get help was frustrating, and I felt like I was putting in far more effort than I should have had to put in over a body butter. That was especially irritating because the website currently advertises a 30-day satisfaction guarantee and says product-quality issues will be resolved or refunded.
There is also a published refund policy that says eligible products can be returned within 30 days of receipt, although it requires customers to submit a return request with the order number, photographs, and a description of the issue.
Whatever the policy says on paper, my actual customer support experience was terrible. And that matters to me almost as much as the product itself. If something goes wrong, I want to feel like the company is interested in fixing the problem rather than making me work to get a response.
What I Loved
There isn’t much I can put here.
- I liked the concept of combining moisturizer and fragrance.
- The idea of having a scented body butter instead of layering lotion and cologne is genuinely convenient.
- The packaging and overall concept made the product feel like something I would actually enjoy using.
Unfortunately, the actual product did not deliver the part I cared about most.
What I Didn’t Love
- There was essentially no scent.
- The texture was much too loose and watery for what I expected from a body butter.
- The product did not live up to the fragrance-focused reason I bought it.
- Customer support was frustrating.
- I bought three jars, which made the disappointment significantly worse.
Is Ascend Skin Worth the Price?
For me, absolutely not. Even if I had only bought one jar, I would have been disappointed. Buying three made it worse because I had essentially multiplied the amount of money I had spent on something I didn’t enjoy.
The current $35 price per jar may not sound outrageous compared with designer fragrances, but that comparison only works if the product actually gives you the fragrance experience you bought it for. Mine didn’t.
I would rather spend my money on a body lotion I actually enjoy using and a fragrance that I can smell than buy another jar of Ascend Skin hoping the next one will somehow be different.
Who I Think Will Love It
I honestly don’t know who I would recommend this to based on my experience. If you specifically want a body butter that smells strongly and functions as an alternative to cologne, that was exactly what I wanted too, and I ended up disappointed.
Who Should Skip It
I would skip Ascend Skin if you:
- Are buying it primarily for the fragrance.
- Want a thick, rich body butter.
- Expect the product to smell strongly.
- Are buying multiple jars before knowing whether you like it.
- Expect responsive customer service if something goes wrong.
Alternatives
If the reason you were interested in Ascend Skin was the combination of moisturizing and fragrance, I would rather look at established scented body products such as:
- Sol de Janeiro Brazilian Bum Bum Cream
- L’Occitane Almond Milk Concentrate
- NIVEA Cocoa Butter Body Lotion
- Bath & Body Works Ultimate Hydration Body Cream
Conclusion
I really regret buying three jars of Ascend Skin. I bought it because the concept sounded good. A body butter that moisturizes your skin while giving you a designer-inspired fragrance seemed like an easy win. Instead, the product I received had virtually no scent, the texture was much looser and more watery than I expected, and trying to get help from customer support only made the experience more frustrating.
The lack of scent is what bothers me most because fragrance is not some minor bonus with Ascend Skin. It is the entire point of the product. The company markets it around designer-inspired fragrance, long-lasting scent, and even pheromones, so opening my jars and finding essentially no fragrance was a major disappointment.
I would have been annoyed about buying one jar. Buying three was just me making the mistake three times at once.
Would I Buy It Again?
No. Not one jar. Not two. Definitely not three.
Would I Recommend It?
No. The product I received did not give me the scent I bought it for, the texture was not what I expected from a body butter, and the customer service experience left me even more frustrated.
For me, Ascend Skin was a regrettable purchase, and I would rather spend my money elsewhere.
Also read my similar review of the SerlinoLab Night Cream