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If you’ve spent any time on TikTok in the last year, you’ve probably seen someone doing an “empties” video and gushing about Cyklar. The brand — founded by influencer Claudia Sulewski — has built a whole cult following around its oil-infused body washes, lotions, and body oils. The pitch is simple: skincare-grade ingredients, a shower gel that smells like a $200 candle, and a “get in touch with your body” vibe that makes washing up feel like a whole event.
I finally caved and bought a bottle. Here’s my honest take.
The good stuff
I’ll give credit where it’s due — the formula itself is genuinely nice. It’s built around a “fatty acid water” (basically water-soluble coconut oil) plus a blend of jojoba, avocado, and grapeseed oils, along with glycerin and sodium PCA to help lock in moisture. Translation: it’s not just soap, it’s actually trying to condition your skin while it cleans, which is more than I can say for most drugstore body washes.
It lathers up richer than I expected for something oil-based, and it doesn’t leave that tight, stripped feeling some “luxury” washes give you. The scent is also legitimately good — layered, not one-note, and it lingers a little after you towel off, which I didn’t hate.
Where I start side-eyeing it
Here’s my problem: at around $35 a bottle, this is priced like a specialty skincare product, not a body wash. And when I actually sit with it after a few weeks of use, my skin doesn’t feel dramatically different than it does with washes that cost a third of the price. It’s nice. It’s not a revelation.
A lot of the ingredients that get hyped in the marketing — glycerin, jojoba oil, sodium PCA — aren’t rare or exotic. They show up in plenty of mid-range body washes too. What you’re really paying the premium for here is the fragrance experience and the brand itself, not some groundbreaking skin-barrier technology.
I also don’t love that for a wash marketed as “gentle” and “nourishing for sensitive skin,” it’s still built around foaming surfactants like cocamidopropyl betaine — perfectly fine ingredients, but not exactly the skin-barrier miracle the packaging implies.
So is it worth it?
Honestly? It depends on what you’re buying it for. If you want a body wash that turns your shower into a five-minute self-care ritual and you don’t mind paying for the experience, Cyklar delivers — the scent alone might be worth it for some people. But if you’re buying it purely on the promise that it’ll out-perform your $10 drugstore wash on skin health, I’m not convinced the price tag holds up to the ingredient list.
I’ll probably finish the bottle. I’m just not sure I’m restocking at full price when it runs out — maybe if it goes on sale, or as an occasional treat rather than a staple.
Bottom line: nice product, honest formula, but the price is doing a lot of the marketing’s heavy lifting. I didn’t like it, and I can find something rather similar for much cheaper and not so niche, but it might different for you.
Have you tried Cyklar? I’m curious if the lotion or body oil changes my mind — let me know in the comments if you’ve tested the rest of the line.
