Jungle Formula Insect Repellent

Author's product rating:   

Advantages:	effective insect repellent, no bites, keeps mosquitoes away
Disadvantages:	contains DEET , strong smell

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I recently went on my Honeymoon to China and as I had never visited a high risk Malaria prone country before, I was on the look out for an effective Mosquito Spray. I live in Wales; therefore I am used to being bitten alive by the Midges and the like, so I was going to need some strong protection to stop me looking a total mess on my Honeymoon - especially after having done some research and found out that China (and our base in Sanya on the Hainian Province) came up as the highest risk area of the whole of China!!

I came across Jungle Formula Extra Strength Pump Spray in my local Superdrug and it cost £6.99. You can’t miss this on the shelves as it is a white bottle with a bright Green and Yellow label. There are many Jungle Formula products available such as: body sprays, plug-ins, body creams etc however for the purpose of this review and I am reviewing the Extra Strength Pump Spray which comes in a 75ml bottle.

Jungle Formula is a tropical insect repellent and provides protection from Mosquitoes, Midges and other annoying biting insects. What attracted me to this product over the many others on offer was the fact that it has been approved by the Hospital for Tropical Diseases for travellers visiting tropical areas with a high risk of malaria and other insect transmitted diseases. So this sounded good to me as it was medically approved and I wasn’t disappointed.

Jungle Formula is a 10 hour application which is very runny and slightly yellow in colour. It is a pump action insect repellent spray for adults and children over the age of 6 years old. Using the pump you apply carefully to exposed clean and dry skin except for eyes and lips. Roughly you need to use two ‘squirts’ for each arm and around 4 ‘squirts’ for each leg. For use on the face it is best to squirt a little in the palm of your hand and apply. One thing I found is that if you accidentally get it on your lips and end up licking them, the taste is absolutely vile and it takes a while for the bitter taste to disappear. We went away for two weeks and one 75ml bottle is enough for one person based on 3 applications a day.

The main ingredient of Jungle Formula is DEET which disrupts the ability of insects (the biting ones) to detect the carbon dioxide that is naturally given off by our skin and breath, which is what, attracts the Mosquitoes to us. If you have used repellent with DEET it will be of no surprise to you that it absolutely stinks, so there is no wonder the flies don’t like it!!

Just a little caution - when applying this you need to make sure that the area is well ventilated because it really takes your breath away if you spray too much of this. You will have a similar reaction to when you have just used oven cleaner and as you open the oven door the fumes hit you and it feels like you can’t breathe for a few seconds. So if anyone using this has asthma I would suggest you apply it carefully and not in a confined space.

A disadvantage is that many people have a reaction when using any repellent containing DEET and some have found that it doesn’t work, however in my experience I found this insect repellent to be very effective. When applying you will notice that it doesn’t soak into you skin all that well, so after a few minutes of walking around the hotel room like John Wayne (as if I had applied fake tan) waiting for the repellent to dry, I gave up and ended up rubbing it into my skin. It still left a slight sheen to my skin, but didn’t feel at all sticky and didn’t mark my clothes. I also sprayed Jungle Formula over the net curtains in the evening to stop the Mossies from coming into the room and it obviously works as none were buzzing around.

Overall, I think that Jungle Formula is great value for money at £6.99 is a very reasonable price to pay, however it is also available on the plane for Duty Free for £5.00. This is very effective as I had one bite whilst we were on holiday which resembled a small midge bite and my Husband also had the same type of bite. This could be due to the fact that we were reapplying Jungle Formula about 3 times a day and not leaving it for 10 hours. We saw a few holiday makers who were bitten raw by the Mosquitoes and had weeping wounds, however I am positive we did not get bitten badly due to the repellent. I kept a spray with me in my bag everywhere we went and ended up spraying it on others who were suffering. I would definitely buy Jungle Formula again.

Some cautions to be aware of:
It is flammable and harmful if swallowed.
Beware on people who suffer from asthma.
Keep away from acetate, leather, rayon, plastic, varnished and painted surfaces.

Ingredients:
N,N-diethyl-m-toluamide (DEET) 50% w/w, Alcohol Denat, Dipropylene Glycol, Glycerin, Parfum.

Thanks for reading xx