Why we ran this test
Besque earned its following honestly. The Magic Body Oil sits at 4.9 stars across 23,205 reviews, a pile almost nothing in this category gets near, and it costs $60.00, or $51.00 if you let it ship every fourteen days. Seven cold-pressed oils, each one printed with the job it is meant to do, and vegan, cruelty free and 100% natural marks on the bottle. Besque ships to 220+ countries and says 500,000+ women use it. For a lot of people that is the end of the conversation.
Then Lumié turned up with the Queen Oil and a much narrower pitch. It is $59.99, or $53.99 a bottle on subscription, so on money the two of them are within a couple of dollars of each other. What Lumié sells instead is a formula aimed at one thing: the moisture barrier that depletes after menopause. Hand-harvested Undaria seaweed, a botanical blend of passion fruit, acaí, babassu and rice bran oils, and white lupin, which Lumié calls a clinically studied plant extract that visibly firms skin and improves elasticity. Its rating is also 4.9, but from 1,738 verified reviews, a fraction of what Besque has. Lumié publishes no ingredient list and no directions at all.
So I used both for three months, alternating weeks, same skin, same season, nothing else new in the routine. Arms, legs, neck and décolletage, mostly at night, on the ordinary Tuesdays as much as the nights I was going somewhere. They are not chasing the same buyer either. One is a scented luxury oil for anyone who wants softer skin. The other is aimed squarely at women whose skin changed after menopause and has not felt right since.
At a glance: the Queen Oil vs. the Magic Body Oil
Everything the two brands actually publish, side by side, before I get into what ninety days with each one was like.
| Spec | Lumié Queen Oil | Besque Magic Body Oil |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $59.99, or $53.99 a bottle on subscription | $60.00, or $51.00 on subscription |
| Format | Dry body oil, glass bottle with a pump | Luxury body oil, glass bottle with a pump |
| What it does for skin | Replenishes the moisture barrier, firms, improves elasticity | Nourishes, hydrates and smooths |
| Key actives | Undaria seaweed, a four-oil botanical blend, white lupin | Seven cold-pressed oils |
| Full ingredient list | Not published | Not published |
| Fragrance | None, no synthetic fragrance | Scented, unscented version sold separately |
| Applicator | Pump | Pump |
| Certifications | Dermatologist formulated, no parabens | Vegan, cruelty free, 100% natural |
| Customer rating | 4.9 / 5 | 4.9 / 5 |
| Review volume | 1,738 | 23,205 |
| Money-back window | 60 days, money back | No returns, one claim, minus $17.00 |
Green marks whichever oil comes out ahead on that row. Read the price row twice, though. On subscription Besque is $51.00 against Lumié's $53.99, so the whole argument is about three dollars a bottle, which is no argument at all. Read the last row twice as well. Lumié gives you sixty days and your money back. Besque does not accept returns: its guarantee covers one product, once, needs sixty days of use, has to be claimed within seventy-five days, and pays out minus a $17.00 processing fee. I left certifications ungreened on purpose, because the two of them certify different things and neither list beats the other.
How each one feels going on
I used both of these most nights for ninety days, and the first real difference between them has nothing to do with what is inside the bottle. It is the ninety seconds after the oil lands on your skin. Both sink in faster than I expected an oil to, and the one that disappears quickest is not the one I would have guessed.
- A white pump on a clear glass bottle, and the oil that comes out is golden and thin enough to spread with two or three passes instead of a dozen
- Lumié says it absorbs in seconds. On my arms it was nearer a minute, which is still quick for an oil, and I could pull a sleeve down over it
- Rich yet never greasy is the brand's line and I will give them that one. It never left the tacky film I get from most body oils
- There is no synthetic fragrance in it, so what you get is a faint plant smell that has gone by the time you are dressed
- Lumié publishes no directions of any kind. No amount, no timing, nothing at all. It took me about a week to settle on my own routine and I resented having to
- 4.9 out of 5 across 1,738 verified reviews, and Lumié says 30,000+ women use it. The line that stuck with me was one woman saying it leaves skin like velvet rather than an oil slick
- A black pump with a gold collar on an amber bottle, 100ML / 3.4 FL.OZ printed on the front. It looks the part on a shelf
- Besque actually tells you what to do with it: once a day, on clean dry skin, massaged in until most of it has absorbed. A small thing, but I stopped guessing
- It needs more working in than I expected, which is presumably why that instruction says to keep going until most of it is gone
- Scented by default, and the scent is not shy. I liked it at eleven at night and found it a lot at seven in the morning
- There is an unscented version at the same price, so if the smell is the dealbreaker you have somewhere to go
- 4.9 out of 5 across 23,205 reviews and a claim of 500,000+ women using it. That is a deep record, and it is the strongest thing this oil has going for it
This round is closer than I wanted it to be. Besque is the nicer three minutes: the scent, the massage, the fact that somebody has bothered to tell you how to use the thing. Lumié offers none of that and simply gets out of the way, which sounds like faint praise until you are trying to get dressed. On a night when I wanted the ritual I picked up the Besque. On the other five nights of the week I picked up the Lumié, and I only noticed that pattern once I looked back at my notes.
What each one does for skin
Both of these promise to do something for skin, and they go about it in nearly opposite ways. Lumié is trying to rebuild the barrier. Besque is trying to feed the skin. This is the section I changed my mind about twice.
- Hand-harvested Undaria seaweed, which Lumié describes as rich in amino acids, antioxidants and vitamins. Its job is the moisture barrier, the one that depletes after menopause
- White lupin is the part I found most interesting. Lumié calls it a clinically studied plant extract that visibly firms skin and improves elasticity
- The botanical blend of passion fruit, acaí, babassu and rice bran oils is there for deep, long-lasting moisture rather than for firming
- Dermatologist formulated, 100% natural ingredients, no parabens and zero synthetic fragrance. It is built for menopausal skin and Lumié never pretends it is for everyone
- Clinically studied is where the evidence stops. No study is named, no institution, no numbers. It is one phrase about one ingredient and you either accept it or you do not
- No full ingredient list is published, which is a problem if your skin reacts to things and you like to read a label before you buy
- Seven cold-pressed oils, and Besque prints what each one is for. Sweet almond smoothens and deeply hydrates, evening primrose firms and increases elasticity, rosehip regenerates and plumps skin
- The rest of the list, in Besque's own words: vitamin E protects the skin from sun light, geranium tightens and revitalises, lavender calms inflammation whilst promoting healing, patchouli boosts natural collagen production and smooths skin
- On plain softness it delivered. My skin felt better inside a week and stayed that way for all ninety days, which is more than I can say for most things I test
- What it does not claim is anything clinical. No study, no dermatologist line, and it is pitched at anyone who wants softer skin rather than at one stage of life
- No full ingredient list either, and here it matters more: sweet almond is a tree nut, so if you have a nut allergy there is nothing published to check against
- Its review feed shows nothing below four stars, so you cannot read a critical review on the site. Even inside that filtered set, the scent keeps coming up as a complaint
Neither of these is medicine and I would not buy either expecting to undo a decade. Besque is the better plain moisturizer, and it is not close: seven oils, every one of them doing recognizable work, and softer skin within a week. What Lumié is going after is narrower and much harder. Barrier repair, firming, elasticity, on skin that changed after menopause and did not change back. Over three months that is where I saw something beyond softness, on the crepey patch above my elbows, and it is the reason this comparison ends the way it does.
Living with them in a daily routine
An oil you keep is an oil you use on a Wednesday morning when you are already running late, not just on the evening you have time for a whole routine. Both bottles sat on my bathroom shelf for the full 90 days, one week each in turn, and the things I ended up tracking were mundane: how long I stood there waiting, whether I could get dressed straight after, and how often I picked the bottle up without being reminded to.
- One press of the white pump covers a shin. The bottle is clear, so you can see what is left, which sounds like nothing until the week you run out
- Two or three minutes and I could pull jeans on. Short enough that I stopped building my morning around the wait
- The botanical oil blend is passion fruit, acaí, babassu and rice bran. Rich yet never greasy is Lumié's phrase for it, and on my legs that was close to right
- No synthetic fragrance, so it never argued with perfume. That mattered more than I expected on work mornings
- It is made for menopausal skin, and the Undaria seaweed in it is aimed at the moisture barrier that depletes after menopause. On the weeks it was in rotation I reached for it without thinking
- Besque actually tells you what to do: use it once per day, apply to clean dry skin, massage until most is absorbed. Lumié publishes nothing at all, and after 90 days I still think being told is better
- Black pump with a gold collar on an amber bottle. It looks like the more expensive of the two on a shelf, though the amber means you cannot see how much is left
- 100ML / 3.4 FL.OZ is printed on the label, so you know what you are getting before it arrives
- It is scented by default, and the scent is the thing people either love or grumble about. There is an unscented version at the same price, which I wish I had ordered first
- Four to five minutes before I trusted it against clothes, and on a rushed morning that is the difference between wearing it and skipping it
Neither of these is hard to live with, so this came down to friction. Besque gives you instructions, which I appreciated more than I expected to, and then asks for a few more minutes before you can get dressed. Lumié gives you nothing to follow and then gets out of the way faster. Over ninety days a pattern showed up on its own: I reached for the Lumié on the mornings that were already going badly, and saved the Besque for evenings when nobody was waiting on me. That is not a knock on either bottle. It is just where they landed in my week.
Absorption, finish and residue
Nobody buys a body oil thinking about laundry, and then you own one and laundry turns out to be half the relationship. This is where these two stop feeling similar.
- Lumié publishes no directions, so my first week was guesswork. I used far too much and a linen shirt paid for it. One press per limb fixed that and I never had it happen again
- It went in fastest on skin still slightly damp from the shower. That is my finding, not an instruction from the brand, because there is not one to follow
- Rich yet never greasy is how Lumié describes the botanical blend, and that held up. Two or three minutes and my hands were dry enough to do up buttons
- Nothing showed up on the sheets on the nights I used it before bed. I checked, because an oil I tried last year left a shadow on the pillowcase for a month
- Hours later my shins still felt soft rather than tight. The Undaria seaweed is the part meant to be working on the moisture barrier, and something was working
- With no synthetic fragrance there is nothing left in the fabric either. I did not think about that going in and then noticed it was true
- Besque's own wording is to massage until most is absorbed, and most is the honest word. There is a light film left behind and it is meant to be there
- On genuinely dry skin that film is the whole point. My elbows preferred the Besque weeks and I am not going to pretend otherwise
- Rosehip is listed for regenerating and plumping skin and Vitamin E for protecting the skin from sun light, so what sits on top is doing a job rather than nothing
- Four to five minutes before clothes, and I still marked a cotton tee twice by being impatient. If you dress straight after, build the time in
- The scent stays on skin and carries into the sheets. Some evenings I liked that. Other evenings I wanted it gone, which is roughly what the complaints about it say
- The unscented version costs the same. If the finish suits you and the smell does not, that solves it in one order
Lumié takes this one. The botanical blend sinks in fast enough that getting dressed stopped being a scheduling problem, and with no synthetic fragrance there is nothing left behind in the fabric afterwards. Besque is not failing here, it is doing something else on purpose. It leaves a film, and on skin that is genuinely dry that film is worth having. But it wants four or five minutes, it will mark a shirt if you rush it, and the scent follows you to bed. By the end I had settled into using the Besque at night and the Lumié whenever the day was starting straight after.
Formula and who stands behind each one
Two oils with very different ideas about what a customer is owed. One names a dermatologist and one clinically studied extract. The other names every oil in the bottle and lets 23,205 buyers do the talking. Neither of them prints a full ingredient list, and I want that on the record before anything else in this section.
- Undaria seaweed, hand harvested, which Lumié describes as rich in amino acids, antioxidants and vitamins. It is pointed at the moisture barrier that depletes after menopause, and the rest of the bottle is built around that idea
- The botanical oil blend is named in full: passion fruit, acaí, babassu and rice bran, for deep, long lasting moisture
- White lupin, which Lumié calls a clinically studied plant extract that visibly firms skin and improves elasticity. Clinically studied is as far as the brand goes and I am repeating their wording rather than upgrading it
- Dermatologist formulated, no parabens, no synthetic fragrance, 100% natural ingredients. That is a tighter set of claims than most bottles at this price bother to print
- No full ingredient list published, and no directions either. Lumié names its actives and then stops. If you need to check a formula against a sensitivity, you cannot do it from what is on offer
- 4.9 out of 5 from 1,738 verified reviews, and the brand says 30,000+ women use it. A much smaller record than Besque's, and I would rather say so than dress it up
- Seven cold pressed oils, each with a stated job: sweet almond to smoothen and deeply hydrate, evening primrose to firm and increase elasticity, rosehip to regenerate and plump skin, Vitamin E to protect the skin from sun light, geranium to tighten and revitalize, lavender to calm inflammation, patchouli to boost natural collagen production and smooth skin
- 4.9 / 5 from 23,205 reviews against Lumié's 1,738, and Besque ships to 220+ countries. Whatever else you make of it, far more people have used this one
- Vegan and cruelty free are printed on the bottle next to 100% natural. Lumié claims neither of the first two
- Besque publishes directions for use. Lumié does not. It is a small thing and only one of these two brands bothered
- No full ingredient list here either, and this one contains sweet almond, which is a tree nut. There is no allergen list to check it against, so if nuts are a problem in your house that is a real problem
- Its review feed shows nothing below four stars. The 23,205 is deep but filtered, and I could not find a single critical review to read
I scored this one a draw and I have gone back and forth on it since. Besque names all seven of its oils and what each is for, prints vegan and cruelty free on the bottle, publishes directions, and has 23,205 people behind it. That is simply more information. Lumié answers with dermatologist formulated, no parabens, no synthetic fragrance, and one active it is willing to call clinically studied. What neither of them will do is print a full ingredient list, and that is the part that irritates me about both. With Besque it is worse in one specific way: sweet almond is a tree nut, and there is nothing published to check it against.
Guarantee and returns
A returns policy tells you how much faith a brand has in the thing it just sold you. With a body oil there is a second question sitting underneath it, because you cannot know in a week. You need most of a season on the same skin before you have any idea. One of these gives you exactly that. The other one starts by saying no.
- A 60-Day Money-Back Guarantee. That is the entire policy and it fits on one line, which is the nicest thing I can say about any returns page
- Sixty days is also about how long you need before you can tell whether a body oil is doing anything, so the window actually matches the product for once
- Free US Shipping on Orders $70+, so a single bottle at $59.99 sits just under the line and you pay to have it sent
- No processing fee comes out of the refund. You are not paying for the privilege of changing your mind
- The wording is: We do not accept returns. It is stated plainly rather than buried, and I would rather be told straight than find out later
- There is a One Product Satisfaction Guarantee and it is real, but it covers one product, once
- To use it you need 60 days of use behind you, the claim has to go in within 75 days, and the refund comes back minus a $17.00 processing fee
- On a $60.00 bottle, $17.00 is more than a quarter of what you paid, and it comes off the top whatever your reason for asking
Lumié wins this one, and it is the widest gap anywhere on the page. Sixty days, money back, done. Besque starts from we do not accept returns, then offers one claim on one product, only once you have used it for 60 days, only if you file within 75, and only minus $17.00. Every one of those conditions is defensible on its own. Stacked together they add work at exactly the point where a customer has already decided the oil is not for her. If you know you get on with body oils, none of this will ever touch you. If you are not sure, it is a $17.00 question with a calendar attached.
What ten bottles actually cost you
Body oil is a repeat purchase, so this is the one place where a small price difference gets to repeat along with it. Lumié on subscription is $53.99 a bottle, which puts ten bottles at $539.90. Besque on subscription is $51.00, so ten comes to $510.00. That leaves $29.90 between them across ten bottles, a shade under three dollars a bottle. On price, these two are a wash.
The money argument ends in a draw, and I am not going to pretend otherwise. Ten bottles of Lumié on subscription comes to $539.90 against $510.00 for Besque, a difference of $29.90 spread over what is probably a year or more of use. Neither price is going to move much, either. Lumié takes 10% off for subscribing and gives you nothing extra for ordering two or three bottles at once, so a second bottle is still $59.99. Besque takes 15% off a bottle that ships every 14 days. If you were hoping the cheaper one would also turn out to be the better one, it does not resolve that neatly. This gets decided on the formula and on what each brand does when you ask for your money back.
Price and value
Most people skim this part and buy on the photo instead. Here is what each bottle costs and, line by line, what the money actually buys you.
- ✓ $59.99 for one bottle, or $53.99 a bottle if you subscribe, which is 10% off
- ✓ Ordering more does not make it cheaper: two bottles are $119.99, three are $179.99, four are $239.99
- ✓ Free US shipping on orders of $70 or more, which one bottle misses and two bottles clear easily
- ✓ A 60-day money-back guarantee, with nothing deducted from the refund when you use it
- ✓ Undaria seaweed, hand-harvested, rich in amino acids, antioxidants and vitamins
- ✓ That seaweed replenishes the skin's moisture barrier, the barrier that depletes after menopause
- ✓ A botanical oil blend of passion fruit, acaí, babassu and rice bran for deep, long-lasting moisture
- ✓ Rich yet never greasy, and it absorbs in seconds, which is the part I was most skeptical about
- ✓ White lupin, a clinically studied plant extract that visibly firms skin and improves elasticity
- ✓ 0 synthetic fragrance, 100% natural ingredients, dermatologist formulated, no parabens, made for menopausal skin
- ✓ 4.9 out of 5 across 1,738 verified reviews, though it publishes no full ingredient list and carries no vegan or cruelty free mark
- ✓ $60.00 for one bottle, or $51.00 on a subscription that ships every 14 days, a 15% saving
- ✓ 100ML / 3.4 FL.OZ printed on the label, and an XL 200ml bottle at $120.00, or $78.00 on subscription
- ✓ Seven cold-pressed oils: sweet almond smoothens and deeply hydrates, evening primrose firms and increases elasticity
- ✓ Rosehip regenerates and plumps skin, vitamin E protects the skin from sun light, geranium tightens and revitalizes
- ✓ Lavender calms inflammation while promoting healing, and patchouli boosts natural collagen production and smooths skin
- ✓ Vegan, cruelty free and 100% natural icons printed on the bottle, three marks Lumié does not carry
- ✓ 4.9 / 5 from 23,205 reviews, more than thirteen times the record Lumié has built up
- ✓ Every review it shows sits at four stars or above, which also means no critical one appears on the page
- ✓ Ships to 220+ countries, and the brand counts 500,000+ women using it
- ✓ Directions are published: once a day, on clean dry skin, massaged in until most of it is absorbed
- ✓ Scented by default, with an unscented version at the same price, though no ingredient list is published and returns are refused outright
A penny apart on the sticker and about three dollars apart on subscription, so price is barely a factor here. Besque has the deeper record by a long way, 23,205 reviews against 1,738, plus the vegan and cruelty free marks Lumié cannot claim and a shipping map covering 220+ countries. It also tells you how to use it, which Lumié does not. What $59.99 buys instead is a formula that names its own work: undaria seaweed for the moisture barrier, white lupin for firmness and elasticity, and nothing synthetic in the scent. Then there is the refund. Lumié gives you 60 days and hands the money back. Besque says it does not accept returns, and its one satisfaction claim needs 60 days of use, has to land inside 75 days, and costs $17.00 in processing. Buy Besque if you want the scent and the reassurance of a much bigger crowd. Buy Lumié if you want a formula aimed at one specific problem and the freedom to change your mind.