Is Glow Protect a skincare mosquito repellent cream, or just a nicely scented moisturiser? Misaj, a skincare brand formulated and produced in France, markets it as both: a daily face and body cream, not an EPA-registered repellent. What makes it worth a proper look isn't a duration claim, it's the formula itself: an Amazonian seed oil, a fragrance blend built from four named botanicals, and a full ingredient list the brand publishes openly. This is what the brand says the cream does, and what the wider evidence says about the ingredients doing it.
What the brand says, in its own words
On its product page, as listed on 5 September 2026, Misaj describes Glow Protect this way: "Instead of adding another step to your routine, it combines hydration, skin barrier support and botanical mosquito protection in a single cream designed to be worn daily." The active ingredients section names three things specifically: "Andiroba Oil, a botanical used for generations across the Amazon," "Aloe Vera & Vitamin E, keep skin soft, comfortable, resilient," and "Eucalyptus Citriodora, Geranium, Atlas Cedar & Clove, a natural aromatic blend that helps deter mosquitoes." Elsewhere on the same page the brand states "98% natural origin. 95% of hydration after 3 hours. Formulated and produced in France." It's sold at 100 ml (3.38 fl oz) for €38.00, as listed on the same date.
The distinction worth being plain about
A repellent that carries an EPA registration number has been through a specific testing and labelling process: a stated concentration, an EPA-accepted claim about how many hours it protects for, and directions that are legally enforceable label text. Glow Protect is none of that, by design. It's an EU cosmetic, regulated under the EU Cosmetics Regulation as a skin product, not a pesticide. There is no EPA registration number on the product page, no stated protection-hours claim, and no pesticide label. That isn't a criticism of the formula. It's a description of which shelf it sits on, and it matters because the two categories answer completely different questions: a cosmetic is judged on skin feel, safety and honesty of description; a registered repellent is judged on how long it keeps a specific insect off your skin under tested conditions.
Andiroba oil: the Amazonian ingredient behind the claim
Andiroba (Carapa guianensis) is a real, if modest, example of a botanical with published repellent data. A Brazilian clinical study measured how quickly volunteers were bitten by wild Aedes mosquitoes with different substances on their forearms: no product, refined soy oil, 15% and 100% andiroba oil, and 50% DEET. The result was clear on both counts the study set out to test. Pure andiroba oil delayed the first and third bite compared with soy oil and bare skin, and it was, in the researchers' own words, "significantly inferior to DEET 50%." Their summary line is worth quoting in full: "the pure Andiroba oil presents discreet repellent effect against bite of Aedes sp., being significantly inferior to DEET 50%." A separate systematic review of the plant's biology attributes its repellent, anti-inflammatory and antiparasitic effects to compounds called limonoids, and describes long-standing traditional use of the oil across Amazonian communities. So: a real effect, modestly sized, and nowhere close to a registered active's performance. That's a fair description of what "botanical used for generations across the Amazon" is actually claiming, once you check it against the literature.
The aromatic blend, ingredient by ingredient
The brand names four botanicals in its aromatic blend, and it's worth being precise about what each one is and isn't.
Eucalyptus Citriodora is the plant behind the EPA-registered active oil of lemon eucalyptus (OLE), but it isn't automatically the same thing in a bottle. Penn State Extension's repellent guide draws this line explicitly: plain lemon eucalyptus essential oil "does not have the same repellent effects due to its very low concentration of PMD," the specific compound the EPA's registered OLE product is standardised around. A fragrance note using this plant's oil is not the same regulated substance as the registered pesticide chemical.
Geranium (Pelargonium graveolens oil) sits on the EPA's minimum-risk exemption list, meaning it's legal to sell as an unregistered repellent ingredient without having been formally evaluated. A widely cited 2011 review in Malaria Journal by Maia and Moore found lab-measured repellency for geranium oil and similar minimum-risk oils in roughly the 60-to-180- minute range, a genuine finding, and a much shorter window than a registered active's tested hours.
Atlas cedar (Cedrus atlantica wood oil) is on the same minimum-risk list, with roughly the same lab-level evidence and the same regulatory status: legal, plausible, not independently evaluated as a finished product.
Clove (Eugenia caryophyllus bud oil) is the one with the most interesting recent data. A 2025 study in Insects measured about 111 minutes of complete protection from a 10% clove oil preparation in the same test where DEET ran 6 hours, and Maia and Moore's earlier review put undiluted clove oil at 120 to 240 minutes. It's a real, if short, protective window, and undiluted essential oil is also an irritant, which is exactly why a formulated cream uses it as one aromatic note among several rather than as a standalone treatment.
Why the full ingredient list matters here
Misaj publishes Glow Protect's complete INCI list on its own product page, and it includes several compounds with a second, unrelated role: EU-regulated fragrance allergens. Citronellol, linalool, geraniol, eugenol, limonene and coumarin all appear on the list, and all six are among the substances the EU Cosmetics Regulation requires a brand to name individually on the label (rather than hide behind the generic word "parfum") once they cross a set concentration. Cosmetics Europe's own guidance states the two thresholds plainly: a named allergen must appear on the ingredient list "when its concentration exceeds: 0,001% in leave-on products, 0,01% in rinse-off products." That's not a flaw in the formula. It's the label doing exactly what it's supposed to do, and it's the reason anyone with a known fragrance sensitivity can check a cream like this before buying it rather than after.
Is Glow Protect a skincare mosquito repellent cream, plainly stated?
Glow Protect is a French-made, 98%-natural-origin daily moisturiser (both figures as stated by the brand) built around a real botanical ingredient list: an Amazonian seed oil with modest, published repellent data, and a four-note aromatic blend drawn from plant families that range from "registered pesticide's source plant, in a different form" to "plausible, lab-tested, never formally evaluated as a finished product." None of that adds up to an EPA-registered repellent, and the brand doesn't claim it is one. It adds up to a scented, transparently labelled skincare cream with a genuine botanical story behind it, which is a fair thing for a cosmetic to be.
Frequently asked questions
Is Glow Protect an EPA-registered mosquito repellent?
No. It's an EU cosmetic, regulated as a skin product, with no EPA registration number and no stated protection-hours claim on its product page. The brand describes it as combining hydration, skin barrier support and a botanical aromatic blend, which is a cosmetic description, not a pesticide-label one.
What are the active botanicals in Glow Protect?
The brand names Andiroba oil as its lead botanical, plus an aromatic blend of eucalyptus citriodora, geranium, Atlas cedar and clove. Published research gives andiroba oil a modest, statistically real but DEET-inferior repellent effect, and gives geranium and Atlas cedar oils lab-level (unevaluated as finished products) support. Clove has the strongest recent lab data of the group, at roughly 111 minutes of complete protection in one 2025 study.
Why does the ingredient list name specific fragrance compounds?
Citronellol, linalool, geraniol, eugenol, limonene and coumarin are all regulated fragrance allergens under EU cosmetics law. Once a fragrance allergen crosses a set concentration threshold, the brand is required to name it on the label rather than hide it inside the word "parfum," so its presence on Glow Protect's INCI list is a transparency requirement, not a marketing choice.
You can see the full formulation on the Glow Protect product page. For the wider botanical category this cream sits in, see botanical mosquito repellent ingredients, explained, and for how DEET itself compares on skin, see is DEET safe? a skincare-first look.
Sources (fetched 2026-09-05)
- misajskin.com, Glow Protect product page (brand description, active ingredients, "98% natural origin. 95% of hydration after 3 hours," price, size, full INCI list, as listed 2026-09-05). https://misajskin.com/products/glow-protect
- Miot, H.A. et al., "Comparative study of the topical effectiveness of the andiroba oil (Carapa guianensis) and DEET 50% as repellent for Aedes sp.," Revista do Instituto de Medicina Tropical de São Paulo, 46(5):253-256, 2004 (bite-delay data; the "discreet repellent effect... significantly inferior to DEET 50%" conclusion). https://www.scielo.br/j/rimtsp/a/7CxzZ67yJmNDcKKhycLmBKx/
- Henriques et al., "Bioactive limonoids from Carapa guianensis seeds oil and its biotechnological applications: a systematic review," Arabian Journal of Chemistry, 2023 (limonoids and traditional Amazonian use). https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10068018/
- Penn State Extension, Tick and Mosquito Repellent Guide ("Lemon eucalyptus essential oil does not have the same repellent effects due to its very low concentration of PMD"; the minimum-risk exemption list; page last updated May 10, 2022). https://extension.psu.edu/tick-and-mosquito-repellent-guide
- Maia, M.F. and Moore, S.J., "Plant-based insect repellents: a review of their efficacy, development and testing," Malaria Journal, 2011 (lab-measured durations for geranium, cedar and clove oils). https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3059459/
- Lopez et al., "Repellency and Toxicity of Essential Oils Against Mosquitoes," Insects, 2025 (10% clove oil at about 111 minutes complete protection; DEET at 6 hours in the same study). https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11765945/
- Cosmetics Europe, Guidelines on the Fragrance Allergens Requirements, 2023 (the 0.001% leave-on / 0.01% rinse-off individual-labelling threshold under Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 as amended by Commission Regulation (EU) 2023/1545). https://cosmeticseurope.eu/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/FINAL_Fragrance_allergens_guide_02_11_2023.pdf
- US EPA, Skin-Applied Repellent Ingredients (the registered-actives list, for the EU-cosmetic-vs-registered-repellent distinction; page states "Last Updated: January 23, 2026"). https://www.epa.gov/insect-repellents/skin-applied-repellent-ingredients