Boots have urgently recalled the own-brand aftersun (Picture: Getty)
Boots has issued an urgent recall of its own-brand aftersun which customers said burnt like acid and left children in floods of tears.
The Nottinghamshire-based health and beauty retailer has stopped selling its Soltan Soothe & Cool Crackling Aftersun Mousse after users repeatedly complained about being left in agonising pain by the skin cream.
The Thane Road-headquartered firm describes its product as ‘instantly cooling and refreshing’, but buyers had said it had caused a painful burning sensation as opposed to the desired crackling effect.
Over the past three years more than 60 one-star ratings have been submitted by annoyed customers on Boots’ website, with disgruntled reviewers warning others to stay away.
‘I put some on my six-year-old and she screamed in pain. I then put some on some very slight sunburn of mine and I thought my skin was on fire. It’s like liquid acid,’ one customer told other prospective purchasers, before adding: ‘It needs to be removed from sale immediately. Appalling product.’
the aftersun has been decribed as ‘like putting chilli on your cheeks (Picture: Boots)
Other reviewers who had got the product in the ‘Love Island beauty box’, as the Nottingham firm had been a sponsor of the ITV dating show, said it was like putting ‘TCP in an open wound’ or having ‘sprayed chilli on my cheeks’.
While the product’s description said it was a ‘light, ice-cold mousse’, another buyer commented: ‘It’s like your skin is on fire. [I] thought my boyfriend was exaggerating, until I applied [it] to myself.’
Parents said they had to desperately wash the product off their screaming children, with one claiming their teenage son had cried for nearly 15 minutes.
Other customers claimed they had been left with red marks from reactions to the lotion, which one buyer said it took a week to recover from.
A Boots spokesperson said: ‘We continually listen to our customers and take their feedback very seriously. For this reason, we have decided to withdraw the Soltan Soothe & Cool Crackling Aftersun Mousse from sale.
‘Whilst we have the utmost confidence in the rigorous safety assessments that have been conducted on the product, we are concerned by some of the feedback we have received. We’d like to thank customers for taking the time to share their views with us and we are sorry to those people who have been disappointed.’
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