Image via Drugstore.com

During summer, I rely upon a variety of Victoria's Secret Secret Garden body mists to make sure that the heat and humidity don't overcome my organic salt crystal (and slightly wimpy) deodorant. These body mists promise a slight moisturizing component that I've never really been able to distinguish, but eh, can't hurt. Recently, Dove has been getting in the face of all the big players and has come out with their own version of the VS bread and butter line.

Dove Go Fresh Body Mist is mostly alcohol, but has some water and glycerin to offset it, although if you're hoping to skip moisturizer, forget it. Victoria's Secret's Secret Garden Refreshing Body Mist version has identical primary ingredients but then adds aloe vera and chamomille extracts to give it just that little oomph in the softening arena. I still wouldn't skip the moisturizer in either case, though. While Victoria's Secret has some stinkers, I can't help but love the Strawberries and Champagne when I'm feeling romantic and innocent: Dove attempts to bring up the cachet by naming its fragrances adjectives, like Cool Essentials, which is an interesting blend of cucumber and green tea, but the Refreshing Blend (water lily and mint) has an initial top note that is disturbingly like insect repellent. Dove's scent mellows out to a nice floral and unlike the Victoria's Secret body mists, the fragrance lasted all day. However, considering the wishywashy weird minty floral fragrance, I'm not sure that I wanted it to last, you know?

Dove's Go Fresh is $5 for 3 ounces, so you're certainly not breaking the bank, but considering that when Vicky's Secret body mists aren't on sale (and really, when aren't they either 3/$24 or 5/$30?) they're only $9 for 8.4 ounces, Dove's offering is way more expensive, ounce for ounce. It breaks my Drugstore Cowgirl heart to say this, but in this case, the mall store wins this one. At least Dove has some other winners out there in the skin care arena to make up for this serious miss.