Velatrin is a topical pain relief cream designed to both relieve the symptoms of joint and muscle pain as well as aid in faster healing. Here’s our Velatrin review.
What is Velatrin?
Velatrin is a skin cream, packaged in 4-ounce containers, that makes use of natural ingredients in order to provide non-prescription strength pain relief for individuals suffering from muscle and joint problems ranging from arthritis to tennis elbow.
Velatrin Features: How Does It Work?
Velatrin is formulated to work in two distinct ways – first, to treat the symptoms of muscle and joint pain, and second, to provide support for healing the injuries that cause that pain.
Velatrin provides pain relief through counter-irritation. In other words, some of the ingredients in the skin cream both cool and heat the skin, providing sensations that lead the body’s pain receptors to pay more attention to the heating and cooling sensation than the original ache or pain. Many pain relief skin creams, such as Bengay and IcyHot, for example, work using the same methodology.
Other ingredients in Velatrin also act to provide aid for the body to heal. These ingredients (see below) either have clinically proven anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, and antibiotic effects or are thought to have such effects.
Who Makes Velatrin?
The Velatrin website itself does not list the company that manufactures the product, instead just referring to itself by the product name. However, the site does list an address and telephone number in Brooklyn, New York.
A few minutes spent using Google revealed that a health products company, Quality Nature Health Products, uses the same address listed on the Velatrin website. Additionally, the Amazon listing for Velatrin lists Quality Nature as the manufacturer of the product as well.
Quality Nature does not list Velatrin as one of its products on its own website, but it’s clear the company does make and sell the product – even if it seems to go to some lengths to distance itself officially from it. Why Velatrin is being sold under a different brand name as Quality Nature’s other products is a mystery.
Velatrin Ingredients
Velatrin contains both Methyl Salicylate and Menthol, listed as active ingredients. Methyl Salicylate is better known as wintergreen oil, so named because it’s traditionally sourced from wintergreen plants like the American wintergreen. Menthol, in turn, is an organic compound that can be made from one of any number of mint oils.
When applied to the skin, wintergreen oil first provides a warming sensation and then a cooling sensation. Adding menthol intensifies this effect.
The inactive ingredients in Velatrin include arnica, a botanical used in traditional folk medicine for generations as an anti-inflammatory agent and an antibiotic; Vitamin B6, an essential vitamin that plays a role in supporting neurological function and soothing irritated skin; aloe vera gel, a popular remedy for skin conditions like sunburn because of its soothing elements and antibacterial nature; and green tea extract, which is rich in antioxidants and may have anti-inflammatory effects.
Velatrin Pricing
Quality Nature sells Velatrin directly from the product’s website. One four-ounce container of Velatrin is $19.99, plus shipping and any applicable taxes. Velatrin is also available from Amason, sometimes at a 5% to 10% discount, and is eligible for Prime shipping.
Velatrin Reviews: What Do Customers Have to Say?
Despite Quality Nature downplaying Velatrin’s connection to the company, the pain relief cream is likely to be one of its most popular products. Velatrin has garnered 95 reviews on its Amazon entry, resulting in a rating of 3.6 out of 5 stars. 56% of those reviewers gave the product 5 stars.
Pros:
- Provides Moderate Pain Relief – Reviewers say that Velatrin is capable of providing some moderate pain relief for any number of aches and pains. Users have been able to use the product to treat several conditions, ranging from joint pain from knee surgeries, pain from suffering injuries from car accidents, or chronic pain due to suffering from fibromyalgia.
Cons:
- Overpowering Smell – The amount of menthol used in Velatrin gives it a very strong smell, and this is something that even satisfied customers have commented on. Many have recommended applying the cream at night so as to not walk around all day with the smell hovering around you and disturbing those nearby.
- Slightly Expensive – Some customers complained that the product was a little bit on the expensive side. $20 for only 4 ounces seemed insufficient to more than a few reviewers.
Should You Buy Velatrin?
From all reports, Velatrin seems to work much more often than it doesn’t. Indeed there are only a few complaints stating that the product doesn’t provide enough pain relief; instead, the core complaint has been the rather unpleasant smell from the cream, a byproduct of having menthol as one of its active ingredients.
It’s up to you to determine if pain relief is worth suffering through a few hours of menthol fragrance following you around everywhere. However, if you suffer from chronic joint or muscle pain, often any sacrifice is worth a little relief. Smelling like a giant mentholated cough drop may be a relatively small price to pay.
