When a person does skincare, they look great and feel great, but what they don’t realize is that you may also look pretty great to spiders, too. The viral skincare company, Sol de Janeiro, may have created a body butter that attracts wolf spiders.
Before the new year, an anonymous buyer bought Sol de Janeiro’s Delícia Drench body butter. After applying it, they were allegedly chased by a wolf spider throughout their home. After the alleged ordeal, user Chemkat left a review on the Sephora website that states, “If you are scared of wolf spiders- watch out for these lotions lol… When I put it on instantly one will come out. Normally I’ll see every like 3 years, used this and it was everyday… I stopped and I haven’t seen one since…”
The Pholcus Beijingensis, also known as the wolf spider, is a one half to two inches big spider that can be black, brown, or tan in color with various different markings on their body. They are not deadly to humans, but they are lethal to pets and other animals. While most species of spiders spin a web to catch their prey, wolf spiders chase their victims, which plays a big part in the shock factor in the Sol de Janeiro rumor.
After the first review, more buyers with similar experiences began to emerge, stating that wolf spiders also chased after them. Commenters stated, “Received this as a gift and after reading the reviews decided to regift it. The person I gave it to said it attracted spiders” and “DOOO NOTTTT BUYYY. It attracts spiders!!!!! I put it on my arm and now I have 2 spider marks!!!”
The reviews quickly received national attention, gaining traction on multiple social media networks. People were either throwing out their Sol de Janeiro products or running to their closest Sephora in the hopes of testing whether the comment was true or a lie.
“I’m going to slather myself in the spider lotion and go into my garden and find every single jumping spider and orb weaver in the area,” jokes one review. Some social media influencers created videos showing wolf spiders appearing after applying the creepy crawly cream. Whether the videos are real or not has yet to be determined.
Even though this does sound far-fetched, there might be an explanation for this spider situation. Most cosmetics have the chemical compound parum, better known as fragrance, that is used to add a scent to the product. Many fragrant products use the chemicals farnesyl acetate and hexadecyl acetate in their fragrance which is also found in the sexual pheromones of female wolf spiders. One of the ways arachnids attract mates is through chemical signaling. Studies have shown that a 2:1 ratio of farnesyl acetate and hexadecyl acetate entices wolf spider males. However, either chemical alone did not attract any male wolf spiders.
Sol de Janeiro may have accidentally created the perfect combination of the two chemicals and made a product that is an arachnid magnet. Although these chemicals are commonly found in fragrances, it is usually not listed in the ingredient list. Most cosmetic companies instead list it as parum.
On the Sol de Janeiro website, parum is on the ingredient list, but what is in their parum isn’t listed. The company quickly learned of the accusations made against them and has denied the claims, as said in the comment section of their Instagram, “None of our products, including ‘Delicia Drench +59 Mist’ contain these alleged arachnid attracting ingredients.” Yet, in every comment, they never directly said that farnesyl acetate or hexadecyl acetate weren’t ingredients in their products. Instead, they say things like “these alleged arachnid ingredients” or “those ingredients” never explicitly stating which chemicals the rumors referred to.
While Sol de Janeiro has claimed the allegations were false, Sephora has decided to stay silent on the matter, but they did delete all offending comments.
Researchers have come out saying that it is most likely false that spiders are being attracted to the lotion. They have stated that there are three main reasons why the rumors being true are very unlikely. The parum in the butter having the alleged chemical mixture as one of its ingredients is improbable. Even if Delícia Drench had the 2 chemicals in it, it would most likely not be the correct ratio to warrant the spider attraction. The second reason is that at the time, it was the season that spiders went inside houses to escape the cold, so the spider sighting could just have been them already residing in the house for the winter. Lastly, there are about 2,500 species of wolf spiders, so it wouldn’t just attract wolf spiders in general. The chemicals would draw out just a specific type of wolf spider.
Even though most of the internet is convinced that this rumor is true and others are convinced that Sol de Janeiro and researchers are lying, it is most likely untrue. The original commenter, Chemkats, made identical comments for Bondiboost cosmetic products in the summer of 2022, more than a year before the Delícia Drench wolf spider accusations were made: “As far as results it definitely works, but since using it spiders & ants crawl up onto my head. Got bit by a spider… I use a few products but I’m 99.9999999% sure it’s this & the spray.” -Chemkats, August 13, 2022.
Lying about the credibility of things isn’t new and neither is falling for it. Maybe a lesson is to be learned from this: don’t believe everything you hear or read on the internet and don’t feed the wildfires sparked from those lies.
