Salonpas GEL-PATCH HOT

A few months ago, Salonpas sent me quite an assortment of pain relief products I’d never heard of before to review. Maybe I’d seen their commercials before and never realized it, but I began noticing them once I’d been able to try out the stuff myself. I suffer from back, neck, and shoulder pain most days, and Tom has really bad knees. Opening the Salonpas box was almost like Christmas morning.

These are the products we got to try out:

  • Salonpas Pain Relieving GEL-PATCH HOT
  • Salonpas Pain Relief Patch and Arthritis Patch
  • Salonpas Pain Relieving Massage Foam
  • Salonpas Pain Relieving Jet Spray

Salonpas Pain Relieving GEL-PATCH HOT Review

Salonpas GEL-PATCH HOTWe’ll start with the bad news first. The first thing I tried out was the GEL-PATCH HOT, which contains capsaicin (0.025%) and menthol (1.25%). I had a spot on my back that hurt so badly I didn’t think I could walk, which was very bad, because I had someplace I had to go for a business event. It seemed to me the perfect timing to use one of these pain relieving patches…

Except after about 20 minutes of applying the patch, I felt like my back was on fire. Admittedly, the muscle pain had abated enough for me to move without being in agony, but my skin was literally burning. I had to peel the patch off, and the skin underneath had the bright red color – and feel – of a bad sunburn. Turns out that my sensitive skin can’t handle a pain patch that contains capsaicin.

Not wanting to waste a pain patch, I asked my husband if he wanted to give it a go on his sore knee. It retained enough stickiness for him to apply it, and he reported the next morning that he’d noticed no difference in his knee pain the night before, but the pain was gone when he woke up in the morning. The patch did not burn his skin. So while it did seem to help him, I would not recommend this particular pain patch to anyone with sensitive skin.

Salonpas Pain Relief Patch and Arthritis Patch Review

Really not much to this part… Tom tried out the arthritis patch for his knee, and it was able to ease his pain. It is worth noting that he bites off a curse every time he takes a pain patch off his knee, because those suckers are super sticky and like to pull out leg hairs. I may have jokingly suggested shaving his knee area before putting a pain patch on…

Salonpas Pain Relieving Massage Foam

The pain relieving massage foam is bizarre. You know what it feels like when you rub on some Ben Gay or another type of analgesic cream? This massage foam is nothing like that. Tom literally laughed out loud when he watched me use it one day to rub into my shoulders. The first thing I noticed was that the massage foam was cold. Not just the cold of some sort of cream or gel or liquid that’s been in an air conditioned house and needs to be warmed up by your body temperature – the massage foam actually chilled my skin and made it feel a bit frigid when I sprayed it on. It did warm up as I rubbed it into my shoulder, but it was a real shock to my body. (And it has been every single time I’ve used it, even when I brace for it.) But despite the chill and the weird crackling noise it makes when it comes out of the can, it did a fairly good job of relieving the pain in my shoulders.

Salonpas Pain Relieving Jet Spray Review

It took me a while before I got around to trying out the jet spray because I wasn’t really sure how it was different from the massage foam, but then I realized the different was only method of application. You can use the jet spray on parts of your body where it would be too difficult to rub in the massage foam. It doesn’t drip, and it dries quickly. I tried it out on my thigh because my quads were bothering me, and I was able to pull my pants back up within 30 seconds. Like the massage foam, it was very cold, and I smelled faintly like Wint-O-Green Lifesavers, but the smell wasn’t as noticeable as the menthol in Ben Gay-like creams.

Except for the GEL-PATCH HOT, I was very pleased with all of the Salonpas products we tried. I ended up buying a box of the Salonpas Original patches when they were on sale at the grocery store, and I wore a pair of those on my shoulders during BlogHer… they really made it possible for me to continue lugging my laptop around long after my neck and shoulder wanted to give out from the strain. I think Salonpas has earned a spot in my conference travel bag!

Christina Gleason (976 Posts)

That’s me: Christina Gleason. I’m a writer, editor, and disability advocate. I'm a multiply disabled autistic lady doing my best in this world built for abled people. I’m a geek for grammar, fantasy, and casual gaming. I hate vegetables. I cannot reliably speak, so I’ll happily conduct business over email or messaging instead.


By Christina Gleason

That’s me: Christina Gleason. I’m a writer, editor, and disability advocate. I'm a multiply disabled autistic lady doing my best in this world built for abled people. I’m a geek for grammar, fantasy, and casual gaming. I hate vegetables. I cannot reliably speak, so I’ll happily conduct business over email or messaging instead.

2 thoughts on “Salonpas Pain Relief Products Have Gotten Me Through a LOT”
  1. This product seem to very effective and also will help in reducing the burning sensation that is caused due to joint pain. Can the crackling noise be controlled with the products?

  2. Hi Christina, I have suffered neck and back pain multiple times, and I discovered that most common causes of neck pain include: Too much time hunched over…for example hunched over a steering wheel or your laptop or your smartphone which is very common today; Sleeping in a position that causes strain in the neck such as sleeping on a pillow that is too firm or too high; Carrying a heavy object like a suitcase on one side of your body; Any trauma that causes a strain in the neck such as falling and landing on the top of the head. However, simple remedies at home like applying ice packs, use of epsom salt and apple cider vinegar or even a nice massage over a hot shower can help to alleviate the pain.

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