Originally Posted by
sinoflyer
I found this Chinese brand of mosquito-repelling floral water last spring and brought back a couple of bottles. It's made by a brand called Liushen, supposedly with Chinese medicine ingredients (the label on the bottle neck claims "Sourced Naturally" and expressly no DEET). It's available at both Walmart and Carrefour, but be aware that there is also ordinary floral water with no mosquito-repelling capability. IIRC a bottle costs 20-25 RMB(?). I'm told that some Chinese supermarkets here in L.A. and the SGV now also carry it.
I'm a mosquito magnet, and this thing works wondrously for me. Last summer, when L.A. got the full brunt of a tiger mosquito invasion from China, my family and I went through my two bottles by July. The L.A. Times ran an article on those tiger mosquitoes, suggesting that they can multiply even in water left over from garden sprinklers. My home armory has been restocked with this floral water for the upcoming summer.
added: This floral water is not an insect repellent per se. It is only effective against mosquitoes, and anecdotally, it works great for me.
How I wish I'd read this thread earlier! Does anyone know whether the product pictured is known as "butterfly" anywhere else in the world? I ask as I visited Tuvalu a few weeks ago and couldn't find any mosquito repellent there for love nor money, though one person had a bottle which looked very similar to the one above and said it might or might not work on mosquitoes!
I got bitten a LOT there, as I'm a mosquito magnet.
Data point: I passed through Shanghai 3-5 May and again 18-20 May and got bitten there both times.