rub it between your hands to heat it a little to activate the oils inside and apply liberally.
Just remember - do not do it casually at social situations and be wary of staining your clothes and triggering an alergic reaction on yourself.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9886999/
"Figure 1d and Supplemental Table S2 show the complete protection times (CPTs) measured using the EPA procedure (tick on-arm assay) for different formulations. The organic lotion base provided no protection from tick crossings. The 10% lotion formulations that provided the longest protection from tick crossings were cinnamon oil, clove oil, 2PEP, and geraniol with CPTs longer than one hour. The formulation with 10% thyme oil displayed a CPT of 55 min, while the rest of the formulations tested did not provide CPTs significantly different from the untreated and unscented lotion controls. Our positive control, 10% DEET in unscented lotion, provided protection for up to six hours, at which time we stopped the experiment."