I like to use an exfoliant in the shower at least once or twice a week. We carry lots of dead skin cells around and need to get rid of these to keep our skin as healthy as possible, so using a body exfoliant is essential. I’ve used various products lately and here’s a look at 3 of them.
Skinyoga Coffee Body Scrub – £16 for 200g
This is a really natural product containing just ground coffee, cold pressed coconut oil and sesame oil. The makers claim that the product helps to fight against inflammation and the caffeine enhances fat metabolism which ultimately helps to reduce the appearance of cellulite and stretch marks. The natural oils moisturise and nourish your skin.
The instructions said to have your normal shower and then apply the scrub onto wet skin, leaving it for 5 to 7 minutes so the coconut oil can get into the skin. A word of advice if you’re going to use this product, decant it before your shower! It’s very messy, I should have taken some out ready to use, but I ended up trying to get it out of the pouch and making a real mess in the shower with coffee all over. I estimate I got as much on the floor as on my skin.
It was quite satisfying to rub in because you can really see where you’ve already applied it! I don’t think I managed to wait the whole 5 to 7 minutes before I rinsed it off, I was worried that it would be difficult to rinse off but it was easy. My skin felt amazing afterwards and it also smelled really nice, but then I love coffee. The next day my skin still felt really soft and moisturised.
What’s In It For Me Walnut Scrub £7 for 200 ml
I was a bit wary of using this, I envisioned large particles of walnut shell but that’s not what it’s like at all, it’s actually quite smooth and you can feel the gentle exfoliation as you use it. Ingredients include sweet almond oil to rejuvenate the skin and orange and jasmine flower for a lovely smell. It does not contain microbeads. It was much easier to use than the coffee scrub but the effects were fairly short lived. I didn’t feel as smooth or hydrated for very long. It’s good if you haven’t got a lot of time and want a quick shower.
Sanctuary Spa Salt Scrub – £13 for 650g
This is a blend of dead sea salts suspended in nourishing oils and is also a microbead free product. This reminds me of the type of exfoliators I’ve used for years, I’ve been a sea salt scrub fan for a long time. It’s pretty easy to use, not nearly as messy as the coffee scrub. You can use it on wet skin while you’re in the shower, or for a deeper result, massage it onto dry skin first before you get in the shower. It rinses away fairly easily. Immediately afterwards my skin felt extremely soft and hydrated more so than with the other products, however, this wore off very quickly.
Which was my favourite? Believe it or not it was the coffee scrub! I just have to remember to decant some into an easily accessible container before I get in the shower. The results were far longer lasting than with the other products.
What’s in it for me Walnut Scrub Ingredients: Water (Aqua), Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Acrylates Copolmer, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Sodium Chloride, Sodium Hydoxide, Fragrance (Parfum), Carya Illinoensis (Pecan) Shell Powder, Prunus Amygdalus Dulcis (Sweet Almond) Oil, Citrus Aurantium Dulcis (Orange ) Fruit Extract, Jasminum Officnale (Jasmine) Flower Extract, Methylchloroisothiazolinone, Methylisothiazolinone, Magnesium Nitrate, Magnesium Chloride
Sanctuary Spa Salt Scrub Ingredients: Sodium Chloride, Para num Liquidum (Mineral Oil), Maris Sal (Sea Salt), Prunus Amygdalus Dulcis (Sweet Almond) Oil, Tocopheryl Acetate, Triticum Vulgare (Wheat) Germ Oil, Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Oil, Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil, Parfum (Fragrance), Isopropyl Myristate, Oenothera Biennis (Evening Primrose) Oil, Tocopherol, Hexyl Cinnamal, Linalool, Limonene, Benzyl Salicylate, CI 47000 (Yellow 11), CI 26100 (Red 17).