StyleNest’s resident Beauty Bird rounds up the best body scrubs to leave your skin nourished and silky soft this winter.
All this lack of exercise and general winter sluggishness has made me feel like my circulation needs a pick-me-up, how about you? In a couple of weeks I’m going to venture onto the subject of dry skin brushing but for now, let’s talk scrubs.
In the winter, I park the hardcore sloughers that are perfect in anticipation of the limb-baring summer months. What I’m after in January is something a bit more nourishing, to warm me up and leave my skin soft. And as for my circulation, did you know if you massage in your scrub in upwards instead of downwards, in big strokes towards your heart, this will give your lymph and blood vessels a real boost? Well now you do.
New brand alert: Ayo (meaning ‘Joy’). I’m a bit obsessed by this stuff. In fact I don’t think I’ve ever smelt anything like it. The blend of essential oils in the ‘Salute the Sun’ Body Polisher (£14) is just what I need on a dark winter mornings and, applied with the polishing cloth, it gives a subtle, skin-buffing lather and fills your head with a delicious – and indeed joyful – scent.
For dark winter evenings, warm up chilly limbs before bed with Spice of Life Lemongrass & Ginger Body Scrub (£16.50) from Angela Langford. It contains avocado and rice bran oil and is a wonderful unctuous concoction that smoothes elbows and knees and leaves a lingering gingery sheen on your skin.
Elemis launched their Skin Nourishing Body Scrub (£28.50 John Lewis) last year and I love how creamy it is for a body scrub, probably down to the sweet almond, macadamia, and wheat germ oils. Smells all Elemis and posh spa-like – leaves your backside as soft as a toddler’s.
Lovely Liz Earle knows a thing or too about bodycare and her Energising Body Scrub (£14) is another favourite of mine to perk up my pale old wintery limbs. I love the orangey scent and the scrubbiness (a technical term) that comes from ground up olive stones, making light work of scaly shins.
Last but certainly not least, Phyto-Gel Exfoliant from Yon-Ka (£38). This is a real hardworker: a bright turquoise gel which foams lightly and cleanses as it smoothes, thanks to what are called ‘vegetal micro-scrubbers’. Smells all marine-ish and if it seems pricey, just think, you don’t need shower gel and it lasts for ages.
