As someone who has championed liquid exfoliators for years, I’ll admit there is still something really satisfying about using a face scrub. The process of mechanically working a textured exfoliator in circular motions around your skin in the hope you will buff away dead cells to reveal its glowier, brighter, more youthful counterpart – there’s nothing like it. Until recently, however, you wouldn’t catch any beauty editor worth their mettle recommending facial scrubs. The formulations were brutal and the textures were equally harsh – they were literally ripping into the skin, causing further issues. And then, to top it off, they were also damaging the environment. The majority contained microbeads – made from plastic, and so wouldn’t dissolve in water. In our pursuit of beauty we were also polluting the oceans and harming sea life. Thankfully, microbeads were eventually banned in 2018. Hence the formulations you are looking at on this page are skin- and sea-friendly. Still, the idea of face scrubs being “bad” has been a tricky legacy to shift – even in my mind. But we need a fresh outlook. Face scrubs are not bad. There, I said it. Just don’t overdo it. Twice a week will do and go easy; remember it’s your face, not an oven pan.
1. Beauty Pie Wonderscrub Bio-Dermabrasion Face Polish £40, beautypie.com
2. Seed To Skin The Radiance Exfoliating Glow Treatment £126, seedtoskin.com
3. Aesop Purifying Facial Exfoliant Paste £43, aesop.com
4. Tula So Polished Exfoliating Sugar Scrub £30, tulaskincare.co.uk
5. The Outset Exfoliating Caffeine Micro Polish £34, cultbeauty.co.uk
6. Murad Vita-C Triple Exfoliating Facial £75, murad.co.uk
7. Elemis Pro-Collagen Glow Boost Exfoliator £55, elemis.com
8. Kate Somerville ExfoliKate Intensive Exfoliating Treatment from £28, katesomerville.co.uk
9. Tatcha The Rice Polish Gentle £64, spacenk.com
10. RéVive Le Polish Micro-Resurfacing Treatment £100, spacenk.com
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