What is a Natural Body Scrub?

A body scrub is a product used to scrub the skin, usually distinguished from facial scrubs, which tend to be a little gentler. Scrubbing tends to imply products harsh enough to encourage exfoliation or sloughing away of dead skin cells. Natural is a term in dispute depending on the regional agency that regulates it, but in places like the US it tends to mean that it's absent of dyes or chemically produced ingredients with minimal processing. Thus natural body scrub is an exfoliative scrub for the skin that may lack certain chemicals or dyes.

Within that definition there are many natural body scrub types on the market. Many of them rely on familiar substances such as sugar, sea salt and even chocolate. Each of these ingredients do have properties that can help exfoliate the skin, and a number of them are tempting due to their appealing scents that make showering or bathing pleasurable.

While exfoliation is often a good thing, it can still be too rough on very sensitive skin, and even without many chemicals, some people may have skin reactions to different products in scrubs. Those with sensitive skin should definitely look for scrubs that are advertised specifically for them, or that are approved for all skin types. People with known allergies should read labels, and search for body scrubs that have very few ingredients and that especially don’t contain any ingredients that might cause skin reaction. Second, those with allergic reactions should probably test a product on a small area of the skin before coating the self from neck to feet in it. Lastly, most people should not exfoliate the legs after shaving since this may cause rash.

Another thing people can do to get a great natural body scrub while exercising control over ingredients is to make one at home. There are many online recipes for these and people may also find suggestions in women’s magazines or in books. Since a lot of these scrubs are food based, storage of the natural body scrub does need to be considered. It might be necessary to make only enough for each use, to refrigerate in between showers, or to discard after a few weeks.

There’s a lot of question about whether people should use a cleansing agent after using a natural body scrub. This can depend on the scrub, but often it’s not a bad idea to use a light soap, particularly if the body has just been coated in food ingredients. It should be noted there are arguments on this. A lot of scrubs do utilize some degree of oil though, so people should be heedful when they walk in the shower, and they may want to wash off this excess oil too.

A popular word in skincare is exfoliation. Getting rid of dead skin helps accomplish this, and may have an anti-aging effect. While exfoliation is important, a natural body scrub alone may not be enough, and people will need to consider daily moisturizer and a good sunscreen to create the healthiest appearing skin.