Shed The Dead (Skin): Part Three

I love a gritty, dense body scrub. My favorites: Juara Coffee Scrub and Fresh Brown Sugar Body Polish. But several friends have mentioned that colored body scrubs are really hard to clean up in their natural stone or glass tile showers. So, on my Sunday of sloughing, I decided to try an exfoliating bar instead, which feels a bit like a pumice stone and releases fewer dark granules onto your shower floor.

My friend Michelle Adams, founder of The Maryn online shop, sells Hudson Made Worker’s Soap which contains actual pumice. This soap (pictured above) bills itself as a cleanser for skin that is stained or callused from woodworking or carpentry, and while I do neither of those things, I figured that just meant it cleaned deeply and thoroughly. So I gave it a go. My first time…eh. Not that impressed. The soap didn’t feel gritty enough (nowhere near the sloughing power of my Juara Coffee Scrub). However, I’m now almost ten days into using it (and sharing it with my husband), and the bar has softened considerably, exposing the granules inside. If you use the bar directly on the skin, like a sponge, the exfoliation is pretty potent. It’s been especially helpful sloughing off the scaly skin on my feet, courtesy of Baby Foot. It is also less messy than a loose scrub, so that’s another upside. My only complaint: The scent is a little manly for me, as it's laced with tobacco, cedar and patchouli. If that sounds like scent heaven to you though, try it out. But if you’re after a subtler scent (as well as less shower cleanup), try Fresh Seaberry Exfoliating Soap or The Body Shop Fuji Green Tea Exfoliating Soap.

Want to see how my Sunday of sloughing began? Check out Part 1 and Part 2