EXFOLIATOR review: LUSH’S OCEAN SALT scrub VS THE BODY SHOP’S SEAWEED EXFOLIATOR – Glam Radar

by Maria · May 2, 2014

I don’t know about you guys but I feel like there are a few beauty products I have never found my “perfect” one of. I’ve never found a “perfect” body lotion, conditioner, eyeliner… the list goes on. But this month I decided to focus on finding my ‘perfect’ (reasonably priced) exfoliator. When I told my mum I was planning on writing this exfoliator battle post, she revealed to me that she had never exfoliated throughout her whole life. I was shocked! How could this be MY mother?! She explained that she thinks it’s ‘another one of those things that beauty companies tell you you need to do to sell you more products’ so I decided to look up just exactly why we should exfoliate. As you go about your daily tasks, your skin is doing it’s thing. Your skin is made up for 3 layers: the hypodermis, dermis and the epidermis. Roughly every 20 or so days, your skin cells start to shed from the epidermis to make room for the new ones being made in the dermis. That means that the old cells that your skin has shed sit on top of your lovely face causing blocked pores, acne and an overall dull appearance. You should therefore exfoliate to help prevent acne and pore buildup, support healthy skin cell function by increasing epidermal turnover rate and to create a healthy and even skin tone! Anyway, after much research I decided to invest in the following products: The Body Shop’s Seaweed Pore-Cleansing Facial Exfoliator because this had RAVE reviews for a product in it’s price bracket and my ever faithful LUSH’s Ocean Salt facial scrub simply because it was around the same price and almost all of my other skin care products are from LUSH so I thought this would fit in perfectly. So without further ado… LET THE BATTLE BEGIN! The Body Shop seaweed pore cleansing facial ¬†exfoliator looks promising from the outset. The smell is very fresh – something I look for in any exfoliator – and funnily enough has a very “ocean salt”/beachy smell. The beads are small to average size I would say but to be honest I never usually prefer a particular size. As I have combination to oily skin and this product is marketed for that I was very optimistic. However, I have to say after using this product for a few weeks I did notice any particular oil control or pore reduction so if that is what you are looking for in an exfoliator – this is not for you. I did notice a little more brightening with my skin but I did not get that tingly fresh face that I like to achieve after using an exfoliator. As far as application goes, I apply my exfoliator in the shower and dot in at the five pressure points of my face before rubbing it in. I usually like to have a good scrub so that I feel like I am really taking all the rubbish skin off my face. This scrub does not allow you to do that. While rubbing it in a circular motion around my face, it turns into a kind of gel/creamy mixture and I could no longer feel the beads don’t their job on my face. It basically felt like a face wash rather than an exfoliant. I tried to demonstrate this with the pictures below:

Basically, this scrub is not for me. It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t good either. I would definitely recommend this if you are terrified of an exfoliator with any serious scrub factor because this scrub is certainly kind to the skin. Unfortunately, that meant that for me I felt like it wasn’t doing anything at all. It does make your skin feel marginally smoother though, so it’s not a complete waste of money. You can obviously pick this up from your local Body Shop or online at The Body Shop’s website. It retails for¬†¬£8 for 75ml¬†which I think is pretty reasonable. Now, let’s see what Ocean Salt facial scrub ¬†has to offer us… Ocean Salt comes in your typical Lush container that you would expect. As soon as you open the little container you are hit with a salty but citrusy smell which isn’t exactly what I would like to smell like all day but it does smell very cleansing and fresh which is what you want. The beads are completely unique, in fact I wouldn’t even describe them as beads. They are pretty much like chunk of seasalt so are definitely on the large end of the ‘bead’ scale. ¬†Although this product doesn’t boast of oil control quality’s like The Body Shop’s scrub, you can guess that that is involved due to the high citrus and salt content – both ingredients that are drying to the skin. I would definitely say that my skin has been far, FAR less oily after using this. I therefore would not recommend it to any dry skinned chicks out there because it dries up my skin so much (which is wonderful) but for you guys I fear it would be a nightmare. Unlike the Body Shop scrub I, there is a LOT of scrub with this exfoliator. I do not have particularly sensitive skin (although it is redness and acne prone) so I am able to scrub this right into my skin and feel the benefits. Sometimes even I find it a little bit sore (even scrubbing it onto my hands in the below pics was a bit nippy) so obviously that rules this out for sensitive skin types but I personally love it because it feels like the scrub is really deep cleansing and doing it’s job. It leaves my skin dreamily smooth afterwards and after a wee bit of moisturiser WOOOOO my skin feels glorious.
As you can see in the photos below, the grains are much larger and thicker and they stay even after the scrub has been rubbed in.

This is the little pot of Ocean Salt (100g) and that costs¬†¬£6.75.¬†You can also get a much larger 250g pot for¬£12.50¬†so if you are already in love with this scrub then you get more for your dolla with the bigger pot. To conclude I would like to put the products against each other for all the important categories (in my opintion) so you can single out the ones you believe are important and work out which one is for you. Packaging: ¬† ¬† ¬† ¬† ¬†Body Shop wins Scent: ¬† ¬† ¬† ¬† ¬† ¬† ¬† ¬†¬†Body Shop wins Oil Control: ¬† ¬† ¬† ¬† ¬†¬†¬† ¬† ¬† ¬†Lush wins For dry skin: ¬† ¬† ¬†¬†¬†Body Shop wins Sensitive skin:¬† ¬† ¬† ¬†Body Shop wins Scrubbiness: ¬† ¬† ¬† ¬† ¬† ¬† ¬† ¬†Lush wins Smooth skin: ¬† ¬† ¬†¬† ¬† ¬† ¬† ¬† Lush wins Value for money: ¬† ¬† ¬† ¬†¬†Lush wins So basically, it’s a draw. But it’s not – for me Lush’s Ocean Salt wins by a clear mile. From my clever wee table though, you can see that’s because I have oily skin that needs a good scrub to feel clean. If you have dry or sensitive skin that doesn’t need that much – The Body Shop’s Seaweed exfoliatior is for you. Just not me. Have you tried either of these scrubs? Do you agree with my verdict?

Tags: lush facial scrub reviewlush Ocean Salt facial scrubOcean Salt facial scrub reviewThe Body Shop seaweed exfoliatorThe Body Shop seaweed exfoliator reviewThe Body Shop seaweed facial exfoliatorThe Body Shop seaweed pore cleansing facial exfoliator

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