A great at-home skincare routine means treating your skin well from your face to your toes! When I first started creating products I was focused on making great items to treat the skin on my body. I had struggled with skin ailments on my body like redness, extreme dryness, and stretch marks so I wanted to put a greater focus on what I was using on my skin and update my body care routine a bit. Like many others, my skin was needing something more than just cleansing with a good smelling body wash. There is always such a focus on specific items and skincare regimens for our faces but not as much importance is placed on a great body skincare routine. Using high-quality products that are tailored to your skin on your body can make a big difference; you can treat acne, dry skin, sun damage, keratosis pilaris, aging, and more.

scrub me secret: Through personal experience and my experience as an esthetician I have learned that keratosis pillars (tiny bumps usually on backs of arms or legs) can be greatly reduced if not fully erased by switching from commercial & artificially fragranced body washes and soaps to a wash with clean, simple ingredients. Many commercial products lack rich nourishing ingredients and contain skin sensitizing ingredients. By using a high-quality body cleanser your skin’s barrier can balance and function better.

My body care skincare routine:

Cleanse with bar soap:

scrub me plant-based bar soaps are the only soaps I cleanse with. This is partially because I have access to unlimited bar soap since I make it, and also because my skin only feels good if cleanse with something that is free from fragrance oils, detergents, and sensitizing chemical ingredients. Something I really like about handmade, cold-process bar soap is that there are no preservatives or emulsifying ingredients needed that sometimes cause skin sensitivities like breakouts, bumps, and redness. My skin is dry, sensitive, and I’m also focused on anti-aging; soothing, antioxidant-rich, nourishing, and balancing ingredients are what I like in my cleansers. Soaps I use often are the balancing bar, toning bar, sweet fennel man soap, and the seasonal ginger tea or illuminate soap. I make sure to suds up every part of my skin so it can receive all the benefits.

scrub me secret: soaps for breakout-prone or oily skin are the clarifying bar, cedarwood man soap, detoxifying soap, and the refresh soap. If you have a lot of active acne or inflamed pimples avoid using an exfoliating soap like the cedarwood man soap.

Deeply Exfoliate 3x a week:

Sea salt body scrubs and “dry brushing” with body scrub gloves are my two favorite ways of getting a deep exfoliation. Taking the extra time to exfoliate with a body scrub or dry brush is about more than buffing away dry skin cells. Body exfoliation stimulates circulation and lymph movement, helping the body to both drain toxins and protect proteins like collagen and elastin. I like salt scrub because the minerals in the salt are healing for skin, that means you’re getting skin softening, healing, detoxifying, and anti-aging benefits from the one scrub session. Body scrub gloves (loofah gloves) are really beneficial when used dry, with no water. I think of this as an easier way to dry brush. Exfoliating by massaging your skin in small circles with the gloves is a slightly more aggressive, stimulating exfoliation that targets cellulite, loss of elasticity, stretch marks, and dull skin. Massage/scrub skin until it turns pink from circulation and then move onto nourishment with shea or body oil.

scrub me secret: want to target certain stretch marks? Exfoliate these areas daily by switching between dry brushing with gloves or a dry brush and a sea salt body scrub. Follow up dry brushing with shea butter, body oil, or lotion. Don’t exfoliate too aggressively but make sure to keep up with this daily routine. Stretch marks may never fully fade away but with consistent cell turnover and stimulation you can smooth the area out and shrink stretch marks.

Shea butter or body oil:

When applying shea butter or body oil post-shower I have found that I need much less product than one would think. I start with a small amount of body oil or shea butter in the palm of my hand and apply in an upwards motion starting at my ankles; the upwards motion helps more with circulation. A light layer is all the skin needs to absorb and receive the benefits, apply more product as needed. By the time I’m finished with my entire body my skin has already soaked up most of the oils and I don’t feel heavily coated in product or greasy. I like shea butter and non-pore clogging body oil because these ingredients help bind moisture and nourishment to the skin, making it healthier overall. My favorite items right now are the citrus shea butter and a CBD body oil that helps with inflammation. This nourishment step is crucial for anti-aging and treating sun damage.

scrub me secret: when choosing a body butter, oil, or lotion it’s important to stay away from products with fragrance oils. essential oils have real properties that benefit the skin while fragrance oils can cause irritation for a lot of us. fragrance oils can cause redness, itching, small breakouts, and dermatitis.

Spot treatments:

Common places I see breakouts or whiteheads on my body are on the backs on my legs and on my glutes. I know this is due to a lot of bicycling and exercise so I’m always prepared for the occasional breakout. I’ve found that since the skin on the body is a bit more resilient it responds well to daily spot treatments with a retinol product. Once I’ve spotted the breakout I treat the area with Sunday Riley Good Genes or PCA Clarity Retinol 3-4 days in a row and that usually takes care of it. Other spot treatments that provide breakout clearing results are a benzoyl peroxide treatments like PCA Acne Cream or a clay-like scrub me oil clearing powder mask.

scrub me secret: just recently I got quite a few mosquito bites while sitting outside one evening and while hydrocortisone was helping it wasn’t quite doing the trick when it came to relieving the itch. I mixed up a combo of peppermint and lavender essential oil and spot treated my mosquito bites by dipping a cotton ball into the essential oils and dabbing them. I’ve got to tell you this really helped relieve the itchiness!

I hope you got some helpful tips from my home care routine that you can apply to your own body care routine. Or better yet, maybe I inspired you to start a great skin care regimen for your body! scrub me was first started as a body care product company that provides soaps, scrubs, and butters that have ingredients that make a real change in our skin; I want everyone to feel amazing and radiant from head to toes. Each item I make to target a specific skin concern or skin type and there is an item for everyone. Customize and upgrade your body care routine today!