I'm a Bodycare Expert, and This Affordable Scrub Is My Secret to Soft Skin

As a beauty journalist, I like to think that I can relate to most people’s beauty dilemmas. I am, if you will, a beauty expert of the people. I get painful cystic spots, most of my days are bad hair days, and I even shave my moustache. Because of this, I have grown to hate the act of beauty shaming. Still using face wipes to take off your makeup? If you’re okay with it, then I am too. Only clean your makeup brushes once a year? We’re all guilty of it. However, with all of that out on the table, I absolutely cannot relate to or reason with people who don’t have some sort of bodycare routine.

Don’t get me wrong—I don’t judge you for it. I just can’t understand. You see, I live and breathe bodycare. The delicious smells, the invigorating textures and the energising sensations… I love it all. And despite the fact that all of the above is my truth, I do have a turbulent relationship with scrubs. While the euphoria of using a really great, skin-smoothing scrub can’t be denied, experience has taught me that the majority are mediocre, simply rolling over the skin and disintegrating into nothingness. Budget buys are the worst offenders, but with one pretty major exception: & Other Stories body scrubs.

When it comes to gritty scrubs, most of the time, you get what you pay for. I have found that the more expensive the scrub, the more hard-working and unctuous the formula. Sure, more affordable options might smell great, but rarely do they have that all-important balance between nourishing creaminess and skin-shedding grit that higher-end formulas boast. The & Other Stories scrubs, however, have it all.

They smell divine (as though the fragrance gods crafted them with their own hands), they serve up some serious skin-softening moisture, and most importantly, they really do deliver on the scrub front. On top of that, they’re not messy in any way (the formula holds its own and doesn’t slip around), they look chic on the shelf, and did I mention they cost less than £15?

And while all of the & Other Stories scrubs are great (seriously, they sell like hot cakes), there is one particular tub that I deem to be the star of the show. And I don’t just mean amongst its fellow & Other Stories peers. I’m talking the star of the whole scrub show. That’s right. I’m saying it: & Other Stories Perle de Coco Body Scrub is one of the best body products ever made. I’m not going to mislead you. It has no high-tech, superhero ingredients. In fact, in terms of formulation, it possesses no grandeur whatsoever. But the texture is unrivalled, and it leaves skin feeling impossibly silky.

But the most truly unbelievable quality of Perle de Coco, and the thing that is responsible for the fact it constantly sells out, is the smell. Like warm coconut mixed with vanilla and caramel, it smells good enough to eat. It’s sweet, but not in the sort of way that makes you nauseous—more in a tropical beach on a hot summer’s evening sort of way. It’s so good that if I were to tell you to buy one body product this spring, it would be this.

I very rarely (read: never) try to encourage people to spend their money on a beauty product they didn’t know they needed. If you don’t like foundation, I’m not here to try to make you buy one. However, even if you’re not a body-product lover, I challenge you to open up the lid of Perle de Coco and not want to hop in the shower immediately and smother your body with the stuff. To put things into perspective, & Other Stories Perle de Coco et al. are my favourite body scrubs, and the other runners-up cost a pretty £75 a tub.

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