The Beauty Diary by Beck Sullivan: Body scrubs and lotions
We focus a lot of time and money looking after our faces but what about the rest of our body?
Sometimes we get so focused on taking care of our faces, that we forget about the skin on the other 90 per cent of our bodies.
But now summer is officially over and we’re about to endure colder and darker days, it’s time to start thinking about how to keep our bodies from drying out.
There are a gazillion different body lotions and exfoliators out there, yet surprisingly they’re two of the hardest products to get right. Most body moisturisers can feel super sticky and make it impossible to put clothes on, while lots of exfoliators can leave your beautiful skin irritated and red raw.
So we’ve done the hard yards for you and found some awesome body lotions and exfoliators that don’t do any of that. All you’ll be left with is smooth, supple skin. You’re welcome.
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FRANK BODY EXPRESS-O SCRUB
Price: $19.95
Available from: Frank Body online, Mecca Maxima, Adore Beauty
Natural Aussie beauty brand Frank Body is famous for their very affordable exfoliating coffee scrubs and super cute packaging. Their two female founders are annoyingly successful — somehow they’ve managed to make a cool $20 million from their simple idea and I’m outrageously jealous.
Frank sell about a million different versions of this product — including a shimmery scrub and one made from green tea leaves instead of coffee — but the best one is the Express-o scrub.
Unlike its sister products, this scrub isn’t just made from loose coffee granules and raw sugar. Those ingredients are combined with sweet almond and macadamia oils to form a delightful creamy scrub. It also comes in a more convenient packet that kind of looks like one of those kids’ yoghurt tubes and I’m here for it.
You can easily control how much you use, so there is minimal wastage and you don’t end up with coffee granules all over your bathroom and inside parts of your body you never wanted to exfoliate.
Also, with Frank’s other scrubs I find the product hardens into massive chunks very easily, thanks to my dripping wet hands scooping in and out of the bag. It’s really annoying and means those chunks pretty much go to waste. There’s none of that with Express-o.
OUAI SCALP AND BODY SCRUB
Price: $65
Available from: Sephora, Net-A-Porter
Jen Atkin, the awesome celebrity hairstylist who’s besties with Chrissy Teigen and the Kardashians, has her own haircare line called Ouai.
The products are designed for the everyday girl who is a little bit hopeless at doing her own hair. Ouai’s branding is very cool and chic, so the products look beautiful sitting in your bathroom.
This scrub is the work of genius marketing. I never wanted or needed anything like it, but since its arrival I now look forward to my weekly scrub down in the shower and slathering this all over my head and body.
The theory behind scalp scrubs is that they remove the product build up in the hair that we often don’t wash out properly. My hair colourist will probably hate me, but I feel squeaky clean after using this.
ALPHA-H LIQUID GOLD LUXE RESURFACING BODY CLOTHS
Price: $32 for a packet of 25
Available from: Sephora
These look and feel like make-up wipes, but they’re soaked in glycolic acid, a strong AHA/chemical exfoliant, and are designed to be used on your body.
They’re great for helping remove stubborn ingrown hairs, those weird bumps that sometimes appear on the back of the arms and any of those unfortunate butt pimples that sometimes crop up. Sorry, that’s gross, but it happens.
These wipes are certainly not necessary but if you find that a physical exfoliator isn’t enough to remove any unwanted lumps and bumps, these are a great addition.
I had a weird tiny pimple in my cleavage the other day (cute, I know) and so I popped it and used one of these wipes. The next day it was almost invisible.
KIEHL’S CREME DE CORPS
Price: $16 for 75ml, $33 for 125ml, $44 for 250ml, $79 for 500mL, $108 for 1L
Available from: Kiehl’s stores and online, David Jones and Adore Beauty
This is the original body moisturiser that feels super hydrating and luxe.
The packaging is cute, it’s not outrageously expensive and a little goes a long way.
AVEENO DAILY MOISTURISING BODY LOTION
Price: $12.95
Available from: Priceline, Chemist Warehouse
Everyone needs a massive pump pack of cheap body lotion or moisturiser in their arsenal, even if the packaging is so gross that you hide it in your bathroom cabinet. This one by Aveeno is hydrating but not sticky.
Aveeno’s branding is a bit confusing. They use the word “natural” a lot on their packaging but it is definitely not a natural beauty brand.
A girlfriend of mine who only uses 100 per cent natural products looked up the ingredients in a special app she uses to detect synthetic ingredients and a bunch of different things popped up. I don’t use natural products and these ingredients don’t really bother me, but if you’re after something completely natural, this is not for you.
WELEDA SKIN FOOD BODY BUTTER
Price: $29.95
Available from: Weleda online, David Jones, Adore Beauty, A Nourished Life, About Life stores
Weleda Skin Food is a popular natural face moisturiser and this is the body version. Now, this product is 100 per cent natural. You can read the full ingredients list here.
Skin Food is very thick, oily and has a balm-like texture that is not for everyone. It’s awesome to use in winter on dry skin. If you’re unsure about making the investment, you can buy the mini travel tube to try before committing any more cash. The Body Butter has a similar texture and fragrance.
AESOP RIND CONCENTRATE BODY BALM
Price: $40 for 120ml tube and $105 for 500ml pump bottle
Available from: Aesop stores and online, Adore Beauty
Aesop sells a few different moisturisers and lotions, but this one is my favourite because it smells the best. It contains pink grapefruit, lemon rind and orange rind and comes in a very chic orange tube that looks gorgeous on your bedside table.
My new life goal is to be able to afford the 500ml pump version and find ridiculous excuses to upload photos of it to Instagram.
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PALMER’S COCOA BUTTER MOISTURISING BODY OIL
Price: $10.80
Available from: Woolworths, Coles, Priceline, Chemist Warehouse
Palmer’s famous Cocoa Butter is a deliciously thick body moisturiser. This is the oil version and it smells insanely amazing — kind of like chocolate, kind of like coconut.
Some people like to just use body oils instead of a moisturiser. In winter or when I’m particularly dry I like to mix a few drops of this with a regular moisturiser for extra hydrating.
You’ll smell and feel like a dream.
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