little white truths

I unboxed this Clarins body set yesterday (see here) and I'm back today to review my first item from the kit: the body scrub.

It's 30ml in size and while that's not a huge amount for a body product, what I've been doing is only using it on my upper half - that way I've been able to make it last longer so I get more uses from it and have a better idea of how it works over time.

Clarins claims/product details:

• The body scrub for soft and smooth skin
• Bamboo powder polishes and softens the skin while eliminating impurities and dead skin cells
• Your skin is left primed for the benefits of treatments to follow
• By stimulating cell renewal, this body scrub helps prevent and diminish the look of flaky skin
• The skin is firmer, more resilient and soft to the touch
• Restores firmness 
• For all skin types
• Use 2-3 times per week
• RRP $55 AUD for 200ml

Verdict

This is a nice little body scrub and I'm enjoying it, although I certainly wouldn't go out and spend $55 on it. That's for sure.

It's a cream product and it has that familiar, creamy Clarins scent. My mum uses Clarins skincare so it's a smell I've known for years. While it's a smell I quite like, do be aware that it contains parfum (you'll see it noted just before the halfway mark, so it's higher up than I'm used to seeing and therefore there's more of it), so if you don't like artificial fragrance in your skincare, then I would steer clear of this.

It contains very fine grains that give the skin a gentle polish, and I'm not used to body scrubs that contain the kind of scrubby matter you'd be more likely to find in a facial exfoliant. While the grains do work, if you prefer a rougher body scrub then this mightn't be the right product for you.

I've been using this for around a month now (I was very late with my unboxing post), and while I do think it works well enough as an exfoliant, it's no better than the cheaper scrubs you can find in the chemist or supermarket, so I certainly wouldn't go out and buy this for myself. In my opinion, when it comes to the body at least, a scrub is a scrub.

On the claims: yes it helps give you soft and smooth skin; yes it polishes and removes dead skin cells; yes it helps remove flaky skin; and no I don't think it does anything towards skin firmness or resilience.

Overall I think this is a nice product and it should especially suit those who prefer a gentler scrub, and while I'm enjoying using it, I don't think it's worth the price-tag so I personally wouldn't recommend it. I've used budget body scrubs that are better than this (and are also fragranced with natural oils etc, rather than parfum), so I would spend your money elsewhere.

As alternatives, I recommend the Mr Bean Coffee Scrub (reviewed here), which costs $17.95 AUD at full-price, or the Rituals, The Ritual of Sakura Body Scrub (reviewed here), which costs $39 AUD but contains almost twice the amount of product as this Clarins one - and you can also often find it heavily discounted if you shop around.

Not for me.