Body Butters & Sugar Scrubs

A scrub clears the way; a butter keeps skin soft once you step out. The scrub lifts off dry, dull skin so what is underneath feels smooth. The butter is the part you reach for after, sealing in moisture so the softness holds. One readies the skin, the other keeps it that way. Used together, two or three times a week, they are a small thing you can actually feel.

Once or twice a week is plenty for most skin. Exfoliating every day can leave skin feeling tight and raw, since you are buffing faster than it renews. A Sunday-evening scrub, or a midweek one, is the sweet spot. If your skin runs dry or sensitive, start with once a week and see how it feels. Always follow with body butter while skin is still slightly damp.

Sugar and salt both exfoliate, but the feel is different. Sugar crystals are rounder and gentler, so they dissolve as you massage and suit most skin. Salt is coarser and more bracing, better for tougher spots like heels. Our Lemongrass & Ginger Sugar Scrub is sugar-based with coconut and almond oil, so skin feels conditioned, not stripped, after you rinse.

Shea and cocoa are two of the richest plant butters for dry skin. Shea is soft and sinks into skin; cocoa butter is firmer, with a faint chocolate-warm scent, and forms a light seal that holds moisture in. Our Lemongrass & Rosemary butter whips the two together so they melt on contact without a greasy film, while the Lavender butter leans on cocoa for that same soft seal. Best on the spots that go dry first — elbows, shins, and hands.

Match the scent to the time of day. Lemongrass is bright and green, the kind of scent that suits mornings and a quick wake-up, in the scrub or the Lemongrass & Rosemary butter. Lavender is soft and quiet, made for the hours before bed; the Lavender Body Butter is the one to smooth on after an evening bath. Plenty of women keep both, one for each end of the day.

Yes, and they arrive ready. Each one ships in our botanical kraft gift box with shredded paper inside for cushion, so there is nothing extra to wrap. A scrub-and-butter pair is a kind gift for someone who never spends it on themselves — the friend who would love it but would not buy it for herself. "She actually used it" is the review we hear most.