Salt scrub — what it is, how to use it and how often

What a salt scrub actually is

Two things in a jar: a salt and an oil. The salt is mechanical — the crystals have edges, and when you work them across the skin, loose surface skin comes with them. The oil is the carrier. It holds the crystals together so they can be spread, and it is what remains once the salt has been rinsed away.

That is the whole product. A salt scrub sold as something more elaborate than that is usually the same two things with more words around them.

Ours sits in sunflower and rapeseed oil, with sea salt as the only abrasive. The list on the jar is short enough to read in full:

Sodium chloride, Helianthus annuus (Sunflower) seed oil, Brassica campestris (Rape), Parfum (Fragrance), Tocopherol, Limonene, Linalool.

Sodium chloride is the salt. Helianthus annuus is sunflower, Brassica campestris rapeseed. Tocopherol is vitamin E. Parfum is the fragrance, and the names at the end are fragrance components that have to be declared separately above a certain amount — which is why the list ends the way it does. Those differ between the scents; everything else on the list is the same.

Salt or sugar

Salt crystals are harder and more angular than sugar, and they do not dissolve in oil the way sugar does. That makes a salt scrub the stronger of the two. Sugar is rounder, milder, and breaks down while you work with it.

Which one is right depends on where on the body you are and how often you scrub. Feet, elbows and knees take salt every time. The inside of the thighs, the chest, and anything you have just shaved do not. We have written a separate page on the difference: salt scrub or sugar scrub.

How to use it

The short version is on the jar: massage into damp skin in the shower, before soap. Rinse and pat dry.

Four things make the difference in practice:

1. Damp skin, not soaking. Standing under the water rinses the crystals away before they have done anything. Step out of the stream, or turn the water off.
2. Before soap. Soap afterwards takes some of the oil with it. To keep more of it, skip the soap on the areas you have just scrubbed.
3. Light pressure, short circles. The crystals do the work. Pressing harder does not remove more skin — it drags at the skin that is staying.
4. Pat dry. Don’t rub with the towel straight afterwards.

The full routine, step by step and with the common mistakes, is on how to use a salt scrub in the shower.

How often

Once or twice a week for most people. More often on feet and elbows, less on delicate areas. More on what decides it — the state of your skin, the season, how hard you tend to press — on how often to use a salt scrub.

The sign that it has become too often is not redness right after the shower, which is common and brief. It is skin that still feels tight the next day.

When to leave it alone

• The same day you shave. A razor exfoliates in its own right; salt on top of that stings, and the sting is a warning. See salt scrub and shaving.
• On cracked or broken skin. Salt in a graze does exactly what you would expect.
• On sunburn. Wait until the redness has gone completely.
• On the face. The crystals are made for the body. Facial skin is thinner and body scrub crystals are too large for it.

The jar, the water and the spoon

The scrub sits in oil, and oil and water do not get along. Every wet hand dipped into the jar carries water back down into it, and water in an unpreserved oil-based product is the one thing that genuinely shortens its life.

That is the entire reason a wooden spoon exists. Portion out what you need, leave the jar outside the shower, and rinse the spoon afterwards.

The fragrances

Our salt scrub comes in three scents, and the scent is the only difference between them — same salt, same oils, same base.

• Neoporto — jasmine, citrus and lavender. The calmest of the three and the one that stays with you longest.
• Lemon Fields — green lemon, refreshing rather than sweet.
• Mintcalypto Energize — mint and eucalyptus, the most noticeable in a hot shower.

To read about the notes on their own there are pages for jasmine, lavender and citrus.

After the scrub

Skin is warm and damp straight out of the shower, and that is when an oil or a lotion is easiest to spread. Body oil goes on while the skin is still warm; body lotion sinks in faster and leaves no film. Which you choose is a question of how you want your skin to feel, not of which is better.

More questions about salt scrubs

• How to read the ingredient list on a body scrub
• Sea salt in skincare — crystal size and origin
• Salt scrub on dry winter skin
• Salt scrub for feet and heels
• Salt scrub and sun
• Can you use a salt scrub on your face?
• Make your own salt scrub
• A spa at home — the order of the steps