Sunday night with the scrub

Sunday night has a particular quality. The week hasn’t started, the weekend has mostly ended, and there is nowhere to be. It is the best ten minutes of the week to give your skin, and this is how we spend them.

Why once or twice a week

Skin renews itself all the time, shedding its outer cells as new ones come up from below. Mostly it manages on its own. Where it’s dry, or hidden under winter layers, the old cells linger as dull, rough flakes, and everything you put on afterwards has to work through them. A scrub lifts them away, so skin feels smooth straight away and whatever comes next lands on fresh skin.

More often isn’t better. The body is happy with two or three times a week; the face prefers once or twice, with a lighter hand. Sunday is the one to keep.

What’s in the jar

The grain is Icelandic volcanic sand: lava that met the North Atlantic, shattered, and has been rolled smooth by the sea ever since. Those rounded grains are why the Face & Body Scrub buffs rather than scratches. Kaolin, the soft white clay that porcelain is made from, lifts the day’s oil and grime while the sand works, and gives the scrub its creamy, even body. It smells of cucumber, lemon and cut grass, like a garden after rain.

And when it rinses away, sand is just sand. It goes down the drain and back to being the bottom of something.

The ten minutes

1. 01

   A warm shower, the jar already open

   Give the water a few minutes to soften your skin, and open the jar before you step in: wet hands and lids don’t get on.

   Face & Body Scrub
2. 02

   The body, in small circles

   A good scoop on damp skin, in slow small circles, longest on elbows, knees, heels and the backs of the arms. Rinse with warm water.

   Face & Body Scrub
3. 03

   The face, lightly

   Half a fingertip is plenty. Light pressure, small circles, well away from the eyes, then rinse. Once or twice a week is enough for a face.

   Face & Body Scrub
4. 04

   Cream, while skin is soft

   Pat dry and smooth the Body Cream over the rough bits. With the flakes gone, its 5% urea and 2% panthenol reach skin that can use them.

   Body Cream

Buff on Sunday, cream all week.

What you’ll notice

Straight away, smoothness. In our consumer study of 40 people over two weeks, 97% said their skin felt smoother straight away, and 90% said the scrub was gentle enough for their face. Over a few Sundays the rough patches come back more slowly, and the cream has less to do.

Make it yours

Some people light a candle. Some put a podcast on. Some simply lock the bathroom door, which is a ritual in itself. Whatever yours is, the order stays the same: warm water, sand, rinse, cream. Then bed, in sheets that won’t mind, because the cream never turns greasy.

Freshly shaved or sunburnt? Give the scrub that week off and start again the next Sunday.

In plain wordsVolcanic sand (Icelandic): Fine, dark grains from Iceland that buff away dry flakes.