Salt Scrub Or Sugar Scrub?

Bath salts might be fun to use in the bath, but did you know they’re dangerous to the environment? Aside from sharing a name with the zombie-fying drug, bath salts can have high environmental costs of production. There’s also evidence that Epsom bath salts, one of the most popular brands, don’t work! According to Vice, “Physical therapist John Cavanaugh of the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City… says that in more than 30 years of treating sports injuries, he’s never once administered or recommended an Epsom salt soak. In his search of the scientific literature, he can’t track down a single study showing any benefit.”

So what to do? Almost everyone enjoys a nice soak or shower, and many people use bath salts. Never fear, there are options! Sugar scrub – which is made, as the name suggests, from sugar – are one good option. According to one dermatologist, “Sugar scrubs have smaller particles and tend to be gentler on the skin. [They] are less drying and less abrasive than salt scrubs.”  There’s also coffee scrub. Coffee scrub can be bought or DIY, and some recipes have as few as three ingredients.  Like sugar scrub, coffee scrub is gentle and reputedly good for dry or irritated skin.

You do have options! Go forth and explore… but skip snorting the bath salts. That doesn’t work.