Bean Body Coffee Scrub

If you're like me, you've probably noticed coffee scrubs popping up all over your Instagram feed in recent months. I've been intrigued by them for a while. I always love trying out new body products, and the premise of a coffee based scrub - the caffeine stimulates blood flow, which helps to reduce the appearance of stretch marks and cellulite - definitely sounds like a winner to me.

There's a few different brands that make these, but I got the opportunity to try one from Bean Body, an Australian brand that makes affordable products from the highest quality natural ingredients. They claim that their skincare will leave you feeling "relaxed, super smooth, sexy and ready to take on the world." Sounds good!

I received the Peppermint Coffee Scrub.* You get a generous 220g of product in a practical pouch, which you can re-seal in between uses. Ingredients are as follows:

Robusta Coffee Beans - to stimulate blood flow and help reduce the appearance of cellulite, eczema, stretch marks, age spots, varicose veins and psoriasis. 

Cold Pressed Coconut Oil - to hydrate and moisturise the skin. 

Himalayan Pink Rock Salt and Demerara Sugar - to exfoliate the skin, removing dead skin, acne, whiteheads, blackheads, breakouts and other skin blemishes.

Cocoa and Vitamin E - to nourish and protect the skin, promoting cell repair and rejuvenation.

 
As soon as you open this up, you're hit with the delicious scent of fresh coffee. Not exactly what you'd normally associate with bath products, but it smells wonderful nonetheless. As I mentioned, mine is the peppermint version, and the fragrance is faintly laced with peppermint as well. You can also get other variations including mandarin, vanilla and coconut. The product is crumbly and looks and feels exactly like coffee grounds.

The instructions are to apply the product to damp skin, rub it in by massaging in circular motions (concentrating on problem areas), then leave to dry for five minutes before rinsing off. So that's what I did.

It feels very nice to use. Depending on how vigorous you want to be, you can get a really good scrub going with this. You can even apply it to dry skin if you want a more intensive treatment, and conversely, if you prefer a gentler scrub, just add more water. It takes a fair amount of rinsing off, as it sticks to the body a bit as it dries, but I didn't find this too arduous. You can use this as a facial exfoliator as well - apparently it's good for acne - but I haven't tried this as I felt it would be too harsh for the skin on my face. If anyone has used it for this purpose, I would love to know how it worked out!

Afterwards, my skin felt amazing. Really silky smooth, even before moisturising. In fact, I'd say it was the best result I've had from an exfoliator in terms of how soft and even my skin looked and felt. I've only used this a couple of times so far, so can't comment on any long term effects on cellulite or stretch marks. Like most products of this nature, though, I notice that the wording regarding this is "reduce the appearance of" and not "banish forever". I actually like this, because they're not making any unrealistic claims here. I don't believe there's a product out there that can actually get rid of these things (although if anyone has found one, it's your moral duty to share in the comments!) However, if I can use something like this to smooth out my skin, combined with regular workouts and a good fake tan, I know I'm going to feel a lot more confident about my body than I would do otherwise. So in that sense, I do think that these types of product are worth using.

For me, the only downside of the coffee scrub is the mess it makes. Honestly, this stuff gets everywhere. Cleaning out the bathtub is definitely not my preferred way to end a pamper session, but on the other hand, it's worth it for the lovely results.

Bean Body Coffee Bean Scrub retails for £14.95 and is available online or at Holland and Barrett.

Have you used a coffee scrub? What were the results like for you?

Kate x

*PR Sample. All opinions, as always, are my own.