Review: Burt's Bees Citrus Facial Scrub

I'm kind of new to the Burt's Bees brand - I've long been aware of their bright, cheerful looking products from seeing them in Boots and online, but I'd never actually tried any of their stuff. So, when I recently ran out of exfoliator, I decided to give their Cirtus Facial Scrub a whirl.

Formulated with "finely ground almonds, oats, pecans and rose petals", this scrub, which is apparently 99.96% natural, claims to "gently exfoliate skin" - not something I'd really agree with, having used it for a few weeks. This is a very scrubby scrub - the grains are relatively large and it's easy to over-exfoliate if, like me, you apply the product to your hands and then quickly rub your hands over your face. I've accidentally turned my face a lovely shade of red a few times using this - not something I've managed with any other scrub I've used in the past.

It does, however, leave the skin feeling very smooth and soft, as you'd expect from a scrubby scrub, and not at all dry. The scent doesn't really map to the "citrus" name for me - it smells more of gingerbread, spices, generally very warm and wintery.

One slightly odd thing is the application method; you have to remove a blob of scrub from the jar - which can be difficult, as the product is rather solid - as shown on the left. A small amount of water is added and mixed in to create a sort of paste, as shown on the right.

Given the amount of product in the jar, I imagine that it wouldn't last longer than about 20 applications, as you need a fairly large blob of product to get a paste that contains enough grains to distribute evenly across the face.

All in all, I'm pretty neutral about this product - it's probably a little bit too scrubby for my liking, but it is effective, and it does smell nice. If you're looking for a hardcore, natural scrub, this might be a good one for you.

If you'd like to try it yourself, you can get it at HQHair.com, at £9.00 for 57g.