lather forbidden rice body scrub

Reviewed by Tiffany on November 19, 2014

1 Comment

I was excited to be given the opportunity to try LATHER Forbidden Rice Body Scrub ($21) because I have always been a devotee of regular exfoliating but have mostly been a user of daily methods like using exfoliating gloves or exfoliating body wash. I never really searched for (or found) a scrub that managed to secure a permanent place in my regimen. The same can be said of this scrub — It hasn’t inspired in me an overwhelming need to have a scrub on hand, but it’s been a nice extra luxury while it was around.

I'm in my late 20s and have dry skin, so I am usually forced to slather on a rich lotion following any bath or shower. I like to test my new skin care products by seeing if I may finally have found one that allows me to skip that post-shower step, and this scrub comes darn close! LATHER’s claims are modest; they say this scrub will “gently exfoliate and reveal smoother and more radiant skin,” and it delivers on that promise. My skin looked and felt super smooth after using this very gentle scrub, like it was coated in a very light, gently scented layer of body oil. Unfortunately, this soaked in within an hour and then I needed lotion, but it would probably have made my typical post-shower application go on smoother and be extra hydrating.

After that first use, though, I stopped using it all over because that one application used up about a third of the package, and I was trying to be conservative! It became my feet/knees/elbows/hands scrub about once a week, and I got about five or six more uses out of it this way. It made my hands/elbows/knees feel extra soft, but it can’t really stand up to anything other than minor amounts of dead skin, so don’t expect it to do much for your heels.

It’s a pleasant product that will make your everyday bathroom ministrations feel a bit more spa-like. But at $21 for four ounces, it didn’t feel like a smart investment to me since I wasn’t really getting any lasting skin care results from its use. If you are a scrub fan but have issues finding one that has a pleasant but not overwhelming scent, or you find that the more common sugar and salt scrubs are too harsh for your skin, this may be a good choice for you, but I won’t repurchase.