The best body scrub of 2025 keeps skin healthy, soft and smooth

Key ingredients: Charcoal, glycolic acid, salicylic acid, glycerin, niacinamide | Size: 6.1 oz | Scent: Eucalyptus

I had a few criteria in mind for choosing the best overall scrub. The product needed to have the right balance of grit (not too harsh, but gritty enough to be effective), smell great and make my skin feel completely rejuvenated. Nécessaire’s The Body Exfoliator checks all of my boxes and then some. 

First, it’s a physical and chemical exfoliant, so it does double duty by combining volcanic pumice with AHAs, BHAs and PHAs. The result is a fine-grain and foamy solution that made my skin feel instantly soft.

Unlike other body scrubs I tested that had thicker (and goopier) consistencies, Nécessaire’s formula stays on long enough to gently exfoliate without making you feel like you're racing a clock. Its calming eucalyptus scent promotes a spa-like vibe (it’s also available in a bergamot scent). Fun fact: The scrub is a favorite of none other than Ayo Edebiri, who hilariously clocked it as “the type of thing a wealthy woman in a Nancy Meyers movie would own.”

Key ingredients: Colloidal gold, fair-trade cane sugar, capsicum peptide, proprietary mineral-rich concentrate | Size: 6.76 oz | Scent: Floral

Speaking of wealthy women, if money is no object allow me to introduce you to Omorovicza’s $93 Gold Sugar Scrub. If you’re going to splurge on an exfoliator, you might as well slather your body in literal gold. The ingredients in this luxurious scrub certainly feel rich — fair-trade cane sugar is used to slough off dead skin cells, while antioxidant-packed capsicum plant peptides make the skin look more radiant and healthy.

It also features colloidal gold, which has antioxidant, antimicrobial and antifungal properties and has been shown to reduce age spots and unwanted hyperpigmentation. Then there’s the brand’s proprietary Healing Concentrate, which is made with Budapest’s actual mineral-rich, healing water.

I like using this scrub with my favorite exfoliating glove, Daily Concepts Daily Deep Exfoliation Mitt. That way, I can really target the rough and dark areas on my body, like the thighs (gotta love that summer chafing). I’ll even use it as a foot scrub (I haven’t made it to the nail salon in a minute, I hate to admit). Overall, I love any kind of bath and shower product that can make me feel like I’m not in my shower and somewhere else when I close my eyes (like the healing waters of Budapest?!), and this one does it for me.

Key ingredients: sugar, shea butter, pineapple and natural plant oils | Size: 18 oz | Scent: Coconut and pineapple

I remember seeing TikTok video after TikTok video of showers filled with dozens of Tree Hut scrubs. I can now understand the obsession. These body scrubs leave my skin feeling supersoft and moisturized and come in 22 different scent options (my favorite is this piña-colada-esque Coco Colada). The product is housed in an ample-sized tub (18 oz), and the consistency is thick, so you can easily control how much you want to use without it running down your leg and into the drain. Plus, a little goes a long way, so for under $10, you're getting a lot of bang for your buck.

Key ingredients: glycolic acid, lactic acid, pumice buffing beads, bisabolol, vitamin E | Size: 8 oz | Scent: Fragrance-free

Keratosis pilaris (KP) aka strawberry skin, is an incredibly common condition that creates whet looks like tiny bumps on the skin and affects at least 50% of teenagers and 40% of all U.S. adults. I’ve had KP on my upper arms since I was a kid. While it’s significantly reduced over the years, it’s still bumpy and annoying, but if I find a good scrub, it goes away. First Aid Beauty’s KP Bump Eraser, has more than 25,000 glowing reviews. The product sounded promising for helping to alleviate my KP, and, as it turned out, it actually was.

The scrub uses chemical and physical exfoliators, which is always a win for any type of scrub, IMHO. In this case, it teams AHAs, like glycolic and lactic acids, with natural pumice buffing beads. After using this just once, my arms looked and felt 10 times smoother. Of course, it’s not a miracle worker. You have to be consistent with a scrub like this to treat KP regularly. 

Another big bonus here is the scrub is fragrance-free, so my fellow KP sufferers who are sensitive to scent can use it without worry.

Key ingredients: Sugar, shea, cocoa and argan butters, | Size: 6.1 oz | Scent: Vanilla cashmere

The Eos Cashmere Pre-Shave Scrub is now officially my go-to for my own everything shower, when I shave my entire body, arms and all. It’s made with sugar and several butters — shea, cocoa and argan — that make my skin so incredibly baby-soft! After all is done with my shaving extravaganza, sometimes I almost don’t want to apply a body cream when I step out of the shower. It feels that good. Also, I haven't had an ingrown hair in months.