Facial Exfoliators in my Collection | Comparisons & Reviews

Hey everyone, how are you doing? This new lockdown life has definitely become the new normal for me now, and when we do go back to the way it was before (or something similar) it’s going to be very strange! Today I thought I’d share my thoughts on some facial exfoliators I currently have in my collection.  There’s a nice range of prices too, so hopefully something for everyone. If you want to find out my opinions then just keep reading.

I am going to cover four facial exfoliators in this post:
– Nivea Gentle Exfoliating Scrub (£3.99)
– Liz Earle Gentle Face Exfoliator (£16.50)
– The Ordinary Lactic Acid 10% + HA (£5.80)
– Wishful Yo Glow Enzyme Scrub (£34)

NIVEA Gentle Exfoliating Scrub
This isn’t my first tube of this product, and it’s probably one of my longest standing go to facial exfoliators. Of course, it’s super affordable, which is a huge bonus! I find that it does a great job at removing dead skin and leaving my face nice and soft, and it isn’t too harsh. My skin doesn’t feel tight or sore afterwards, which I have experienced in the past. It definitely does enough though, it isn’t too gentle to the point it is ineffective. For me, it is the perfect level for an exfoliant, which is why I pick this up time and time again. It has a gel texture with lots of scrub particles throughout it. If I am honest, these day’s I don’t use a tonne of affordable skin care (I do have some!), but this one is a winner. I am almost out of this, so I will be repurchasing very soon.

Liz Earle Gentle Face Exfoliator
I decided to pick this up as I really love the (very popular) cleanse & polish from the brand. The texture of this is pretty similar to cleanse & polish – it is a thick cream. However, since this is an exfoliator, it has waxy jojoba beads throughout it. Compared to the Nivea scrub, this one is more gentle. I don’t find it exfoliates my skin quite as much as I would like. I also find that this seems to leave a bit of a residue on my skin which is difficult to remove sometimes. After a scrub, I want my skin to feel *almost* squeaky clean (but not tight!) and this doesn’t really do that for me. If you want something super gentle, then I’d say give this a go!

The Ordinary Lactic Acid 10% + HA
Unlike the other exfoliators, this one is not a physical scrub at all – it is an AHA chemical exfoliator. I was intrigued by this one as I had only ever used physical scrubs. To use this, you simply apply a few drops onto the skin, and you don’t rinse. You can dilute the strength by mixing with another product, such as a moisturiser; however I haven’t done so. When I apply this, I feel a slight tingle, but I don’t get any redness. I personally struggle to see results with this facial exfoliator, and I seem to prefer physical exfoliants. Perhaps this is because you don’t see the immediate effect when using a chemical exfoliant, whereas with a physical one, skin feels instantly smoother.

Wishful Yo Glow Enzyme Scrub
This one is pretty pricey for a facial exfoliator at £34, and I don’t think I would have purchased this myself since I love the Nivea one enough to avoid spending this much. However, I was given this at a beauty conference with work, so of course I was happy to get to try it. It turns out, this is an excellent product! It is described to have a ‘glue-like’ texture, which is pretty accurate. It doesn’t have chunky scrub particles in there, but as you buff this into DRY skin you feel small scrubby bits working on the skin. As soon as you begin buffing this into the skin, it starts to ball up and create ‘piling’, Huda (the brand owner) claims that this is the dead skin, and perhaps it is… but I personally think that it is the product itself gathering and balling, and maybe some dead skin in there too! There’s lots of great ingredients in this one, including pineapple and papaya enzyme. As with the The Ordinary product, this one has AHA’s too, as well as BHA’s. So with this one you get the best of both in terms of physical and chemical exfoliants – which I love! Because of this, overtime you are expected to get brighter skin and a more even tone.

So that’s all the facial exfoliators in my collection, what do you think? Have you tried any of these? Can you recommend a different one? For me, I’ll probably be sticking with my Nivea one for the most part. As much as I do really enjoy the Wishful scrub, I don’t know if I would repurchase when I can get the Nivea one for so much cheaper…

Thanks for reading!

Jazmin xx