Trader Joe's Grapefruit Ginger Sugar Scrub

75 degree weather in February. We've finally gotten our first taste of spring y'all, which means for many humans, sun's out guns out. And if you go against cultural standards of beauty, who cares that your skin is maybe flaky, dried up like dinosaur scales, and hasn't seen the light of day in months? Seriously. Anyway, it turns out dry flaky skin while aesthetically tolerable (hiding under layers of clothing helps), feels pretty uncomfortable, especially on the three days of the week where I wear hospital-laundered scrubs that feel more like parchment or a burlap sack. Ain't nobody got time for 12 hours of that skin irritation, so these days I've been trying to exfoliate regularly and moisturize daily like I'm gearing up for battle.  Hence this beautiful sugar scrub! 

This grapefruit ginger sugar scrub first made an appearance right around holiday time, which is when TJ's tends to bust out some bomb-diggity personal care products (bring back that hand soap please!). I picked this up in the middle of winter as a treat-yo-self thing. The product was sealed so I couldn't get a good sample whiff in store before purchasing, but the pink packaging made a compelling case. :P

All natural ingredients and no animal testing! 

1) TJ's has a bigger tub of a lavender salt scrub that is probably a better bang for your buck ($5.99 for 20 oz compared to $6.99 for 8 oz of this scrub), but my one gripe about that is that since it comes in a tub, it accumulates water more easily. Maybe some of you don't have this problem because y'all can take care of your stuff and have nice things, but I can't. True story - I once dissolved an entire new bar of my sister's fancy Lush shower/shampoo soap bar cuz I left the tin open in the shower. My bad. So the fact that this scrub comes in a squeezable tube works out much better for me and seems more hygienic.

2) The ginger fragrance was a little odd at first, mainly because I've never associated ginger as a desirable fragrance for beauty products, but I wouldn't say that it's unpleasant. It wasn't the same ginger smell that I have in kombucha or turmeric tea of just spice. The spice of the ginger mixes with the warm sweetness from the sugar and vague hints of citrus, though I wouldn't be able to guess that as grapefruit. I guess the advantage here is that since it's not a typical sweet floral or citrus-y scent, in theory it's a "gender neutral" scented product.

3) I wasn't an avid scrub-user before this, so I don't know if this is normal. Do you end up using a ton of product in one use? One squeeze of the product was only enough for half of one arm, and I'm petite!

4) Although I felt like I used a lot of product, I was quite impressed by the results. Again, I'm not a beauty expert, but to me this felt quite luxurious (dare I say comparable to the scrubs I sampled at Lush?) The amount of sugar was just right and exfoliated pretty effectively. The sweet almond, jojoba, and sunflower oils left my skin soft and moisturized to the point where I felt like I didn't need any additional lotion afterward (but I did anyway because apparently that's how this whole taking-care-of-yourself thing works).

The price tag is still better than department store and fancy boutique shop prices, so I'm still willing to repurchase because of the results. Please TJ's come out with other flavors. I mean fragrances. I'll rate those higher. :)

TL;DR: Trader Joe Grapefruit Ginger Scrub. Zingy, gingery, moisturizing sugar scrub. Treat yo self. 7.5 out of 10.