On days when you’re racing out of the shower making a beeline to your car with a half-eaten banana in hand for nourishment, the last thing on your mind is moisturizing your extremities—that is, until you step into the office and notice your legs are ashy (plus, there’s something so unsatisfying about gooping on cream over dehydrated skin). This is why body scrubs are pretty much the best in-shower invention ever. Not only do they smell heavenly and awaken your senses, but they also slough off the dead skin that makes you flaky. But they also moisturize while doing all that — leaving you with smooth, supple, and glowing skin, eliminating the need for body lotions or creams.

The key is to use a body scrub with the perfect ratio of scrubbing agents and powerful moisturizing oils that penetrate skin but also keep you hydrated on the surface without overgreasing. Here are five that have perfected the formula so you can run out of your house like a maniac without looking parched.

1. OSEA Malibu Salts of the Earth Body Scrub

This delightful earth-rich scrub is made with a trio of salts—Bolivian rose, Dead Sea, and Himalayan pink—and glides on coarsely (in a good way) to polish off the dulling dead skin cells. Shea butter, which contains loads of essential fatty acids, adds a ton of moisture to skin and acai and babassu oils condition skin for hours and hours. The best part is the oils absorb quickly, which means you won’t be adding a trail of grease all over your car seats, but keeps your skin radiant all day long.

2. Herbivore Coco Rose Body Polish

Coco Rose Body Polish sloughs off the flakes with perfectly sized salts, which paves way for virgin coconut oil to  moisturize skin as deeply as possible. When you’re inside the shower, you feel like you’re walking through a luscious garden thanks to the delightful scent of Moroccan rose. Use it once and your skin instantly feels petal-soft and looks as healthy as ever.

3. Earth Tu Face Dead Sea Salt Scrub

Earth Tu Face uses pure sea salt to exfoliate your body and stimulate circulation of the lymphatic system, which is majorly detoxifying and known to help minimize cellulite. The organic safflower and jojoba oils (the latter is texturally similar to skin’s natural sebum) drench the driest of skin with softening hydration, while bergamot, lemon, and basil oils put you in a good mood. Use this scrub to focus on your knees and elbows, two areas that need the most quenching.

4. SpaRitual Close Your Eyes Sugar Scrub

This scrub consists of certified-organic sugar crystals that feel less gritty than the salt options if that’s what you prefer. Sunflower and safflower oils rush in to provide all-day moisture and leaves your skin with a dewy glow even when it’s been ravaged with heat, sun, and indoor AC.

5. AFRICAN BOTANICS Marula African Muti Mud Body Scrub

This super-purifying scrub is perfect for days you also want to feel extra cleansed on top of balanced, plump-up skin. Fine lava crystals help remove dead skin cells and essential minerals from Africa’s ancient volcanic lava formations improve overall skin texture and tone. Then comes in kaolin and bentonite clays to sweep out the dirt from our skin, while super-moisturizing oils, such as marula, baobab, and avocado, keep your skin hydrated like you’ve been slathering on lotion.

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Dove’s new line of soaps negate its decade-long effort to support women. Big time.

Marketing is a tricky business. You can easily chalk up all (okay, some) of the drinking problems on “Mad Men” to its many challenges. Most notably, it’s that task in walking the fine line where creativity meets reality to convey more than just tedious product facts and less than just human expression. It’s the marriage of rhyme and reason, quite literally.

When it works, marketing has the power to change the world (“Just Do It”). When it fails, of course, it can bring a brand to its knees. (Urban Outfitters Kent State Sweatshirt, anyone?)

We recently saw how PepsiCo butchered its purported homage to #BlackLivesMatter with super white, super rich, super beautiful Kendall Jenner triggering world peace by simply slipping a cold soda into the hands of a policeman. If only we’d known it was that simple sooner.

Then there’s Dove, which earned praise for its “Real Beauty” campaign that helped us embrace women of all colors, sizes, and shapes (the campaign celebrates its tenth anniversary this year). It was a welcome reprieve from the Kendalls of the world telling us what to buy, even if the product is full of chemicals that pose serious threats to the bodies it claims to be championing. Or it’s produced in sweat shops. Supports child labor. Damages the environment. You could say that perhaps Dove (and our other corporate overlords) is perhaps projecting a bit of its own inadequacies by obsessively telling us our bodies are just fine.

Now, Dove London has launched a new campaign, and one that ought to make you feel like you need a hot shower. (Go have at it. I’ll wait.) It designed a limited-edition series of bottles to represent the many human female forms. They’re a lumpy, strange-looking lot that don’t look a thing like most women I know.

“Each bottle evokes the shapes, sizes, curves and edges that combine to make every woman their very own limited edition. They’re one of a kind–just like you. But sometimes we all need reminding of that,” the company said in a statement.

Dove pats itself on the back citing its own research “from the Dove Global Beauty and Confidence Report” that reportedly revealed that “one in two women feels social media puts pressure on them to look a certain way.”

This isn’t new information, of course. We know social media can obfuscate the truth, particularly about how people really look or spend their time. But is a lumpy bottle that’s not going to fit in your shower caddy the solution? Is any woman really going to Stuart Smalley herself every time she lathers up?

Marketing a product in our likenesses to tell us “we’re okay” is like some sort of shitty consolation prize. “You’re not a Kardashian (or Kate Middleton), but we made you this soap bottle that kind of looks like your funny body!”

That’s a gift I’d expect (and treasure the heck out of) from my three-year-old. It’s not something I need from a soap company.

Buying a bottle of this body wash isn’t like choosing the right haircut for your face type of business (round faces, bobs are in for you this season). This is a distillation of our bodies into a gimmicky recyclable package filled with cheap and even toxic sludge. For profit, mind you.

Dove, women don’t need to be Muppetified to harness their self esteem. If you really want to show us how much you care about our awesomeness, take a cue from Dr. Bronner’s. Actually, take several cues — not just on the clean, ethical, and safe soap ingredients valued by Bronner’s and its loyal customers, but on how to support social justice, environmental, and human health issues. And definitely take a peek at those iconic Bronner bottle designs. Because you’re going to need to fix yours.

Find Jill on Twitter and Instagram

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The post Dove’s New ‘Body-Shaped’ Soap Bottles Need to Soak in a Tub Full of Reality appeared first on EcoSalon.

You’ve probably heard that your body regenerates itself every seven years. Well, it turns out that statement is only partially true.

But similar to most facts about human bodies, the truth is a lot more interesting. Watch the video below and find out what your body regenerates throughout your lifetime.

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