Aesop Redemption Body Scrub Review

Set the ingredient lists of Aesop's two body scrubs side by side and they diverge only at the eleventh line. Water, pumice, sodium lauroamphoacetate, sodium methyl cocoyl taurate, an acrylate gel, salt, coco-betaine, preservatives, citric acid and bamboo stem extract are common to both; then Geranium Leaf turns to bergamot, mandarin and geranium, and Redemption turns to Siberian fir, Scots pine, rosemary, cedarwood, clove and sage. That is not a criticism. A brand that has built a good scrub is entitled to offer it in two scents, and the base is a good one; it does mean that most of what there is to say about this tube has already been said about its green sibling, and that the decision between them is a decision about smell.

The base first, briefly, because it matters. Pumice is second on the list, behind only water, which makes this a scrub with real grit rather than a wash with a few grains for show; quartz lower down adds bite and bamboo stem extract adds a softer, rounder particle that keeps the whole from feeling like sandpaper across the chest and inner arms. The surfactants are the brand's mild amphoteric-taurate system, the one it uses in its hand washes and pointedly does not use in its sulfate body gels, and pairing a heavy abrasive with a gentle cleanser is exactly the right call, since a scrub already asks the barrier to tolerate friction and a harsh detergent on top is how scrubs earn their reputation for rawness. The gel lathers low, rinses to nothing, leaves no oil on the shower floor, and used twice a week with a light hand leaves shins, elbows, heels and the backs of the upper arms visibly smoother and a body balm absorbing faster. Used harder, or a third time in a week, it shows up as tightness and red streaks; freshly shaved or waxed skin should be left alone entirely, and keratosis pilaris, the reason most people buy a scrub this coarse, is smoothed on the surface for a day or two and treated only by the urea or lactic acid lotion that should follow.

The scent is what the money is for, and it is the more interesting of the two. Siberian fir and Scots pine oils lead, resinous and cold, with rosemary and sage sharpening them into something almost medicinal, cedarwood underneath and a warm trace of clove at the base; the effect is an alpine forest after rain rather than a garden, cleaner and more austere than the geranium and, to many noses, more grown-up. It is strong in the steam of a shower and fades to a trace on the skin, which suits a rinse-off. The allergen line is shorter than the geranium scrub's, limonene and eugenol only, but the eugenol is the clove and it is one of the stronger fragrance sensitisers on the patch-test tray, and it is arriving on skin the pumice has just abraded, which is a different proposition from meeting it in a hand cream. That is the scrub's honest limitation for reactive skin: the barrier is opened by the grit and the oils walk straight in. Eczema-prone, psoriatic or fragrance-allergic skin should not be scrubbing with pumice in the first place, and the accord only underlines it.

There is almost nothing else to go on. Two reviews on the brand's site, both five stars, are not a record; the formula's behaviour is easy to predict from a base the brand has sold for years, and the prediction is that most healthy skin will like it and use it too often at first. The taupe tube, beside the geranium version's olive, is the only visual cue to which forest one has bought, and more than one household has ended up with both. Fifty-two dollars for a single 180 mL tube is the same steep price as the geranium version, several times what an equally effective pumice scrub costs elsewhere, and the tube goes fast if the whole body is scrubbed; used on the rough patches only, it lasts about three months and the arithmetic becomes merely indulgent. The stand-up tube with its flip cap is, like its sibling's, one of the brand's few containers that puts function before the shelf.

So the review of Redemption is the review of Geranium Leaf with a different forest: a well-judged coarse scrub on a gentle base, used twice a week by healthy skin that wants its shins smooth, priced for the aroma rather than the pumice, and wrong for anyone whose skin reacts to fragrance or to friction. The alpine accord is worth choosing over the geranium for people who want their bathroom to smell of pine rather than a garden, and worth nothing at all to skin that should not be scrubbed.