Let me start this review by simply stating - I LOVE BODY SCRUBS! I am not a girly-girl. I rarely wear makeup or expensive perfumes. I try to take care of my face and moisturize, etc. and now that I'm 50, I am trying to get on a skin care regime for my face.

However, one thing I MUST have is a body scrub for my showers. I do not let myself come even close to running out on body scrubs and will often alternate between two or three different scents, depending upon my mood and how much I need to either wake up or calm down. I try to keep fruity scented scrubs for early morning showers and almond/honey/nut type scrubs for evening showers because my husband loves those scents. Also, I find those scents to be relaxing and even "sexy".

So if there is one thing I consider myself a bit of an expert on - it is body scrubs. While I have not tried them all, I have tried most of the "cheaper" ones you can find in stores.

With that said, let me share with you about Sugar,Sugar which is the Walnut Body scrub by Bella Beauty.

Sugar, Sugar has three main scents to it. The three scents are Peppermint which is the strongest scent when you open the container, along with almond and coconut. The peppermint scent is strong enough to wake you up so it could be used in the morning, however, after that scent dies off a bit, the almond and coconut scents kick in and as my husband stated, "make you smell like an almond joy bar". So I guess you could use this either for a morning or evening shower, depending upon what you like.

I prefer thick body scrubs that go in deep as you lather up your body. These take a bit more water to lather up and rinse off, however, I find that the soft feeling that I get from them lasts much longer.

The Sugar, Sugar scrub has more of a medium consistency to it. I am showing it below with a thicker scrub so you can see the difference. The scrub I am showing it with below is by the same company as the jar that is shown below, however, it is not the same scrub because my camera would not catch the crystals in that scrub since it was so light.

The Sugar, Sugar scrub is shown on top with the cheaper (and thicker) scrub shown below).



I found the Sugar, Sugar scrub rinsed off very easily - in fact - much more easily than my other scrub.

When I first opened the jar, I felt overpowered by the smell of peppermint. I knew this would happen because I had read reviews of this product, but I wanted to try it anyway. It was very hard to smell the almond or coconut in it until I went to use it.

I must admit that I was surprised by the way that this scrub worked. When I opened it up and when I was in the shower, I could mostly smell only peppermint. I walked into the bedroom for a little bit and talked to my husband only to notice the peppermint smell when I went back into the bathroom 15 minutes later.

However, my husband could only smell the almond and coconut on my body. He has a very sensitive nose and I thought for sure that he would smell the peppermint and he said that he could smell it in the bathroom but not on my skin.

I wish I knew how they did that. When I smelled my arms, I also could not smell the peppermint and only smelled the almond. I had to agree with my husband that I almost smelled like an almond joy bar.

The product rinsed off very easily and I felt soft and smooth even the next morning. However, I could not notice any of the aromas on my skin the next morning.

I did a second test with this scrub on one side of my body and another scrub on the other side. In the second test, while both scrubs did soften and exfoliate my skin, the other brand felt softer immediately and both the smell and the softness lasted longer.

The scrub is packaged in a 12 ounce bottle with a push-top. I find that it is very hard to get the scrub out because of its fairly thick consistency. The packaging doesn't give you instructions for use and you could travel with it, but please note that the bottle is too large to go in a carry-on bag and clear airport security.

From experience, I must say that I prefer to have my scrubs in a jar where I reach in and grab out some with my fingers. For one thing, I am not trying to push and get it to come out through a small hole and having to fight with a bottle, plus this way the scrub can be thicker than this scrub is.

Here is an example of the 12 ounce bottle of Sugar, Sugar next to an open 18 ounce bottle of my other scrub.

There is no animal testing done in producing/developing this product and it is free of parabens. For those who may not know, parabens are a class of chemicals widely used in preservatives for the cosmetic industry. However, they have become quite controversial over the years due to a possible link with breast cancer tumors. You can find out more about parabens at Wikipedia's article on parabens.

I did a bit of research on body scrubs and found out that they are made up of three main types of ingredients. The first ingredient is the exfoliant which is an abrasive material to scrub away the dead skin cells. This ingredient can be coffee grounds, sugar, jojoba beans, or even apricot kernels. This is what will make your skin softer.

The second ingredient is oil. This holds the mixture together so that you can apply it to your body. Some more expensive scrubs have macadamia oil, kukui nut oil and sweet almond oil. The Sugar,Sugar scrub uses peppermint oil.

The third ingredient is fragrance which can also come from the oils that are used. Some scrubs will have synthetic fragrances while others will come from high quality essential oils.

You can learn more about this at Everything You Need To Know About Body Scrubs.

I also learned that you can make your own body scrub.

I've been using scrubs for years and I don't mean to imply that this is not a good body scrub. It does an adequate job, if not a bit better than adequate compared to some that I've used.

However, my normal cost per ounce of body scrub is .27 because I tend to buy 18 ounce jars for $5. The cost per ounce of this scrub is $1.49 per ounce or about 5 times the price of what I pay at my local discount store.

Am I getting the same quality there? Probably not.