Giving Up the Poof

I, like many of you, have cohabited with a scruffy-looking plastic mesh body scrubber for much of my adult life. The basic idea is that you squirt some micro-beaded Moisture Magic Shimmering Cashmere Body Wash onto your poof, and the rough plastic poof rubs off your yucky dead skin cells while the Magic Cashmere rubs perfume and silk into your arms and legs and torso.  This process will make you look sparkly and sexy, smell delicious, and make your skin feel like smooth smooth pudding.

Well, it does. Doesn't it? I still remember the first time I used Caress Body Wash in college after years of muddling along with whatever Suave-generic-cheap stuff my mom would buy for us to use in high school. I couldn't stop petting my own shoulder or sniffing my own forearm. I smelled incredible. I felt like silk.

But now that I'm over the whole fancy body wash thing in favor of natural bar soap, my faithful poof has dangled forlornly from the shower faucet for weeks:

Sad. I'm going to give it one last tour of duty to scrub out the icky mildew in the corners of the shower tile with some baking soda before it gets the boot.

But now that I'm using soap instead of body wash, and I don't want any new plastic in my life, what am I going to do about exfoliating? Ashen legs and scaly elbows are unbecoming to even we the crunchy granola.
I'm glad you asked.

Meet my new frenemy:

This is my all natural Yerba Prima Cleansing Co-Worker.  You are supposed to use this stiff-bristled brush on dry skin to rub away all your flaky cells before you get in the shower.
It's super English. Apparently everyone in the UK scrubs themselves before they hit the tub. If you can remember the pre-book launch party prep scene in Bridget Jones, she's rubbing her thighs with a similar brush. The invigorating pressure is supposed to reduce the appearance of cellulite and help keep it from forming. Cleans, scrubs, and reduces cellulite? Naturally? Sign me up.

I bought this brush at Whole Foods for like $12 or something. It hangs on a nail near the shower, and I try to remember to use it before I get in. I don't know if it is beating up my cellulite or not, but I will tell you that rubbing this brush over your thighs and legs and butt in a firm circular motion feels somewhere between "Aaaahhhhhhh...." and "AAAAHAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!"  It feels good, in a painful sort of way.  And you can tell that the dead skin is coming off, because it swirls around a bit like sawdust as you go to town on your wintry dry legs.

I will miss my happy orange body poof. There's nothing quite like a good, exfoliating scrubby-scrub with a poof and some magical chemical body wash. Nothing, that is, except some supernatural vegetable based soap and a cellulite-fighting Yerba Prima Cleansing Co-worker.