Robb Recommends: This Hardworking Face Scrub Clears Your Pores for a Clean, Smooth Shave
Welcome to Robb Recommends, a regular series in which our editors and contributors endorse something they’ve tried and loved—and think will change your life for the better.
I love a multitasker. Why use three or four products when you can buy one to satisfy multiple needs? That’s how I think of Ursa Major’s latest launch, a face scrub called Green Slate Mineral Polish. The brand has many products that pull double, triple, or even quadruple duty (its 4-in-1 Essential Face Wipes have countless loyal fans). But this product has proven useful for both days when I need to shave, and for helping maintain my beard when I want to grow out my facial hair.
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You could argue that all face scrubs are great as pre-shave products (to prevent razor drag) and for mitigating beard dandruff. But here’s why Ursa Major’s has a key difference: It’s both a chemical exfoliant and physical scrub, so it goes deep into the pores with wintergreen- and willow bark-derived salicylic acid to balance sebum buildup and to free up any trapped skin cells. Meadowseed flower extract aids this process, and all three of those ingredients in turn balance oil production in the skin, so you have less shine on that freshly shorn mug.
Green Slate also uses clay and birch sap to detox the pores deeply without dehydrating your skin. The result? Once you’ve shaved, you see fewer blemishes. Those same purifying ingredients are terrific for flushing out a bushy beard and mitigating any grime beneath the surface of your scruff.
Ursa Major Green Slate Mineral Polish
Though, I can’t say that this is all soft: It is a face scrub after all, with volcanic ash and aluminum oxide giving it those buffing abilities. That’s why it works so well against beard dandruff and as a pre-shave agent. I’ve even been deploying it on my hands and elbows, as well as around my nose and any facial dark spots as a pre-concealer step. By scrubbing with Ursa’s whiplike buffing butter, I’m not only lifting away the dead skin, but I’m also getting the benefit of its oil-controlling ingredients.
One thing I also love about this product is that a little goes a long way. Too often with scrubs, I feel like I only get seven or eight quality uses from the entire jar since it takes so much to lather on, or the buffing effect is so paltry. Not here: It not only spreads around easily, but you can feel the exfoliation on contact.
To any face scrub’s detriment, I think the most effective ways to exfoliate will always be purely chemical formulas, or retinoids that can regulate cellular turnover on their own. But these aren’t always going to give you the same-day results you might need from a pre-shave product (you want the assurance that any dead cells lift away in the moments before the blade touches your face). Not to mention, it is difficult to apply any serums or retinoids to the skin beneath a big bushy beard. This one may massage a bit better in that sense, but it’s probably best suited for shorter beards; longer beards should still rely on a beard brush for that task.
But given all the other applications in Ursa Major’s spongey scrub, I think it’s still a terrific addition to your sink ledge or shower caddy; surely you’ll find a handful of ways to use it.
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