These $9 Exfoliating Gloves Work Better Than Any Body Scrub I've Ever Tried

I won't sugarcoat it. Winter wrecks my skin. Well, any skin below my neck. Everything above the neck gets VIP treatment. We're talking layers of hyaluronic acid serum, rich moisturizer, and dew drops. However, it's like I forget for weeks at a time that body scrub and lotion even exist. Fast-forward to a few weeks ago—when we're on the cusp of summer and my leggings are slowly begging to be replaced by shorts—my legs hadn't seen sunlight in months and were sporting what I can fairly refer to as dry, flaky scales. Yes, scales.

Shorts season is nearly here, and luckily I've spurred into action just in the nick of time to alleviate what I'm now calling the "scaly situation." Something about body scrubs has never sat right with me—do they just stick like grime to the shower floors?—so I dove into a more manual form of dry skin removal: exfoliating gloves. Much like a dry brush or body scrubber, but outfitted to wear on your hands for slip-free use, exfoliating gloves helped me get rid of rough winter legs and embrace my new buttery-soft summer skin. See you later, scales.

While there are different kinds of exfoliating tools out there, I opted for these charcoal-infused exfoliating gloves by Earth Therapeutics because they claim to use medicinal charcoal to draw out impurities and clean your pores as they remove dead skin cells. And while I can't vouch for how purifying they are compared to other gloves on the market, I can say that these charcoal gloves got rid of my textured, dead skin-riddled leg problem in just a couple uses.

How To Use Exfoliating Gloves

First, I put on one of the gloves from the set. Next, I apply my usual body cleanser. Starting from the bottom and working my way up, I then rub the gloved hand in circular motions to scrub away any dead skin cells as I cleanse. Afterwards, I apply a generous slather of body lotion—this is important! (The exfoliating gloves also come in handy for using in the shower before applying self-tanner.)

There are tons of different exfoliating gloves on the market, but here are my recommendations to help you get your softest skin ever for summertime and beyond.