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Most teenagers know that they need to wash their face with some form of soap and water, and many even have a favorite face wash by the time they finish high school. But it’s less common for men to continue using face washes throughout the rest of their lives, which can stop them from reaping the benefits of a regular face cleansing.
In addition to having a face wash, it's best to have a whole skin care routine. This might seem like overkill, but each product actually does have its own unique benefits, which, when you add to a routine, can help your skin to look better and last longer.
Among the best additions to any skin care routine is a good face scrub. As you know, after a hard day's work, the skin on your face is often covered in a layer of sweat and grime. A simple face wash can cleanse your face of all the visible dirt, but you often still have a layer of dead skin, facial secretions, possibly some pollution that remains on your face.
A good face scrub provides the opportunity to get rid of this layer of dirt and contaminants, which can help you keep your face clear and clean as well as give your skin the opportunity to renew and refresh.
Most face washes cater to women, which can make it difficult to pick out the best ones for men, especially if you aren’t sure what makes them different (if any differences exist at all!). Most face scrubs are actually unisex, but we’ve compiled the following list of the 10 best face scrubs for men in 2024 just to make your life a little bit easier.
1. Blu Atlas Exfoliating Scrub
Blu Atlas is a leading men’s skin care brand, and they’re definitely our first choice for this list. Like all Blu Atlas products, this formula is designed in consultation with a panel of dermatologists, so you know you’re getting the absolute best care for your face. Blu Atlas also has a money-back guarantee if you aren’t satisfied.
Blu Atlas products are all unisex, and this face scrub certainly works hard enough to scrub off even the most neglected of faces. It’s also a very gentle clean, so it won’t aggravate your skin, even if you don’t have a hundred other products and poultices to finish off your skin care routine.
Most important are the ingredients that make this product stand out from the herd. Blu Atlas provides vegan and cruelty-free products derived from between 96–100% natural products. It also contains no artificial fragrances, so it won’t cause irritation in the case of allergies or make your skin smell overly flowery or fruity.
A star ingredient in this blend is hibiscus flower extract. This is a natural product that’s high in antioxidants, which means that it’s great at reducing oxidizing products on the skin. Oxidizing products are things that can stimulate the death of the cells on your face, which means that over time they actually can cause premature aging. A skin care routine that’s high in antioxidants can help prevent this.
Another natural product high in antioxidants in this formula is jojoba oil. Jojoba oil is great for the skin as it’s most similar to sebum, which is naturally secreted by the body to protect the skin. As jojoba oil is similar in chemical structure to sebum, it can be carried further into the skin than other products, which helps make it more effective in facial skin care products.
Jojoba oil is also full of vitamins A, E, and D, which help rejuvenate your skin and keep it nice and healthy. It also has lots of fatty acids, which help give your skin protection and nutrition.
The final important ingredient in this exfoliating scrub from Blu Atlas is bamboo. Bamboo is an extremely well-known product in the health and wellness industry because of its multitudinous health-related properties. Most important in this formula is the anti-inflammatory and antibiotic properties in the bamboo. These help clean the face and remove any bad bacteria that could cause skin irritation or acne.
With all these fantastic properties from natural products and dermatologist certification, we think that Blu Atlas Exfoliating Scrub deserves the first place on our list of the best face scrubs for men.
2. Nivea Men Deep Cleansing Face Scrub
This deeply hydrating gel formula from Nivea is a specially formulated face scrub for men who struggle with dry skin. Dry skin can be especially difficult to clean and deal with as it often results in irritation and flakey patches if not dealt with appropriately.
Using a gel formula like this one helps reduce the drying action of the face scrub without compromising on the fantastic cleaning action. This product also contains the intensely hydrating aloe vera, which is a natural product renowned for its ability to restore dry skin.
In addition to aloe vera, this product is enriched with provitamin B5. This means that it’s able to nourish your skin and helps restore any damaged areas. This repairing action helps give this product the ability to refine your complexion, meaning it repairs red, irritated, or damaged skin and removes dead skin.
This product isn’t designed to be used every day as the scrubbing action is too strong to be used on the delicate skin of the face with that frequency. However, it can be a great addition to a skin care routine if used two to three times per week.
Nivea Men is a well-established brand that’s been in the health and wellness industry for a long time. This product is a great product for people who are fresh on their skin care journey and aren’t sure where to begin. It’s especially helpful that Nivea Men’s products are widely and readily available.
3. Viking Revolution Microdermabrasion Facial Scrub
This cream scrub from Viking Revolution is another excellent addition to our list of the 10 best facial scrubs for men. A relative newcomer to the skincare world, Viking Revolution was formed in 2016, but they certainly didn’t need much time to come up with a winning formula.
This facial scrub is suitable for skin of all types, including combination, dry, oily, or sensitive skin. This means that the product is relatively gentle and won’t cause irritation or damage, even to already sensitive skin. This has been achieved through creating the formula with expert consultation.
Regardless of the gentle cleansing action of the formula, this product is also able to remove dirt and do a deep clean of the pores to remove excess oil. This product also contains a moisturizing element, which helps make skin feel smooth and conditioned.
In fact, the skin will feel so conditioned that you can even use this product before shaving! You may not be aware, but razor bumps and burns are in part caused by small amounts of dirt and oil on the skin, which can cause the razor to skip over the skin, instead of gliding smoothly, making the razor is more likely to cause irritation. However, if you deeply clean the skin before you shave, the razor has nothing to catch on, which can help prevent those tell-tale red bumps on freshly shaved skin.
This product is also from a small business, so you can feel great about making conscientious consumer decisions. In addition, Viking Revolution has a satisfaction guarantee, so you can try a new product with no fear of your money being wasted!
4. Every Man Jack Oil & Acne Defense Face Scrub
Next on our list of the best facial scrubs for men is another gel. This formula from Every Man Jack is great for use on oily, dry, or sensitive skin. This product is especially good for men with sensitive skin because it contains no potentially irritating fragrances, which can cause irritation or allergy.
In addition to lacking any irritating fragrances, this product is also a stand-out because of the gluten-free, cruelty-free, and plant-based formula. This is great for men with food intolerances because they (gluten intolerances in particular) can make it really challenging to find male-centered products that work around your medical needs.
This product contains a slew of other great ingredients, like activated charcoal. This is a purifying ingredient that helps remove excess oil without being overly drying on the skin. It also helps clear away dirt, with the slightly coarse granules in the formula giving the scrub it’s cleaning strength.
Two other excellent additions to this formula are the hydrating components of aloe vera and glycerine. These are both well-known additives to skin care formulas because they’re excellent at both attracting and delivering moisture to the skin. Aloe vera is also able to soothe the skin and helps men with sensitive skin to deal with irritation.
This product also contains less common ingredients like salicylic acid and jojoba beads. These ingredients help this formula stand out from the crowd as they provide a coarse surface to scrub against the skin as well as giving a nice chemical cleanse at the same time as the physical. This helps reduce the risk of damage from the mechanical scrubbing aspects of this gel.
5. Marlowe Number 122 Men’s Facial Scrub
This men’s facial scrub from Marlowe is a great example of a re-examined and redefined product from this brand. The Number 122 formula has been completely overhauled and redesigned to make it one of the best men’s facial scrubs.
While this product is gentle enough for dry or sensitive skin, it’s particularly well designed for oily faces as it has a strong exfoliating action that helps reduce the amount of oil as well as buff and polish the skin to give the face a lovely fresh look.
The formula is water-based, which means it won’t sit heavy on the skin or cause the skin to tighten up and dry out. It also contains green tea, which is a common and highly effective ingredient in a variety of health and wellness products.
Green tea is so common because it’s a great product for helping to rejuvenate the skin. Mainly, this is because green tea is high in antioxidants, which means that it’s able to help the skin to recover from damage and reverse the effects of aging that occur on a daily basis.
The green tea in this blend helps nourish the skin as well as helping the exfoliating action to give your face a great deep clean that won’t leave your skin crying out for moisture. In addition, this product is made in the USA, and is cruelty-, paraben-, and phthalate-free.
6. Brickell Men’s Products Renewing Face Scrub
This multi-feature product from Brickell makes a great addition to our list because of its versatility. Not only can this product be used in a general skin care routine, but it also makes a great choice as a pre-shave cleanser to help you get the shave that you were looking for.
When used later in the day, this face scrub helps exfoliate all the nasties on the skin, which can accumulate after a long day. In particular, exfoliation with this product is great for removing dead or damaged skin as well as cleaning off sticky pollutants.
Using a facial scrub can be especially beneficial if you have allergies to environmental factors like pollen as we unwittingly carry these around on our skin throughout the day. When we go to sleep having only washed our faces with water, we tend to leave the pollen stuck to our faces, which can then be deposited onto the pillowcase and subsequently cause allergic reactions after rolling around in it all night.
In addition to working as a gentle and effective cleanser, this product can also function as a skin-preparing agent prior to shaving. This helps promote a reduction in damage when shaving while allowing you a very close shaving experience.
These two functions are possible because of the bevy of natural (98%) and organic (70%) ingredients contained in the formula. One of these ingredients is aloe vera, which as we know is a well-established hydrating, soothing, and conditioning agent.
This formula also has some unusual ingredients, like avocado butter. This component helps provide a great conditioning experience, which is essential for creating a smooth, supple finish to the skin after use.
This formula is especially good for exfoliation because it includes two rough particulates, pumice and jojoba beads. Pumice is especially useful because of the porosity of the stone, which not only helps absorb more oil than other types of beads, but also provides a more varied and robust scrubbing action.
Finally, this product also contains vitamin E. The inclusion of this vitamin in the formula helps reduce any irritation or redness in the skin, which is great for soothing and reducing the harshness of the strong scrubbing action. It’s also great to be present on the skin throughout the shaving process because of its ability to restore and reduce damaged skin from the shaving process itself.
7. Jack Black Face Buff
This energizing product is specially formulated to work as a pre-shave cleanser. It has a strong exfoliating action to help reduce damage to the skin as a result of razor clogs while containing ingredients that help plump the skin and reduce damage from razor skips.
When the skin is plump and full, it helps the razor glide more smoothly across the skin and results in fewer microabrasions from the razor catching on little nooks and crannies in the skin. This product creates plumpness by including a few key ingredients, including vitamin C, licorice extract, and mint.
All of these ingredients are great at invigorating the blood flow to the face as well as helping to attract and retain moisture to the skin. Because the tiny wrinkles on our faces are mainly due to skin dehydration, the ability to call moisture to the skin reduces these wrinkles, thus leaving plump, tight skin that’s ready for a close shave.
Like most other exfoliators, Jack Black Face Buff should only be used two to four times per week. This formula may be more acceptable for sensitive skin types because the beads that create the granules to produce a scrubbing action are made out of bamboo powder. Unlike some other products on this list, this powder is gentle enough to be used as an exfoliator for men who have skin prone to irritation.
8. Rugged & Dapper Daily Exfoliating Face Wash
Most of these facial scrubs are designed to be used at most a few times per week. For most people, this is enough to reap the benefits of exfoliation without causing damage to the skin. However, some people have environmental, health, or career conditions that mean they need to be exfoliating their skin more often.
This can be especially difficult to navigate for men as most products warn you against using them too often. But you know that if your skin suffers from any extenuating conditions, you need a stronger cleaning product as a daily use option.
This product by Rugged & Dapper is great for men who know that they need to use an exfoliator more often but don’t want to have to develop a whole different skin care routine to adjust their skin to the more frequent cleaning.
Although this product is designed for daily use, it’s also designed to be suitable for all skin types, including oily, combination, sensitive, dry, and normal. Because of the gentle action of the wash, you can even change it up and use it every few days if you have more sensitive skin that can’t withstand normal exfoliators.
This product is designed to remove excess oils, grime, or dirt from the facial skin, which helps reduce the risk of acne while not drying your skin out. It can also help give your skin a refresh, and can revitalize your complexion to get rid of the dull look of excessive dead skin.
This gentle face wash has a great deal of natural, plant-based exfoliants that help keep it a soothing experience suitable for daily use. Some of these ingredients include aloe vera, vitamin C, willow bark, and burdock root. These natural ingredients help soothe and reduce irritation or damage.
In addition, this product also contains tea tree essential oils, vitamin E, and lactic acid. These are more active ingredients, which help refine and clean the skin while increasing blood flow. They can even aid in reducing congestion because you’re inhaling the product’s aroma of tea tree, which can help clear out the sinuses.
This product is truly versatile and is among the few available that’s convenient for people who have difficulty controlling the oil of their skin. For this, we’re glad to include it on our list of the 10 best facial scrubs for men.
9. Kiehl’s Facial Fuel Energizing Scrub
This product from Kiehl’s is great for men who are less comfortable with natural products and just want a tried and true facial scrub to help reduce redness, cleanse and condition the skin, and remove dead cells.
This product contains an energizing chemical called menthol, which is known for its peppermint smell as well as its ability to clear congestion and sinuses. It’s equally well known for its ability to cleanse the skin in the health and wellness community.
Because this product relies on a chemical to exfoliate rather than beads or rough particulates, it can be more suitable for skin that’s sensitive to physical exfoliation; it avoids the potential for damaging the skin during exfoliation while remaining an effective cleaning tool.
This formula does have some rough particulates, but they come in the form of apricot kernels, which are small enough that they aren’t scratchy and irritating to the face. They also help agitate the skin to remove stubborn patches of dirt.
10. Acure Brightening Facial Scrub
We’ve decided to end our list with a truly hard-hitting product. This facial scrub for men is especially well formulated for variety as it has several features. It can act as a softening, brightening, nourishing, moisturizing, and exfoliating product.
Although this may seem rather far-fetched, this product really delivers with its unique formulation. It includes argan oil, sea kelp, lemon peel, French green clay, and madonna lily. These ingredients may be relatively unheard of, but they definitely get the job done.
Sea kelp is a great ingredient because it’s infused with a variety of nutrients, which are so dense that it’s sometimes called super-nutritious. This means that it’s able to help soften the skin and provide nutrition to promote healing and age or damage repair. This helps keep the skin from looking shiny, tight, and damaged.
Lemon peel is a pretty common ingredient, but it’s relatively unusual to find in a facial scrub. The lemon peel in this scrub is one of two exfoliating agents because citrus provides a strong cleaning action.
French green clay is the other exfoliator in this blend. The large particulates act as a basis for the exfoliating action. This ingredient is also able to draw impurities like dirt and oils from within the skin’s pores. This makes it an extremely effective cleaning agent.
The final key ingredient in this blend is madonna lily, which helps add brightness to the skin. If you’re new in the health and wellness industry, you may not be familiar with the term brightness in regard to the skin, but it simply means that it adds a healthy, dewy glow that keeps you looking fresh and moisturized all day long.
This is another product that’s suitable for use between two and three times daily, but the natural ingredients have enough moisturizing and nourishing action that it’s suitable for all skin types. This includes, oily, combination, normal, dry, and sensitive skin.
Men with allergies may want to do a patch test simply because these natural products are less often used so you may not know if you have an allergy to one of them. However, most people should be fine as none of these ingredients are particularly known for being allergenic. Regardless, any time you use a new product, we recommend doing a patch test if you know you have allergies.
In addition to having a whole host of great ingredients, this product also has no bad ones. This means it’s free from common irritants like parabens, sulfates, mineral oils, petrolatum, and formaldehydes. It’s also 100% vegan, which makes it accessible to men who have lifestyle choices that rule out products that are bad for the environment. Acure Brightening Facial Scrub is also completely cruelty-free, which means that you can enjoy your purchase with no regrets.
While this list shows that you have a lot of choices in the men’s facial scrub department, we think that the ones we’ve presented are definitely the best facial scrubs for men available.