Have you ever wondered why your skin looks so amazing after a day at the beach? It's even and smooth because the sand and sea water exfoliate it to perfection and, as if to reward you for your diligent sunblock application, it's also moisturized and touchably soft. Post-beach cleanup might be a pain, but post-beach skin is totally worth it.

Which kind of stinks for those of us that live in the northern hemisphere - today is the Friday before Labor Day and heralds the end of beach season. Thankfully the good people at Trader Joe's have somehow packaged the best of the beach in a 22 oz tub - and they sell it for under $6! (I know!)

Trader Joe's Purify Grapefruit Chamomile Sea Salt Scrub (try saying that three times fast) is my favorite body scrub - and not just because I love everything about Trader Joe's. It's cheap, it's filled with natural ingredients (sea salt, a mix of sunflower/soybean/apricot kernel oils and essential oils plus vitamins E and C), and it gets the job done. What's not to love?

Exfoliation is the secret to velvety smooth skin and is an essential first step to more advanced beauty maneuvers (like self-tanning) but it can be a bit of a pain, literally. Artificial exfoliants can be too harsh on your skin, so some hard-core beauty junkies resort to making their own - and let's face it, it would be relatively easy to mix up your own at home - but could you do it for under $6? And could you make it smell like a tropical drink?

I really enjoy using this - all I have to do is scoop some up and scrub away. I focus on the trouble spots (knees, elbows and feet) and then rinse it all off under a warm shower. A word of warning - this stuff will leave you quite oily (like you are after a massage) so I always leave time to take a full shower after use. Soap will take away the excess oil but will still leave your skin moisturized. Now you can have summer skin in the middle of winter - how awesome is that?