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A lot of the lists out there for best self-care products are very sponsored and honestly pretty weak. If you’re starting or upgrading a self-care routine, you don’t really want to spend a ton of money up front on products like masks and haircare that get used up. Once they’re all gone, you’re more or less back where you started!

I intentionally avoided products in this post but will definitely discuss those in another post. Here, I’m focused on tools that will last you a long time. I want to show you the best self-care tools for your perfect self-care day. These products will set you up with a beauty routine you can stick to. I chose affordable options for your personal care goals that will get you glowing up in no time. (There are a couple splurge products mentioned too!)

I haven’t recommended anything here that I don’t own myself! And because I can’t write a blog post without expressing 100000 opinions, there are mini-reviews too.

Exfoliating Self-Care Tools:

Keeping your skin exfoliated is an important part of putting forward your brightest skin! If you’re looking to do this affordably, you’re better off with tools than with exfoliating lotions that need to get repurchased every few months.

1. Italy Towel

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The Italy towel (it’s not from Italy, it’s from Korea!) is a great affordable exfoliation option — they last forever. This is best for if you have regular access to a bath, as you’ll want to soak for a while before using it. If you like your skincare a little bit gross, then run, do not walk to get a set of Italy towels, because you will be watching dead skin come off you in little rolls.

This is almost certainly the most affordable long-term option for deep exfoliating, rather than buying a tub of sugar scrub that you have to replace every other month. The little mitts are easy to clean with soap and last basically forever. This is a deeper exfoliation that should be done once a week or so.

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2. Dry Brush

If you don’t have regular access to a bath, you’re probably better off with a dry brush. Rather than taking the dead skin off while you’re wet, a dry brush is a step you add before you get in the shower. You can use it to brush your body in long, slow strokes starting at your hands and feet and moving towards your heart, which will have the added advantage of stimulating your lymphatic system too.

This does some solid exfoliating before you even get into the shower, and unlike the Italy towels it’s recommended to do it every day. You’ll need to replace this more often than the Italy towels. I believe they recommend every three months but I have had mine for two years with no ill effects, so it’s still a very long-lasting item, and it is dorm-friendly.

And if you’re prone to dryness, why not check out my Best Body Skincare Routine for Dry Skin and Keratosis Pilaris while you’re at it?

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3. Pumice Stone

Exfoliation for your feet! Even though I focus a lot on moisturizing my feet (because it’s where I use lotions that I don’t like) eventually you do get some dry skin. If you’re a DIY girlie like me doing your own pedicures, you’ll need a pumice stone to keep your feet smooth and soft. I like this one, but you can also get them in a block shape if you prefer. Whatever you use, don’t leave it in the shower — let it dry between uses so that it stays clean and sanitary.

I use mine once a week to keep everything in check as part of my everything shower–I use it after I shave my legs but before I rinse out my conditioner and do my final body wash, so I feel confident that anything left behind has been rinsed off.

Some people prefer to use a foot file — I think these would be more appropriate for someone with more significant calluses. I would not have the stomach for this, I don’t think!

Cleansing Self-Care Tools

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4. Silicone Facial Cleansing Brush

I know, I know, you’re like, “I don’t need this!”. Which I totally get, and I thought that too, but it turned out that I needed it! So maybe you do too. These little silicone scrubbies make such a difference in getting my face really clean. I wear sunscreen diligently (and you do too, riiiiight?) so I need to get it out every single night. I didn’t realize how much was getting left behind until I got a silicone scrubby. All of a sudden I stopped having closed comedones.

You don’t have to get the one I linked above–I have an e.l.f. brand one that uses a watch battery to buzz but which I can’t find to link anymore. I wouldn’t recommend one of the handheld ones that are supposed to sit in your palm (like this or this). They are just too floppy to give you the light pressure you need to really get in there.

If you try it, love it, and want to get really fancy, there’s always the Foreo Luna–but make sure the cheap one works for you first. And whatever you do, skip anything with a spinning brush head!

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5. Shampoo Scrubber

Tell me how I went from washing my hair every other day to every four-five days with this little silicone shampoo scrub brush. Out of all the self-care tools on this list I am convinced that this is the one that saves you money, because you’re using half as much shampoo.

I had tried the charcoal scalp scrubs and felt that they were just okay. This tool does what I wanted the charcoal scrub to do, and I never have to rebuy it! I will work the shampoo into my hair until it lathers. Then, I try to focus on one quadrant of my head at a time until I know that I’ve scrubbed everywhere well. This takes about three minutes, so I usually turn the water off. Then, I rinse that shampoo out and then do a second shampoo with about half the amount I had used previously and scrub again.

I do keratin treatments, so I’m restricted to sulfate-free shampoos. And I always missed that squeaky clean feeling that I had when using sulfates, even though it’s not good for your hair! This is the closest I have gotten. I keep one in my gym bag so that I am never forced to wash my hair without it.

Using a scrubber has also been great for my hair growth journey. I’m not sure if that’s because it’s stimulating the area and increasing blood flow or if it’s because my scalp is cleaner than it ever has been. Some people also use these brushes to oil their hair. I have never done that but it’s a good idea!

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6. Pore Spatula

This little pore spatula thing looks like a gimmick, but it really does work to pull the clogs out of blackheads and sebaceous filaments.

I had been getting ads for ages for a very expensive item just like this (like $120 expensive) and I am just too frugal for that. But I do struggle with skin texture on my nose and cheeks, so I couldn’t quite let go of the idea Eventually I searched a description of the item, trying to decide if it was worth following the account and watching for a sale, and I found this version on Amazon. I saw that it had good reviews, so I decided to give it a try, and I was so pleased! It basically vibrates the gunk out of your pores.

Some of the Amazon reviews talk about the item not turning on, which I think is in error. You need to hold the power button down for like five seconds to get it to turn on. Kind of annoying but worth it to save $100. There’s a little bit of a learning curve to get the best results. Plan to give this one a few tries before you decide to give up on it. But for an inexpensive product that gives a great result, it’s worth it to figure it out. I’ve never used the little silicone covers that come with it.

I use this once a week, not on my everything shower day but on a midweek evening. I find that I get the best results if I use it between the oil and the soap for my double cleanse.

Skincare Self-Care Tools

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7. Gua Sha

This is probably the skincare tool that started it all, and I bet every person on earth who wants a gua sha already has one. But no list would be complete without it. I almost left it off the list because I typically use mine with a serum. But you could choose to use yours with whatever you have. It would work fine with olive oil from your kitchen, if your skin tolerates that! You can use this to set in your skincare, ensuring lymphatic drainage, and reducing puffiness to define your bone structure as much as possible.

Oral Care Self-Care Tools

8. Travel Water Flosser

So I have this water flosser and it is tiny but mighty. It’s a travel flosser, which is actually important to me. It’s not that I travel a lot (I don’t really) but I just think it’s so gross when the countertop water flossers/waterpiks have a giant tank of water and the water just sits in the tubes. I feel like that’s a recipe for it to get gross or have bacteria grow in it. So I stick to a travel flosser that gets emptied every single day. (If I just unlocked a new phobia in you, I’m sorry and also welcome to the club.)

Mine, you’ll be unsurprised to learn, is pink.

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9. Tongue Scraper

Yeah, okay, everyone has heard about these. But they are the truth. I think a lot of oral care is gimmicky — I am very distrustful of oil pulling, for example (and yes, I did try it!). But a tongue scraper is manually removing bacteria from your tongue just like brushing does for your teeth. I have struggled with bad breath in the past and using a tongue scraper made the biggest difference out of every routine change that I made. Even more so than that bad breath mouthwash you saw on TikTok.

And the one thing that I wouldn’t recommend…

An ice roller.

If you had to spend a million dollars on self-care tools this year I would still tell you to skip this one and fish an ice cube out of your freezer. I got one as a gift from a wonderful friend and it is almost certainly less effective than an ice cube in a paper towel. I bet 95% of all ice rollers in the world are used only for props for aesthetic skincare pics. (But if you disagree, let me know in the comments!)

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