When exactly does a beauty product become so retro it’s almost modern? Because it’s happening again, this time with powder exfoliators.

There was a time when powder scrubs were the archetypal DIY beauty fix inspired by ancient Asian skincare rituals and about as low-fi and kitchen sink as you could get. Charming as these fine granular powders were, the mixing with water seemed old-fashioned and we soon graduated onto micro bead enzyme formulas and stealthy AHAs without so much as a tear shed over the discarded, out moded powders of old.

But oh, how the beauty world loves an about-turn because guess what? Powders are well and truly back on the radar. And, predictably, this time they’ve been suped up to rival the most sophisticated of new school scrubs. Yes, there’s still the far eastern heritage and ingredients inspired by the apothecaries of old (think rice, bran and various finely milled clays) plus the original ritual of mixing with water, but these precious powders promise to render your skin as soft as a yard of freshly spun Japanese silk so that anything you care to layer over the top - serum, moisturiser or make up - melts into skin like never before. As beauty revivals go, this is one we're firmly behind. Not least because there's something so intrinsically satisfying a buffing your skin into hyper-smooth submission.

Click through the gallery above to see the powder exfoliators we're excited about now.