Exfoliation is a crucial step in your skincare routine, and is often overlooked. Regular exfoliation removes built up dead skin cells, unclogs your pores, reduces ingrown hairs, and improves the overall texture and tone of your skin. There are so many different methods and products for exfoliation available, and it can be overwhelming when trying to choose the best one for you. In this blog, we will discuss different methods of exfoliation, some of our favourite exfoliators, and how to choose the right one for you.
Why Should You Exfoliate?
Our skin naturally sheds dead skin cells about once a month to make room for new ones, and sometimes the dead skin cells don’t shed completely. This results in flaky, dry patches of skin on our face and body, clogged pores, and ingrown hairs. Regular exfoliation aids in the shedding of dead skin cells leaving you with smooth, glowing, healthy skin. Sloughing away your dead skin cells also allows for better absorption of the rest of your skincare products and moisturisers, so you can really reap the benefits of the active ingredients.
Facial Exfoliation
The skin on our face is delicate and can be sensitive to skincare products and harsh environmental stressors, like sun and wind exposure. It is important to ensure that you’re using the right exfoliation technique and product for your specific skin type. Here are some of our favourite facial exfoliants:
- Gentle Cleansing Facial Scrub: This cleanser does it all! This physical exfoliant is made with jojoba beads that gently scrub away dead skin cells, oil and impurities, while its creamy base moisturises the skin. Tea tree, lavender, and carrot seed essential oils provide anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory properties to reduce redness and irritation. This cleanser is gentle enough for daily use and is suitable for sensitive skin types.
- Citrus AHA Facial Cleanser: Another great cream cleanser that offers an enzymatic exfoliation. This means that instead of using physically exfoliating ingredients to scrub the skin, natural alpha-hydroxy acids (AHAs) are used to breakdown and remove dead skin and improve skin tone over time. AHAs are water-soluble acids that are typically derived from sugary fruits, like citrus. This is a great choice for those who don’t like the feeling of physical exfoliants on the face.
- Seaweed & Mint Facial Exfoliant: For a deep scrub, we’d recommend using the Seaweed & Mint scrub once a week. Formulated with walnut shells and jojoba beads, this scrub offers a deep exfoliation. Peppermint essential oil leaves the skin feeling invigorated and refreshed. We recommend this powerful, plant-based scrub to those with oily skin.
- Konjac sponges: These plant sponges are made from a plant root that is native to Korea. Once it’s wet, it becomes like a soft sponge that offers a gentle, physical exfoliation. Use with your daily cleanser or on its own with water for a squeaky clean feeling.
- Lip scrubs: exfoliating your lips is just as important, and sugar scrubs are our go-to! Lip scrubs leave your lips smooth and ready for your favourite lip balm.
Exfoliating Your Body
There is nothing like a good salt or sugar scrub to leave your skin feeling silky smooth. Regularly exfoliating your body is great for preventing ingrown hairs, it helps to improve circulation, and over time can aid in collagen production, resulting in healthy, plump looking skin. Our favourite exfoliators for the body are our salt and sugar scrubs.
Our Salt Scrubs are the more abrasive option, and are great for the legs and feet. Formulated with nourishing oils to soften and moisturise the skin, as well as essential oils that provide anti-bacterial and aromatherapeutic benefits, these are a shower staple all year round.
Our Sugar Scrubs have a finer grain and are great for the arms, legs, stomach, back and chest. They are also formulated with nourishing oils to leave your skin refreshed and glowy. Using these before shaving results in a super close, ultra smooth shave with no ingrown hairs.
A dry brush is another popular option for exfoliating the body. Before showering, drag the brush against your skin in an upwards motion towards your heart to remove dead skin cells, stimulate circulation, and aid in lymphatic drainage.
Regardless of what method of body exfoliation you choose, make sure to use a lotion, body butter or oil to moisturise your skin afterwards!
Exfoliation is an important step of any skin care routine, and results in healthy, glowing skin over time. There are many different options for exfoliation depending on skin type, and it’s always a good idea to start with the gentlest options and work your way up if you feel you need a little extra. For more facial and body care essentials, head over to our website.
