#TheSkinProject Exfoliating Your Skin

Welcome back to another #TheSkinProject post! This time, we’re talking about exfoliating. 2, 4, 6, 8 – how do we exfoliate? (Forgive me, I’m a goofball!)

I love exfoliating. I had visible blackheads in the pores on my nose at age 11 (my pitifully undereducated response was “How do I get rid of my dots?”) and until I discovered exfoliation, I could never rid myself of them. (Neutrogena Visibly Even Skin Polishing Enzyme Treatment changed my life!) When I got cold, my face turned red and I joked that my nose looked like a strawberry with all the teensy “seeds” of blogged dirt and sebum. Funny, but gross.

Exfoliating clears pores and removes dead skin cells, revealing cleaner and more radiant skin underneath. Any product you use that describes itself as a scrub or has any kind of crystals, microbeads, etc is an exfoliant. 

I am very careful to exfoliate more gently on my face than on my body – facial skin is much thinner, more sensitive and easier to damage, so I don’t use products with big, rough crystals of sugar or sea salt on my face, no matter how much I’d like to see results. I personally exfoliate 2-3 times a week.

My exfoliant of choice for my face is Clinique Exfoliating Scrub, which is a water-based scrub with a refreshing but mild menthol tinge that wakes you up nicely. For body exfoliants, I have fun with it! Sugar scrubs from Bath and Body Works smell great and work wonders for my elbows and feet (Japanese Cherry Blossom Golden Sugar Scrub is my favorite), but my most commonly used body exfoliants are homemade. The basic formula is this:

• A base like olive oil, coconut oil or yogurt
• Either granulated white sugar or sea salt, for the exfoliating “beads”
• Optional: scent with essential oils like lavender, bonus exfoliation with lemon or lime juice (citric acid acts as an exfoliant too!)

As you can see, I love DIY exfoliants made in the kitchen – I even have a recipe for a homemade lip exfoliating treatment for ladies with flaky lips.

Don’t forget to follow hashtag #TheSkinProject on Twitter to see all the girls’ posts on these topics – follow @SassyDoveBlog too to keep up with what’s new here on Sassy Dove!