Want to unleash the full power of your skincare routine?
I’d like to open with a fairly dramatic statement today: exfoliating will change your life (and unleash the full power of your skincare routine)!
So maybe exfoliating won’t change yer life, but it will shake up your skincare routine in a big way if done correctly.
From my experience in the skincare industry, I have noticed a significant amount of hesitation around exfoliation, because quite frankly there are a lot of ways to get it wrong. Take for example, my teenage son and his, shall we say (hmmm) ‘interesting’ exfoliating escapades over the last few months….
Driven by normal teenage 'necessity' to look tip-top, he spends a LOT of time self-educating (red flag alert!) on You-tube, ‘studying’ how to eradicate his teenage blemishes. He has purchased this acid and that, layered them unceremoniously onto his innocent, unsuspecting baby-face, aaaaand watched his skin dry up and float away like a head full of white dandruff. Well maybe not float away, but yes dry up and become dehydrated and scaly! Not good. So once in this state, he then quite literally chose to scrape his dry skin off with a razor blade! And there’s every possibility it was a blunt, rusty one too, but let’s not go there. You can imagine my absolute horror when he finally confessed to this skincare offence, especially with what I do for a living…….ouch!
For those not in the know, exfoliating helps to keep your skin silky soft by buffing away and removing dead skin cell build up. It works to reveal fresh, new skin cells so that skin takes on a new ‘glowiness’, and feels wonderfully smooth and delicious to touch!
Exfoliation can be achieved via two main methods (not including the razor blade technique described above – however in saying that there is such a process called derma-planing, but that’s for another blog-day!) including:
- Physical exfoliation, which utilises granular exfoliating particles or an exfoliation tool such as a pumice stone to buff off dead skin cells and build up, and
- Chemical exfoliation, which relies on acids to do the work, breaking down the ‘glue’ which holds dead skin cells together.
Both methods can be safe and very effective, but of course both come with risks if done incorrectly – so choose your weapon wisely!
So back to my original statement: that exfoliating helps unleash the full powers of your skincare routine - the other amazing thing about exfoliating is that it clears a path to allow your serums and oils to penetrate more effectively, much like clearing the hurdles from a 100m running track – it’s just so much easier! The process of exfoliation means your chosen serums and oils can get to work much quicker and your overall results will be a considerable step up. Plus, exfoliation helps reduce fine lines, reduce pigmentation and tone the skin. Winning!
One word of warning please, like most fantastic things in life, exfoliation is all about balance – whilst it’s important to remove dead skin cells, it’s imperative to not to strip away too many of your skin’s natural oils. Exfoliating too often can severely compromise the skin leaving it sensitised, raw, shiny and thin, whilst on the other hand, not exfoliating enough can leave the skin dull and congested – neither option is great really! We recommend exfoliating your skin at least twice a week as part of your weekly skincare routine, but you may find that every second day may bring on even more noticeably great results – particularly as skin ages and skin cell turnover reduces accordingly.
And of course, we have developed the best manual exfoliant ever. No really!
Not only do we use a base that is infused with fabulous calming oils, extracts and other delightfully nourishing ingredients like Aloe Vera and organic vegetable glycerine, we incorporate the perfect blend of exfoliating particles into our fab Exfoliating Cream. Our blend of exfoliating particles is completely renewable and eco-friendly, but perhaps most importantly it’s extremely effective at getting the job done without irritation. And as an added bonus, it smells pretty sensational too – with a delightful balance of juicy grapefruit and vanilla, it’s one of our best creations yet :p
So don’t forget this extremely important step in your skincare routine to promote renewed, smoother and brighter skin.