Whether you wear makeup every single day of your life or wear it just for special occasions, there is something that you need to be doing on a very regular basis: exfoliating. As I’m sure you remember from 8th grade biology, your body sloughs it’s skin all the time. Sometimes the skin falls off (hello dust!) and sometimes it sticks around. I’m sure you can imagine how unattractive it would be to have makeup, especially foundation, clinging to your dead bits of skin. Not pretty.
We all want perfect, smooth skin. Exfoliating gets you one big step closer to that. Have you ever seen someone whose foundation just looks so . . . obvious? A lot of the time it’s because they’ve got their makeup spread over rough, dry, dead skin. Sounds pleasant, no?
So how are you going to exfoliate and get rid of all this dead skin? There are some really fancy long, term solutions like chemical peels (which I love!) and microdermabrasion. But those are costly and not a day-to-day solution. Some people swear by swirly battery-powered brushes that cost upwards of a $100. Uh, no thanks. Instead I’d like to recommend facial scrubs that have lots of scrubby ingredients like seeds or ground nuts. My favorite is the Citrus Facial Scrub by Burts Bees. It’s about $7 and I get it at Target. It’s made of natural goodies and smells like actual dried oranges and spice, not like fake-scented orange cleaner. It comes out of the jar very dry so it needs to be mixed with a bit of water to form a paste. Unlike other scrubs Burts Bees leaves behind a nice bit of moisture. Your face won’t feel parched and dry when it’s rinsed off. This product can be a little on the messy side so I only use it in the shower. It really leaves my skin looking glowy and smooth.
Everyone’s skin is different so you’ll have to figure out how often you need it. At the bare minimum you ought to exfoliate once a week. Pay special attention to your nose and cheeks. This seems to be the area where dead skin seems to stick around the most.
No matter how young or old you are, exfoliating will help your skin look as fabulous as possible.
* I received no compensation for this review. I bought this scrub with my very own money and wanted to tell you how much I like it.
I agree, exfoliating is a must. My mom would never let us buy any skin care products, but when I was a teen I read in a magazine to combine corn meal and honey into a paste to remove dead skin. 20 years later, I still use this method. However, I am now almost 40 and just started on Retin A. My skin has not looked so good since I was 6! It literally erasers time.
Good to know about the Retin-A. I remember all my friends using that for their acne growing up; I had completely forgotten it!
Oh, bless you 40-year-olds! To us septuagenarians, YOU look like age 6 (but taller and shapelier)!
I’m afraid to try an exfoliant, because very old skin is very, very thin, and very, very dry. I’m afraid to end up with no skin at all! What’s your advice on that, Hilde?