Exfoliating Goes a Long way in Skin Care... (Detailed)

Exfoliating otherwise known as removing old dead skin cells from your body goes a long way in skin care and even makeup application, I'll give you 2 reasons why... I am prone to black heads on my nose, chin and cheeks and they weren't your average black heads-they were the kind deep in your skin that look like small hairs. I got a facial on my vacation to get the black heads removed (which is painful) and the esthetician told me that I needed to exfoliate at least twice a week to help prevent black heads.

Also, while using one of my favorite cream to powder foundations I noticed that the foundation was really hard to apply. I literally had to drag it across my skin... plus my skin was flaking and peeling bad. I wondered why this was happening and did a search on Google and found out that flaking and peeling skin is a big sign that you need to exfoliate your skin. After this second realization, I immediately went out and bought a facial exfoliating scrub and included it in my skin care regimen.

Exfoliating helps to prevent acne, flaking and peeling of the skin but it also helps your skin to stay soft and youthful looking. Our skin produces new cells every day and the old cells have to be removed, this is where exfoliating comes in to play. Exfoliating is not just for your face it's needed for your entire body which includes your face, feet and even lips.

What I use to exfoliate:

Face:

I use Neutrogena's Deep Clean Gentle scrub for facial exfoliating. It's about $8 and can be found in any drug store. It's gentle enough to use every day but I use it twice a week. I'm pretty pleased with this... it does the job and it's inexpensive.

Lips:

We've all seen people with crusty, cracked lips- so our lips need the same tender, loving care that the rest of the body needs.  I use sugar or Vaseline on my lips and let it sit for 5 minutes and then rub it off with a warm wash cloth. I exfoliate my lips about 2 to 3 times a week because I wear lip gloss and/or lipstick daily... I've noticed that when I don't exfoliate my lips regularly it leaves a white film around my lips which is not cute and looks hideous when wearing lip gloss or lip stick- so I exfoliate!

Body:

Any body scrub with sugar or salt can be used to exfoliate your body in the shower or in your bath. I recently took a trip to Bath & Body works to browse the products with my mother and found that they have pretty good body scrubs.

I picked up the Stress Relief (my stress levels have been off the charts lately) sugar scrub in vanilla verbena. It's13 oz for $16, I thought that was a fair price because I've been used to paying $30 for body scrubs in the past. It's packed with naturally moisturizing essential oils, which is great because exfoliating can be rough on the skin if it's overdone, so it's always good to moisturize the skin directly afterward.

I love buying body scrubs that are packed with essential oils like this one, because it puts moisture back into your skin.

Feet:

I think anyone who has had a pedicure knows that your feet definitely needs to be exfoliated that's why they use the pumice and scaling at the nail salons, but the same exfoliating can be done from home with sugar, salt or any foot scrub.

What do you think of exfoliating? What products do you use to exfoliate?