If you aren’t familiar, exfoliating is the process of removing the top layer of dead skin cells from your body. Exfoliating your body is important, but I’m going to primarily focus on how to exfoliate your face!

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Why is it Important?

So the biggest reason to exfoliate is to remove any dead skin cells, leaving you with smooth skin, but there’s more than that!

It allows for your skincare to more easily absorb into your skin, making it more effective! Plus, it helps to encourage skin cell turnover, for a brighter complexion. 

Starting with a smooth face is also going to help your makeup look even better!

And if you’re into self-tanning, making sure you exfoliate your face and body will help prevent orange patches and streaks!

How Often to Exfoliate Your Face and by Skin Type

If you aren’t sure what your skin type is, check that out this post!

When you start to exfoliate your face more regularly, make sure you’re paying attention to your skin and how it’s reacting. And if you’re noticing any redness, itchiness or hurts at all, stop! 

Chemical vs. Physical

There’s two primary ways to exfoliate your face – chemical and physical. 

Chemical

Chemical exfoliation is the most gentle method, and involves an AHA, BHA or PHA acid to dissolve the dead skin cells on your face. The over-the-counter methods are more gentle than chemical peels available at the Dermatologist’s office. 

AHAs include glycolic, lactic, citric, and malic acids. These work on the surface of your skin for a smoother texture. 

An example of BHAs are salicylic acid, which penetrates your pores in addition to working on the skin’s surface.

The molecules in PHAs are larger than AHAs, so they can’t penetrate skin as deeply as AHAs, but do have additional hydration and antioxidant benefits!

Physical

Physical exfoliation are the more “traditional” types of exfoliation you may think of. These are manual ways to exfoliate your face – like scrubs or a washcloth. On your body, this also includes loofahs, sponges and brushes!

A lot of us are probably familiar with a certain fruit-themed scrub, but please please please don’t use that one! The particles are way too rough for skin and can cause damage if overused!

Look for exfoliators made with microbeads or jojoba beads to best care for your skin. Keep in mind, microbeads aren’t great for the environment, so jojoba beads are a great option.  

How to Exfoliate By Skin Type

If you aren’t sure what your skin type is, check out this post here! 

Dry & Sensitive

To keep your skin looking good and staying healthy, steer clear of physical exfoliation. Both dry and sensitive skin are more prone to micro-tears, caused by more aggressive exfoliation methods.

Micro-tears break down your skin’s moisture barrier, causing dry, itchy and flaky skin. Just what you were trying to get rid of! And if you didn’t know it was your exfoliator causing the problem, you might use even more to try and fix it!

Using a chemical exfoliator is the best option for sensitive and dry skin to help remove dead skin cells and encourage skin cell turnover!

Oily, Normal & Combination

Oily, normal and combination skin types can use either physical or chemical types of exfoliation. Physical methods help to remove any oily buildup that a chemical exfoliant might not be able to penetrate. 

But just because these skin types aren’t as sensitive, still treat your skin very gently! 

How to use Lip Scrub

The other skin on your face that you shouldn’t ignore is your lips! So, how to use a lip scrub? There’s a couple options – a gritty scrub in either a pot or a tube, or a brush (a toothbrush even works too!). 

Gently use the scrub or brush on your lips to get rid of any dead skin, and follow up with a good lip balm or moisturizer! 

Using a lip scrub is also a good idea before applying liquid lipstick. You want your lips to be nice and smooth, so your liquid lipstick looks good all day! 

Jen’s Favorites

My two favorite exfoliators are the e.l.f Cosmetics Gentle Peeling Exfoliant and the Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare Alpha Beta® Extra Strength Daily Peel!

The gentle peeling exfoliant is kind of wild the first time you use it! Put a couple pumps in your hand, and apply to clean, dry skin. Gently rub in circles, and you’ll end up with little balls of dead skin to just wash away. 

I honestly thought it was fake the first time, but couldn’t deny how soft my skin was!

The Dr, Dennis Gross peel pads are great for improving skin’s brightness, and can also help with blemishes! 

They can be used as needed, or you can work up to using them once a day. Personally, I’ve done both! 

In the summer, I use tanning drops mixed with moisturizer to give my face a little glow (like this product). So using the peel pads daily would just take off my fake tan! That;n when I use them as needed. 

Fall and winter time are great to get into an everyday routine for me, because I’m not worried about maintaining a “tan”, and I can really focus on my skincare! 

Dianne’s Favorites

When Jen said she was working on a post about exfoliating, one of the questions she asked me was if I exfoliate my face. I initially answered “no” because I was thinking of that same fruit-themed scrub which I used when I was much younger. It ended up being too rough on my face so I lumped “exfoliants” into the the same bucket and avoided them.

My skin is pretty sensitive. What’s been surprising to me is that it seems to have gotten more sensitive as I’ve gotten older. I was expecting the opposite. I am sure that some of it is due to “hormonal changes” but no matter the reason, it’s been hard to manage.

Which is why I turned to the experts and visited the medi-spa at my dermatologist’s office. A few years back I started getting microdermabrasion, done by an esthetician, to improve the texture of my skin. In fact, we interviewed Chelsey, my esthetician all about microdermabrasion.

You can read the post “Microdermabrasion: What Is It? Is it Right for You” for more information on my experience. But, in a nutshell, I love the results. It’s a little gross to see all the dead skin afterwards, but at least you know it’s working!

I have not used any at-home chemical exfoliants but after reading Jen’s review, I am intrigued. It may be something I want to try in between my microdermabrasion sessions, which are typically about every six weeks.

I do use a lip scrub and I really like Sara Happ products. Lips is all they do. I use the following three products and I really like the results.

The Pink Grapefruit Lip Scrub (left) is the exfoliator; the Dream Slip (center) is an overnight lip mask and the Sweet Clay Lip Mask (right) is for softening lips.

Since I don’t have any real at-home face exfoliators to recommend, I did want to add one of my favorite exfoliating products for the body. Dove Exfoliating Body Wash.

I love this product because it’s so simple and easy. You use it in the shower and it both exfoliates and moisturizes. I use it pretty much everyday and my skin feels great.