With winter and the dry, unforgiving air that comes with it, it’s a great time to learn about the importance of exfoliation. And even more important, how to add exfoliation to your beauty routine. You don’t need fancy products or a salon to exfoliate properly, you just need some know-how. So here goes.

The Benefits of Exfoliation

Skin exfoliation is simply the removal of dead skin cells on the skin’s surface in order to bring younger, healthier skin cells front and center. The skin is often exfoliated during facials, microdermabrasion, and dry brushing. Just like cleansing, exfoliation should play an important role in your skincare routine. Benefits of exfoliation include:

• Skin rejuvenation
• Improve skin texture by bringing young skin cells to the surface
• Reduces the signs of aging
• Detoxifies the body
• Reduces hyperpigmentation
• Helps moisturizers penetrate deeper

How to Add Exfoliation to Your Skincare Routine

Use a gentle exfoliation product on your face once per week. Make sure not to over exfoliate your skin, which can cause facial redness and irritation. If you’re adding exfoliation to your facial routine, add it in as your third step. Start by cleansing, then add in a toner, and then exfoliate. After you exfoliate, moisturize or apply a facial serum or facial oil.

If you’re exfoliating the skin on the rest of your body, add an exfoliating scrub to your showering routine. After you’ve lathered up and rinsed off, use a sponge or shower brush to apply exfoliating scrub from top to bottom.

What About Dry Brushing?

Dry brushing is another form of exfoliation that you can do every day. It’s much gentler because it utilizes just a dry brush, rather than an exfoliation product, but it’s still very effective at skin rejuvenation. Other benefits include:

• Stimulates lymphatic drainage in the body
• Detoxifies the body
• Increases circulation
• Removes dry skin
• Reduces stress
• Energizes the skin’s surface

With so many benefits, why not give dry brushing a try? First off, purchase a brush made with natural, rather than synthetic, bristles. Each morning or evening before you get in the shower, take a few minutes to go through the process. Starting at the ankles, brush in long strokes, toward the heart. Move in a circular motion at the joints. Do the same thing at the arms, paying special attention at the armpits, where the lymph drains. Brush in a circular motion around the stomach.

The Best Exfoliation Products

Choose exfoliation products that are made with natural ingredients like this exfoliation scrub from Beauty By Earth ($18) and this facial wash by Christina Moss ($21). This kelp and coffee facial cleanser by NodicaLux ($6) is also worth a try. In terms of body exfoliants, try this Arabica Coffee Scrub by Eva Naturals ($14) or this Baebody Coconut Milk Scrub with Dead Sea Salt ($15)

The Best DIY Exfoliation Products

If you’re looking to save money or you just want to know exactly what’s in the products that you’re using, why not make them yourself?

Coffee Almond Scrub

Coffee rejuvenates your skin while brown sugar gently removes dead skin cells. You can also use white sugar as an exfoliant.

Ingredients
3 Tbsp. coffee grounds
1 Tbsp. almond oil (you can substitute olive or coconut oil here)
1 Tbsp. brown sugar

Directions

Mix all dry ingredients, then add oil. Based on the kind of scrub consistency you want, add more or less brown sugar.

Apply gently, massaging into the skin. Use long strokes on the limbs and circular motions around the joints. Once you’ve worked it into the skin, use a warm washcloth to remove it. Follow with a moisturizer.

Recipe: Don’t Waste the Crumbs

Baking Soda and Honey Mask

Baking soda is an inexpensive, natural exfoliant that combined with honey brightens the skin and makes it look vibrant in the winter time.

Ingredients
3 tsp. baking soda
1 Tbsp. honey

Directions

1. Combine the honey and baking soda to make a paste.
2. Gently apply the mask all over your face. Massage in a circular motion, being careful around the eyes.
3. Let stand for 20 minutes and allow it to dry.
4. Use a washcloth with warm water to remove the mask. Let the skin rest for a few minutes and then moisturize.

Do you exfoliate? If so, what are your favorite products? Do you ever make your own exfoliation products? We want to know! Drop us a line via Twitter @EcoSalon.

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The mere mention of skin peels may send most of us running for cover. Especially the sensitive skinned among us. While it may sound like a toxic ingredient nightmare, there is a valid place in the beauty regimen for peels.

The term is unfortunate. Peel sound so…harsh. And yes, chemical acid peels are harsh, causing skin to turn red and peel from the face. They are effective in revealing fresh skin, but continued use can actually weaken and thin the skin, causing irritation, inflammation, and excessive dryness or oiliness. Not good.

Peels are really just another form of exfoliation. We’ve been told that exfoliation is key to healthy, clear skin, which it is, but could we be doing it all wrong? Or at least be doing it better?

Let’s start with why exfoliating is so essential to cooperative skin. Dead skin cells build up on the top layer of skin, trapping oil and debris underneath. This leads to breakouts, sallow complexion, and enhancement of fine lines. It also inhibits the skin’s ability to properly absorb the healthy ingredients in nourishing skincare.

All skin types benefit from exfoliation, not just congested skin. It can be done in different ways, to varying degrees and frequency. So, we’ve established sloughing is indeed a good thing. But as with other beauty rituals, like cleansing for example, could we be doing this whole exfoliating thing wrong?

Granular is the name of the game with most exfoliating products. Salt, sugar, and other particles (ground nut shells and meal, pumice) are used in these products to break up and remove dry, dead skin cells.

No doubt, this abrasive method of exfoliation is effective. But you know how we are chronically talking about inflammation and its link to many health issues, including unhappy skin? This friction could be causing more harm than good for certain skin types. Have we gotten out of hand with our sloughing?

Particles, even the micro-est of the micro, can cause tearing and scratching of the skin. Delicate skin types should avoid abrasive exfoliants, as should those with irritated skin or open sores. Remember to be gentle with granular scrubs and use no more than twice per week.

What’s a delicate skinned gal to do? Men exfoliate their faces when they shave. Should we all go out and buy a Norelco? Hang on just a sec before you delve into your guy’s medicine cabinet.

The latest, greatest exfoliating ingredients are hitting the beauty scene large. True, they are acids, but they are natural fruit acids from apples and pears (malic acid), citrus fruits (citric acid), and grapes (tartaric acid). Fruit enzymes, like papaya and pineapple, are also highly effective skin sloughers. Think of these ripe ingredients as the safe way to peel.

Fruit Acid Skin Peels for Glowing Skin

Tata Harper Resurfacing Mask

La Bella Figura Bio Active Healing Mask

Living Libations Green Papay Lime AHA Mask

Dr. Alkaitis Cellular Repair Mask

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Image of happy apple face via Shutterstock

The post Fruit Acid Skin Peels: The Safe Way to Get Your Glow appeared first on EcoSalon.

On the heels of the news that Illinois has become the first state in the world to ban plastic microbeads, here are 10 natural exfoliants to scrub your skin–and your conscience–clean.

While exfoliation rejuvenates your skin and enhances your complexion, who wants to ruin the environment in the process? Microbeads – those itty bitty plastic particles found in most face washes – are in the process of being scrubbed out of the beauty industry. Created as a more cost-efficient way to manufacture beauty products, they’ve been harming the environment in a big way.

Because of their size, microbeads slip through sewage system filters, polluting waterways and harming wildlife. (Preliminary studies in Lake Michigan have discovered millions of microbeads!). Illinois Governor Pat Quinn recently signed legislation that bans the manufacture and sale of beauty products containing microbeads by the end of 2017. Currently, at least four other states are considering similar bills, with New York wanting microbeads eliminated even earlier (by 2016).

Here are 10 natural exfoliants that are plastic-free alternatives to microbeads that will keep your skin healthy, while doing good for the environment too:

1. Oatmeal

Oatmeal isn’t just for cookies: It can also be used as a mild exfoliator, helping to remove dead skin cells and keep your skin hydrated. If you have sensitive skin, consider oatmeal your new BFF. You can either grind it to create a scrub, or create a DIY face mask.

2. Sea salt

Out of the natural alternatives to microbeads, sea salt is one of the more abrasive: Because the granules are larger than say, those found in a sugar scrub, sea salt scrubs work wonders on rougher areas of your skin, such as the heels of your feet.

3. Coffee grounds

While enjoying your morning cup of java, why not give your skin the royal treatment by exfoliating with coffee grounds? Simply combine one tablespoon of coffee grounds with half a tablespoon of olive oil and a drop of your fave essential oil.

4. Ground almonds

What I love about almond oil is that it makes your skin feel soft, but not greasy. Grind almonds in a blender (or if you have the biceps of Mr. Clean, with a mortar and pestle) and mix them with either milk or yogurt for a soothing face scrub.

5. Sugar

Sugar is an ah-mazing exfoliant option: It’ll help keep your skin hydrated while giving you a dose of glycolic acid, which helps prevent aging. Melt one tablespoon of coconut oil and mix it with three tablespoons of sugar – you won’t believe how soft this simple scrub will leave your skin!

6. Baking soda

Baking soda is one of my favorite natural alternatives to microbeads, mainly because it’s cost-effective and requires very little prep work. Plus, it’s versatile: You can use it in tandem with other natural alternatives during your at-home spa days. It’s a fine, yet hard powder, so it gets the job done without causing excessive irritation. Add a teaspoon to your fave face wash, mix well and massage into your skin.

7. Pumpkin

It’s not only delicious at Thanksgiving: Pumpkin’s enzymes and gentle acids make it a fabulous natural exfoliator. See for yourself with our pumpkin face mask recipes.

8. Lemon juice

The natural citric acids found in lemon juice make it a great exfoliator and skin hydrator. It contains antioxidants, which aids in the removal of dead skin cells, and acts as a toner by removing bacteria from the surface of the skin. Use the juice from one freshly squeezed lemon and mix with one tablespoon of sea salt for a refreshing face scrub.

9. Yogurt

As far as natural alternatives go, yogurt’s on the ball in every way: It contains anti-fungal and anti-bacterial qualities that fight against common skin conditions, not to mention lactic acid which helps exfoliate. Plus, it can be used with other natural alternatives (like oatmeal) to help you banish microbeads from your repertoire.

10. Honey

Honey contains many antimicrobial and antioxidant properties that help protect the skin and keep it hydrated. Mix one tablespoon raw honey and one tablespoon brown sugar and massage gently onto wet skin. Sayonara, microbeads!

Which natural alternatives to microbeads are your faves?

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Image: Zenspa1

The post Illinois Bans Microbeads and You Can Too with 10 Natural Exfoliants appeared first on EcoSalon.