Facial Exfoliation Guide

You body consists of delicate, sensitive skin and your face has some of the most fragile skin on your body. With the use of makeup and harsh beauty products, your skin can become less luminous over time. Rather than spending top dollar on expensive facial lotions, you can exfoliate your skin to rejuvenate the way that you look.

About Exfoliation

Exfoliating occurs when a slightly abrasive material scrubs away at your skin. For facial skin, it's best to use a gentle exfoliating lotion such as Dermalogica Daily Microfoliant or Luzier Gentle Exfoliating Scrub. As you rub it into your skin, it sloughs off dead skin cells. It also lifts away dirt from your pores in order to prevent blackheads. For the rest of your body, pick up an exfoliating body wash such as Dove Exfoliating Body Wash and Burt's Bees Radiance Exfoliating Body Wash.

When to Exfoliate

Since exfoliation is abrasive, you shouldn't do this every day or it could damage your skin. Start using the product once a week and see how your skin handles it. If you have sensitive skin, you may need to cut back to once every two weeks. Those with tougher skin can handle exfoliation a few times each week.

When you exfoliate your skin, be gentle. The tiny beads inside your exfoliating lotion will do the bulk of the work, so you don't need to use force when applying it to the skin.

How to Exfoliate

You should use your facial exfoliating lotion before using a cleanser. Get your skin wet with warm water. Put a dab of exfoliating lotion in the palm of your hand and rub your palms together. Rub your hands over your face in a gentle, circular motion. Pay close attention to areas that get a lot of dry skin, including your forehead, nose and chin. Don't exfoliate on and around your eyes as the skin in these areas is too delicate for this beauty treatment.

For your body, use the exfoliating scrub in the shower or bath. Spend extra time rubbing away dry skin around elbows, knees and feet.

Exfoliating Your Lips

Your lips need just as much attention as the rest of your face when exfoliating. You can exfoliate your lips using the same product that you use for the whole face. If you find that it's too harsh for your sensitive lips, consider using a lip exfoliating product instead. Try Benefit Lipscription or Philosophy Kiss Me Exfoliating Lip Scrub. You can perform this beauty ritual just as often as you exfoliate your face.

Other Exfoliation Benefits

Though exfoliating helps your skin in general, there are little beauty tricks that benefit from this method as well. For instance, if you recently used self-tanning lotion and ended up with a bad, streaky tan, exfoliate the skin to lessen the effect. By sloughing off dead skin and sunless tanning pigment, the botched tan should be much less noticeable.

You can also use exfoliation to remove stubborn makeup. For lip stains, rub a small amount of exfoliating lotion over your lips and rinse away. The pigment should be dramatically reduced.