Are you exfoliating correctly?

Exfoliation is so necessary for the health of our skin, but how do you know you’re doing it right? Follow these tips from Bustle and make sure your skin is looking buffed, gorgeous and at its best!

1. Choose the Right Time of Day

It’s true, exfoliating at the end of the day can help remove leftover makeup and grossness that has penetrated deep into your pores. However, you can get rid of all that with a natural make-up remover and stand-up cleanser. According to Allure magazine, exfoliating our skin in the morning is more effective, as our skin tends to repair itself overnight. Use your exfoliate in the morning to make room for the new skin cells that are just itching to get out.

2. Decide How Much Is Too Much

Here’s the thing, there are sources that claim exfoliating daily is perfectly safe and then there are others that claim you should exfoliate no more than twice a week. While I agree you don’t want to exfoliate too often or too little, I think that this is something that is up to you and your skin. Personally, I find that gentle exfoliating ingredients like nutmeg can be used daily. Not only does it depend on your own skin type, but it also depends on which ingredients you are using.

3. Exfoliate Before You Shave

Exfoliating before shaving has made all the difference underneath my arms, which often suffer from hard bumps and ingrown hairs. (Yes, things were once very dire underneath these arms.) I exfoliate with baking soda, lemon juice, and apple cider vinegar before shaving to control odour, restore my pit’s natural pH level (which also contributes to odour), and to remove any dead skin. Turns out, that dead skin can actually lead to more ingrown’s and razor burn.

4. Get Moist First

We all know better than to shave on dry skin, but most of us have slathered on an exfoliate onto dry skin and scrubbed away our dead and healthy skin cells. It’s super important to rinse your skin with lukewarm water before exfoliating to remove makeup and slightly open up your pores for the nutrients it will soon be drinking in. I personally like to use coconut milk as a rinse before I exfoliate. I suggest using water, rose water, or coconut milk instead of using a hefty cleanser before exfoliating.

One of our favourite exfoliators is Dr. Spiller Alpenrausch Organic Soft Peeling, an intensive yet gentle exfoliator to remove dead skin cells and debris resulting in a refined appearance of the skin.