Regardless of your skin type, healthy and smooth skin comes from regular exfoliation. You might be on your game with skincare, but if you’re not regularly renewing your complexion with exfoliation, your products can’t perform at their best. There’s a big misconception that only particular skin types need exfoliation when in reality, everybody needs a little helping hand to slough away dead skin cells.
With Winter coming to an end, it is the perfect time to create your own skin renewal routine. We’re lending a helping hand by pairing some of our must-know exfoliation tips and tricks with some of our go-to Australian Botanical Soap products.
Let’s start with the obvious question, what actually is exfoliation?
Exfoliation is the term for removing dead skin cells on the skin’s surface. The body has a natural skin shedding process known as Desquamation but often relies on products to enhance this method.
Exfoliation can be performed on the face and body by using either a physical or chemical exfoliant. A physical exfoliant utilises the likes of scrubs, granules or finely crushed natural ingredients to manually remove these dead skin cells whereas a chemical exfoliant relies on the use of acids to dissolve and remove them.
There’s no one size fits all approach to exfoliation. It often comes down to your individual skin type and where you’re exfoliating. As a general rule of thumb, physical exfoliants such as the quality natural ingredients found in a collection of our Australian Botanical Soaps are ideal for refreshing the body where some may opt for a chemical exfoliant to treat more specific conditions on the face.
Exfoliation supports our overall cell regeneration. Each time we exfoliate, we’re sloughing away dead skin cells to make way for fresh, new ones. As we age, our cell regeneration slows down which means it takes our body longer to naturally shed skin cells and generate fresh ones.
If we didn’t exfoliate, these skin cells would begin to build up on the surface of the skin with nowhere to go. This causes our natural oil production to speed up but with so much build-up on the face, it's left with no choice but to make home on our skin! This is the formation of blackheads, clogged pores and blemishes on the face and body.
A proper exfoliation routine combats this by regularly removing that barrier of dead skin cells and making way for fresh cells. This process works to unclog the skin that’s made its way into our pores and work towards a renewed, refreshed and overall clearer skin.
By regularly exfoliating, we’re also allowing our post-shower skincare products to work harder for us. With a fresh canvas to apply to, the likes of our body oils and moisturisers can penetrate deeper into the skin and deliver more superior results.
Just like choosing the best exfoliant for your skin, how often you exfoliate is ultimately dependent on your skin type and condition. Most skin types will flourish when they’re exfoliated 2-3 times per week, but more sensitive skin types may thrive with a weekly exfoliation.
If you’re unsure about getting started with exfoliation, begin by exfoliating 1-2 times per week and if your skin is responding well, add the extra session in. All of our premium quality soap products have been designed to be gentle, yet hardworking for your skin and leave it feeling hydrated and incredibly smooth.
We’ve selected three of our favourite naturally exfoliating ingredients to get you started. These ingredients have been carefully selected to gently buff away dull skin without leaving the skin feeling tight or dry.
Coconut: Finely crushed, naturally sourced coconut shell pairs gentle exfoliation with a tropical paradise. It will gently buff away dead skin cells whilst leaving the skin feeling radiant and fresh. You’ll find this in our Coconut with Lime Oil triple-milled bar.
Charcoal: Activated charcoal is an incredibly unique yet highly effective exfoliation method that acts like a magnet to impurities, dirt and grime. It helps to draw these out of the pores to reveal fresher and clearer-looking skin. We source our activated charcoal from coconut shell and pair it with uplifting peppermint and lavender to create our striking Charcoal with Peppermint Oil bar.
Lemon Myrtle Leaf: A stunning celebration of Australian Flora, lemon myrtle leaf offers a light exfoliation that gently refreshes and renews the skin. We love the smoothing effect of this ingredient so much that it features in two of our exfoliating soaps – our Lemongrass and Lemon Myrtle bar.
Refresh, renew and reinvigorate your skin by picking up one of our naturally exfoliating tripled milled soaps online or via your nearest retailer.
