• What Are The Types Of Exfoliation?
• How Often Should You Exfoliate Your Skin And Body? 
• How Often Should You Exfoliate Your Face?
• Over Exfoliated Skin - What Is It?
• Why Exfoliate?
• Frequently Asked Questions on Exfoliation (FAQs)

Although most of us understand what exfoliation is, do we know how to exfoliate skin, just enough to remove dead skin but not irritate it? Scrubbing too hard can result in clogged pores, which makes the skin dull. Not scrubbing enough can have zero effect on the dead skin. 

Another factor is the tool – should we opt for a scrub? A pumice stone? Or a water-soluble or oil-soluble chemical exfoliant? The most commonly used exfoliant is a face or body scrub. A lot of us are unsure of how often or when to use a body scrub, how to use it in the best way, and what ingredients must be used. 

Take a closer look at exfoliation and exfoliating agents from the lens of nature’s bountiful goodness. You’ll see how natural ingredients help clean your pores, renew your skin, and help your skin glow on the inside as well as the outside. Before we tell you how many times should you ideally exfoliate or how to do it, lets take a look at the different types of exfoliation. 

What Are The Types Of Exfoliation?

There are two types of exfoliation, namely chemical and physical exfoliation. Chemical, as you can imagine from its name, is the easy route using chemicals to scrub off your dead skin. Chemical exfoliation uses chemical peels using acids like glycolic, mandelic and lactic acid that may cause skin irritation and redness. Physical exfoliation, on the other hand, is using scrubs, pumice stone, or a dry brush to get rid of those dead skin cells. 

When you exfoliate the physical way, make sure you are gently scrubbing off the dead skin from your body or face. You could strip your skin off its natural oils if you scrub too hard, and also irritate your skin making it prone to acne breakouts. Here is our guide on how to exfoliate skin naturally.

How Often Should You Exfoliate Your Skin And Body? 

Sloughing off the dead skin from your body can feel so satisfying, once you try it and know exactly how to do it. Doing too much of anything in life, or in skin care, can feel overwhelming and not always give the best results. The same applies to exfoliation. If you do too much of it, it can have repercussions that leave your skin feeling exhausted. 

Here’s how often you should exfoliate:

• While exfoliating means removing the dead skin cells, your skin still needs some of them to stay healthy – they act like protective layer and skin barrier.
• How often you exfoliate your body determines whether the optimal amount of dead skin cells are present in the skin barrier or not. 
• When you exfoliate too often, or scrub too hard, you can risk making your skin look dull with clogging of your skin’s pores.
• Cell turnover or renewal of your skin’s cells is the end goal of exfoliation, and to achieve this goal, you must exfoliate your body twice or at the maximum, thrice a week.
• If you have sensitive skin, it is preferable to keep the exfoliation to just once a week. This is to avoid your skin from getting too dry, or too susceptible to acne.
• The rest of the days in the week, which is the days you don’t exfoliate your skin, use a cleansing gel-based body wash. This will help balance the oil and moisture content in your skin’s cells and also prevent clogging of pores.
• An important factor to keep in mind is that your body exfoliator and face exfoliating scrub should not be the same product. Body scrubs are generally of a thicker consistency, which could be too harsh if used on the face.

Building further on this factor, let’s now look at how to exfoliate the face for ideal results.

How Often Should You Exfoliate Your Face?

Depending on your skin type, you can benefit from exfoliating your face once, or twice, or three days in the week. This is decided based on the oiliness of your face, as exfoliation tends to strip your skin off its natural oils. Knowing how to exfoliate in the frequency suitable for your skin type will allow you to unclog pores, reduce blemishes, and reveal a brighter complexion! Here is how often you should exfoliate your face based on skin type: 

• Dry Skin: Use a gentle exfoliating face scrub two times in the week, to avoid further dryness as you slough off the dead skin from your face.
• Oily Skin: If you have this skin type, you know how prone you are to acne breakouts and blackheads, so you can exfoliate two or three times a week. Deep cleanse your pores by choosing natural ingredients in a physical exfoliation method.
• Combination Skin: Since this skin type is combination of dry and oily skin, you can either choose any one of the ways to exfoliate – or you can choose to alternate! Use a hydrating scrub to get rid of the excess oil, without drying your skin out.

Did you know that Coco Soul’s Natural Face Scrub is suitable for all skin types?! Yes, it is 100% vegan, organic, and made with natural ingredients, making it an ideal mild scrub for any skin type. Infused with ayurvedic herbs like sandalwood and venivel, the virgin coconut oil rich exfoliator leaves your skin soft and supple, after a good scrub routine. Here’s how the ingredients help your skin:

• Sandalwood:Rich in antioxidants, sandalwood nourishes the skin, maintains the elasticity of skin cells, and reduces the appearance of scars. It is also known to reverse sun damage and have anti ageing properties. Infusing sandalwood with your face scrub will not only replenish the skin but also give it a healthy glow. 
• Venivel:Venivel, or tree turmeric is an exotic Ayurvedic ingredient that comes with great benefits for skin. A natural exfoliant, it’s gentle on the skin and helps unclog pores,  get rid of dead skin and excess oil formulation for a radiant, clear skin. 
• Virgin King Coconut Oil: Full of antioxidants and natural good fats, virgin king coconut oil provides barrier control that keeps your skin moisturised, soft and supple after exfoliation. The virgin king coconut oil also has anti microbial properties that heal and nourish the skin and keep it hydrated. 

Over Exfoliated Skin – What Is It? 

Do you know how to use a body scrub or face scrub, in a way that you don’t exfoliate too much or too often? Knowing how to exfoliate the right way is essential. Scrubbing too much or exfoliating daily can cause your skin to lose its natural moisture content, giving you irritated and inflamed skin. This can also lead to a faster ageing process, showing you signs of fine lines, wrinkles, and dark circles. Preserve your skin’s cell turnover by avoiding over exfoliation.

Why Exfoliate? 

Even if you use a wide array of skin care products, there is going to be something missing if you don’t exfoliate. The glow-up in your complexion is only possible when you know how to use a body scrub in the most effective way. Allow your inner glow to be revealed as you scrub off dead skin cells from your skin using a natural body scrub.

Exfoliation is the step in your skin care which prevents clogging of your skin’s pores. This ensures the effectiveness of your other skin care products. How? When the pores are open, the nourishment and nutrients of your skin care products can penetrate deeper into your skin, and your overall collagen production is given a boost!

Still not sure how to exfoliate the skin, using natural ingredients? Head on over to Coco Soul’s blog section for various tips and routines you can follow to reveal glowing skin. To start you off, this article on DIY Body Scrubs For All Skin Types will help you select the right exfoliating scrub for your skin.

Frequently Asked Questions on Exfoliation (FAQs) 

1. How often should I exfoliate my body every day?

   Do you know how and when to use body scrub, or how often? If you don’t follow the rules of exfoliation, you may risk stripping your body of its natural oils. This over exfoliation could cause damage to your skin. Physical exfoliants like a scrub, sugar, salt, or coffee can be applied three times a week.
   
   

2. How often should I exfoliate my face?

   To protect your face from over exfoliated skin, you can choose to exfoliate your skin one, two, or three times in the week. Dry skin types are recommended a maximum of two times, while oily and combination skin types can stretch their exfoliation routines to three times a week.
   
   

3. Do you exfoliate before or after washing your body? 

   Soap or body wash have ingredients that cleanse your skin as you bathe, which means cleaning out dead skin, dirt, and excess oil. So, how to exfoliate the skin while bathing? Scrub your skin after you bathe, to achieve maximum exfoliation benefits.