Why is exfoliation needed? Because at any given moment your skin has approximately 10-15 layers of dead, dull, lifeless skin just waiting to be sloughed off. "Scrub us! Scrub us all off! We are gross and we want you to be ugly!" those skin cells say. When you are only using a cleanser you are not extricating those pesky, pointless nasties. Unless your cleanser is a supercleanser, like mine.
Some people say there are two kinds of exfoliation- physical and chemical, but I (and other estheticians) think enzymes should have their own category because they works a little differently. Physical exfoliants are your scrubs; yes, your apricot scrub (which you need to stop using because behind that scrubby goodness it's secretly evil for your skin). That isn't to say that all physical scrubs are bad, St. Ives just gives them a bad name (I'll tell you why in another post eventually I'm sure, this one will just be long enough as it is). As you can probably guess they have scrubby things in them that you can feel as they scrub your grossness off. Chemical exfoliants are your AHA's and BHA's, you can expect them to be a little (or a lot) stronger than physical exfoliants for the most part. They break up the stuff that glues your skin cells together (sounds unnerving but it's not scary) and then they basically escort your skin's crap out... and then enzymes. Enzymes break down keratin (protein in your skin, nails, hair, etc), they have a kind of dissolving effect on your icky skin leaving clear, bright, and fresh skin- except they're more amazing than I just made them sound.
Even among people who are good about exfoliating their faces, we find people (like me) who neglect the rest of the skin on their bodies. Exfoliating agents are not cheap though and treating your whole body with the same stuff that you use on your face would be extremely pricey and frankly quite wasteful. A cheap alternative to buying a body scrub (which are, in my opinion, grossly overpriced.), is to make your own.
...and now for the moment that you're actually reading this for...
Brown Sugar Scrub Recipe (Body Polish)
1 part brown sugar (may be substituted with white for a less-abrasive scrub)
1-2 parts olive oil (depending on how scrubby you like it) (olive oil is the closest in composition to our own natural oils, making our skin more receptive to it)
Rinse off body, scoop up mixture and scrub everywhere. Rinse. For gross feet, use in conjunction with pumice stone. Enjoy the effective/amazingness of this any-budget recipe. Can be stored in a jar although it is better just after it's mixed as the sugar does slowly dissolve and become less scrub-tastic). A great help on awful chappy mid-winter lips.
Brown Sugar Scrub is both a physical and chemical exfoliant. Physical because you can feel the amazing scrubbies, and chemical because it does have traces of glycolic acid in it; which, as I've stated in a previous post, is derived from sugarcane. Ta-da! Natural and awesome. You can expect softer skin and a nice glow. The oil will be pretty moisturizing but you may want to load your skin up with some good-quality lotion or body cream afterwards if you're feeling thorough.
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