Tips: The Scrub That Will Ruin Your Skin

Hello Beauties,

I realized it's been a while since I've done an honest to goodness skin care post, so, here it is.

Your skin is your body's largest organ. It is a complex system of layered cells that protects the rest of your body from the harsh pollutants of the outside world. The dermal layers of the skin in order from the surface down are :
- The epidermis
- The dermis
- The Hypodermis

Skin care lotions and creams generally only penetrate the skin to its epidermal layers, though some medicinal creams and lotions can penetrate into the dermis and hypodermis.

The epidermis contains:
- The Stratum Corneum
- The Stratum Lucidum
- The Stratum Granulosum
- The Stratum Spinosum
- The Stratum Basale

If skin cells are the bricks of the skin, then collagen is the mortar. It helps to hold the skin together and gives your skin it's elasticity as well as its strength, and is responsible for replacing dead skin cells. Your collagen is essentially the main support structure for your skin. As we age your body produces less collagen, which makes the skin loose its elasticity.
It's this slow down in the production of collagen that causes fine lines and wrinkles to occur.


Let's get into exfoliating.
You should be exfoliating your skin once a week. This will help remove the layer of dead skin cells (stratum corneum), so that your body can replace them with healthy new cells.
Over exfoliating, and exfoliating with products that are too harsh can result in skin conditions (IE Oily skin), and the long term breakdown of your skin's function.


which brings us to...

St. Ives -

I'm sure most of you have at least heard about, if not used the St. Ives apricot scrub...and here is why you should never use it on your face again.

They claim to use "crushed" apricot pits in their scrub as an exfoliant. the problem with that is when you crush anything, especially something as rigid as a peach/ apricot pit, you're going to get sharp and jagged pieces in the product. These jagged pieces will force off healthy skin cells, as well as the dead ones as it moves across the dermis. Over time this will result in the break down of the collagen that holds the cells together, which will cause premature aging, fine lines and wrinkles.

If you're looking for a good scrub that will be gentle on your skin, but still effective, try any type of scrub with round exfoliating beads. These beads are generally man made from plastic materials.
If you're looking for something a little more natural - look for something that contains jojoba beads. These beads are made from the jojoba wax and are all natural.

If you're looking for something that is gentle enough to use on your skin every day, you could try Dermalogica daily microfoliant.

This is my personal favourite, you can use it as often or as few times a week as you like.

Exfoliating is the way to beautiful, glowing skin. Just make sure you're using the right product for your skin.

Danielle