When to exfoliate your facial skin

Show less Exfoliating your skin can make it appear smoother and softer, and can help skin treatments work better. In general, there are a number of products and medical procedures you can try, and even some natural at-home remedies you can use. To exfoliate your face, try scrubbing it with a mixture of water and baking soda, and letting it sit for 10 minutes before washing it off with warm water and a washcloth. Alternatively, make a scrub by combining 1 tablespoon of white or brown sugar with 2 tablespoons of olive or coconut oil. Massage the scrub onto your face in small circles with a washcloth, then rinse with warm water.

On the runway: The just-back-from-the-islands flush at Michael Kors has convinced us blush junkies that we also need bronzer. Stunning, right? Do it your way: Apply bronzer in the hollows of cheeks, extending to hairline. Follow with a coral-pink blush on apples. Hopeful as ever, I followed her advice—and, after just five days, ended up looking more like a sun-baked Tom Hanks in Castaway than a glowing goddess. In other words, my cheeks were rash-y and inflamed, and my complexion looked splotchy and red.

Achieving a natural glow can be pretty tough. When the dead layers on the surface of your skin stick around well past their welcome, your complexion can look a bit lackluster and dull—which can make you look tired or even older. The fix? Exfoliating also allows active anti-aging ingredients like retinol to penetrate deeper into your skin.

It's satisfying to scrub away the remnants of your skin's past life, especially when it leaves you with immediately smoother skin. That's why it can be so tempting to go a little too hard with your exfoliating. But it turns out there is a way to determine how—and how often—you should exfoliate your face. Zampella, M. As the cells mature, they travel from the base layer of the epidermis to the outermost layer.