8 Benefits of Exfoliation and Why You Should Be Doing It

Your face isn’t the only part of your body that needs some love, care, and attention. Your back and chest are prone to breakouts due to sweat mixing with dirt and clogging your pores. The skin on your hands, arms, legs, and neck can also show signs of aging. Your entire body—head to toe—reacts to different exposures, such as sun, heat, dryness, and humidity. Body care ties into skincare, playing an essential part in keeping you feeling youthful and glowing.

Building a successful body care routine involves layering important steps that work hand-in-hand to keep your skin healthy. Each step provides varying benefits and targets different concerns, from breakouts to premature aging. Exfoliation is one such step, targeting dead skin cells and setting your skin up for radiance.

Using exfoliants on your body offers many benefits worth exploring. Discover the secrets of this skincare technique and learn why you should be exfoliating weekly.

1. Removes Dead Skin

Your skin cells go through a regular regeneration cycle. As your skin produces new cells, it pushes old ones to the surface. Over time, the old cells die, become flat, and just sit on the surface layer of your skin. Body wash removes dirt, oil, sweat, and other impurities from the skin’s surface. However, dead skin cells require stronger removal methods.

Physical exfoliants, like the Sublime Body Scrub from Cinq Mondes and the Zest Sugar Body Polish from Elemental Herbology, buff away dead skin cells with abrasion. Chemical exfoliants, like alpha hydroxy acids (AHA) and beta hydroxy acids (BHA), exfoliate by dissolving bonds that hold dead skin cells together. Both physical and chemical forms of exfoliation remove the thin surface layer of dead skin cells that accumulate during your skin’s regeneration process.

2. Prevents Acne Breakouts

When dead skin cells, dirt, and sweat mix, they clog pores and produce an ideal environment for bacteria growth. The clogged pores and bacteria then cause inflammation and breakouts, leaving you with red, swollen, and pus-filled pimples. Your chest and back are highly prone to breakouts due to the sweat they collect, friction from your clothes, and other impurities on the skin’s surface. The type of body wash and shampoo you use can also make your back and chest prone to acne. Certain chemicals cause irritations and dry out your skin.

Pairing your body wash with a weekly exfoliant ensures you keep the surface of your skin clean and your pores unclogged. Exfoliation is an effective skincare technique for preventing breakouts, making it essential to many body care routines. However, over exfoliating your skin causes microtears and strips away moisture and natural oils, making your skin dry and prone to infection. At Beauty Prophet, we love the Papaya Purée body polish from Cinq Mondes, as it provides an effective yet gentle exfoliation.

3. Stimulates Cell Turnover

Skin cell turnover is a natural process in which your body sheds dead skin cells and replaces them with new ones. Newly generated skin cells are brighter and more elastic, leaving you with fresh, glowing, and youthful skin.

Exfoliation speeds up the cell turnover process. As the exfoliants remove your dead skin cells, they make space for the new cells on the skin’s surface. Peels are perfect for making sure you exfoliate all desired areas evenly so you get a full spread of new skin cells instead of just patches.

4. Increases Product Absorption

On top of providing an outlet for discharging oils and sweat, pores also create an entryway to layers beyond the epidermis. Exfoliation, paired with a good body wash, keeps your pores unclogged and open. With dead skin and other surface impurities out of the way, your other skincare products have a direct path to penetrate deeper into your skin. Essentially, exfoliating removes surface barriers, increasing product absorption.

Unclogged pores and clean surface skin allow you to nourish your skin and reach important underlayers where cell regeneration and collagen production occur. However, the products you use following exfoliation play a key part in what kind of results you’ll see. At Beauty Prophet, our selection of body care products offers various nutrient-rich oils and moisturizers that are perfect to use after exfoliation.

Other popular products to use after you exfoliate include body oils to replenish stripped natural oils and hydrating balms and creams. Natural body oils and creams feed your skin lots of healthy, rich nutrients that brighten, smoothen, and prevent aging. The Rejuvenating Body Botanical Set from Cinq Mondes gives you a natural and effective scrub paired with a nourishing dry body oil, all while smelling like tropical paradise.

5. Improves Circulation and Lymphatic Drainage

Good circulation is important for healthy skin because it brings oxygen and nutrients to your skin cells, stimulating their rejuvenation and regeneration process. When your skin cells are rich in oxygen and nutrients, they leave you with stronger, smoother, and more youthful skin.

Exfoliation stimulates blood flow, improving your circulation and ensuring your skin cells receive the essentials they need to thrive. Removing dead skin cells also clears room for blood to reach the surface of your skin, absorb more oxygen, and boost your circulatory system. Subsequently, the stimulated blood flow promotes lymphatic drainage, which gets rid of toxins and reduces inflammation.

6. Smooths and Evens Skin

Dead skin cells stop receiving oxygen and nutrients, causing them to shrivel, dry out, and lose color. As the dead cells build up, they form hyperpigmentation, rough skin textures, and dark spots on your skin’s surface. Exfoliation gets rid of your old and dull skin cells, making room for fresh cell replacements and leaving you with soft, even skin.

Additionally, you can further enhance your skin’s smoothness and evenness with products consisting of active ingredients that target hyperpigmentation and retain moisture, like vitamin C and retinol.

7. Preps Skin for Shaves

Exfoliating before you whip out your razor enhances your shaving results, whether shaving your legs, belly, or arms. Dead skin cells create a thin barrier layer on the surface of your skin. When you shave on dry and dead skin, the razor ends up picking up your dead skin rather than reaching your hair cuticles. Exfoliating before shaving clears your skin’s surface and allows your blade to provide a closer shave. Prepping your skin by exfoliating also reduces the risk of rubbing dead skin cells into your hair follicles, causing bumps and irritations.

8. Slows Signs of Premature Aging

Exfoliation stimulates collagen synthesis. As the exfoliants remove your dead skin and increase cell turnover, the production of new cells boosts collagen production. The increase in protein influences your skin’s texture, strength, and plumpness, reducing fine lines and sagging skin. Therefore, exfoliating regularly and stimulating your collagen production can give you youthful skin.

Why should you exfoliate? Exfoliation offers many benefits that make it a must-have addition to your body care routine. Dead skin cells are old news and not worth keeping around—they cause a lot of issues, from clogged pores to irritations. Using an exfoliant one to two times a week allows you to enjoy smooth, youthful, healthy skin.

Build a successful body care routine, from exfoliation to moisturization, with Beauty Prophet. We offer lots of effective, natural, and quality products inspired by European beauty philosophy.