You know you are part of someones close circle of girl trust when she shares with you her holy grail beauty product, and it only costs $1 and is pretty easily attainable and nobody except people ‘in the know’ know about this little miracle despite it being so damn cheap. Well I’m going to share with you my life changing beauty find for free guys, cause I loves ya! Share this post with your girlfriends though because they deserve to know this one too. So tempting to keep these finds secret like my grandmother would have, but I like to share. 

 Ever notice how Koreans have the most magnificent skin, all glowey and smooth and soft? Have you also noticed elderly Korean ladies at the community centre pool spending hours in the hot tub and steam room and then having elaborate exfoliation rituals in the communal shower? I’ve noticed this so many times during our swimming lessons because I live in an area with a large Korean community but I had no idea what it was about. Now I know! I was looking at body exfoliation cloths (the nylon knit type) to deal with dry skin and visible hair follicles. I then came across something online called the Baiden Mitten which promises to roll all your dry dead skin cells off in a very disgusting way – but it costs $50. I was intrigued enough to do research on this Baiden Mitten. Buried in the reviews I found the suggestion for Korean ‘Italian Towel’ which runs about $1 and is essentially the same material (viscous/cellulose/rayon). Apparently this material creates the right kind of friction with your wet skin to just roll off all your dead skin cells. This is what is used in Korean Spas where they exfoliate your entire body until your skin is like a newborn baby, and this is what I’ve seen used at our community centre shower. You get strips of grey dry skin just flying off you like lint. You can find these cloths on eBay and on amazon but I have a couple of Korean grocery stores in my area so a few days ago I decided to pick one up and try it out. 

The process is this: You soak in a hot bath (or sauna I guess) for an absolute minimum of 20 minutes without any soap or product or washing. If you get pruney skin, that is better. Just soak. You can also close your window and block the bottom of your door to keep the steam in. After 20 minutes you step out of the bath and pat dry. You then use your damp but rung out Italy Cloth by rubbing your skin up and down vigourously. Some areas will respond better to circular motion but long up and down is best. The longer you’ve soaked the better the friction you get, and as you dry your waterlogged skin comes off easier and easier. you will start to see your skin pilling and collecting and sloughing off. It’s uncomfortable and rough and kind of disgusting but when you’ve done your entire body your skin is like you’ve never felt it before. Incredibly soft and dewey.  There are areas of your skin that won’t ‘shed’ but then there are areas that will shed like crazy like your butt, or underbar area, knees, hips etc. After this process you MUST put on moisturizing body oil or lotion and let your skin air dry a bit. Besides soft skin, the benefits I’ve noticed are much less obvious hair follicles, no ingrowns (I have issues with that), no clogged pores or rough chicken skin, no ashy or dusty looking skin or weird crocodile lines on my shins.  This is all beyond regular loofa or exfoliation gloves or BHA, Glycolic or Urea creams, this is next level exfoliation! If you do self tanning or your get bumps from waxing you have got to try this. Let me know if you do because I want to know how amazing this find was for you. 

Vogue article: Why I Can’t Live Without My Korean Exfoliating Mitt

Here are listings for Italy Cloth on eBay and Italy Cloth on Amazon, but just check to see if your neighbourhood has a Korean grocer nearby and call them and ask if they have Italy Cloths. 

Such a cheaply made, unassuming dinky little cloth. Another thing to note is these are small pocket cloths that shrink when they get wet. You are supposed to put them over your four fingers like a tiny mitt, not your entire hand. This keeps it from slipping off your hand.