Glowing Skin. How To Exfoliate Your Body For Soft Glowing Skin

Exfoliating our bodies is such a neglected part of our beauty routines in North American culture. We double cleanse our face and use 8 step skincare routines, but when it comes to our bodies we slather on some body butter or lotion and call it a day. We are so concerned about what we are putting on top of our skin, and not our actual skincare habits. I’m going to share the key to Glowing Skin. How to Exfoliate Your Body For Soft Glowing Skin, borrowed from the Moroccan and Korean Spa rituals.

Koreans and Moroccans know what’s up when it comes to sexy soft skin and they dedicate a lot of time to the cleansing ritual. For them, spas are a regular cultural and social event. I’ve written about Korean Body Exfoliation before, but my routine has evolved and modified a bit since then to include Moroccan methods. The products used are variable and you can easily find what you need at the drug store, or you can upgrade to more lux products if you want.

Why An Intense Exfoliation Is Good For You

Besides your skin looking instantly better after a good exfoliation, properly exfoliating your skin regularly improves your future skin and reduces signs of aging. Removing old dry skin allows cell turnover to happen at a faster rate, and it allows your skincare to absorb better. Faster cell turnover means you are also targeting sun damage, superficial texture, acne scarring, and inflammation and you are evening out your tone. The repetitive skin brushing also helps to stimulate blood flow and lymphatic drainage which helps flush out toxins

Good exfoliation will help your self-tanning apply more evenly. No more dark elbows or self-tanner lines! Shaving and hair removal will definitely be improved. You will have a smoother shave and eliminate ingrown hairs. Exfoliating also decreases the noticeable hair follicles you get with shaving if you are fair-skinned like me. This also really helps prep your skin for hair removal whether you wax or, my favorite method, Sugaring for Brazilian and bikini waxing

Glowing Skin. How To Exfoliate Your Body

Step 1 The Long Soak

This is How To Exfoliate Your Body For Soft Glowing Skin. You need a comfortably warm bath without any soap, bubbles or products. Set yourself up so you are comfortable for the next hour and tell your significant other, kids and pets to get lost. Tea, wine, snacks, magazines, books, iPad.

I don’t want to hear about how you don’t have time, you need this. Set aside time the same way you do for your fitness. The people in your life that you are telling to take a hike for a little while need you to care about yourself. I like to place a towel at the bottom of the door to trap as much steam in as possible, and to muffle the sounds of kids attempting to disturb me.

For your first step, you are going to soak for a minimum of 20 minutes. The longer the better. Waterlogging your skin is what allows it to properly exfoliate.

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Step 2 Moroccan Beldi Soap

This is a somewhat optional step, Koreans and Moroccans differ on this part. I’m going to share the Moroccan way which is to slather on Beldi soap all over your body like a mask and sit OUT of the tub for 5-10 minutes. I use both methods, but if I have extra time and feel like an indulgent spa experience, I do the mask. Korean Spas avoid the use of soaps because they create too much slip. Morrocan soap is different from regular soap though.

What Is Moroccan Beldi Soap?

Moroccan Beldi Soap is a soap made of saponified olive oil and it’s in a gel paste form. Beldi soap prepares your body for exfoliation thanks to its high alkali caustic potash (KOH) blended with fatty acids and essential oils. This soap helps your skin begin to exfoliate, but it also really nourishes your skin with moisturizing fatty acids. If you have sensitive skin you should leave the mask on for a minimal amount of time. 5 minutes is plenty. If your skin tolerates treatments better you can leave it on longer. This soap can be used as a daily soap as well as a mask, but I only use it as a mask for exfoliating. This makes it last much longer.

Step 3 The Glove

I have two exfoliation mitts, a Moroccan Kessa Mitt and a Korean Italy Towel. They are both the exact same material which is a thin, rough cellulose fabric, and they are the best thing ever. Waterlogged skin is easiest to exfoliate. Rubbing this cloth over your soaked skin literally removes all of your dead skin cells in rolls, like dried up glue rolling off your skin. It’s revolting and so satisfying. Underneath that layer of glue on dead skin is your true self, a soft glowing skinned goddess.

To begin, rinse off the Beldi soap mask. The area you are going to start working on needs to be out of the water, not submerged. It’s actually better if your skin starts to dry off slightly. You can either start on your top half while still sitting in the tub, or you can step out of the tub and onto a towel to exfoliate. Once your skin has soaked for a long while it’s ok if you start to dry while out of the tub, your skin is still waterlogged. Clean- up will be a bit of a mess so be prepared. I use a towel so I can easily deal with the dry skin that exfoliates. There will be a lot!

Start rubbing your skin with the mitt going down in one direction. Shoulder to the elbow, knee to ankle, etc. Circular motions are a bit too intense and will exfoliate you too quickly. Although in some areas, circular motions do work best to get started. I find my stomach and smaller areas need circular motions. If your skin is a bit stubborn and doesn’t roll up right away, the trick to getting it moving is to start with rough areas like elbows or knees. Once you have some dead skin cells rolled off and on the mitt from your knees or elbows it helps grip the dead skin elsewhere. The more often you do this, the easier it is for your dead skin to come off.

Whatever you do, do not exfoliate your face at all with this cloth. This method is way too rough for the delicate skin on your face and neck. Just be mindful of delicate skin areas and go slow. Do NOT over-exfoliate. Once an area is no longer sloughing off dead skin, move on to a different area. This exfoliation treatment should be done no more frequently than once per week. I do it every two-three weeks.

Step 4 Rinsing Off

If you used the Beldi Soap method, rinsing it off just before exfoliating, you won’t need to soap up again. Now that you’ve finished exfoliating, you can jump in the shower and rinse off. If you did the Korean method without soap, now is the time to use your favorite soap, shampoo your hair etc.

Step 5 Optional Clay Mask

Moroccan Spas have a step before moisturization which is having a mask on your skin once again. This time it’s a mud mask made of Ghassoul Clay. The Ghassoul Clay further detoxes your skin by cleansing your pores and it soothes skin irritations. When I get Bikini/Brazilian Sugaring done, my esthetician always uses a clay mask on me after. She uses French green clay.

I rarely do the clay mask after a full exfoliation, but sometimes I do the clay mask between exfoliations, or just on my face.

Step 6 Not Optional Moisturization

After you finish exfoliating and you’ve washed off the clay mask or soap, you should quickly moisturize your entire body. Your skin is now detoxed and the fresh new delicate skin is vulnerable to drying out. Your skin should not be angry or sore at all, but it will definitely be pink.

I prefer moisturizing with oil. Moisturizers and body butter are fine, but oil is best. Oils sink in better and will spread quicker. You can buy a high-quality single ingredient oil or a blend of high-quality oils just about anywhere. Jojoba is my favorite because it’s actually the closest to your skin’s own natural moisture. Jojoba is a wax ester which makes it lighter and less greasy. Other oils I use are macadamia nut oil, argan oil, and sesame oil.

Your skin should now have a rosy pink glow and be as soft all over as a fat happy baby. I’m always so amazed at how soft my skin is after and I can’t stop rubbing my arms and legs. I have not had dry itchy winter skin in years and it’s all because of proper exfoliating. Be cautious if you have skin conditions such as eczema. You could probably still do this entire routine, but I would avoid the soap, and I would avoid exfoliating areas with eczema.

Will You Exfoliate Your Body For Soft Glowing Skin Using This Method?