What is exfoliation?

While regular skin cleansing is clearly beneficial, exfoliating on a regular basis -- once or twice a week for mild exfoliation, once or twice a month for more intense treatments -- can improve the results of your skin care routine and help rejuvenate your skin. Whether you have dry, normal, oily or sensitive skin, exfoliation can bring new life to your complexion.

If you've had a pedicure, then you're familiar with the benefits of exfoliation. Foot calluses can develop due to daily pressure from workouts, walking and wearing those truly fashionable, but less-than-comfortable shoes that you adore. But after a little apricot scrub and a session with a pumice stone, your feet can feel soft, smooth and sandal-ready. While you wouldn't employ the exact same methods on your face, or even your arms and legs, the rest of your body certainly can benefit from a little exfoliating.

The process of exfoliation rids the body of any dry, dull skin by removing dead skin cells from the surface of the epidermis. By removing these dead cells, exfoliation can help keep pores from becoming clogged and leave skin with a refreshed and clean feeling. What's the benefit to clean and clear pores? Clogged pores can result in blackheads and acne. Furthermore, when pores are clogged, they appear larger. So, if you're worried about the size of your pores, although you can't reduce their actual size (genetics is the biggest factor in pore size), you can help diminish their appearance by keeping them clog-free.

In addition to the immediate visual benefits of exfoliation, the removal of dead skin cells speeds up the skin renewal process, allowing smoother, healthier skin cells to take their place [source: Crawford]. Not only will this help with fine lines and wrinkles, but it will help to ease discoloration as well.

Now that you know that routine exfoliation can lead to visibly brighter and healthier-looking skin, you need to know what tools are best for achieving these results. Read on for tips on which exfoliation tools to keep on hand.

Before you exfoliate, you must arm yourself with the necessary tools for the area of skin you want to treat. What you use to exfoliate your body or feet will not be what you would use to exfoliate the more delicate skin of your face. Before you can decide on a product or method, it's important to understand that there are two basic types of exfoliants: physical exfoliants and chemical exfoliants.

Physical exfoliants are likely most familiar to you -- such as a body wash infused with scrubbing beads, a washcloth or a loofah. Physical exfoliants work to remove dead skin cells via friction. So there's a combined effort between the product you choose and a little elbow grease -- your scrubbing action.

For the torso, arms and legs, a body scrub with synthetic beads or tiny grains of sugar provides the gentlest exfoliation, while a loofah, textured or mesh sponge, or washcloth can be used in tandem with one of these products to intensify the exfoliation process [source: Bruno]. Many skin experts suggest that it's best to use a circular motion when exfoliating [source: Mann]. Be sure to use a washcloth or just your hands in tandem with a mild exfoliating cleanser on sensitive areas, like your face, as this is the gentlest method.

Chemical exfoliants are different from physical exfoliants in that it is a chemical substance, not friction, that handles the job at hand. Most chemical exfoliants found in facial and body cleansers are mild acids, such as salicylic acid, that work to gently remove dead skin cells. They do this by essentially dissolving the "glue" that is binding the dead skin cells to the other skin cells. Glycolic acid and lactic acid scrubs and cleansers accomplish this while also moisturizing the skin. A salicylic acid scrub works in a similar way, though it more specifically targets skin with acne or other conditions. By removing dead skin cells, a salicylic acid scrub unclogs pores, thus treating and preventing breakouts [source: Patz].

You may need a combination of these products and styles of exfoliation to complete your skin care routine. See the links on the next page for further information.