Cleanse, tone, moisturise is a skincare mantra many women follow. Add in morning SPF and night-time serums and oils, and skin should be looking tip top. Oh and don't forget to drink plenty of water too if you want your complexion to glow. But where does exfoliation figure into all of this? Well according to skin specialist Paula Begoun, founder of award-winning skincare brand Paula's Choice, exfoliation should be high on our list of skin priorities.
MORE: Get your beauty sleep with an overnight mask
Exfoliation can do wonders for your skin
"Exfoliation is a cornerstone of Paula's choice," Paula tells us. "There are all these wonderful ingredients to restore and put back into skin what it can't make and there's never one ingredient that's ever enough, skin is too complicated it needs all the company of all those other beautiful ingredients, sunscreen and then exfoliation." Paula's top choice to exfoliate is BHA-based (salicylic acid) exfoliants for oily and blemish-prone skin, like her brand's Skin Perfecting 2% BHA Liquid Exfoliant, or AHA (alpha hydroxy acid) exfoliants, for sun-damaged and normal to dry skin, like Resist Anti-Aging 5% Exfoliant. Alternatively, try Alpha-H's zero-abrasion Gentle Daily Exfoliant or Rituals' Brightening Face Exfoliator. And she goes on to explain just why it's such an important and vital step in a woman and man's skincare regime.
"The thing about exfoliation, gentle, natural exfoliation, that it helps your skin exfoliate naturally the way it did when you were young, is so vital is because of what it does to skin," she shared. "Think about getting a pedicure, you never say to the person doing your feet, 'you know don't touch those heels. Leave that cruddy built up skin right there. I just love that built up dead skin'. You want them to shave that off, right?! And you can scrub the feet, but you just can't do that to the face. But when you get rid of that built up dead skin cells and you put a moisturiser on you've got baby bottom feet. Built up dead skin cells make skin look wrinkly and old," she added.