What is Exfoliation?
Natural exfoliation gently removes excessive dead skin cells, quickening the cycle for new skin growth.
Exfoliation removes layers, dirt, and sebum. The skin has many layers and the top layer is the oldest ‘dead’ skin. The skin cycles about 2 weeks from the Base layer to the Stratum Corneum layer in the Epidermis. It takes another 2 weeks to be sloughed off for a total of 28-30 days. The complete skin cycle of the Dermis is 3‐5 years. A leaf that grows from a branch, will eventually die and fall off, making way for new leaves. The skin is also born and dies in a natural progression and if the dead skin is not exfoliated, it remains clinging to oil, perspiration, dirt, and environmental pollution. This slows the process of the new skin cycle to more than 30 days as the layer of dead skin becomes thick with excessive dead cells, slowing the creation of NEW skin if it is struggling to be rid of the excessive dead skin layer.
Layers of Skin
CONTENTS:
- What is exfoliation?
- How to exfoliate
- FAQ
- What is the key to beautiful skin?
Why is natural exfoliation important?
Youthful Skin Naturally
Just like painting a wall, the skin must be clean and prepped before it can be primed for other treatments. Exfoliating with a natural, gentle exfoliant effectively removes dead skin cells, dirt, sebum, and other unwanted particles clinging to the skin and makes way for beneficial skin treatments to be absorbed more readily promoting fresher and younger-looking skin. Newer skin cells have more moisture/oil, known as intercellular lipids. Newer skin cells mean younger-looking skin because cells that have healthy intercellular lipids can give skin bounce and firmness. For beautiful skin, we want to keep the new cell layers thick, bouncy, and firm while gently exfoliating the dead layers away.
Intense versions of exfoliation like laser resurfacing or chemical peels forcibly destroy the outer layer of skin sending the body into overdrive, while it panics to repair the damage and generate new skin. The theory for harsh treatments like lasers is to remove the dead skin along with a bit of the living layer, forcing the skin to regenerate. Lasers in infancy could create scarring because of the damage to those delicate layers.
helps skin absorb treatments
makes way for younger skin
brightens and evens skin tone
smooths rough texture
“Exfoliation gets rid of the unnecessary to make room for the necessary.”
What are the dangers of exfoliation?
Dangers of Harsh Exfoliation
Benefits of Natural Exfoliation
Irritating the skin causes it to thin and promotes redness and rosacea.
The acid mantle is the skin barrier containing good bacteria along with sebum and natural oils that protect the face. When you exfoliate, your skin can be left a bit vulnerable if you damage that barrier layer. However, it’s still important to get rid of that dead top layer so that oils and dirt can naturally leave the skin. When you squeeze a black head, you have to squeeze because the dead skin and hardened oil in this layer seal the pore. Exfoliating helps clear and soften the skin so it can excrete sebum and dirt naturally, but it is important not to damage your protective, younger skin layers.
The body does exfoliate on its own but the pace becomes slower naturally, prompting us to help it along. It is best to remove dead skin at a normal natural pace so that your body can naturally create new cells. Some stronger exfoliants like scrubs and alpha hydroxy acids (AHAs) should not be done on a daily basis, as there’s a risk of damage to the skin. Naris found that if you irritate the skin, you cause damage which causes the skin to thin too quickly, also promoting rosacea.
Grains and scrubs can be harmful to the skin, even causing small lacerations (micro-tears), especially on sensitive and acne-prone skin. This damage opens the skin up to bacterial infection. Treatments like microdermabrasion can sensitize the skin so much that dirt and oil cannot be extracted without causing trauma. The powder from microdermabrasion works like sandblasting your face. The result may feel smooth on the surface but microdermabrasion doesn’t work within the pore. Harsh exfoliation like this only leaves the skin irritated and vulnerable as physical treatments can only treat the surface of the skin.
How can I exfoliate my skin naturally?
Natural exfoliants gently and effectively support the skin
To maintain a healthy epidermis that is properly exfoliated, gently and naturally remove dead skin build-up. Properly removing the old keratin on the surface of the skin encourages a healthy skin metabolism and allows better absorption of moisturizers and serums. Natural Exfoliators like the Naris liquid CONC, focus on skin health when exfoliating. The gentle liquid formula can help to clear the dead cells, dirt, and sebum in the pores. With other methods like scrubs, the application can be too strong, or too soft – there’s a lot of room for error and it’s hard to determine how to exfoliate effectively and in a healthy way. It’s important to focus on removing the unnecessary while still promoting skin health by using the right products.
CONC
Naris liquid exfoliator “CONC” gently removes old skin cells while supporting the skin structure.
Naris started in 1932, and in 1937 they created the CONC (concentrated lotion) exfoliating liquid. The founder of Naris was a chemist who wanted to figure out what made the skin stay young. He found that the secret to young skin was exfoliating daily, and doing it naturally. Today 90 years later, Naris has the highest market share for the last 8 years of all gentle and natural, liquid exfoliants. Exfoliation formulas are typically alkaline, which helps to remove the dead skin cells but can be drying on the skin. Some of Naris’ CONC is also an alkaline formulation. (new Selgrace, Majesta-α, Luque). The others have a weak acidity. Naris created conditioning lotions to follow CONC which acts as a pH balancer.
Naris’ patented technology called “Intermix Pressure Force” or iPF, mixes natural ingredients on a nano level, preventing them from breaking down, separating, or canceling each other out. This skin-friendly nano-size technology absorbs readily and gently into the skin, creating effective treatments that support the skin structure.
- 1
Removes dead skin cells gently → Smoother cycle of skin turnover → New skin cells are born
- 2
Better permeation of the next skin care step for enhanced results
- 3
Brighter skin tone and dark spots, prevents wrinkles, acne, and other skin trouble
How many times a day should I exfoliate?
Use a gentle natural exfoliant twice daily.
How often to exfoliate depends on what you’re using because it may be harsh. The Naris CONC exfoliating liquids are gentle enough to be used the ideal way – twice a day. At night your body regenerates and toxins are excreted, so exfoliating in the morning helps to wash that away. In the morning you can also remove the remainder of intense night care products. At night, natural exfoliation helps to remove makeup, dead skin cells, and remainders of the washing process, prepping your skin for the nutrients you will put on at night. The skin should be treated gently with natural products that it can absorb easily so it can stay healthy.
| Morning Exfoliation | Night Exfoliation |
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When should I start exfoliating my skin?
I never had to exfoliate before, why do I have to exfoliate now? After puberty everything changes and everything is different in the body! As we age, we also do things to the skin that we didn’t as children, like wear makeup or sunbathe. It can be hard to accept that as the body changes, skincare habits have to change accordingly. As we age, exfoliation needs to change too. When we’re younger we need more intense removal of the rough skin layer. As we get older, we need to focus on the retention of the moisture and lipid layer, exfoliating with special care for already thinning skin.
Many factors can slow the natural skin-shedding cycle:
Naris addresses both exfoliation needs with 2 types of CONC in the Majesta line –
Alpha CONC breaks the chain links of dead skin cells to remove dead cells and promote smoothness and translucency with moisture in the process.
Beta CONC focuses more on moisture retention, with stronger skin support while still exfoliating effectively. Beta is also great for rosacea and sensitive skin.
The newest line Selgrace, combines the alkaline and iPF lines in one CONC. It took 8 years to develop using natural ingredients. The Selgrace line focuses on the fusion of opposites that beautiful skin has, like ‘soft but firm’ and ‘fresh and clean but moisturized’. A very difficult task that is addressed with technology, and natural ingredients which are both effective, and gentle on the skin.
Frequently Asked Questions about Natural Exfoliation
The Key to Beautiful Skin
Support the skin structure
Natural Exfoliation is important for beautiful skin! If you don’t remove the unnecessary, your skin can’t receive what it needs. Treating the skin naturally, supporting the natural skin cycle, and focusing on the health of the skin are the keys to vibrant, glowing skin.
A pro tip:
DRINK A LOT OF WATER! It is good to drink water, particularly after showering. A good rule of thumb is at least ½ oz per lb of body weight. Other liquids like soup and tea can also help with hydration, except alcohols like wine which are a diuretic!
