How to Exfoliate Your Skin the Right Way Based on Your Skin Type

Along with cleansing and moisturizing, exfoliating is an important step in any well-rounded skin-care routine. When you use a face exfoliator, you remove all the dead skin cells and are left with smoother skin that will absorb your other skin-care products better—a perfect canvas for make-up. There are lots of exfoliating methods, such as physical or chemical exfoliators, but if you’re looking for instant results, an exfoliating scrub is the way to go. L’Oréal Paris Pure-Sugar Scrub line contains four different exfoliators for every skin type. Formulated with three different sugars but without parabens or sulfates, they offer a sweet treat for your skin, gently buffing away dead skin cells to reveal a smooth, flawless complexion underneath. If you’re ready to get scrubbing, before you get started, consider what your skin’s needs are, do you need an exfoliator for oily, dull or dry skin?. If your skin is oily, you’ll want something that will help unclog your pores. If it’s dry, choose a scrub that’s hydrating and nourishing. And if it’s dull, you’ll want something that brightens it. Read on to find out which ingredients and products face exfoliators have that are good for your skin.

How to exfoliate dry skin

When you feel like your skin is flaky, your common first impulse is to want to scrub off those flakes. But they are likely a product of dry skin, so you should proceed with caution when it comes to using your exfoliating face scrub. Overdoing it by scrubbing too hard can cause even more damage, and opting for an exfoliator with drying ingredients can leave your skin feeling tight. Find something that exfoliates your face gently, with ingredients that moisturize and nourish your skin, while it gets rid of those dead cells. L’Oréal Paris Pure-Sugar Cocoa Scrub for Dry Skin has a blend of three sugars that gently exfoliate your face, in addition to coconut oil, cocoa butter and grape-seed oil that work to hydrate your skin. Apply the scrub to your skin three times a week, massaging it in with a gentle circular motion, and your face will look smoother and feel softer. If your skin is extra-dry, you can even leave it on for five minutes, like an exfoliating mask, before you massage it in. Pro tip: If you want to prep your pout for better lipstick application, use this scrub on your lips as well. But if your lips are chapped, wait until they have healed before trying this.

How to exfoliate oily skin

If congestion, breakouts and shininess plague you, exfoliating your skin can definitely be your skin’s best friend. Oily-skin types benefit the most from a good face scrub, because with all the extra sebum your pores are producing, it’s harder for your skin to get rid of dead cells and to unclog pores on its own. But at the same time, you don’t want to dry your skin out and force it to produce even more oil to compensate. That means you want an exfoliating face scrub with ingredients that absorb excess oil but that also keep your skin hydrated. With kiwi seeds and peppermint and lemongrass oils, L’Oréal Paris Pure-Sugar Kiwi Scrub for Oily Skin will help unclog your pores and purify your skin. Its blend of three natural sugars gently exfoliates your face while moisturizing and smoothing the skin. When your skin is oily, you might feel like you need to use your face scrub every single day, but try to limit yourself to just three times a week to avoid that compensating production of oils. Using your exfoliating scrub just a few times a week will still get rid of those dead skin cells but won’t dry out or irritate your skin. If you’ve got combination skin—like an oily t-zone and dryness in other areas—you can benefit from a gentle exfoliating scrub. L’Oréal Paris Pure-Sugar Coffee Scrub for Rough Skin has a warming effect on the skin and buffs away dirt and oil from the oily areas while it gently sloughs away dead skin cells from the rest of your skin.

How to exfoliate dull skin

Everyone wants radiant, glowing skin. But when you’re tired and stressed, that’s not always easy to achieve. Luckily, a good exfoliating face scrub can help your skin recover. Dull skin is caused by an accumulation of dead skin cells, so scrubbing them away can reveal a brighter complexion. But if you suffer from dry or sensitive skin in addition to that dullness, you’ll want to carefully choose your face exfoliator. Look for something formulated with moisturizing, nutrient-rich ingredients, like the grape-seed and monoi oils in L’Oréal Paris Pure-Sugar Scrub for Dull Skin. Along with those nourishing oils, the three-sugar blend and finely ground acai work to exfoliate the skin and to get rid of all the dead cells that are getting in the way of a glowing complexion. Much like people with oily skin, you might feel like your dull skin means you should exfoliate your face every day. But stick to just three times a week to keep your glow but minimize redness or sensitivity.