Have you ever noticed just how many facial scrubs there are on the market? Hundreds...from expensive to cheap. So how do you know what to buy and what to use? Well, again, a bit of education is in order. Let's look at just what it is that you're trying to scrub off and how what you use affects the results you're trying to achieve.

This is where the exfoliation and the facial scrub
    comes in. Exfoliation or the uniform removal of dead skin cells can take two
    forms; natural and chemical. Now, while some would argue that true exfoliation
    is separate and apart from scrubbing citing a deeper subculture like "AHA" and
    "BHA", for our purposes, we'll include AHA and BHA in the Chemical form of
    exfoliation and topical scrubs in the natural form of exfoliaiton. Chemical
    removal is a much more radical form of "resurfacing" the skin and is usually
    effected in a doctor's office. It involves chemicals that can also harm the
    cells underneath but it does give us a fresh, new start as the pictures to the
    left attest. But if you've been relatively careful with your skin, either
    typically or after you've undergone a chemical peel, chances are a natural
    facial scrub in your own bath area once or twice a month will do the job quite
    nicely.

What we have to be concerned with most
    in "exfoliating" our skin is the damage we can do to the new skin cells which
    lie just under the layer we're trying to remove. Ideally, in a natural scrub,
    we want friction, not cutting action, to remove the dead skin layer and we want
    liquid as a lubricant. Let's look at two exfoliants, side-by-side. One is a
    professional skin care exfoliator and the other is a cheaper, drug-store
    version. To the naked eye, they look the same but under the microscope, they're
    vastly different. And the difference has to do with their individual crystal
    composition

When we remove our outer skin cells, we want to leave
    the new, fresh, healthy skin cells which lie just underneath alone, unblemished
    to come shining through to form the new surface. It is to these cells that we
    will eventually apply natural, organic makeup to enhance our beauty. As you can
    see from these electron microscopic images, there is a vast difference in
    "scrubs" or "exlfoliants". In the photo above is a common exfoliation compound found
    in drug- and department stores. We can't tell you what brand it is for obvious
    reasons but suffice to say you probably either have used it or are using it
    now. It's packaging is pretty and it's promises are many. The problem lies in
    both the size of the crystals and the edges that you see there. It's these
    sharp edges that do the damage to the skin cells underneath. As you rub, they
    not only slice away the dead skin cells, they also cut into the healthy cells
    just below the surface; the cells that you're trying to nurture.

An electron microscopic picture of a
    natural, organic exfoliant, however, reveals that the individual particles are
    much smaller, much finer with softer edges. This type of exfoliant tends to
    "polish" off the dead skin cells rather than slice them off. In doing so, the
    exfoliated cells will adhere to the fine exfoliant particles and be washed away
    with the final rinse revealing clean, clear, healthy, unblemished cells
    underneath. In short, natural, organic compounds that are finely processed are
    the best exfoliants for the skin. The processing takes longer as the grinding
    process reveals a finer and finer compound and the natural ingredients
    compliment the skin but, as you might imagine, fine exfoliants cost more than
    their drug-store counterparts.

But let's remember, cheap exfoliators aren't always cheap. As
    with the exfoliators above, you can't tell the difference looking at them
    side-by-side. And when you put them in a nice package or tube with a sexy model
    on the front and up the sale price, the average customer feels that it must be
    "the good stuff" and thinks, "If I use this I'll look like her!".
    Well price and packaging are no guarantee. Only the ingredients will tell you
    so my advice, unless you want to undo all the work you've put in so far, is to
    know what you're looking for. As for me, I'll always go with professional
    products from suppliers like Studio Direct Cosmetics
    Again, it may sound like a shameless plug but
    the fact of the matter is that I don't get paid to tell you about the company,
    I just use their products on my million-dollar performers and I don't
    worry.