The Highlights
- Your body is the Vehicle for Your Human Experience. Skin is your protective shield and your canvas for self expression
- Prepare your canvas with Exfoliation
- Best natural exfoliants for face, body and feet
- All things Free Lion Body Care to help with Exfoliation
You’re here on this planet having a human experience. Your avatar is your name, your personality and characteristics. Your vehicle is your body. It allows you to interact in this game we call Life. And for the longest, interesting and most holistic game play possible, you’ve got to take care of your vehicle. That covers everything from nutrition to exercise to body care.
Human bodies are really complex systems that are designed to work holistically with Nature and the environment. Skin, the body's largest organ, acts as a vital protective barrier, shielding against harmful elements like UV radiation, pollutants, and pathogens. It keeps your body temperature regulated by sweating and shivering, helping to maintain internal equilibrium. It also serves as a reservoir for nutrients and water, contributing to overall hydration and health. Additionally, nerve endings in the skin play a crucial role in sensation, allowing you to perceive touch, pressure, temperature, pleasure and pain.
Beyond its physical functions, Skin plays a significant role in your emotional well-being. Touch is essential for human wellness, fostering emotional connections, reducing stress, boosting oxytocin levels, and promoting feelings of security, comfort, and belonging. Skin is integral to human self-expression, serving as a canvas for tattoos, piercings, and adornments. Its texture, color, and condition contribute to your unique identity and outward expression. This is where excellent skin care comes in.
Prepare Your Canvas with Exfoliation
Our bodies naturally shed dead skin cells every 28-60 days, depending on our age, making room for new skin cells to emerge. Usually this occurs on its own, but sometimes the dead cells get a little stuck, clogging pores or giving you an ashy, dull hue and may need a little help. Although the dead skin may not slough off entirely on its own. Mechanical exfoliation aids in revealing the fresh, glowy, dewy, new skin underneath.
In Ayurveda, exfoliation holds a significant place, used to balance the doshas (vata, pitta, kapha), get the prana going, stimulate the lymphatic system while removing dead skin cells. Its considered a must in your self-care routine for detoxification, immune regulation, and promoting skin health and radiance. The process is approached like a gentle, loving ritual of self-care, that has its most formalized expression in pre-wedding day rituals for preparing both the bride and groom’s skin to be at their radiant best. In addition, exfoliated hands and feet help prepare skin to take in the colour stain from henna.
Exfoliation followed by moisturizing for a few days before getting inked is also recommended by tattoo artists. You’re going to have a piece of body art done that you want to last for the rest of your life. So literally preparing your skin/canvas is crucial. Exfoliation gets rid of dry rough skin and pore blocks, which makes it easier for your skin to take ink as well as the moisturizing required for tattoo aftercare. Tattoo artists recommend using dry brushing or a salt scrub. 
Which Exfoliant is Right for Which Job?
Natural exfoliants range in hardness, sharpness and durability. General rule of thumb? Soft and gentle for the face; mid-range hardness for the body and full-on hard for calloused feet. As always, do a patch test first to make sure your skin isn't irritated.
Face Time: Natural Exfoliants for the Face
In general, plant powders and extracts + clays are wonderful for exfoliating the face. They often do double duty as a mask and an exfoliant. This is how our Face Chai Mask Grains work. You can blend them with distilled water and Facial Oils to spread on your face as a Mask. After 20 minutes, you can exfoliate your skin by using slow, circular massaging motions to remove the mask from your face. Rinse with warm water. Finish with a burst of Hydrating Spritz.
Choose your natural facial exfoliants based on your skin type:
Vata or Dry skin is generally dry, thin and delicate, prone to dehydration, wrinkling and flakiness that can be excessive—like an eczema flare up. This skin type doesn't do stress too well. So choose exfoliating ingredients that are soothing, hydrating and soft. You want natural ingredients that will gently remove dead skin—like chickpea flour,oat flour, selected plant extracts like Turmeric or guava, and kaolin clay.
Pitta or Normal/Combo skin is typically soft, oily, and fair to pale with a warm complexion. Medium-thick, this type of skin is more prone to redness, rashes and zits, when experiencing an imbalance. Choose exfoliating ingredients that can maintain Skin’s sebum balance like Azuki bean flour, rice flour and chickpea flour, selected plant extracts like papaya, chrysanthemum and Turmeric and Rhassoul red clay.
Kapha or Oily skin is thick, typically very light, and cool to the touch, with a tendency to overproduce sebum. Kapha skin tends to most show enlarged pores, blackheads, and water retention in times of imbalance. It is prone to acne-type break-outs. Choose ingredients that are gentle on skin, that will absorb excess sweat and oil, unclog pores and soothe irritation—like Oat Flour, Urad Bean Flour, ad activated charcoal; selected plant extracts like Neem, Turmeric and while willow bark; and Multani Mitti clay.
FYI, I add buttermilk powder to our Face Chai Mask Grains to add a very gentle acid action to your face mask and exfoliation experience.
Body Language: Natural Exfoliants for the Body
Traditional Ayurveda uses dry brushing or body polishing for exfoliation. The idea is to create friction using coarse fibers that help remove dead skin. The circular and sweeping movements also stimulate the lymphatic system. Since the lymphatic system doesn’t have a pump, it depends on body movement and scrubbing to get the lymph flowing and the toxins going.
My mother taught me to dry brush using a towel, post shower but before applying body moisturizing. I still use a gentler version of this method. But truth be told, as I grow older, I just want to be treated gently. Body scrubs do just that. I use body scrubs for added moisturizing and nutrition from plant extracts and oils. And then I follow up with Free Lion Body Butter for moisturizing, applied using ayurveda massage techniques to get the lymph moving.
Here are some of the best natural ingredient options for exfoliating your body's skin:
Epsom Salts, high in magnesium and sulfate, can reduce inflammation, kill bacterial and flush out toxins while removing dead skin cells. The edges on these crystals are harder than sugar but just the right range for body skin, leaving skin both exfoliated and deeply cleansed.
Raw cane sugar provides gentle but effective exfoliation, idea for vata or sensitive skin types. It is a natural humectant and antioxidant that helps your skin feel healed and hydrated while delivering a healthy glow
Ground Coffee invigorates and tightens up the skin, decreasing the appearance of cellulite. Ideal for thighs and butts. Its properties can also help reduce inflammation and body acne, as well as repair skin damage.
Ground Apricot Shell Powder is made from the ground down seed shells of the apricot. These kernels or seeds are rich in fatty acids, vitamins and minerals. In fact, over 50% of the kernel is oil. This powder is a wonderful ingredient for exfoliation, with enough abrasion for a thorough, deep cleansing without harming the skin.
Ground Brown Rice provides gentle exfoliation, which is just what sensitive skin ordered. It is packed with antioxidants to destress the skin and stimulate collagen production. It detoxifies and deeply cleans the skin while tightening and smoothing.
Ground Adzuki Beans have been a staple in old school Japanese Beauty care for centuries. Their natural soapiness makes them excellent for deep cleaning, tightening and smoothing skin. The beans contain antioxidants, just like ground rice, to protect skin and stimulate collagen production
Feet Don't Fail Me Now! Natural Feet Exfoliation Ways
Feet are hardworking and so is their skin. Sometimes you need something a little tougher on the hard, crusty bits. Soaking feet first in 2 tablespoons Epsom salts to 4 liters of warm water really helps soften up the skin in preparation for exfoliation. Then, I like adding lavender flowers, calendula petals, and rosemary leaves to the Epsom salt water for a little extra self-care boost. The lavender and calendula soothe the skin; the rosemary and lavender deliver some antibacterial and anti inflammation care. While my feet soak, I get in some guided meditation or quiet mindfulness time. An oasis in my busy week, I love love love this relaxing ritual!
Here are some natural exfoliating options for exfoliating your feet.
Ground Walnut Shell boasts a higher level hardness to scrub tough, calloused skin. Keep this one just for your tough skin bits--it will strip off more than you need on more tender skin. Walnut shells have antibacterial properties which make them perfect to use on feet.
Pumice stone, for feet that are hard as a rock. This volcanic rock with Swiss cheese like pockets is ideal for scrubbing off callouses. The stone is very abrasive, which makes it perfect for hard skinned heels.
Be Gentle with Yourself, Inside and Out
When you look in the mirror, take a moment to consider the thoughts that rumble around in your mind. Are they reflections of who you really are or someone else's idea about who you should be? Are they beliefs or ideas that are still relevant to your life or ones that need a let go?
Our minds are fluid and we can shift our thoughts at any time. Self care comes with the choice and the opportunity to be compassionate with yourself, inside and out. Set the intention to also slough off old expectations and images so you can liberate yourself and experience living in your complete authenticity. Life's an adventure; enjoy yours!
Try these Free Lion Body Care things for natural exfoliation
For the Face:
Mask Grains for Dry Skin and Sensitive Skin
Mask Grains for Normal and Combo Skin
Mask Grains for Oily and Break Out Prone Skin
For the Body