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A Complete Guide To Exfoliation And Sugaring

One of the best ways to take care of your skin health is to exfoliate. Exfoliation is the process of removing dead skin cells from the surface of your skin using a chemical, granular substance, or an exfoliation tool. Regular exfoliation can improve the appearance of your skin while also preventing clogged pores and allowing skin care products to be more effective.

However, exfoliation can become a bit more complicated when you’re about to get sugared. That’s why we’re going to go through everything you need to know about exfoliation and sugaring! Let’s dive right in.

Sugaring Exfoliates Your Skin

Before we get into the specifics about exfoliation before and after your sugaring session, there’s one thing we need to clear up. The process of sugaring does in fact exfoliate your skin! As we mentioned, exfoliation is simply the process of removing dead skin cells from the top layer of your skin. While you can achieve this deliberately by using a tool or mixture of some kind, sugar paste does it too!

Once it is applied to the desired area, the sugar paste is able to adhere to the dead skin cells that are sitting on the surface of your skin. Once it is removed, those dead skin cells are removed with it. This kind of exfoliation is just another added benefit of sugaring.

Exfoliating Before Sugaring

Exfoliating your skin before it’s time for your sugaring session can be a great idea. Using your exfoliation tool or scrub two to three days before you’re getting sugared can certainly improve your sugaring experience. By removing the dead skin cells from your skin’s surface, the sugar paste is better able to adhere to your hair follicles when it’s being applied. Since your pores are no longer blocked by those dead skin cells, hair removal will generally feel less painful and irritating. This will also result in less trauma to the pore as well as less redness if you have particularly sensitive skin. If you’re a fan of physical exfoliation, check out our sLA exfoliating mitt! It pairs great with our wild rose oil, which is uniquely designed to protect and repair skin via collagen nourishment.

The main thing to keep in mind here is that, while we do encourage exfoliation prior to sugaring, it must be done at least two to three days in advance. No more after that! You should avoid exfoliating your skin in the days prior to or the day of your sugaring session for one key reason: you’ll end up over-exfoliating!

Like we said before, sugaring itself serves as an exfoliating process for the skin — it deeply removes dead skin cells. If you exfoliate the day before your session, or even worse on the day of it, you’ve already removed the majority of the dead skin cells that were on your skin. That means the surface of your skin is now made up of young, healthy skin cells. When the sugaring paste is removed, it’ll end up taking those good cells with it — we do not want that! This is because your skin hasn’t had time yet to generate new cells under that healthy layer; when those healthy cells are stripped away, your skin will be left raw and overexposed to the environment. Over exfoliating can lead to redness and irritation, and it will certainly leave your skin prone to crack, peel, or lose its elasticity more easily. The bottom line is stay away from exfoliation for 24-48 hours before your session!

Exfoliating After Sugaring

Just like we advise you not to exfoliate the days before your sugaring session, this advice applies to your aftercare too! Avoid exfoliating the treated area of your skin for a minimum of 48 hours after your sugaring session. This is for the same reason — sugaring itself exfoliates your skin deeply. It leaves a fresh layer of healthy skin cells on your skin’s surface, and those cells need time to die before they need to be exfoliated. If you exfoliate within the 48 hour window after your session, you’re at high risk of irritating this sensitive skin and causing more harm than good! Even if exfoliation is a standard part of your skin care routine, take a break after you get sugared to prioritize your skin health.

With that being said, you can certainly restart exfoliation once a few days have passed! We recommend gently exfoliating every two days after your sugaring session using our sugaringLA exfoliating glove. This can be a huge benefit to your skin health and further improve your future sugaring experience. It can go a long way in preventing ingrown hairs and other complications that could arise post-sugaring. Once the waiting period has passed, we recommend resuming your regular skin care routine as usual!

Wrapping Up

Exfoliation is undoubtedly a best practice when it comes to skin care and health, and this does extend to sugaring as well! There are just a few things to keep in mind. To recap, avoid exfoliating your skin 48 hours before and after your sugaring session — we don’t want to over exfoliate ourselves. Further, outside of that window of no exfoliation, we recommend exfoliating as often as your skin is comfortable with! Some people opt for two to three times a week, while others exfoliate as frequently as everyday.

Happy sugaring!