Aestheticians have a big responsibility to their clients’ well-being in the treatment room as well as after they leave. While facial scrubs may be the most often employed method of exfoliation in the professional environment, knowing how scrubs affect the skin and how critical it is to properly treat the skin post-scrub can be the difference between exfoliation that can improve skin conditions and a procedure that promotes oxidation and aging. Scrubs are ingredient compounds usually formulated with small, hard particles suspended in a cream, gel, or lotion, often containing a light surfactant cleansing agent plus skin conditioners and moisturizers. Ingredients often used in these formulas to provide the “scrubbing action” include polyethylene beads, rice bran wax, carnauba wax, beeswax, and jojoba wax. You also will find scrubs that use almond meal, brazil nuts, walnut shells, apricot seeds, and even pumice from volcanic rock. Other forms of scrub compounds include simple sugars and sugar-like particles that come in various sizes and break down as they are applied. The one thing all scrubs have in common is that they are intended to cause a physical impact on the surface layers of the skin. Read More