As the body's largest organ, our skin is always multitasking to keep us healthy and beautiful. In addition to serving as an outer barrier against environmental contaminants and diseases, the skin also protects us from excess sun exposure, gathers information about our surroundings and transmits that important data to the brain, and prevents injury by accommodating musculoskeletal movement and growth. Skin maintenance is a very important task. One of the most beneficial ways we can support our skin is by detoxing it. Skin detox can be achieved in multiple ways.  

Detoxing Through Sweat

Most of the body’s detoxing is handled by the liver and kidneys. However, when the internal detox organs are at capacity, the rest of the workload is diverted to the skin and released in sweat. Fat soluble toxins and toxic metals make their exit from the body via sweat. Doing a sweat detox is easy and inexpensive. Exercise is one of the best ways to induce sweating, and getting active benefits the body in a host of other ways.  More passive ways of breaking a beneficial sweat include spending time in saunas and steam rooms. When inducing sweating, it is important to remain hydrated before, during, and after your detox.

Detoxing With Clay

Next to sweating, using clay is one of the most natural, therapeutic methods of detoxing the body. Clay works by drawing impurities out of the body like a magnet. Simply adding one to two cups of healing clay to a bath and soaking for 15 minutes is enough; it is important to avoid overdoing it when it comes to soaking in a clay bath.  People who do not have a tub and those who simply prefer showers may make a clay mask by adding water to dry clay and mixing the clay into a paste. The paste should then be applied to the body and left to dry before showering off. Some clay may have a drying effect on the skin. Therefore, moisturizing after rinsing off a clay mask is advisable.

Detoxing by Exfoliating

Most people exfoliate the skin on their face more often than the skin on their body. Increasing the frequency of body exfoliation can give the skin a needed boost. There are several different ways to exfoliate.  Dry brushing can be done every day by rubbing the skin with a social brush for 10 to 15 minutes. There are many salt and sugar scrub products that can be rubbed onto the body and rinsed off. Spas also offer an assortment of body scrub services that incorporate a range of scrub products and specialized mitts and brushes.  

Those who have dull, dry skin may find that a skin detox is exactly what they need.  Detoxing helps the skin rid itself of dead cells in the outer layer along with potentially burdensome toxins our bodies would rather avoid.  Different people may prefer different methods or a combination of more than one. Regardless, eating healthy, drinking plenty of water, and using a high-quality moisturizer will complement every method of skin detox. In the end, well-hydrated, glowing skin is what we all want.  A thorough detox can help you get much closer to achieving optimal skin health.