Natural Exfoliation Using River Sands and Beads

It's odd, but this natural way to exfoliate was the one thing that I truly remember from the number of camping trips I took when I was a scout (or as we call it, "Pengakap") in primary school. I did learn a few other things, like: (1) I enjoy the occasional jungle-trekking, (2) I love bathing in river water, (3) I don't like sleeping in tents, and (4) I hate leeches. But if there is one lesson that I've taken with me from my camping experience to this day, it was to recognise river sands and beads as nature's exfoliators.

Whenever I get the chance to experience the delicious taste of cold river water, I take the opportunity to get some exfoliating done as well; I suppose the metaphor "Kill two birds with one stone" might just be appropriate here. This could be done at any nature's body of water that has sands and beads—even at your favourite beach—but shallow river is just my favourite, like the place I visited here.

It's so super simple to do that you simply must just give it a go the next time you're near some natural sands and beads. Here's how:

Pick up some of the sands and beads from the river bed. Please make sure there are no foreign object amongst them to be safe.

Slather them on the part of your body where you want to exfoliate, then gently massage the beads on your skin in circular motion. Be sure to do this as gently as possible as you don't want to the beads to be abrasive on your skin! We're aiming to soften the skin, not abuse it.

Wash off the beads in the river water.

You're done! Prepare to be impressed with the new level of smoothness of your skin. You could even apply some lotion immediately to the exfoliated area to maintain the supple feeling.

Isn't that just the easiest beauty hack ever?

A few tips and warnings:

• It really isn't advisable to exfoliate the skin of your face this way as our facial skin is super sensitive, so steer clear of your mug. I like to apply this exfoliating method to my arms, hands and legs, but I remember doing it on my tummy too when I was younger.
• Gently does it! Last year I exfoliated my cracked heels this way but rubbed a little too hard, and did it too may times in one go. My heels were simply sore for the whole next day as a result—I found it hard to walk, so it was not pretty.
• This isn't a scientifically proven method or anything, so I absolutely advice against doing it too often. Our skin is very delicate, after all.
• The smaller the beads, the better, which is why small beads of sands and stones would be the best way to go, but using sand beads that are too minuscule would sort of defeat the exfoliating purposes.

Have a go at this and let me know how it goes! Have fun staying extra beautiful, guys <3