Sisley Botanical Gentle Facial Buffing Cream

There aren't many physical facial exfoliators I can use. Sisley makes a wonderful exception to that rule. My skin is sensitive, thin, and easily injured. At times, all you have to do is touch it to make it turn red. That's why chemical exfoliators are usually the best choice for me.

Botanical Gentle Facial Buffing Cream ($81-90) is so gentle, I could use it more often than I do. For my skin, twice a week is enough to keep the flakes at bay and leave my skin looking clear and radiant. I realize that "radiant" is one of the buzz words of the skin-care world these days, but your skin isn't going to glow if it has a layer of dead skin cells sitting on the top-most layer.

Botanical Gentle Facial Buffing Cream contains very fine polishing granules. The finer the granules, the less chance for abrasion. The granules are suspended in a rich cream containing chamomile that moisturizes and soothes as you exfoliate and matricaria, which has soothing and softening properties particularly beneficial to fragile skins. There's also kaolin clay to add a bit of firming action to minimize the appearance of your pores. Naturally, when you rid your skin of the impurities and dead skin cells at the surface, it will be more receptive to the other treatment products you use.

Apply a thin layer of Buffing Cream like a mask to your clean, dry face and throat, using circular motions and avoiding the eye contour area. Allow the Buffing Cream to dry for one minute, then remove it with gentle exfoliating movements, best in upward strokes - rolling the cream off your face. When the product no longer rolls off your face, rinse thoroughly with water. It's recommended that you use the Buffing Cream before any mask so that your skin can reap the full benefits of the mask. Or simply apply your treatment product(s) after its use. You can watch a short demonstration of the application technique at Sisley's Web site.

It's a luxurious treat to use it. It may be expensive, but it's worth every cent to me. Use Gentle Facial Buffing Cream for a few months, and you won't want to give it up. Sometimes, you can find a sample at Neiman Marcus, Saks, and select Nordstrom stores. Even if you can't sample before you buy, no matter what your skin type, odds are you'll find this exfoliator indispensable.

Photo courtesy of Neiman Marcus