Skintellectuals - ELLE's panel of pros pass judgement on the latest skincare trends, techniques and ingredients.
With another day comes yet another hyped skincare trend taking root on our social media feeds. We've scrolled through everything from the seemingly harmless rebranding of skincare techniques we've been doing for years (Skin Cycling we see you), to the more dubious DIY cleansing trends worth leaving to TikTok (no, salt water isn't going to cure your acne) and more than a few slugging suggestions in between.
Right now? It's the wellness gang getting in on the skin sculpting action, promoting dry brushing for you face as the latest way to achieve a celebrity-worthy set of cheekbones and a jawline Bella Hadid would do bad things for.
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But does it actually work? We turned to the Skintellectuals to find out...
Skintellectual No.1: Dr. Ramya Garlapati, Dermatologist and Skin Expert
'Dry brushing is when you use a coarse brush to gently exfoliate the skin. Personally, I wouldn’t recommend dry brushing your face as this can be a harsh exfoliating technique that can damage the skin barrier on your face, lead to uneven exfoliation and also cause micro tears in the skin leading to infections. I would definitely advise individuals with sensitive skin or those with known skin conditions such as eczema or psoriasis to steer clear.
'If you do choose to dry brush your skin then you should do it as the first step in your skincare routine. Follow it up by gently cleansing the skin and applying a moisturiser.'
The Verdict:
'The main benefit of dry brushing is to gently exfoliate and increase blood flow to skin. Dry brushing has many claims but other than that there aren’t many benefits. In my opinion, it's not a technique I'd recommend, and you should definitely avoid the eye area - the skin around your eyes is very delicate and manipulating this area with a coarse brush can cause irritation and damage.'
Skintellectual No.2: George Driver, ELLE Senior Beauty Editor - Digital
'Whenever I speak to the wellness lovers in my life, dry brushing somehow always comes up. As a lazy beauty journalist that can barely bring myself to body moisturise, let alone embark on a full dry brushing routine before I even get in the shower, the thought of adding yet another step to my skincare routine is not a welcome one. However, said wellness lovers do also happen to have the softest skin in the game, so I'm open to the skin-smoothing benefits that dry brushing my face promises to deliver.
'Somewhere between a gua sha, a cleansing brush and a mini scrubbing brush, I can already tell I'm not going to enjoy the process of dry brushing my face, but as they say, no pain no gain, right? Well, not exactly. In fact, if a skincare product or technique is aggravating your skin, leading to redness, dryness, or general irritation, my rule of thumb is leave it well alone. In my case, I appreciated the thorough exfoliation dry brushing my face delivered, but the process felt a lot more brutal than my usual enzyme exfoliator and my parched skin was calling for a post-brush dose of hydration.'
The Verdict:
'Dry skin aside, I'm not convinced manually scrubbing your face is the way to go. Reactive skin conditions don't need the hassle and sensitive or ageing skin won't appreciate the risk of micro tears. Plus, the aim of dry brushing your body is to smooth and reduce the appearance of cellulite, which my face just doesn't have (and that's not just a me thing). Which leads me to conclude, dry brushing your face, at best, isn't necessary and, at worst, is damaging.'
ELLE Edit: Dry Brushing For Your Face
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Skintellectual No.3: Katharine McKenzie, Facialist and Founder of KMP Skin
'Dry brushing your face is essentially using an instrument with fine hairs/bristles in it to help to stimulate blood circulation, manually exfoliate old loose skin cells and it can also aid with a sluggish lymphatic system. Compared to dry brushing your body, the instruments used for the face have much finer and softer hairs, and the pressure and the speed at which you would use the brush would be a lot lighter and slower as the skin on your face is much thinner than on your body, with less fat deposits.
'If you're going to dry brush your face do it after cleansing and before applying serums and creams/oils. Your skin should be dry. Then, starting at your forehead, sweep to either side of the ears, sweep out from the nose to the ears, and then work on the jawline up to the ears, and then down the neck to behind the ears or to your clavicle. A lot of lymph nodes are located in front and behind the ears, in the jaw and the neck.
'Potentially, if you suffer with a puffy face it could help to shift any trapped fluid, or if you have incredibly dry skin which flaked, I think a dry brush would help with the annual exfoliation. But, if you've got a skin condition, such as acne, dry brushing your face would spread bacteria which we don't want. If you've got eczema it may irritate it further, particularly if the bristles were too harsh and scratched your face.'
The Verdict:
'Honestly, I'm not sure there are any benefits of dry brushing your face over using a traditional exfoliator. Isn’t this just the "clean" version of a Clarisonic face brush? My main issue is that people are doing it far too much and far too aggressively which means they're disrupting the skin barrier that could lead to-increased erythema (redness). I would only do it once or twice a week maximum and ideally I'd leave it to a professional.'
George Driver was the former Senior Beauty Editor - Digital at ELLE UK.
