gommage facial exfoliant

The first time I saw that word, I thought, "French food?" Yes, I'm woefully ignorant of French. Gommage is a type of exfoliant that Koreans use in place of facial scrubs - the idea being that facial scrubs can be damaging and scarring to your face. A gommage is a physical exfoliant that has chemicals that when rubbed on your face, pill and ball up, gently pulling to them dead skin, dirt, and other unpleasantries from your face. It's a common mistake to think that the pills you see when rubbing is actually your skin coming off. It isn't. It's the product itself reacting to the friction on your skin. The end result, though, is lovely. It takes about 3 minutes, tops, and after rinsing, your face looks so fresh, soft, and clean. It's also much more gentle than using a pore scrub. It also works wonders on dry body skin, like on your legs, knees, elbows, or arms. I apply it to dry skin, stand in the shower (because it flakes off), rub, and then shower.

This is what it looks like when you first put it on and before you rub it in.

As you rub, the product begins to congeal.

Depending on the gommage you use,
this is what it looks like when it's ready to rinse.
There's no longer any liquid left on your skin.

After you rinse. So smooth!

I've tried a few and they all work pretty similarly. The only difference is in how fast the product balls up on your skin. I actually prefer it to congeal faster, but several posts I've read seem to prefer that you rub your face longer before the product balls up. I'll review these in order of my favorites.

#1 Secret Key Lemon Sparkling Peel Gel
$7.00 Amazon
This is my favorite. It smells divine, works very quickly and effectively, is easy to rinse off, and doesn't irritate my skin. 

#2 Innisfree Wine Peeling Jelly Softener
$14.00 Amazon
This was ok. It smells like mildly fermented wine. It takes a lot more rubbing to get it to congeal. Wasn't irritating or hard to rinse off. 

#3 Real Chemistry Peeling Gel
$48.00 Ulta
I sampled this in my Birchbox. It was similar to the Innisfree product. It did the job, but it was too pricey to buy when there are other products that work as well or better. 

post-gommage facial. Ahhh!