Oprah’s Favorite Daily Exfoliator Is Gentle and Effective—And It’s Now My Secret Weapon, Too

I distinctly remember unscrewing the lid to my mom’s jar of apricot face scrub and sniffing the contents, or smearing some on my hand. I was maybe six or seven years old—old enough to know there were tubes and bottles in my mom’s bathroom cabinet that were technically off-limits, which made them all the more alluring. The apricot exfoliating scrub was my favorite: I loved the smell (like earthy, pulverized stone fruit) and I loved the texture (simultaneously creamy and gritty). Exfoliators are still my favorite kind of skin care, so I get really excited when I discover and fall in love with new ones—such as Dermalogica Daily Microfoliant

Unlike other exfoliators (mainly scrubs and peels), this one comes in powder form. You tap about half a teaspoon onto your wet hands, mix to create a paste, and then massage that into your skin for about a minute to really slough away dead skin cells (also, I always make sure to spend extra time on my nose so I can target blackheads).

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Dermalogica Daily Microfoliant — $59.00

With ingredients like salicylic acid, rice enzymes, white tea, and licorice, this exfoliator works hard to polish skin and leave it soft and bright—and it’s gentle enough to use every day.

After rinsing, the texture of my skin feels immensely smoother, and my complexion is brighter and clearer. I always apply a hydrating serum and moisturizer on afterward, since exfoliators are designed to help other products more effectively absorb into your skin. In fact, if you feel like your go-tos are just sitting on top of your skin versus actually absorbing and working their magic, it’s probably a sign you’re not exfoliating enough. “That’s a very good sign that you do need to exfoliate. Exfoliating does allow you to absorb these topicals better,” dermatologist Maral Skelsey, MD previously told Well+Good.

Regularly using an exfoliator on a daily basis helps fight dullness, which is something I’m hyper aware of, especially in the fall and winter, when it’s colder and dry out.side “The top reason that I would recommend an exfoliation is when the quality of the skin is dull and you don’t see the light-reflective quality,” dermatologist Deirdre Hooper, MD told us in the past.

Once you figure out your exfoliating routine, you’ll likely notice that your skin will naturally look more luminous, and you’ll likely rely less and less on makeup and color correctors. After a couple months of using the Daily Microfoliant, my skin looks more balanced, I experience far less breakouts, and the fine lines around my mouth or eyes are visibly minimized (thanks to the constant infusion of hydration).

I’m honestly a few years late to the game: Daily Microfoliant got the official seal of approval from Oprah back in 2013 when she called the product a “superstar.” Ever since, it’s been a consistent skin-care best-seller. (And not just because it got Oprah’s endorsement, but because it’s just that good).

So, what makes Daily Microfoliant such an effective product?

It’s all about the rice-based powder formula, which offers gentle but effective exfoliation. It also features chemical exfoliators like papain, salicylic acid, and rice enzymes actives (which polish skin), colloidal oatmeal and allantoin (these balance and calm). Additionally, it’s got white tea and licorice, which leave the complexion brighter and more even.

So, yeah. You have our (and Oprah’s) encouragement to believe the hype.

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