Are you exfoliating properly or punishing your skin with lasers and peels? Our correspondent reveals the dangers behind modern beauty treatments

Cast your minds back to the 1980s, to shoulder pads, Spudulike, and, more important, Aapri facial scrub. The television advert showed a fully made-up model gingerly rubbing a greyish paste onto her skin, then washing it away and asking us: “Isn’t your skin worth it?” (Spookily close to L’Oréal’s current catchphrase.) This being the 1980s, we congratulated ourselves on being so modern, with our efficient white plastic tubes of Aapri, scrubbing our faces with apricot kernels and loofah mitts.

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