Exfoliating – too much?

Read magazine articles about skincare and they repeat the same command to exfoliate regularly. Let’s take a closer look at exfoliation.

Exfoliating is anything you do to remove dead skin cells. Anything. A wet face cloth or microfiber cloth rubbed over your face, exfoliates your skin. Rubbing your skin dry with a towel also exfoliates your skin.

Let’s move on to grit creams. They might have ground up almond bits in them. Apricot kernel bits are popular. These are come in a cream or a cleanser and are used like a scouring powder for the bathtub, on your skin. We also have the oscillating brushes we can now buy to ‘polish’ our faces.

There are exfoliating serums. Glycolic acid – also known as Alpha hydroxy acid – is an exfoliant. So are salicylic acid and lactic acid. Fruit acids and enzymes are other words you’ll see on skincare labels. They all exfoliate. They feel silky and creamy, not gritty, but they are still exfoliating your skin. Some of them do so very aggressively.

So, if you use a cleanser with an exfoliant in it – which many people don’t even know is in there – with a face cloth and then vigorously rub your face dry with a towel, you’ve exfoliated three times. If you follow that up with a toner (most have exfoliant in them) or an exfoliating serum, that’s four times – in less than 10 minutes. Maybe you wash your face twice a day. You’re exfoliating up to 8 times a day. Then once or twice a week you might use a grit cream or maybe you have that terrific oscillating face polishing brush.

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Now you have exfoliated your face up to 57 times this week.

Too much? Redness, broken blood vessels in cheeks or chin, sensitivity, itch, burning, aching, are all signs that it’s too much. Don’t worry – if you suspect you’ve been conned into over-exfoliating, it can be fixed.

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