Exfoliating Too Much?

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

Exfoliating is anything you do to remove dead skin cells; anything.  A wet face cloth or microfiber cloth rubbed over your face, exfoliates.  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 various forms of grit come in a cream or cleanser and are used  like a scouring powder for the bathtub – on your skin. 

But why use a grit cream?   We now have oscillating brushes 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 feel silky, creamy and smooth – not gritty – but they all exfoliate your skin.  Some of them do so very aggressively.

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So, if you use a smooth, creamy cleanser with an exfoliant in it 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.  Now you have exfoliated your face up to 57 times this week.

These are the signs that you’re overdoing it:  facial redness, small broken blood vessels in cheeks, chin or around nose, sensitivity, itch, burning or aching- are all signs of over exfoliation.   If your face looks shiny like a waxed apple, you’re doing too much.

As we age our collagen production drops.  Cellular growth slows.  We make less skin.  Over exfoliation can thin skin.  Thick skin is young – healthy.

Ease up.  Treat your skin like an antique silk.  Don’t rub.  Pat dry.  Use gritty creams and cleansers sparingly.  Reduce facial brush frequency. Read all skincare labels and if your products have exfoliant in them , alternate with products that don’t.  

Build up.  Build up skin health and beauty by using products that have a little bit of vitamin C and lots of peptides in them.  Green tea will reduce redness and speed healing.  And, of course, sleep on a pure silk pillowcase.  Baby your skin so it looks like a baby’s skin.

Results is on Facebook: www.facebook.com/resultsprincealbert. Listen live on CKBI am radio Mondays, just after the 8 am news and weather.  Visit www.resultspa.ca.  Call 306 953 1986 for your free consultation.