We all love a good exfoliating session and it can definitely help to keep your skin looking fresh and beautiful. But, I’ve been talking to a few clients who may have been over exfoliating causing problems, and it made me want to remind you guys to be gentle with your skin! So, let’s back up a bit and run through the basics.
First up, what is exfoliation and what does it do? It simply means the removal of dead skin cells from the skin surface. It can be mechanical (scrubs) or chemical (acids, enzymes or retinoids), which uses acids to loosen connections between dead skin cells. This loosening and losing of these top dead skin cells helps to uncover fresher, brighter looking skin. This has got to be a win, no?
Let’s go back another step and figure out why this is a problem. The skin is our natural protective barrier and it does such a fab job most of the time, however, it doesn’t like being too aggressively exfoliated or scrubbed. This is where some of my lovely clients are going wrong, as they are over exfoliating.
Why? Well, overdoing exfoliation can lead to a breaking down of the barrier, leading to sensitivity, redness and dry patches and irritation. In some circumstances you could even end up causing a flare up of skin conditions, such as rosacea, or causing something like atopic dermatitis/atopic eczema. You can definitely over do exfoliating products, both chemical and physical.
The other thing is that you can also scratch your skin with the rough particles in some physical scrubs. Although it may feel smooth afterwards, you may have inadvertently caused tiny (invisible to the naked eye) scratches to your skin that lead to inflammation and worsen conditions like acne and cause hyperpigmentation (both related to inflammation).
Any ideas how often you should scrub with a physical exfoliator? A maximum of once per week!! Also beware: Presoaked pads and at home peels can over exfoliate chemically, leading to irritated, dry or uneven skin and even scarring!! Please avoid these, or seek advice from your skincare pro as to whether they are the right products and ingredients for you and how often you should use them.
As always, it’s super important to check the ingredients list of any product and use an app like ThinkDirty to help you look for ingredients that you want to avoid (perfumes/preservatives etc). You would be surprised the rubbish that is put in our over the counter skin products that are super bad for your skin!
So, we know exfoliation can be great and lovely for the skin and that overdoing it leads to problems. Want to know a few of my top tips for anyone wanting to do it well and avoid the downside? Here you go:
•Use a natural, biodegradable product that has round and smooth particles. This will help prevent damage to the skin that causes inflammation which can lead to ageing skin. So, a big no to sugar or kernel based products as they can be large and irregular shaped (scratching to the max with these).
•Another lovely option is to use a chemical exfoliator. Now that word sometimes scares people, but all it means is that it causes a chemical reaction in your skin that is normal, but it actually promotes cell renewal. Some products you can look for are lactic acid, a gentle home use ezymatic peel and retinol. I’ve done a video all about retinol if you want to know more-please check it out on my social media sites! Again, I would recommend you introduce slowly, get advice from an expert on which products to choose and review your products with them to make sure they are doing what you want them to.
•For a professional treatment to take exfoliation to the next level, get in touch to find out about a chemical peel. There are a number of options that can be completely customised to your skin and your specific skin health goals. Why not check out my other blog on what chemical peels are and why they are a beautiful addition to take your skincare to the next level.
Remember, skin health is a marathon not a sprint-it takes time to achieve, so please don’t overdo the exfoliating and be gentle with your skin!!! Real change takes weeks to months to achieve. Make sure you take you own before and after pictures so you can compare the differences.
I hope you found this information useful, please get in touch or message me if you have any questions or would like to arrange a consultation to discuss your skin.