When it comes to exfoliation, people hear a lot of conflicting opinions. The reason behind this is simple. Companies want to sell you products. The most beautiful skin I see is attached to the people who do the least amount of skincare steps. It’s the people who start out our consultation with “Well I know I can do more…” or “I feel so lazy about my skin.” The multi billion dollar skin care industry has brainwashed us all into thinking that if we don’t scrub every other day, use our Clarisonic brush morning and night, cleanse with an abrasive face wash, apply serum morning and night, mask once a week, and layer our moisturizers and sunblocks and creams and lotions that we’re just not trying hard enough! It’s just not true. The worst part is, the people who are just doing the basics are actually  feeling guilty that they’re not spending more time and money on their faces.
Now I’m not saying throw everything you own out and stop washing your face all together, I’m just saying to relax a little.Â
I was brainwashed too for 8 of my 10 years of being an esthetician. I told my clients to scrub their faces raw because I thought it was what was best. It’s not. I ignored the fact that the clients I saw with the best skin always did so little. I blew it off thinking “they’re just blessed” and “it’s all genetics.”
What tends to happen more often than not, is I see over-exfoliated skin. We sensitize and over-process our skin then get frustrated that it’s no longer functioning the way we want it to. Think of your pores as tear drop shaped holes. We know there is a layer of dead skin on the surface that we are meant to slough off, but what tends to happen is we over do it. We scrub and scrub and scrub and eventually we have scrubbed away the important layers of skin too. So now you’re looking at the inside bulbous portion of this tear drop shape, the inside of your skin. You will experience enlarged pores, hydration fluctuations, longer healing times, dullness, and just generally not be too happy with your skin.
Fixing this is the easiest thing in the world. STOP over exfoliating!
I typically have my clients go on a two week “detox.” So two weeks of only cleansing, moisturizing and SPFing. You can go up to a month if you can handle it! What this does is lets the skin regain confidence in you. A classic over-exfoliated skin is expecting you to scrub it raw everyday. So it builds up a scaly, superficial layer to protect itself everyday. This also makes you think you need to exfoliate when you run your hands over your skin and it feels rough. The detox lets your skin start to rebuild stronger, healthier, more resilient skin.
After the detox, find your routine. Listen to your skin! It will tell you when it needs to be exfoliated. Read my cleansing post, and find the perfect cleanser. Get used to washing your face with your hands morning and night, then when it starts to feel a little rough, pick up a soft washcloth or your Clarisonic brush. I’ll write more about that later. Personally, my skin needs to be exfoliated about once a week. Maybe twice a month I’ll do an enzyme based mask.
The whole process takes around three months to really start seeing the changes in your skin. You’ll see pores get smaller, not because you’ve temporarily shrunk them with some dehydrating mask, but because the top of that teardrop shape is growing back in. You’ll see hydration issues (overly oily, flaky dry) resolve themselves because the pores that are creating the sebum are functioning normally again. Blackheads and pimples should decrease, your skin should glow again, and you’ll finally stop stressing about your skin everyday!
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