My most favorite part of my skincare routine is, hands down, exfoliating! It's so important. It helps keep your skin looking youthful and radiant, and can really help with congested skin. After reading this article I hope you learn (if you don't know already) why you should be exfoliating, how to exfoliate, a few different types of exfoliation, and some of my favorite products you can work into your skincare routine!
Why is exfoliating your face important? It helps speed up cell turnover! Our bodies naturally exfoliate our dead skin cells, making room for new ones all the time. It's a constant process. Unfortunately, as we age, that process slows WAY down. Exfoliating helps speed it up. It gently (or not so gently, if you're getting an advanced treatment) removes the old dead cells, so new ones can shine through! It helps your other skincare products penetrate deeper, that way you get the most effective results. If you've never done any intentional exfoliating you will be so happy with how your skin looks and feels.
How should you exfoliate? There are so many different options. There are mechanical exfoliators (think sand, sugar, salt scrubs) and chemical exfoliators (think AHA's, BHA's, enzymes, vitamin A derivates). I love to use a combination of both chemical and mechanical exfoliators. I use chemical exfoliation of some sort (very gentle) almost nightly, and then a mechanical exfoliator once a week or so to help really smooth everything out! You have to be very careful not to over exfoliate your skin, though, or you can damage your skin's natural barrier. There are some skin types and conditions that should stay far away from exfoliation, though. Inflamed acne should never use a mechanical exfoliator. No scrubs for active inflamed acne, ever. On the flip side, scrubs can really help non inflamed, closed comedones. I would recommend seeing a skincare professional to help you pick out which form of exfoliator would be best for your skin! (If you are having a hard time with acne, I encourage you to check out my Clear Skin Club)
How often should you exfoliate? As a general rule of thumb, a couple of times a week. I also recommend a professional exfoliation once a month, and lots of my clients do a professional, deep peel once a year.
Here are some of my favorite exfoliators. Book an express facial and let me get your skin under my light to see which one would be best for your skin type!
I hope this article helped introduce you to exfoliation if you've never done it! It really just scratched the surface. It's usually my recommendation to all of my clients to add an exfoliator to their skincare routine if they're not already!