Exfoliating your skin can become an addiction. Your skin feels so much smoother and softer after you exfoliate, because of this, many consumers think that if a little is good then a lot of exfoliation must be better. Over exfoliation however can cause some serious damage to your skin and can predispose you to premature aging and also to developing an overly sensitive and reactive skin.
The signs that you are giving your skin too much exfoliation:
– puffiness
– areas of patchiness and dryness
– redness and itchiness
– increased sensitivity
– inflammatory acne
– burning sensation
Acne skins are one of the skins that definitely need exfoliation more often. It does however need to be gentle. The worst thing you can do for an acne skin is dry it out and dehydrate it. Dehydration will make lesions hang around for longer and delay healing.
Enzymes don’t harm the skin and will not eat living cells. Chemical Peels on the other hand can damage your skin barrier. Peels over 8% will actually disrupt your skin barrier making it more sensitive and heal less effectively. The exception to this is Salicylic Acid Peels which are safe. Peels also create inflammation in the skin which we want to avoid. Inflammation in an acneic skin makes it worse and in older skin creates a condition called “Inflamm-ageing”. It is aging of the skin due to inflammation and the effects it has on collagen and elastin. Facial cleansing brushes can damage the skin as well, due to manual exfoliation which can harm living cells.
We recommend using our Roccoco Botanicals Papaya Radiance Peel and Sulfur Mask for exfoliating. These both contain enzymes which will not harm your skin!
