Exfoliating is fun, easy, and yet a total mystery to many of us.  When do I do it? How often?  With what?  And the underlying question is; do I even need to exfoliate (or is it just fun)?  Well, essentially, no, you don’t need to. Your skin is an amazing, living thing and does a wonderful job of sloughing, protecting, purifying and regenerating on it’s own!  Contrary to popular belief,  exfoliating once or twice a week should simply improve, not substitute, your skin’s own ability to slough and renew.

So why exfoliate?  Taking exfoliation into your own hands means your skin is clear to evenly absorb good stuff like your organic face serum, while relieving it of bad stuff like built up waxes from cosmetics that trap dirt.  So since you’re dying to get to it,  let’s talk about methods and types of exfoliants and which one is best for you:

There are two basic ways to slough debris from your skin and infinite variations af the basic two:

1. Mechanical – where abrasives are mechanically ground against the skin to remove debris or clays create a vacuum suction effect over the skin.
2. Chemical – where enzymes or acids dissolve debris from the skin.

Mechanical

Mechanical exfoliants include things like face brushes, scrubs, drying clay masks, microdermabrasion and  exfoliating pads.

SYMPTOMS OF OVERUSE: I’ve seen it many times – Clarisonic Brush abuse!  Just like the “apricot scrub” of my day, skin brushes can be addictive.  The first time you get deeply exfoliated you’re hooked because your skin never seems to feel clean again when it’s not “sparkling clean”  In reality you may be thinning your skin, reducing it’s natural ability to filter toxins and pollution and making it hypersensitive.  If you’re brushing once a day or even more, you may be making your skin dependent on mechanical exfoliation and unable to function and renew as it’s meant to on its own.  Just taking a few days off, you may start to feel like your pores just aren’t as clean and sanded down as you’d like them to be.  You may even experience breakouts as your skin struggles to rebalance until it has regulated but try, try to hold off and let your skin be skin!  As we now know is true of many skin products that make us look amazing at first, overbrushing can actually speed up and exacerbate sensitivity and signs of aging over time.

Scrubs can also sometimes have the effect of causing the clogged pores to become deeper impacted.  To avoid this, be sure you are always only gently massaging the surface of the skin with your scrub.  Tempting as it is to get “deep clean” by grinding harder, you may actually be grinding debris into the pores rather than out of them!

Clays don’t just suck the dirt and debris out of your skin, they suck the moisture out too.  Always hydrate the body by drinking plenty of alkaline water when using a clay mask – and rehydrate the skin thoroughly after removal.  Drawing too much moisture out of the skin can provoke rebound breakouts and imbalance.

SYMPTOMS OF UNDERUSE: Wash your hands and run your fingers along the surface of your skin at the end of a day when you’ve worn no makeup.  Do you feel scaly patches?  Can you scratch the gunk off the surface with your fingernail?  Is it overly oily?  Do you have normal sized pores (not enlarged) but uneven texture and/or dullness?  Mechanical exfoliation will work  beautifully for you since your buildup sits on the surface of your skin – gently sloughing it away with a brush or scrub once or twice a week will keep you in perfect, glowing balance.  Only use drying clays where the skin is most congested, pores are visibly clogged, the skin is greasy, or where pores are enlarged and gaping.

DO NOT USE:  If your skin is sensitive, avoid abrasive cleansers.  If your pores are congested, skip the scrubs, use masques to exfoliate until they are free and clear and begin to shrink.

BEST IN CLASS:  Acure Organics Brightening Facial Scrub A base of  organic ingredients you’ll want in your smootie and on your face; like berries, lemon peel granules, cocoa powder and chlorella, make this the perfect bi-weekly skin treat to stimulate cell growth and leave the skin looking bright

ADVANCED EXFOLIATING: Whole Truth Solutions Clay Therapy Masque Cranberry Lemongrass French Yellow Clay literally draws impurities out and away from the skin with a force of suction you can feel as it dries. This magic masque actually becomes a mechanical/chemical crossover by also adding natural alpha hydroxy acid from organic citrus orange.

Chemical

Chemical exfoliants include things like alpha hydroxy acid, glycolic acid and malic acid, papaya enzyme and pineapple enzyme peels, masques and cleansers.

SYMPTOMS OF OVERUSE: It’s easy to overuse mechanical exfoliants without even knowing it.  If you’re overusing a chemical exfoliant – chances are you’ll know!  Your skin will burn, become inflamed, or even peel if you’ve used a chemical exfolant that’s too strong or you’ve used it too frequently.

SYMPTOMS OF UNDERUSE: Blackheads, enlarged pores, congested pores and  dullness are all instantly reduced by a once or twice weekly enzyme mask or fruit acid peel.  If yo experience any pore congestion, deep or surface, start masking ASAP!  Generally enymes are underused.  Some are gentle enough to even use every day.

DO NOT USE: Never use chemical exfoliants on abraded, broken or sun damaged skin.

BEST IN CLASS: Tata Harper Resurfacing Mask  This award-winning mask gives us all the gain, but none of the pain of a professional peel.  Pomegranate Enzyme gently eats away trapped gunk from the pores while French Clay has a purifying effect. You’ll get immediate results despite how gentle it feels.

ADVANCED EXFOLIATING:  Dr. Alkaitis Organic Exfoliating Enzyme Mask Leave it to the Doc – all the organic enzymes you can attempt to pronounce in one jar – ready to be activated by a little water and eat anything trapped in your pores like a dermatological Pac-Man!

Still wondering which technique is just right for your unique needs?  Give one of our specialists a buzz on Live Chat for a free beauty consultation today!

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