Over-exfoliation can lead to rough, dehydrated, patchy, and flaky skin. This usually means your over-exfoliated skin has lost its ability to absorb or retain moisture. When this happens, the effects of your beauty routine and skin care products will severely diminish.
After four to six weeks, you should hopefully start to see signs of your skin improving. The symptoms of over-exfoliation should begin to die down, and your skin will slowly take on a healthier and brighter appearance. At this point, you can start to consider introducing exfoliation back into your skin care routine.
Too much of a good thing really can happen, especially when it comes to exfoliation. While getting rid of skin impurities on a regular basis is good, doing it too much can aggravate the skin. Over-exfoliation can lead to redness, irritation, and may leave the skin inworse condition than what you started with.
If your skin feels irritated or red patches appear after exfoliation means you need to stop. It's also a myth that slight redness or irritation means the product is working. If your skin feel unusual after exfoliation, it means you need relook at your scrubbing routine. Over-scrubbing leaves skin dry and flaky.
After applying an active exfoliant to the skin, it loosens up the congestion deep within pores and pushes it toward the surface of the skin -- causing what looks like a breakout but is actually just your skin going through a cycle.
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For example, Palm warns against using an exfoliant more than once per week for folks with a balanced skin type (and recommends using only physical exfoliants that have a very fine and gentle texture). Those who have combination or oily skin can exfoliate “up to three times weekly,” according to Marchbein.
Over-exfoliated skin can become so vulnerable and damaged that it can be easily inflamed. This inflammation can then escalate into an acne breakout. Using too much exfoliant also removes too much of the surface layer of the skin, taking away with it all the trapped moisture.
Exfoliants break down dry and dead skin while smoothing texture, which means the skin appears to look more uniform over time. Try Dermalogica's Daily Resurfacer.
Most experts advise that you exfoliate two to three times per week — as long as your skin can handle it. Chemical exfoliants tend to be fine to use more regularly. Physical methods, on the other hand, may be too abrasive to use multiple times a week.
You can test this yourself with a well formulated exfoliant: at night, apply your AHA or BHA as usual after cleansing and toning, and do a "split-test." Wait 20 minutes before applying your serum and/or moisturizer to one side, but the other side of your face, apply those next steps immediately.
If you experience tingling or burning sensations with your other skincare products, you may want to re-evaluate your exfoliation product or frequency. Excessive exfoliation can lead to dehydration and dryness of the skin. If you notice that you are developing dry plates or flakes, you may be overdoing it.
Over-exfoliating the skin can put your sebaceous glands into a frenzy, causing them to produce more oil than necessary, and ultimately cause more breakouts to occur.
If an area feels dry and/or rough, it might be time to exfoliate. Important: if this same patch of skin is also irritated, red or itchy, that is a sure sign not to exfoliate.
Note that when you over exfoliate this can be a negative thing. It can cause damage to your skin that can take a couple of days or weeks to heal. Exfoliation is even more important if you are in winter and the cold and the dryness of the air gives you dry chapped lips.
Skin purging typically looks like tiny red bumps on the skin that are painful to touch. They are often accompanied by whiteheads or blackheads. It can also cause your skin to become flaky. The flare ups caused by purging have a shorter lifespan than a breakout.
However, it's important to keep in mind that there is no set time for your skin to return back to normal. You may find that some people will see results after a month of following a strict routine, while others can take up to two months.
Signs of over-exfoliation
“The skin appears as if it has a radiant shine. However, it is in fact very dry and exposed.” And overexposure can devolve into painful cracking and peeling, explains Geria. For reference, a healthy glow will always look plump and moisturized, not dry, thin, or waxy.
Overdoing exfoliation, or mixing different physically-based with chemical exfoliants can cause over-exfoliation, leaving your skin sore, bruised, red and irritated. Signs of over-exfoliation include excessive smoothness and shine of your skin, redness, peeling and flaking, and sometimes even an acne inflammation.
When you have flaky, dry skin you need to moisturize, not exfoliate.” Damage from over-exfoliation can present in many ways, including tightness, shininess, stinging, redness and increased sensitivity, Hirsch said. “We tend to grossly overestimate what our skin can handle.”
DON'T rinse off a chemical exfoliant
After exfoliating, don't wash it off right away - the active ingredients take time to absorb into your skin and work their magic! Leave your exfoliant on for about 15-30 minutes to ensure the ingredients dissolve and remove all dead skin cells.
When it comes to morning versus night exfoliation, you're going to reap the best benefits from exfoliating in the morning time. This is due to the oils your skin produces overnight. You'll be able to more smoothly remove all impurities, dead skin, and oils, when you exfoliate in the morning, rather than at night.
If you use a scrub or chemical exfoliator, apply the product gently using small, circular motions. Do this for about 30 seconds, and then rinse off with lukewarm — not hot — water. If you use a brush or sponge, use short light strokes. Never exfoliate if you have open cuts or wounds or if your skin is sunburned.