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.
"Over-exfoliating can cause chronic skin irritation and inflammation, which can lead to accelerated aging," dermatologist Elizabeth Tanzi added. If you have been exfoliating every day, but notice that your skin gets inflamed afterward, know that could lead to wrinkles.
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.
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.
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.
Repeated over-exfoliation, manipulation, friction and skin tampering can slow down the healing process, introduce bacteria, and cause epidermal cells on and around blemishes to thicken, darken, and get larger as the body struggles to defend itself from constant “self-assault”.
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.
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.
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.
Redness and Irritation
This one may seem obvious, but that's why it's number one, it's most likely your first sign of over-exfoliation. It is not uncommon for the skin to be slightly red immediately after exfoliation, but if it stays red hours later or the next day, it means you need to soften it a notch.
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.
So, in short, yes, exfoliation can be responsible for lightening your skin, both by removing any abnormal or irregular pigmentation in your skin, as well as speeding up the process of losing a suntan.
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.
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.
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.
Your skin needs moisture, especially after you exfoliate. Using a super-hydrating facial moisturizer after you exfoliate helps replenish any moisture loss from exfoliating. Apply sunscreen.
According to dermatologists, you should exfoliate first, then wash your hair, and then wash your body. This will ensure that each shower product you use has time to work. If you have concerns about your skin, you should follow this order as closely as you can. This will help prevent acne, razor burn, or dry hair.
Many people will notice a stingle or a sting when they first start using acids. This is completely expected and considered normal. After a while, this side effect can go away. The reason for this is because exfoliating acids actually improve lipid production to repair your skin's barrier.
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.
Moderate amounts of exfoliation is a great way to prevent pimples as it keeps the pores clear of debris. Excessive skin rubbing can actually weaken the skin so it can't defend itself against any bacteria, this means that the main form of debris is broken down so pimples can form much easily.
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.