The Vampire Facial from The Ordinary has taken over TikTok, IG, and YouTube. For many it’s a great option for Exfoliation. In this post, we’ll breakdown how over-exfoliation can actually leave you with bigger problems than what you expected. Here’s what you need to know.
Have you ever seen someone with ultra-shiny almost too glowy skin? It can be a sign that they’ve over-exfoliated their skin. While it may masquerade as a radiant glow for a while, it can actually end up being dry skin, with rough patches and rashes. The key rule is to remember, when exfoliation is done right, it shouldn’t be noticed. I mean, yes, skin will feel a bit smoother, cleaner and healthier. But going overboard wipes away skin cells and natural oil, which allows for premature exposure of underlying skin. Remember, exfoliation isn’t a weight loss process for your skin, healthy skin looks plump, not slick or thin.
Daily? Weekly or simply monthly?
Depending on skin type, skin needs to be exfoliated once or twice during a week. Just to make sure, one week equals seven days. Keeping it this simple will will improve and expedite skin cell turnover. Its not about just slathering on acids and retinols on a daily basis, these are exfoliants although they arent a physical grainy scrub. Over-exfoliated skin tend to leave skin bruised, irritated, red, and sore. It doesnt matter if its a peel or physical scrub. Or even if you struggle with overactive oil glands, or acne. Being overly aggressive wont do you any good.
When you over-exfoliate a lot of times, your skin can start to peel. This just causes burning, congested pores, inflammation, irritated skin, pimples, redness and increasing sensitivity to other products in your routine. Suddenly, your extremely moisturizing moisturzer starts to sting.
So maybe you went for the daily approach, what to do now?
Once the damage is done, you need to stop. Take a moment and swap out those products on the stronger side for something more gentle until your skin is recovered. It’s not harder than leaving skin alone, as it heals by itself. But it takes time and proper care, hence; not doing much to it. Before you start putting anything on it, your skin should be balanced and healed. This is done by replenishing the lost moisture and re-building the healthy skin cells. It is important to remember, it’s not just the acids you should stay away from. Fragrance and alcohol affect the skin too.
During this period, your routine should include a gentle pH balanced cleanser, hydrating and repairing creams and SPF. If things have gone really bad, you can try hydrocortisone, but as a thumb rule; go to the doc.
S.O. S
If you’ve used a acid stronger than your skin can handle, or over-scrubbed, you’ll know it immediately. Enter S.O.S mode, grab ice cubes, ice packs or cold bags, even something simple as aloe vera. Your reaction is supposed to be the same way when you’ve burned yourself other times. After cooling the area down, take a second and check if your skin is a little annoyed. If it feels raw or hurts to touch, its best to leave it alone and head out over to the derm.
ggooltip. 