Out with the old, in with the new, skin cells that is.

How often do you exfoliate?  I hear a plethora of answers from my clients, ranging from twice a day to never.  There are lots of problems with both and all that range in between.

If you are exfoliating on a daily  you are destroying the first line of the skin's defense the acid mantle.   What is the Acid Mantle?  Was it a wrap worn by The Acid Queen?  No, it has nothing to do with the Who or Tommy, or Tina Turner (although she does indeed possess an Acid Mantle as well).  So what is it?  The acid mantle is a fine, slightly acidic protective layer on top if the skin.  It acts as a barrier between bacteria and other contaminants that might invade the skin causing all sorts of ugliness to arise. Also, you may just rub it raw, and while a rosey glow is sexy, a raw face is not.

If you are one of my lovely clients who comes to me and tells me that they never exfoliate, it's not as finger shaking worthy as those who do it daily, but you are wasting money.  How so, you may ask.  Well, what happens when you don't exfoliate, yes you may wipe away some of the dead skin cells by washing, but really you're building layers upon layers of old dead skin on top of healthy, soft smooth skin.  Thus slapping your nightly fix of La Mer on that old dead skin.  Not the skin that needs the moisture at all.  All of that wasted La Mer.  *sigh*

So how often should you exfoliate?  Two to three times a week is perfect.  I prefer to exfoliate at night after a regular cleansing to get a really good deep pore penetration going on and then mask right after to really pull those impurities out.  

How should you exfoliate?  You can exfoliate via chemical or mechanical means. Chemical, which translates into putting something on your face that will eat away at the dead skin or mechanical, sloughing it off via scrubbiness or a brush.  There are various products on the market for chemical exfoliation, things to look for, alpha (AHA) or beta (BHA) hydroxy acids, lactic or glycolic acids, and fruit enzymes.


What are some of the benefits of regular exfoliation?  Smaller pore size, cleaner pores, less of a need for picking, lightening of age or sun spots, more even skin tone, less breakouts, and smoother more glowing skin.  What's not to like, huh?

Some of my favourite exfoliators...

The Clarisonic (mechanical exfoliation)

Hylunia Fruit Enzyme Exfoliator (Chemical Exfoliation)

And a great over the counter love of mine...
Mychelle's Fruit Enzyme Scrub (a combo mechanical/chemical exfoliator)

There you have it folks.  Wash,  scrub, mask, treat and moisturize.  We can all walk away younger, smoother and more delicious everyday.