The Skincare Mistake I See Being Made Repeatedly

By Katie Woods
March 30, 2021

Is your skin experiencing acne? Exfoliate. Is it dry and flakey? Exfoliate. Hyperpigmented? Exfoliate. Fine lines and wrinkles creeping in? Exfoliate. I thought that over time the skin care industry’s obsession with exfoliating might die down but so far, it doesn't seem to be losing much steam. 

Exfoliating is the act of removing epithelial tissue from the epidermis in hopes to improve the overall appearance of the skin. Whether it be chemical exfoliators such as AHA’’s and enzymes or mechanical exfoliators like the dreaded St. Ives apricot scrub, there are a multitude of products on the market promising to promote skin perfection with every slough and tingle. In a capitalistic beauty industry selling the pursuit of skin perfection one bottle at a time, is exfoliation truly the answer? 

As always, the truth is nuanced because each individual's skin is unique and so are the many skin care formulations on the market. The idea that exfoliation is a method of achieving better and/or healthier skin is false. In a society functioning on quick fixes, this exfoliation trend makes perfect sense as it can deliver quick results; an immediate brightening effect, evening of tone and texture, a smoothed canvas for perfect makeup application and an insta glow. But, what about the long term skin health effects? Read on and let me take you on a little skin school journey...

Natural Desquamation = Your skin’s innate shedding process 

Before we can understand the industry’s relentless desire to exfoliate, we must first understand our body's own exfoliation process and the how’s and why’s behind how it works. The integumentary system is an incredible self regulating, self healing organ that successfully regenerates on its own by a process known as desquamation. Every 30 days your skin fully renews itself as new skin cells migrate to the surface and old ones slough off. Before we assume these keratinized epithelium (aka skin cells) are useless by the time they make their way to the surface of the epidermis let’s step back and re-evaluate this notion. 

The stratum corneum is the skin’s outermost layer and our interface with the outside world. This layer functions to provide protection via a layer of keratinized epithelium that protects the underlying tissues from infection, chemical and mechanical stress and dehydration. Turns out, the dreaded “dead skin cells” we wish to remove have a very important job in our skin’s overall ability to be healthy. In fact, before keratinocytes become corneocytes they create lipids at the end of their cycle consisting of free fatty acids, ceramides and cholesterol which helps create the skin’s barrier layer. These lipids paired with your own sebum (your skin’s own oil) and corneocytes create your acid mantle and skin barrier.

Now that you have a better understanding of the importance of your barrier function, let’s talk about what can happen if we over manipulate it via exfoliation. 

The Negative Impacts of Exfoliation 

Your barrier layer works overtime to keep your skin healthy so it’s important that we don’t compromise it. Over the many years working with clients, I have seen over compromised skin barriers time and time again. Over exfoliation can result in acne, bacterial and fungal infections, raised texture, erythema, premature aging and a variety of other adverse inflammatory skin conditions. Oftentimes, the condition(s) in which we are trying to treat become worsened by our treatment choice. This can send us on a spiral reaching for the next topical cure to treat the issue we created from the previous skin care potion. Simply put, stripping your barrier function leaves your skin more prone to the damaging effects of UV, pollutants, chemicals, etc.

So, what’s the solution?

Less is more. It’s very much possible to have a healthy relationship with assisting our skin’s natural exfoliation process and this will look different for every individual. Generally speaking, the speed of your skin’s renewal process depends on your age and internal and external environment. When you’re younger, your skin renews at a faster rate, meaning you can exfoliate and expect it to renew itself much faster than someone age 40 and above. However, anyone at any age with a compromised barrier should not be exfoliating at all, regardless of how gentle the formula is. 

If your skin is in a healthy state, there’s nothing wrong with a gentle weekly exfoliation. At the same time, if you're not using dedicated products to exfoliate and your skin is thriving, then why not hold onto those precious lipids, bacteria and corneocytes?

I’m convinced that we can’t outsmart nature, that we must learn from our body’s own innate intelligence and follow its lead. Being intuitive with our skincare rituals means listening to the messages our skin and body is sending us even if it’s saying…

“back the fuck off the exfoliator!”