How to Tell If You're Over-Exfoliating This Winter, Plus Tips on How to Keep Skin Smooth

by Alexandra Samuel


Kyle Ericksen
Kyle Ericksen


Winter and dry skin go together like mornings and coffee, right? So it only seems natural to grab your favorite scrub in search of that baby-faced goodness that's somehow way easier to get in the summer. But overdoing the scrub-love will make skin more susceptible to UV damage, accelerate aging and even wreck your lipid barrier so skin can't hold on to moisture on its own. Yikes.


If think you're on the road to over-exfoliating, look for these seven tell-tale signs you should lay off: Skin will feel tight and be noticeably parched, either all over or just as patchy areas. Your parched skin may also be red and itchy, or even more sensitive to other skin products than usual. And if you've really overdone it, you'll start to get acne and irritation -- which starts a totally addictive cycle of wanting to scrub more to get rid of all that flakiness. Not good.

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If you're guilty as charged, send your skin to rehab until the symptoms subside. If you're over-the-top inflammed, get to the derm asap since you may need extra TLC that only a doc can provide. But if it feels like something you can handle sans-derm, look for a super-rich lotion with anti-inflammatory ingredients like alpha lipolic acid or aloe. My fave is Burt's Bees Sensitive Daily Moisturizing Cream, which has aloe to sooth and cotton extract to shield skin from the harsh world.

Oh and lay off the exfoliants until skin is back to normal. In fact, even after your skin seems to have gone back to normal, a wash cloth and a face wash should be the only products and tools you're using every day. Then and only then, you can use a peel pad like Philosophy The Microdelivery: Pads two or three times a week, since these have a dose of lactic acid to melt away dead skin instead of slough it off like sandpaper.

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But if you're die-hard for gritty scrubs, steer clear of exfoliants with shells, husks, seeds or other jagged-edged pieces. Instead, stick to exfoliants that are smooth and round like the jojoba beads in REN Rosa Centifolia Gentle Exfoliating Cleanser, which has teensy jojoba wax beads that earse dullness without irritating your mug. Polyethylene beads made from tiny plastic also do the trick, but they are being phased out of products because they are super-harsh on the environment. (Which of course we're so not into.)

Whatever you do, make sure to go easy. If you scrub your face like your scrubbing a pot, you're bound to break a couple blood vessels.

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