Unlike cleansing and tonic, exfoliation should not be performed daily, but it is advisable once or twice a week on the face and every ten days on the body, otherwise the risk is to excessively stress the skin. In fact, let us remember that many products used in the beauty routine may contain exfoliating active ingredients, such as salicylic acid present in numerous anti-aging creams and serums.
Why is it useful to exfoliate the skin?
The skin is constantly renewed: the younger cells rise from the deepest layer to replace the old and damaged ones present on the surface.
The usefulness of exfoliants, commonly called scrubs or peels, is precisely to promote cell renewal by removing superficial dead cells.
There are two modes of action of exfoliants: physical / mechanical and chemical / enzymatic.
Physical / mechanical exfoliation does not use chemicals, but uses the mechanical action of abrasion of the ingredients present which, rubbed on the skin or applied with microfibre cloths, sponges and brushes, allow to eliminate dead cells. In this way, the occurrence of allergies is very rare.
Unlike the previous one, chemical / enzymatic exfoliation uses chemical active ingredients, usually acids or enzymes, to break the bonds of dead cells and thus facilitate their removal. Chemical exfoliants need more application time to perform their action effectively.
Incorrect exfoliation can cause skin irritation. It is important to use products that do not contain aggressive acids, not to expose yourself to direct sun after using exfoliating products and not to treat particularly sensitive or damaged areas of the body.
A myth to dispel is that these treatments take away the tan: the melanocytes, that is the cells that produce melanin, the pigment that allows us to tan, are found in much deeper layers of the skin that are not reached by exfoliants.
