Exfoliation: Is it bad for your skin? Really?

• Category:
• Science and skin care

I had the pleasure of meeting Tony Vargas, Vice-President of Elizabeth Arden Research and Development, yesterday. That name and fancy title might mean ‘Jumper Kitten, orange-cow of Elizabeth Arden fork and blender’ to you, but to a beauty journalist, it’s kind of a big deal. He’s a bit of a Skincare Superbrain.

And seeing though we’ve got a bit of a skin theme going for July - next week being Glorious Skin Week - I thought I would tell you what we chatted about. (Hint: Wasn’t toast.)

The reason Tony is in Australia is to present to us a new line in the massively successful Elizabeth Arden Ceramide range, but as it’s not on sale for a while yet, I’m not actually supposed to talk about that. I will. of course, when the time is appropriate. (I fricken love those little golden orbs of Ceramidey goodness.) But because it was such a small little gathering, I had the chance to pick his brain on a few other skin care issues. Like exfoliation. Which, if you’ll recall, I semi-recently also probed the man who (was) in the same role for Estee Lauder, Dr Daniel Maes when he was out here to launch Time Zone, and who was vehement we should stop all the peels.

It’s a bit of an obsession for me, exfoliation. I think there’s a lot of confusion around it, and whether it’s good, or it’s bad. So whenever I am given the opportunity to ask someone who is a leader in the field, I pounce. (And as a lover and great fan of lovely, glowing, line-free skin, I have a personal investment in the answer.)

So, I asked the Tonester what the deal was.

Are we meant to exfoliate, or are we not.

Tony says this: If you’re under about 35 years old, gentle exfoliation once a week is fine. This will gently remove the top layer of dead skin cells and let your skincare penetrate and do its thing. Make sure, however, that the product you use has NO harsh, scrubby, ouchy scratchy exfoliating granules. That’s just unnecessarily irritating and injuring your skin. And if you use a physical (over a chemical) exfoliator, choose one that uses gentle, spherical spheres. (Uh, as opposed to squareical spheres.)

This weekly exfoliation business is fine up til about the age of 35. (Or, you know, 30 if you’re sun damaged.) After then? Up it. Do some more. Maybe three times a week with a monthly Big One. (Like DIY microdermabrasion - La Prairie does a great one.)

See, after you hit around 35, your collagen starts to decrease and the rate at which your skin cells reproduce slows down, so they need a bit more assistance. But even then, Tony still believes the more gentle, the better. You do NOT want to over peel, over dermabrasion, over exfoliate, over glycolic and end up with creepy, too-thin skin. Cause it happens. You know it does. We’ve all seen them. They’re scary. Bree off Desperate Housewives scary.

How often do you exfoliate?
What do you use/love?

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