Exfoliating skin, sloughing off dead skin cells, buffing out skin roughness, etc. are all concepts that are probably deemed incredibly “old school” and the least glamorous rituals in a skin routine. But experts like us will always give this arena the dedicated spotlight it deserves because it is just that important to skin health.
What is Exfoliation?
Exfoliation is the act of removing overdue dead skin cells (keratinocytes). Factors like age, climate, and skin diseases can all impact the level of dead skin buildup. When these keratinocytes adhere to the skin for too long, it slows down skin cell processes, causes skin to become rough and visually more discolored, and can even become a culprit of dry skin. Enter exfoliation to the rescue!
Two Ways to Exfoliate: Chemical vs. Mechanical
When you hear the word “exfoliation”, you might immediately associate it with the fruity srubbies of St. Ives. But in reality, there are a lot of nuances on just how to exfoliate. There are two major methods of exfoliation: mechanical exfoliation and chemical exfoliation.
Mechanical exfoliation is just like it sounds, it’s the physical removal of dead skin cells. This can come in the form of scrub beads found in masks and cleansers, microdermabrasion, facial cleansing brushes, and even dermaplaning. Think of descriptive words like buffing, polishing, sloughing, etc.
Chemical exfoliation is the process of using acids like AHAs, BHAs, and PHAs to chemically loosen the bonds between these overdue dead skin cells to help these cells be on their merry way.
While both achieve the goal of aiding cell turnover, there are ways to fine-tune these techniques for your longterm skincare goals. Ultimately, the name of the game is to strike the balance of timely cell turnover without overdoing it. Over exfoliation can land you in unwanted skin redness and irritation. We discuss these concepts in detail below. Additionally, in this guide, we’ll go over the main benefits of exfoliation and the best exfoliation strategies for your skin scenario to get the most out of this category.
3 Major Skin Exfoliation Benefits
There are three fundamental benefits for having exfoliation in your skincare routine long term. We use the word fundamental because we believe these are important to achieving and maintaining skin health that both functions and looks its best.
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Improves Skin Barrier Health: If our skin barrier could be kept healthy with just a simple moisturizer, skincare would be a lot less complicated. The skin barrier is a complex system of many processes that are essential to keeping the barrier functioning efficiently and looking its best. When skin’s cell turnover starts to slow down, the buildup of dead skin cells causes important cell functions and mechanisms to slow down as well. This cascade not only impacts internal components of the skin barrier but is the reason why skin can begin to look dull and skin texture becomes rough. In fact, it can also be a culprit of dry skin.
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Improves Skin Texture and Prevents Dry Skin: This cascade impacts internal components of the skin barrier and is the reason why skin can begin to look dull and become rough. One of the first signs of slow cell turnover is rough skin texture. Overdue skin cells are more stubborn to remove, causing normal cell processes to become inefficient. The buildup impacts skin texture. Additionally, this cyclical inefficiency can also be a culprit in dry skin woes.
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Brightens Skintone: Finally, when a buildup of overdue skin cells occurs and the skin’s major processes slow, it can show up as dull skin tone. By ensuring cell turnover runs on schedule, the skin barrier functions well, and healthy skin truly looks healthy. This is why it’s such an important component of your hyperpigmentation skincare routine!
Unique Exfoliation Methods For Hyperpigmentation & Wrinkles
Exfoliation is a vast category. So far, we’ve covered the fundamental benefits of exfoliating skin to help cell turnover. However, a few specific exfoliation methods are worthy of mention and can provide additional skin benefits.
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Reducing Stubborn Hyperpigmentation: Let’s be real, hyperpigmentation & dark spots are stubborn and typically requires the blind faith strategy of “throwing the kitchen sink at it”. In terms of skincare, it usually means it requires using a lot of different active ingredients (and a lot of patience) to see meaningful results. Chemical exfoliation is often part of that plan. In fact, you’ll often find hyperpigmentation skincare formulas that include exfoliating ingredients like glycolic acid included. Just be sure to skim the ingredient lists to make sure you’re not overlapping to many exfoliants to avoid unnecessary skin irritation.
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Helps Reduce Fine Lines and Wrinkles: Concentration is everything in the chemical exfoliant category and can be the difference between gentle routine upkeep and active correction of skin concerns like hyperpigmentation and wrinkle reduction. There are clinical studies that have shown using glycolic acid peels can effectily reduce the appearance of wrinkles. One comparison study that looked at the use of a 0.1% retinaldehyde nightly for 8 weeks vs. 3 in-office peels of increasing glycolic acid found that both performed on par in the reduction of wrinkles. While in office versions are quite strong and should not be attempted without professional supervision, home peels can be powerful tools to include in your skincare routine.
How to Add Exfoliation in Your Skincare Routine
The “best” method will really depend on how complex you like your skincare routine and your specific skin type. Keep in mind that consistent routines are what get results. Here are a few “exfoliation modes” we typically recommend for your consideration.
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Oh-so-Gently: For the most gentle of chemical exfoliations, we recommend looking at gluconolactone, lactobionic acid, lactic acid, and mandelic acid. These bigger molecules
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Standard: For most normal skin types, it’s very common to use ~10% glycolic acid nightly, or use a home peel once every 1-2 weeks.
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Corrective: This is when you can consider increasing concentrations of the current chemical exfoliant you’re using, adding a home peel, or stacking both mechanical exfoliation with your chemical exfoliation needs.
Exfoliation is not recommended for these These Skin Scenarios but…
Compromised skin: If skin is suddenly angry and you’re managing a case of skin irritation, it’s time to give your exfoliants a rest. The only goal for skin in this state is simply to regain skin barrier health so that it has the ability to continue healthy cell function and have the ability to utilize all the good skin actives you apply on your face daily.
Eczema: Ultimately, skin conditions like eczema are best handled with a dermatologist.
You’re just starting a new active: We recommend onboarding actives one at a time. Allow at least 2-3 weeks for skin to acclimate to new products before trying to onboard a new exfoliant. It’s important to avoid skin irritation at all cost so that you don’t end up having to spend your routine troubleshooting skin woes instead acheiving all of those great skin benefits.
You hate sunscreen: When using chemical exfoliants like glycolic acid, it’s important to apply sunscreen daily. With new skin cell turnover, all that baby skin needs protection from active skin agers like the sun.
Combining Exfoliants with Retinoids
It’s very common to have both retinoids and chemical exfoliants in the same routine. In fact, most acne routines will can include multiple chemical exfoliants on top of their OTC retinoids. Just remember to allow skin to acclimate to each treatment one at a time and consider adding a soothing serum into your routine to help skin acclimate and stay happy throughout your skincare journey.
Best Exfoliation Products for Face, Body, and Feet
Convinced to start exfoliating? Exfoliation can benefit your skin from head to toe. But which types of exfoliator is best for different parts of your body can matter.
Best Exfoliation Product for Face
We prefer using chemical exfoliants like glycolic acid toners, AHA blend serums, or home peels. This is because chemical exfoliants have the best clinical evidence to not just target simply skin concerns like roughness, but can be used to tackle more stubborn ones like hyperpigmentation and fine lines. Moreover, no matter your skin type, you can dial into the right level of exfoliation for you by switching up different concentrations.
Best Exfoliation Product for Body
For body, we love exfoliating bath products like sugar scrubs. They are a nice, luxurious treat for larger areas. If you have stubborn body texture issues or dryness, we would recommend using body lotions with light exfoliants like lactic acid or urea.
Best Exfoliation Product for Feet
Go nuts! Skin on your feet is quite thick. You can use AHA foot peels, sugar scrubs, the works! It’s very hard to overexfoliate here.
Conclusion & Exfoliation FAQ
To sum up, exfoliation is a fundamental step to maintaining skin health long term. There are many factors that can impact the rate of our cell turnover and when this process slows down, it starts a cascade of skin issues such as dull skin, dry skin, and rough skin texture. Adding an exfoliant, whether chemical or physical, can be beneficial to any skincare routine. It’s important to tailor the method, concentration, and use frequency to your skin type and skin quirks to maximize the benefits of this important category.
What are the benefits of exfoliation?
Exfoliants help skin cell turnover. This fundamental process is linked to long term skin barrier health. The use of exfoliants helps smooth the surface of skin, brighten skin tone, and even help prevent dry skin.
What are the methods of exfoliating for skin?
There are two main methods of exfoliating, mechanical and chemical. Mechanical exfoliants physically buff the top layer of skin with the use of scrub beads, microdermabrasions, and tools like konjac sponges. Chemical exfoliants are ingredients like glycolic acid and lactic acid that chemically loosen the bonds of dead skin cells. Different concentrations of chemical exfoliants results in achieving different skin benefits.
What is the best method for exfoliating?
This is highly skin dependent! A good starting point is using ~5-10% glycolic acid nightly with daily sunscreen.
Where does exfoliation go in my skincare routine?
It can depend on what kind of exfoliation! Mechanical exfoliation goes along with your cleansing steps. Chemical exfoliants should be the first step after cleansing. Home peel level products (think >20% AHAs) should be used up to once a week.
How do I exfoliate and use retinol in my skincare routine?
Once skin has acclimated to retinol, add in your exfoliant once a week. The use frequency of the exfoliant can be increase as needed.
References
Rouvrais C, Baspeyras M, Mengeaud V, Rossi AB. Antiaging efficacy of a retinaldehyde-based cream compared with glycolic acid peel sessions: A randomized controlled study. J Cosmet Dermatol. 2018; 17: 1136–1143. https://doi.org/10.1111/jocd.12511
Almeman, A. A. (2024). Evaluating the efficacy and safety of alpha-hydroxy acids in dermatological practice: a comprehensive clinical and legal review. Clinical, Cosmetic and Investigational Dermatology, 1661-1685.
