Struggling With Over-Exfoliated Skin? Here’s What to Do

Did you know that your skin routinely gets rid of dead cells? This natural process is the body’s way of keeping our skin feeling healthy and fresh. But, as we age, this process weakens and slows down, leaving dead cells to wreak havoc on your skin.

Exfoliating, which makes up for this decline, is an important part of your skincare routine. But when can it be too much? It’s easy to cross the line and end up with over-exfoliated skin. What do you do when that happens? Lionesse is here with the ultimate guide on how to make your skin bounce back in case you’ve been a little too excited with your exfoliation routine.

Keep an eye out for some of our signature body care and face care products to help your skin come out of this tough time looking healthier and fresher than ever!

The Tell-Tale Signs of Over-Exfoliated Skin

Exfoliating your skin is a vital part of your routine with many known benefits, including:

• Evening out the look of your skin tone by easing the appearance of dark spots and discoloration
• Allowing your skincare products to properly absorb into your skin
• Regulating the production of sebum, thereby reducing the visibility of acne
• Minimizing the look of pores
• Making your skin appear tighter, firmer, and younger than before

However, what do you do when you’ve gone overboard? Over-exfoliating is a common mistake that many people end up making in the hopes of achieving younger-looking skin.

It’s not recommended to exfoliate more than twice a week. If you have dry skin, once a week should suffice. So, if you exfoliate every other day, you’re left with damaged, irritated skin.

Here’s how to tell if you’ve over-exfoliated:

• Your skin’s texture appears dry, flaky, and rough
• You have an uneven skin tone, often with patchy, red spots
• You experience breakouts more often than you normally do
• Your skin becomes irritated easily, with burning or peeling sensations
• You experience increased sensitivity to your regular skincare products
• Your skin develops a tight, waxlike texture. This one’s a little tricky because it might look like your skin is glowing and healthy while it’s, in fact, anything but. It’s a result of natural oils and healthy skin cells being wiped out from the surface, leaving you with a momentary “shine” that slowly degenerates into cracking and peeling.

How to Bounce Back From Over-Exfoliated Skin

While exfoliating has its perks for livening up the look of your skin, it’s equally damaging when carried out in excess. Now that you’re past that point, how do you get your skin back to its natural, healthy glow?

Here are some steps to follow: 

Switch to a Gentle Cleanser

The skincare world has been flooded with products (not specifically exfoliants) that offer cell-scrubbing effects. This is especially the case with powerful acid-based facial cleansers.

If you use a strong facial cleanser, it’s time to switch it up with a mild one that won’t overwhelm your skin. Your number one priority at this moment is to keep your skin feeling protected to give it time to rebuild itself. Harsh cleansers can be just as harmful as exfoliants when used in excess. They can strip your skin of its natural oils and harm your protective moisture barrier. This makes your skin vulnerable to environmental aggressors, causing long-term damage and premature aging. And that’s the last thing you need right now. 

A gentle cleanser will help keep your skin feeling clean and refreshed without the effect of scrubbing. And Lionesse knows just what you need! Our White Pearl Facial Cleanser is bound to leave your skin looking refreshed and renewed.

This invigorating formula is suitable for all skin types, delivering gentle yet effective cleansing action. It’s enriched with argan oil and pearl powder to enhance the tone and texture of your complexion. It removes excess oils and dirt particles from your skin, giving you a clear look. The gentle plant botanicals in the formula — aloe vera, lavender, and chamomile extracts — are top-tier when it comes to making your skin feel soothed and calm. 

Keep Your Skin Hydrated with a Rich Moisturizer

Over-exfoliated skin means dry, dehydrated, and dull skin since your natural protective barrier has been compromised. Moisturizers play a key role in helping your skin appear healthy and reinforcing its natural barrier function. These skincare formulas form a sort of protective barrier of their own over your skin’s surface to help it retain water and keep the impurities out.

Applying a moisturizer that is enriched with hydrating ingredients can help your appearance bounce back from damage. It’s best to steer clear of harsh ingredients in moisturizers, like parabens and sulfates. These can worsen your tone and texture, leading to reduced moisture content and drier, duller skin. What your skin needs is gentle vitamins and skin-enhancing oils to help it bounce back better than before!

The Lionesse White Pearl Day Moisturizer meets that criteria. This lightly-scented formula is enriched with sunflower seed oil and shea butter; two strong emollients that soften the feel of your skin. They are rich in several fatty acids — linoleic, oleic, and stearic acids — to enhance your skin’s natural barrier function.

Our moisturizer also includes vitamin E acetate to help over-exfoliated skin feel eased and refreshed. Vitamin E can help soothe the sensation of burning and itching, keeping the look of irritation to a minimum. 

Choose Skincare That Feels Restorative

You can experience a lot of damage to your skin as a result of over-exfoliation. However, certain ingredients can help to ease the look of this damage. These ingredients are incorporated to help restore your skin’s natural healthy glow and maintain its youthful appearance. They are also perfect for fading the visible signs of aging on your skin, including fine lines, wrinkles, discoloration, and sag. 

That’s why we believe that our Opal Sheer Melting Mask would be the perfect option to help you transform the appearance of damaged skin. The mask delivers a unique and invigorating effect on your face, leaving you with glowing, soft-feeling skin.

It incorporates sodium hyaluronate and aloe vera extract to keep your skin hydrated with a dewy glow. Other powerful skin-enhancing botanicals in the mask include Scottish thistle extract, which works on the skin’s surface to reinforce its natural barrier function. Derivatives of vitamins A and E in the mask help minimize the look of aging and discoloration, significantly improving your complexion’s tone and texture.

Topped off with our signature ingredient, pure diamond powder, the Opal Sheer Melting Mask is sure to reignite your skin’s healthy glow and get it right back on track!

Soothe the Feeling of Irritation with a Targeted Solution

Over-exfoliation can happen to anyone if you’re fairly new to the concept. You might have miscalculated how often your skin needs to rid itself of dead cells, which is an understandable mistake. But now that you’re here, it’s important to take this one rule with you when it comes to exfoliation: less is more.

Irritation is a common sign of over-exfoliated skin. You are likely to experience redness, puffiness, itching, and patchy skin when it’s irritated. You might notice that your skin doesn’t respond kindly to your normal skincare products anymore. And when you use them, it often results in painful burning sensations and breakouts.

It’s time to take a step back from any sort of cell-scrubbing formulas and turn to mild targeted solutions. These will help ease the feeling of irritation on your skin and make your complexion appear more balanced. 

And that’s a task that our advanced Diamond De-Puffer solution can accomplish. It’s infused with a potent concentration of hyaluronic acid, which is associated with decreased sensations of burning, itching, and pain. Acetyl Hexapeptide-8 in this revolutionary refreshing solution helps restore the look of vitality on your skin while soothing the visible signs of irritation. Diamond powder infused in the blend will ease the look of those obvious fine lines and wrinkles, giving you a stunningly youthful glow!

Reinforce Your Routine with Vitamin C

Vitamin C is a skincare savior that can help you in more ways than one. A vitamin C serum or cream in your routine can help the appearance of over-exfoliated skin bounce back much faster. This skin-enhancing vitamin can keep your new skin cells feeling protected from damage. It’s perfect for soothing the feeling of irritation.

The Lionesse White Pearl Vitamin C Serum is ideal for reducing the look of aging and keeping your skin hydrated. It incorporates two forms of vitamin C to leave you with soft-feeling, glowing skin.

It’s the ideal blend to enhance the look and feel of over-exfoliated skin. The pure white pearl powder in the formula is also excellent for keeping the skin looking youthful and rejuvenated after continued use. 

Shield Your Skin with a Good SPF Cream

Sun protection is always important, no matter the condition of your skin. With over-exfoliated skin, it’s an absolute must! Harsh UV rays from the sun are can do a lot of harm to your skin. Prolonged exposure can lead to sun spots, irritation, cracking, and even skin cancer in extreme cases. These rays not only compromise your skin’s natural protective barrier but also the protein fibers that are found deep inside your skin. If you want over-exfoliated skin to bounce back as quickly as possible, you should take proper care to keep it protected from the sun.

Sunscreen should be applied roughly 20-30 mins before stepping out during the day. Why is that? Sunscreens take time to act on your skin. If you step out the minute you apply your sunscreen, its protective properties won’t take effect until much later. And it’s not just to be used on sunny days; cloudy days can also expose your skin to harmful UV rays. They can penetrate easily through thick clouds, coming into contact with your skin when you least expect it.

Over-exfoliated skin is thinner, already damaged, and thus more vulnerable to external aggressors. Since your skin is extra-sensitive during this time, it’s better not to choose too high an SPF. You don’t want to overwhelm your skin with chemicals. A rich moisturizing blend with SPF 30 will do your skin justice. SPF 30 offers good protection from the sun’s rays, helping to curb the visible signs of damage.

It’s important that you know the right amount to apply. A nickel-sized amount would be enough for your face but don’t forget about other exposed parts of your body. Take just enough to cover the surface area of the skin without forming a thick coating.

Take Proper Care of Your Skin with Lionesse

Over-exfoliated skin needs time to bounce back to its original state; roughly four to six weeks. So, it’s important to exercise patience and caution. If you follow Lionesse’s helpful tips for taking care of your skin during this tough time, you’ve got nothing to worry about. 

If you want to take a peek at more of our exclusive gemstone collections, don’t hesitate to visit our store today!