So, someone may or may not have over exfoliated their face *looks around innocently*. Well don't worry most of us have done this at one tine or another, especially with the trend of acids in daily skincare routines, we have cleansers with acids, acid toners, flannels (wash cloths, muslins, face cloths), manual exfoliators like scrubs, electic gadgets like the god awful clarisonic, then we have acid peels DIY kits, acid serums, enzyme masks, clay masks, moisturisers with ezymes in. Thats just the ones off the top of my head.
With every skinare guru telling us how important these acids are for glowing skin, a clarisonic agent in every store, a blogger photographing routines with Sunday Riley Good Genes serum, which weirdly we are told to use am and pm! It's easily done, but what does it look like and how do we help our skin recover?
If you have suffered this before, you know well the feeling of very sore skin, random breakouts that are kinda flat and very red. Weird red bumps and dots all over the face and the awful tight feeling. Also if you check back at what you've used on your skin over the past few days I can almost guarantee there will be something you've used that you could think hmm, yep!
How to deal with it.
First you need to work out if this is why you have broken out, usually when skin becomes very reactive to literally everything you put on it, it's a sure fire alarm bell that something isn't right. Whether you have over exfoliated or just have reactive stressed out skin the following can help anyway.
It can often feel like you ought to throw more things at the skin, a clay mask since you've broken out, an acid serum, a face peel after all you have broken out, right? Please don't, something I did learn over this past year is that when your skin is like this, it's begging you to stop what your doing and be kind and gentle and nourish and hydrate your beautiful skin.
Some will tell you stop everything, don't even was your face, but let's say you have work or a reason to apply make up. In an ideal world if you sat at home for the next few days I would suggest the above. Do nothing! not even splash your face. Allow the skin barrier to heal naturally, but maybe you don't have that luxury, so the best thing is to go gentle, very gentle.
What I used
My morning routine for two weeks;
In my skincare arsenal I have a few sachets of Dermalogica samples. My favourite is The Ultra-Calming Cleanser (around £28 for 250ml) it's a gentle cleansing gel for reactive skin. I didn't use a flannel, and I didn't towel dry as both are forms of exfoliating and I have done enough of that. On damp skin I applied Gentle Soothing Booster or Skin Hydrating Booster both from Dermalogica.
The Gentle Soothing Booster around £34 for 30ml - is a fluid concentrate to relieve sensitivity. Helps reduce irritation and restore moisture levels, it can be applied straight to the skin after cleansing or mix in with a moisturiser, I prefer to apply straight to the skin.
The Skin Hyrdrating Booster around £39 for 30ml - relieves dryness and fine lines, lift and restore moisture levels, applied either direct to the skin, or mix with a moisturiser. Again I prefer to apply straight to the skin.
These are both a clear slippery serum and both have no discernable scent. You only need the tiniest amount, both give instant hydrating results. The skin seemingly plumps in front of your eyes and feels soothed. These are on my wish list for the full size.
There are lots of lovely moisturisers at Dermalogica, one of my preferences is the Skin Smoothing Cream - deep moisturising with aloe-gel and arnica to soothe and hydrate the skin restores suppleness and tone.
But my favourite is Barrier Repair £29 for 30ml - a velvety moisturiser helps fortify sensitized skin and restore healthy barrier function. It feels like very siliconey actually, it claims to not blockpores and I have never had that issue with this product and I am easily blocked.
After a few days I added in Zelens Power D serum £125 from Cult Beauty, as it's a barrier repairing serum. It does contain essential oils which is why I waited as it could have caused even more sensitivity, over exfoliated skin is a very damaged an unprotected skin barrier, essential oils can be very aggravating. It did itch a little if im honest. After 5 days off this I stopped, used no oils at all sticking with hyaluronic acid for super plumped and repairing results.
For the evenings I used a different approach, I went for super-nourishing, repairing green beauty products, the very best in my stash.
Since I had to wear makeup a few times I used an oil or balm cleanser. My favourites being Roccoco Botanicals Pore Cleansing Oil (can't find a price I believe it's under £30) and Omorovicza Thermal Cleansing Balm £48 Cult Beauty to melt away makeup (I usualy hate this cleanser but it was perfect for the job). I left whichever one I chose for around 5 minutes in a steamy bathroom, usually when the shower is running, to melt away my foundation and SPF. Then dabbed very gently with a warm face cloth. NO RUBBING. Then applied Josh Rosebrook Herbal Infusion Oil £32.50 from abeautifulworld.com to protect my face while in the shower. It always absorbs deeply into the skin.
For my second cleanse if I didn't get in the shower either Dermalogica Ultra Calming Cleanser or May Lindstrom The Honey Mud £64 Cult Beauty left on as a mask for extra hydration, another fab idea is Hydraluron Moisture Jelly £24.99 from Boots as a leave on mask, and another choice that I reserved for the bath was May Lindstrom The Blue Cocoon £128 Cult Beauty, now this is mega expensive but bloody gorgeous. I just left on after an oil cleanse. Soaked in the bath for ages then that's it! leave it on.
I also used just The Blue Cocoon as a cleanser and leave on treatment when I hadn't worn make up.
(*note on TBC - Although I do find after using TBC daily for a few weeks and only an oil cleanser I did begin to get blackheads, however they are easily treatable and my skin needed that routine.)
However you may not have access to these, if you don't - check your skincare stash for the blandest cleanser you can find, no actives, no scrubs, no clays just a gentle non abrasive cleanser.
If you have a serum thats hydrating use that, maybe Niod multi molecular hyaluronic complex £38 various online stockists. Jordan Samuels' Hydrate serum (ship in from USA) or some usually clear-ish non active serum, check the ingredients list for soothing ingredients. Then apply the most basic moisturiser you have (if you dont have the serum dont worry at all) something non active, you can usually tell these as they make no claims except to soothe, maybe even cetaphil, cerave something along those lines. Thats it, nothing for maybe a week. If you need to apply make up, do so very gently using finger tips rather than a brush or sponge, go for bare minimum if you can and double cleanse very gently in the evening.
I used Dermalogica as thats what I have in, I'll be buying the full sizes actually as I have come to realise these are my baseline skincare products, the ones I like to use when I'm testing out a new item (or I should do).
and above all, don't do it again. Silly Billy *eye rolls*
Thanks for reading
Skincare Secrets
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