I have to say, I’ve been very diligent in my weekly exfoliation, and actually even have stepped it up a notch by doing it twice weekly, and I am enjoying the look of smaller, more refined pores around my nose, which is my biggest oil production area, and also where my most visible pores are. As an esthetician once told me, where there’s oil production, there’s enlarged pores, and you really can’t do much about them other than microdermabrasion to help minimize their appearance, acid peels, and exfoliation at home.
I’ve been using a pumice exfoliation cream that I’ve had for months now, but I think any fairly abrasive exfoliant would do. I put the exfoliant on my patted dry skin after washing it, scrub it until it’s just a little uncomfortable – I don’t want to rub it raw or open skin – and then rinse it off. All in all, I’d say the whole process is over in about one minute. Any more than that, and you might rub yourself raw.
I do make sure that after every facial exfoliation that I rinse my face with cold water and pat it dry gently. Then I follow with generous amounts of moisturizer – more generous than usual, since your skin does tend to dry out a bit after a heavier exfoliation. I’m also militant about constantly keeping my face in sunscreen. I’m currently still using the Bare Minerals makeup as my sunscreen, but I also might put a little extra on of either my Elizabeth Arden multipurpose moisturizing lotion with SPF or Skinceuticals Ultimate UV Defense SPF 30 for the face (which I love, and got for free from a dermatologist as a sample).
A nice herbal skin care product may also be great after exfoliation, since they typically contain minimal chemicals and are usually gentler on the skin.
When you’re exfoliating twice a week, sunscreen becomes all that much more important, since you are exposing the more delicate, unprotected, fresh new skin to the sun and it is much more prone to free radical and UV damage. The idea here is to defend against aging, not encourage it – so no sunscreen will totally defeat the purpose.
