I literally haven’t exfoliated my skin intentionally in AT LEAST 5 years.

Here’s why:

“Dead” skin cells on the surface of your skin are not “dead” - they’re protective and intelligent. 

They protect you from the sun and harsh environment and feed your microbiome. They also maintain and regulate the moisture levels in your skin because they contain NMFs (natural moisturizing factors), amino acids, and humectants (drawing moisture into your skin). 

If you’re constantly exfoliating your skin because you think you need to “speed cell turnover” or get rid of these cells, you're making your skin vulnerable and forcing younger cells to mature faster - which ages you faster because you only have so many cell divisions, and dead skin cells never stop forming - they have an important job, they’re like your armor. 

This is the paradigm shift: Break up with the glass skin/baby skin fads and ridiculous standards and see your skin as the miraculous organ it is. Your skin also doesn’t want to be “penetrated” by products. It works pretty hard to not be penetrated actually. So exfoliating and then layering on potent products can disrupt  your microbiome, and create a lot of irritation, inflammation, and in my case - painful stubborn acne. 

I’ve seen a lot of people talking on the internet about exfoliating this “unnecessary layer” off so that your moisturizers can work better. 

Your dead skin cells are literally your moisturizer. Don’t get me wrong, I use some facial oils and a lovely vitamin c balm to support my skin, but I’m more focused on keeping my skin healthy and plump from the inside moisture being maintained and regulated. 

Your skin loves massage, it loves your love and attention, it loves a LITTLE sun, it loves touch, and otherwise wants to be left mostly alone. 

Who do you think knows better, the multibillion dollar skincare industry or your divinely intelligent body? Legit asking.