Facial Scrubs: Are You Overdoing It?

The market is replete with various facial scrubs that are favoured by men and women of all ages. These are especially helpful if you are facing dust and pollution every day, or are exposed to the sun for prolonged hours. Using facial scrubs is a form of exfoliation that helps in rubbing the granules on the skin so as to remove dead cells and give the skin a more supple tone. Yet, too much use of facial scrubs can also lead to a variety of skin troubles.

So, how can you tell, if you are overdoing our facial scrubbing routine? 

1. Redness and Peeling of the Skin: When you over exfoliate or use facial scrubs too often, you may find redness on your skin due to the constant abrasive action. Also, you may experience too much of skin peeling and flaking due to the same reason, instead of a mere clean up of the dead skin cells. In such cases, you will need to halt your process of constant buffing.
2. Products with Green Tea Extracts: Using tea tree oil or green extracts can help in better exfoliation with a gentle action on your skin. This can soothe the skin and even prevent skin cancer, as per a variety of scientific and medical studies. Licorice root extract as well as cucumber based scrubs can also help in making the skin softer. 
3. Inflammation: Inflammation is another sign that you may be overdoing your facial scrubbing routine. You can use a scrub with Bisabolol, which usually comes from Chamomile. This can help in reducing inflammation due to constant exfoliation and facial scrubbing. 
4. Scrubbing Gear: Using a washcloth to clear away those dead skin cells or a scrubber or brush can turn out to be too harsh for your soft facial skin to handle. You must restrict the use of these tools to about once a week, so that your skin does not get too dehydrated or wear a scrubbed look which does not have a glow.
5. Testing a New Product: Test a new scrub over a small patch of your skin before using it to watch out for tell tale signs like rashes or other eruptions. Also, when you are using a seed or dry fruits based scrub, you must limit the use and not rub it around the delicate areas of the eyes and mouth so that the skin does not get rubbed too much, which can leave it loose.

Using facial scrubs should be limited and used only when you feel like there is too much build up of dirt and grime.