Are exfoliating and moisturizing bad for your skin?

The latest skincare news has me feeling hopeless, frustrated and a little bit hungry. (OK, maybe the hunger isn’t related.)

BellaSugar interviewed dermatologist Dr. Zein Obagi of ZO Skin Health, who claims, “Moisturizers, when used daily as part of a skin care program, will accelerate aging and wrinkling of the skin, as they reduce cellular activity, causing the cells to become lazy...” 

www.primped.com.au spoke with Dr. Maes, Senior VP of Research and Development for Estee Lauder. He says we’re born with a specific number of cell divisions in our lives and if we force our skin cells to turn over too fast (aka too much exfoliating, dermabrasion, peels) by the time we’re 55, we’ll have reached the end of our cell division allotment and our cells will be sluggish, and our skin will be thin and worn out.

Cut to me on my 55th birthday taking some time to stop and smell the roses.

So let me get this straight, I shouldn’t exfoliate and I shouldn’t moisturize. (Guess, that’ll free up a lot of room in my bathroom, so I can finally buy toilet paper in bulk.)

It goes without saying that these doctors are hocking products along with their theories. Dr. Maes, says what we should be doing is slowing down our cells turnover rate, so we don’t go through cells so quickly. 

There are two new products out there that claim to do just that. One of which is Clinique’s Youth Surge.

I like that it’s SPF 15 and texturally, it’s the nicest face cream I’ve every felt- very light, silky and not at all synthetic feeling. My face immediately looked lighter, brighter, more even toned, less haggard and somehow surged with youth. (I’m not kidding).


Does this stuff work really well?  Yes.  Does it work really well because it slows down your cells deterioration? If you happen to be applying it while in a cryogenic freezer visiting Walt Disney’s head- maybe.  

All I want to know is, if I slow down my cells deterioration, can I exfoliate again?

It's sold at Sephora, so you can just ask a salesperson there for a free sample. Got to love Sephora.

Comments

[Andra]

I've been very interested in this cream, thanks for the review! I e-mailed Clinique to find out the ingredients on Youth Surge but they have yet to get back to me. Perhaps you can help? I can't use dimethicone on my face and avoid parabens as well.

[jenny]

Hey Andra,
So it's very odd indeed. I just looked on Sephora's site too and there are no ingredients listed. (They always have an ingredients section for products). I realize maybe this is cutting edge technology but their customers deserve to know what ingredients they are putting on their skin. Especially if they have allergies. Really really lame of them. Did you try calling?
jenny

[BeautyTalk]

It's a very good question! 2 Questions to be precise! I think there is some truth to the fact that "skin cells can become lazy" if you overuse intensive skin treatments, but I cannot agree about moisturizers... Experience shows that mostly people who don't use moisturizers look much older that those who do! Isn't it true? As for cells turnover, there is a Hayflick limit theory... "Hayflick limit is the number of times a cell will divide before it stops" (wiki) So there must be certain truth to the statement about limited skin cell turnover (scary!)... On the other hand, sensible exfoliation helps to get rid of dead skin cells and this promotes healthy glowing skin... soooo maybe we should not indulge into serums and creams accelerating cells turnover but should still exfoliate...

[jenny]

Hey BeautyTalk,
I've actually stopped using moisturizer at night (except a couple days a week) and my skin looks much better. I still use it during the day but at night I let me skin produce its own oils and it's working nicely. So I personally also think there's something to the moisturizer thing. But I guess like all things in life - everything in moderation. We humans aren't very good at that:)
Jenny

[nicole]

I gave up moisturizer for a week as an experiment last month, and I will never do it again. I have very dry skin normally, and I looked SO much older than 27 by the end of that week. My skin wasn't tight or dry, but it just didn't look healthy. So for me I'll keep moisturizing, and I'll keep using retin-a micro & MaMa Lotion to exfoliate.

p.s.- I was using Aubrey's "vegecol" cleansing cream during my moisturizer free week; it gets my skin clean, but doesn't strip it.

[meh]

About the Hayflick limit and exfoliation: The Hayflick limit dictates that there is only so much exfoliation that should be done, but exfoliation should not be something done on a regular basis. Part of the problem here is that people use buzzwords as part of their argument for things. "Promotes healthy, glowing skin" is an image people want to get to, but is not what exfoliation does. the *only* good thing exfoliation does is expose your pores. That's it. Exposing the younger skin is a bad thing. The purpose of that outer layer of skin is to defend your lower layers of skin against the elements. Exfoliation is not a bad thing, especially if someone has a pore-related skin problem. But exfoliation is definitely not a *good* thing.