Is It Better To Exfoliate At Night Or In The Morning

We’ve outlined WHY exfoliating is so important in our exfoliating 101 post, but we often get the question: “Should I exfoliate at night or in the morning?”

 We do not believe that there is one end-all be-all answer to this question, so we’ve listed some of the benefits of exfoliating both at night and in the morning! We’ll let you make the best decision for YOUR skin and routine.

AM:

Exfoliating in the morning may be better for sensitive skin

Many people tend to use harsher products in the evening, such as stronger toners and acne treatments. Exfoliating right before using those products can be a lot for the skin to handle. If you have extra sensitive skin, you may want to break up the more intense skin products, rather than using them all back-to-back in one routine.

Morning exfoliating can help reduce oiliness throughout the day 

Tend to be oily throughout the day? You may want to try adding exfoliating to your morning, rather than nighttime, routine. Breaking down those dead cells on the skin’s surface helps your follow-up products – such as toners and moisturizers – sink in better. Therefore, these products won’t be just sitting on top of the skin. Our ultimate morning regimen for oily skin would be our sea moss exfoliator, followed up by the raspberry vinegar toner, which helps to reduce pH levels of the skin and therefore stop excess oil production. For a moisturizer, we grab a light, quick absorbing moisturizer, like our watermelon hemp oil. So long, excess oil!

Exfoliating in the AM can make your complexion appear brighter

Searching for that AM glow? Instead of reaching for coffee to wake ya up, which can actually cause your skin to look duller, try a gentle, stimulating massage! The process of rubbing exfoliator into the skin stimulates blood flow, which can make your complexion appear brighter and healthier.

*Note that for those who tend to have redness, we would save this circulation-boosting massage for your PM routine as it may temporarily increase blood flow and redness.

PM:

Your skin needs extra cleansing at night

Especially if you’re wearing sunscreen (which you should – always) or makeup. While rinsing with just water in the morning may be perfectly fine for some people, cleansing at night is ALWAYS a must. Throughout the day, even if you haven’t applied sunscreen or makeup, your skin is being bombarded with environmental stressors and impurities such as dirt, oil, and free radicals. Exfoliating in the evening can help assure that you are getting the deepest cleanse possible, and effectively breaking down hard-to-dissolve makeup and sunscreen particles.

Exfoliating at night can make your nighttime products work better

Do you reach for an acne-fighting solution at night? Or maybe a deeper moisturizer if you have dry or sensitive skin? You may want to exfoliate in the evening. Again, as we talked about in our Exfoliating 101 post, exfoliating removes dead skin cells on the surface, allowing other products to sink in deeper and work better! Depending on what ingredients you’re using before bed (which is when your skin regenerates the most, by the way – so stock up on a nutrient-rich moisturizer), it may be most beneficial for your skin to exfoliate in the evening instead of morning to soak up all the benefits.

An evening exfoliation can help prepare your skin for its natural turnover cycle

While our skin is busy protecting us from environmental damage during the day, it switches into recovery mode at night. This is when the layers of the skin turnover, bringing new, fresh skin cells to the surface. The problem? If you have dead skin sitting on the surface, the skin will have trouble renewing itself! Exfoliating in the evening can help to increase the efficiency of the skin cell turnover, resulting in a clearer complexion and fresher, healthier skin.

Exfoliating in the night may be better for sensitive skin

As mentioned above, if you experience redness easily, it may be better to exfoliate at night. Your skin will have a longer time to recover! Even though our exfoliator is super gentle, the act of massaging it into your skin can increase circulation and blood flow, thereby making your skin temporarily flushed. Exfoliating at night may be your best option!

 

The answer is clear – there is no clear answer! Depending on your skin type and needs, as well as your personal preferences, exfoliating in the morning or evening is kind of up to you and what you’re looking to achieve or solve. However, now you hopefully have a little bit of a better understanding of the benefits of each option! Exfoliating in GENERAL is super important, whether you’re doing so by the moon or sun.