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" A few days ago I attended a Dove event where comedian Samantha Bee spoke about all things beauty\u2014one of them being exfoliants. She said, &amp;quot;The other day, I&amp;#039;m pretty sure I exfoliated a patch of skin from the future,&amp;quot; and then hilariously went on about how deep exfoliation has reached a new level. And she&amp;#039;s right. So, to her point, there are a few things we&amp;#039;d like to say about exfoliating your face: 1. Your skin is not a 2x4 board that needs sanding\u2014be gentle, people, gentle! 2. Exfoliating, while it can do your skin a lot of good, can also do worse things in the long run if it&amp;#039;s not done properly (i.e. broken blood vessels). To be sure we&amp;#039;re all on the same exfoliating page, we asked Dennis Gross, M.D., a cosmetic dermatologist in NYC, a few Q&amp;#039;s about when and how to slough your skin\u2014and the warning signs of over-exfoliation.  &amp;quot;The [tell-tale] signals that you&amp;#039;re using your exfoliator too much include: excessive dryness, irritation, redness, and sensitivity. If you see any of these signs occuring on your complextion, it&amp;#039;s important to stop using the product immediately.&amp;quot; &amp;quot;As far as manual exfoliants go, such as scrubs with tiny granules, sloughing sponges, or hand-held devices, I find that many people overuse them and/or scrub too vigorously,&amp;quot; says Gross. &amp;quot;Cleaning your skin daily with a washcloth, and applying very light pressure using circular motions, [is usualy] all you need to gently remove most dead-skin cells.&amp;quot; &amp;quot;You can also use a scrub [three to four times a week] that contains perfectly round and smooth polyethylene beads [like Bior\u00E9 Pore Unclogging Scrub, $7, drugstore.com], which are gentler than seeds, nuts, husks, or pits commonly used in exfoliating products,&amp;quot; he says. &amp;quot;My preference is for daily, gentle chemical exfoliation [aka heavier-hitting ingredients] over physical [aka manual] exfoliation, which is one of the reasons I developed the Alpha Beta Peels [$78, sephora.com].&amp;quot; On the other hand, if you&amp;#039;re a die-hard hand-held device fan that can&amp;#039;t be talked into using a scrub or washcloth, we recommend using the power tool once or twice a week only to avoid over-exfoliation. If you&amp;#039;re already a victim of excessive sloughing, and you&amp;#039;re left red and raw, don&amp;#039;t worry\u2014there&amp;#039;s still hope for your skin. &amp;quot;To calm your complexion once it&amp;#039;s red, use products that contain green-tea extract,&amp;quot; says Gross. &amp;quot;The powerful ingredient soothes the skin and studies show it can even help prevent skin cancer. Bisabolol is another effective anti-inflammatory ingredient derived from chamomile, which will relieve red patches and reduce inflammation. And licorice root extract and cucumber extract also work to soothe and calm the skin, alleviating redness.&amp;quot; Are you an over-exfoliation offender?  Photo: thinkstockphoto  Follow Carly Cardellino on Facebook and Twitter. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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