When You Exfoliate Every Day, This Is What Happens To Your Skin

Though the thought of exfoliating your face might make you think you're making your skin cleaner, the opposite can be true if you aren't careful. Specifically if you have a cold sore, you should definitely think twice about exfoliating. As William Huang, an associate professor and residency program director of the department of dermatology at Wake Forest School of Medicine, told Vice that someone who has a viral infection like herpes simplex virus (aka a cold sore) shouldn't be exfoliating every day. 

"If they have that and they're exfoliating all around their face, they are potentially spreading that virus to other areas of their skin, but also they're creating little areas of damage on their skin," Huang explained. Cold sore or not, when you exfoliate you leave your pores vulnerable to infection. When you do have a cold sore, though, this could result in developing impetigo, a bacterial skin infection, according to the expert. This is really only something to worry about if you have a cold sore or another type of skin infection, but if you do, skip the daily exfoliating.