All about peels!

Here at the blog, we’ve been exploring the wide variety of treatments offered by our team of master aestheticians. So far, we’ve discussed IPL treatments and laser resurfacing. To quickly review, these are skin treatments where energy is used to get rid of sun damage and redness and stimulate collagen production in the deeper layers of your skin. Today we’re going to review another of our aesthetic treatments that is designed to help with fine lines and aging changes: chemical peels.

Peels use chemicals to exfoliate the outer layers of your skin. They come in a lot of different strengths depending on the ingredients. Peels can improve your skin tone and texture. They can help even out your pore size and skin coloration. They can also treat rough areas.

If you are an astute reader of the blog (and we thank you if you are), you’ll be thinking, “Wait, didn’t he say the same things in the IPL and laser blogs?” Well, I did. IPL and laser treatments are great. But they’re not really intended as a part of your normal skin maintenance routine.

Peels are meant to be a part of a beauty maintenance strategy. Depending on how you do, they can be repeated on a monthly basis.

Of course, for daily maintenance, we recommend our private line of skin care products!

Now, back to peels. Here’s the process:

First, we clean your skin really well to remove any dirt and oils that would interfere with the peel.

Next the chemicals are applied.

We give the chemicals about five minutes to do their thing. Your skin may get warm and tingly during this part. Next, the chemicals are neutralized.

After the chemicals are neutralized, we apply retinol. What’s retinol? Check this post from the archives.

Yes, it looks like an artificial tan, but it doesn’t change the color of your skin. The excess can be wiped off after a few minutes. You’re left looking a little dewy. I had minimal discomfort during the peel and went back to seeing patients fifteen minutes later.

Your skin starts to peel roughly two days after the treatment and peels for the better part of a week. You can wash and moisturize like always (or even moisturize a little more than usual), but you’ll want to hold off on using additional retinol while you are peeling. I peeled for about five days and my skin felt really dry for the better part of two weeks. You just need to moisturize really well during that time. Once your skin feels normal, you can resume your normal skin care routine.

Here are my before and afters. Peels are a great way to up your look with minimal discomfort and down time. You will absolutely see results and they can be a part of a monthly maintenance package just like facials. For more treatments that our aestheticians offer, check out this link.