At-home chemical peels are skin exfoliating treatments using low-concentration chemicals that are safe for home use.
These are good for people who are proactive with their skincare, who want to do as much as they can themselves to maintain optimum skin health.
What are the different active skincare ingredients and what do they do?
Lactic acid is a common ingredient for at-home chemical peels. It offers gentle exfoliation and can be found in some products designed for daily use. Salicylic acid is another common ingredient, good for oily and acne-prone skin. Glycolic acid in low concentrations can also be found in some at-home peels. This one is a bit stronger than lactic acid and can give a deeper exfoliation, so shouldn’t be used more than once a week
What time of day is best to use the chemical peel?
For mild peels, it doesn’t matter what time of day you do it. However, for slightly stronger chemical peels, it would be better to do it late afternoon or evening, so you won’t be going into the sun afterwards.
How should you incorporate them into your skincare routine?
For more consistent results, it would be better to use a gentle daily exfoliating solution. That way, you can use it as part of your skincare routine so that you will use it consistently. You need to be careful when starting to use these products as you may get some dry skin or skin irritation at the beginning, especially if you are using retinol or are receiving other skin treatments. If that’s the case, you should seek some professional advice from a skin specialist before starting these products.
How can you use them if you have sensitive skin?
Sensitive skin is often due to impaired barrier function of the skin, and there may be several reasons for this. It would be important to find out the cause of your sensitive skin and improve your skin health first before using any chemical peel products. Otherwise, you could develop serious reactions to the products. I would recommend you having a skin consultation with a skin specialist before going ahead.
Is it important to follow with an SPF afterwards?
It’s always a good idea to use SPF on a daily basis, but this is especially important after you have used a peeling product. Chemical peels can thin the skin, making it more vulnerable to damage by UV rays. So it’s best to avoid going in the sun straight after a peel treatment, even if you have put on SPF.
Are they are as good as salon results?
At-home peels will not give you the dramatic results that a medical grade chemical peel can give you in the clinic, however, the down time is also a lot less or none at all. Over the long term, slow consistent peeling with at-home products would give you better results than having regular peels in clinic.
Product recommendations
I love AlumierMD. I have been using it for 4 years on myself and I also recommend it to my clients. The Bright and Clear Solution is a great daily exfoliating solution containing lactic acid, especially when this is combined with a Retinol in the evening. After using it for a month or so, you will see a noticeable improvement in your skin texture and radiance.
There is also the Enzymatic Peel for a weekly at-home treatment. This uses enzymes rather than chemicals, so it’s quite gentle, but still very effective.
Finally
It’s important to get the correct diagnosis of your skin condition before trying to treat it yourself. Not all spotty skin are caused by the same thing, and nor should they be treated in the same way. Good products plus the correct advice is what will give you the best results.
Comments from Dr Qian Xu, founder and medical director at Skin Aesthetics.
Tranquil Travel Destinations We Love
