Chemical Peels Reviews

Hi there
have been with acne for .... ooohh let me think ...roughly 15 years (I am 30 now). The kind I have is weird: small bumps form on my jawline and cheeks, plus some blackheads of forehead and chin (less noticeable though). The bumps grow, get inflamed and then - I admit it - my zit-popping urge takes over. Now to the gist: I have spent so much money on all sorts of things, and nothing helped.
Until I came across glycolic treatments.
My routine is a fortnightly 30% peel (I do it by now at home, used to go to a beautician), plus every day morning and night I apply 8% glycolic gel and 2 % salicylic gel (both Paula's Choice - thank you Ebay USA!). Am I free of acne? Nope. Has it improved massively? Yep, and it continues to do so. As for scars, it really is a very slow process (plus I still pick my skin every here and now - very compulsive and very bad, I hate myself for it).
In short: please give it a try, I know how desperate one gets. Also, consider it for sensitive skin - mine is (no, really) and low grade acids do not harm or scar you. Just make sure you keep to instructions.
One last thing - which so far no one seems to have mentioned: please use sun protection when you do glycolics (SPF25 or over, none of the wimpy SPF10 stuff). Otherwise you end up with nasty brown sun spots and increase your risk of skin cancer.
Best of luck and don't give up!

I never had a zit my whole life, Then I got a job during the summer last year when I turned 20 at a parasail booth that was located at a boat marina at the beach. With all the dirt and bacteria that was around mixed with the high heat my skin started getting zits.darn sensitive skin!. Of course I picked them,before they surfaced... that was a big mistake!! Then I tried proactive which turned my couple zits into I cant even explain! Thanks to proactiv my pores are slightly larger on my cheeks and yes I stll have zits! Ive been looking into the peels for minimizing my pores, but after reading some of the peoples results on here.. Im starting to rethink getting them.I want to minimize my pores and just get rid of like 2 small indentions and redness.. What should I do? Money is no option.. I just dont want to have any regrets... Should I just carry my bum to the derm or bust out the bling at the plastic surgeons?

I am very surprised at the negative results so many of you have had with chemical peels. It is a fairly commom procedure here and almost always gives fantastic results.
The difference may be in the procduct and technician used however. I use environ ( a fantastic product!!!) which contains concentrations of vitamin A. During the winter I also go for mild Ennviron chemical peels (for mild scarring). The Environ techinicians insisnt on avoiding the sun up two two weeks after a peel, and to never use a peel which is too strong for your skin as if will case hyperpigmentation, swelling and scabs. Perhaps the technicians visited by you guys administered too strong a peel. For me however the results were fabulous.

i just had jessner peel 3 days a go it has been very pain full, they did not tell me that i would look this bad. they told me i could return to my normal activets in 24 hours. by the second day i was in alot of pain the dint tell what i needed to do . i will never have a neither one and i hope my face dont look worse.

There is no "one-time fix" that I know of...I had cystic acne with scarring for 25 years. Going thru a TCA peel at the age of 29 that was even more damaging, causing hypopigmentation and more scarring I have learned thru experience to never stop trying. My skin looks better now than it did 10 years ago because of a constant routine of microdermabrasion/jessner combo (plastic surgeon's office),at home use of 2% salicylic acid toner applied every morning and night and continuous peeling of my skin with Retin-A. Have just started Skin-biology's copper peptides for scarring as well. My point KEEP TRYING !

I just had my first jessner peel 4 days ago and am going back tomorrow for my enzyme wash. The skin that has peeled so far has revealed new pink soft skin. I had a ton of freckles and still break out even though i'm 38. I had tons of blackheads on my chin checks and nose. My skin tone is even (except for the small area on my check where my 4 year old rammed his head into and tore my peel on day 2)I was told this woud heal, maybe slower than the rest of my face. Most of my sundamamge had been peeled away. I'm a little dissappointed about the lines around my mouth. They softened but did not dissapear completely.overall, I'm very happy with the results. I just hope this redness doesn't last too long. My high school reunion is in 2 weeks.It's hard hiding out for a week. I still have to drive my kids to school and run errands. People look at me then look away. I get more reaction from people than I did after my nose job and was bandaged up with 2 black eyes. I stongly suggest you hire a professional for any peel. I would NEVER do this alone in my home.These are very strong chemicals that should be handled by a trained professional.Happy healing everyone. Maureen

I have had several microdermabrasions and three peels. 2 glycolic and 1 jessner i am extremely dissapointed.
I am tired of being filled with false hope. maybe it has alot to do with the aestheticain you see or not. so far I've been to 3 different ones.I have seen a very minimal improvment. Not signifigant enough for the price and the hassel of the down time.

Joan from NY- u couldn't have said it any better. It's a damn shame so many decent people have been hurt like that. Thank god(figure of speech)this forum exists to help educate and inform folks. To the guy who created this site- you are a hero as far as i'm concerned. I was a little skeptical about your motives at first(selling BP),but from a purely educational standpoint I'm sure you have helped countless numbers. I dont't intend to buy any of your products, nevertheless you seem sincere and straightforward. You've done a good thing here, please continue to help all of us. It's greatly appreciated. KNOWLEDGE IS POWER!

I bought a glycolic acid peel kit off ebay one 30% solution and one 50% solution. The first time i used it my face went horrible, redness, scabs, and inflamed acne... not nice. But I stuck with it and my skin built up a tolerance. I tried using a non-comedogenic moisturiser with a drop of the 30% solution at night and it worked a treat... and it cost about £10 for a couple of months. Now I'm on roaccutaine so I've stopped using it, simply becuase i'm worried about overdrying. But it did help, not bad for a little bottle of sugar-acid. I might resume it again after the ro-accutaine is done. It did help a bit with scarring, but really you should be looking to use it for a year or so so see any real results. Its a slow treatment.

Joan from New York, I agree with you. I've had acne since I was 10 yrs old (YES, 10 yrs old) and I am now 24 going to be 25 in about a month. My acne is under control now but I have some scarring on the sides of my face. I am taking Tetracycline (YOU GUYS it really worked for me) but it's something you have to keep taking (every case is different)but for myself and a friend of mine who got rid of her acne completely with tetracycline it has been the answer to our problem. Remember, acne starts from within so I figured it would be best to control in inside than work on the outside. Now I am looking into having lasers done for scar removal. Anyone have that procedure done? pls give me some feedback on it. Thank you!