So I have been using a daily AHA (Paula's Choice skin perfecting 8% gel) for almost 2 weeks now on a patch test area of my face where I have scarring and normally get acne. Before I started the AHA I had been using Paula's BHAs (several over the course of several months) on this particular area of my face without any improvement. In fact it made my skin worse. I still got blackheads and clogged pores, I still had redness, scars didn't fade my skin looked a wrinkly texture and I just never stopped breaking out even past the initial "purging" period. I thought I'd try AHAs after reading that some people had found more success with those than the BHAs. I use it once a day and these are the changes I have noticed so far:
- Initial smoothing of the skin (but this hasn't lasted)
- Dry skin and flaking
- No improvement in scars
- I just keep breaking out
- Skin has a wrinkly texture
As you can see, no improvement at all. I just wondered what I should be expecting from an AHA. Does this sound like I should stop and give up on AHA?
Once a day is too much for most people, don't listen to the label. It's nuts. Especially if you've been using other acne treatments and drying your face out anyway. It's probably completely stripped.
Re the scars fading - that will take months and months of use before you see any difference at all.
Stop for a week and get back on it, use it 2 times a week max.
I have only used Dan's AHA (never used any other brand of AHA of BHA) and it seems to work for me. However for the first 4 weeks, besides feeling the skin was super dry n red, my acne scars didn't lighten a bit (I actually thought they gotten darker and my skin was so dry n tight that I even have a hard time moving my face when I talked). By the 5th week, the scars started to fade away and by the 6th week, acne scares previously weren't able to be covered with concealer is now nicely covered with the same concealer n my face is not dry any anymore. I use the full line of Ance regimen and Dan's BP and AHA are able to stop my breakout. In the last 1.5 months using the regiman, I only had 3 pimples and when I put on BP and AHA, none of the pimple become full blown pimple, it just die in 1 day but Dan said u have to catch it early or nothing will help.
Try to only use the BP for the first month to kill the acne n get use to the dryness then add AHA to your routine. After a month of using AHA, I still only replace the Moisturiser with AHA once a week, the other 6 days, I will use jojoba oil, moisturiser then a thin layer of AHA. Hope your skin will eventually tolerate the AHA so you can get better result!!