- A chemical peel is a skin treatment that removes the top layer of the skin.
- It’s said to make the skin look smoother, brighter, and younger. It also helps with hyperpigmentation and scars on the face, which is what Insider producer Caroline Aghajanian is hoping to fix.
- Caroline visits Blue Medi Spa in Sherman Oaks to receive the $295 Perfect Derma Peel treatment. Then, for a week, the top layer of Caroline’s skin will peel off to reveal the baby skin underneath.
- Caroline will see how the treatment feels, if it heals some acne scars, and if it’s worth the steep price.
The following is a transcript of the video:
Caroline Aghajanian: Ooh, it burns.
Today, I am doing a chemical peel on my face. I have struggled with acne growing up and some adult acne, and it’s left me with a lot of acne scars and large pores. I have been delaying this treatment for so long only because, for one week, my face is gonna peel off, and it’s gonna be really scary, so I’m a little nervous, but maybe this is the treatment that will finally fix some of my acne scarring.
I am visiting Blue Medi Spa in Sherman Oaks, California, to try out the Perfect Derma Peel. The treatment at the spa takes about 20 minutes and costs $295 per treatment.
Racquel Crownover: It is a chemical peel specifically for pigmentation. It has a lot of acidic ingredients, ingredients to help kind of brighten up the skin. So, usually, people will need about four of them to kind of see some really good results. Anybody who has pigmentation, really, gets this peel. So, if it's from trauma, acne scars, sun damage, in some cases melasma, this peel will help because it has a majority of brightening ingredients. The glutathione, the vitamin C, the kojic acid, these things all work together to really help brighten up the skin and kind of reduce that pigmentation.
Caroline: The first step is putting a prepping solution on your face, which is actually acetone, to get the skin completely clean. I've never put acetone on my face, but Racquel told me it's a protocol set by the company that makes the peel.
It smells like nail polish remover. It doesn't burn, though.
Racquel: Does it burn?
Caroline: It doesn't burn me.
The next step is the peel. The solution is applied over the entire face with one quick pass to lay down the product.
Does this smell too?
Racquel: It kinda does.
Caroline: Oh, it does smell.
Racquel: You'll probably feel it more so.
Caroline: Whoa, it is stinging. Ooh, it burns.
Racquel: So, that's the first pass. [squeals] You're getting very red. You have some frosting right there.
Caroline: I'm frosting? Is that bad?
Racquel: It's not bad. It's just, we don't need to go over it.
Caroline: The solution is layered on a few more times. This time, it's not as bad.
Racquel: This is where you can see she has some remaining of acne scarring. So I'm gonna go ahead and really just kind of push this product into the skin to help brighten that up. Done.
Caroline: Done. Racquel: You're done. Caroline: That was fast. Painful, but fast.
You leave with a post-care kit to use throughout the week as you peel. The post-care kit includes a cleanser, two towelettes to use on the second day, a moisturizer with 2% hydrocortisone to help with itching, and SPF. I made sure to stay out of the sun and tried not to excessively sweat or pick at my face post-treatment to let the peel do its thing. Here's how it all went down.
Eight hours post-treatment. My face is itchy, it's red, and I have a little bit of a headache. I can't wait until the peeling starts and stops.
This is how I'll be driving to work all week, shielding myself from the sun.
On day two, I started my post-care treatment. I washed my face in the morning with the cleanser they provided, which, by the way, is quite small for the week, so use sparingly. Then I went in with a post-peel towelette. It didn't burn or sting; instead, it felt very cooling on my face. But it didn't smell too delightful. After, I put on the provided moisturizer.
It feels like I'm putting Neosporin... new-sporine. Neosporin, whatever. Y'all know what I mean. It feels like you're putting that on your face. And, finally, SPF.
It feels just pretty tight. I feel like, I don't know what a face-lift feels like, but I feel like it would feel like that. Who knows? I mean, some people know. Maybe I'll know in the future. [laughs]
That night, I used the second towelette right after I washed my face. As expected, on day three, my skin started to peel around my nose and mouth. The peeling area felt very itchy, and the rest of my skin that wasn't peeling felt very tight and dry. Throughout day three, the peeling got worse. But that's nothing compared to day four.
This is day four. It is getting out of hand. I am going to have to slice these pieces off. I couldn't let all my dead skin just flap around town, so I carefully cut off some of the larger pieces without pulling on my skin. It's super, super important to let your face naturally peel off to prevent any scarring. Throughout the day, I kept adding moisturizer on my face, especially the parts that were peeling. Also, I'm sorry to all my coworkers who had to look at my face that week and put up with me cutting my dead skin at work. OK, moving on.
By day five, the peeling moved up to my forehead, eyebrows, nose, and around my neck. Once I washed my face and put on moisturizer, I kinda liked the way my new skin looked. It seemed very fresh and dewy.
After a full week, the heavy peeling had stopped and I mostly had little flakes around my hairline, ears, and neck.
So, this is nine days post-peel, and although my skin is still recovering, the peeling storm has passed, so I thought it would be a good time to give my final thoughts. I am in a love-hate relationship with this treatment. The minute my skin started peeling, the new skin felt so fresh and just so reborn. And then, throughout the days, it kinda got a little dry and flaky, so I kept putting moisturizer and SPF on like they told me, so that helped a lot. I have a few new pimple friends joining us today, right around here, but I read online that that's completely normal post-peel or post this intense facial. So, it will go away, it's just my pores that are kind of getting rid of all the gunk that's in there.
Now we're two weeks post-treatment, obviously, and my face is completely healed, so I thought this would be a good time to do my final, final review. While the treatment did make my skin feel smoother and look a lot brighter, did it heal my acne scars and large pores? I would say no. Maybe if I did the treatment five times in a row, I'll see visible results, but the treatment is almost $300, so that's over $1,400. You'd have to have a lot of cash to burn, a lot of patience, and a high pain tolerance to really see some serious results, and I don't have any of those. [laughs] So maybe in 50 years when I really, really need this treatment, I will love it. But for now, it's not really for me.
