Skin Care Decoded!

There are many questions that you need to know about glycolic acid peel before using it and in this post, it talks pretty much about the basic thing about glycolic acid peel. To begin with, glycolic acid is a part of the alpha hydroxy family. Alpha hydroxyl acids are usually found naturally from fruits and food. They include lactic acid from sour milk, malic acid from apples and critic acid

Glycolic acid peels, however, are from sugar and are the smallest molecule size of all the alpha hydroxyl acid. This means that it can penetrate into the skin more easily than other alpha hydroxyl acid giving a more efficient and quicker result.

So how does glycolic acid peel works? As we age, then rate of renewal of the skin cell slows down. It takes about an average 28 days for a turnover of cells on a young person compared to 35 days for older people. This results to the surface of the skin becoming clogged with dead and rough skin cells.

By using glycolic acid peel, the chemical helps loosen a substance that binds skin cells together. This will allow new skin to surface more quickly and easily. At some rate, it may also have some effect on people with acne problems by unblocking the follicles that leads to acne problems. The new skin would have looked more rejuvenated, giving the new skin more even color and smoother texture.

Apart from that, the continuation use of glycolic acid peel may also increase cell turnover and improve the production of collagen which is the main ingredient in preventing skin from wrinkling and sagging.
Glycolic acid formulations can be found in the form of glycolic acid pads, glycolic acid moisturizers, glycolic acid facial cleansers, glycolic acid face wash, glycolic acid toners, glycolic acid lotions and glycolic acid creams

The effects of using glycolic acid peel may result to also the skin in mild exfoliating peel. Glycolic acid applications can be done at home or in beauty saloons. Usually, saloon treatments have a higher percentage of glycolic acid content than home treatment. Depending on the sensitivity and severity of the skin problem, glycolic acid peel’s strength can range from 20% – 70% and usually, you will feel stinging on your skin during the treatment which will disappear after a few minutes. Your skin may also look as if there’s a sun burn on the applied area but it would usually disappear within the end of the day to the following day. You may also experience a small amount of skin peeling over the next few days
There are benefits of using the glycolic acid peel if your skin experienced sun damage, brown marks, rough keratinized skin, fine lines, age spots, hyper pigmentation and also acne prone skins.

But as there are advantages of using glycolic acid peels, there are also disadvantages to it. The results of these glycolic acid treatments are just temporary. There is a need to keep using the glycolic peel treatments to maintain its effects and it will not affect pigmentation marks that are found deep within the skin layers as it only works on superficial epidermis layer

A final word of advise would always remember to wear sun protection after every application of glycolic peels.

Image from prevention.com