CHEMICAL PEELING INFO

 In the past, chemical peels have gotten a bad reputation of making your skin raw and irritated and would peel you for many days; ending up looking like Samantha on  "Sex & The City" with an inflamed red face wearing a veiled hat. Maybe it was like that in the 60's, 70's, 80's even the 90's, but these days there are chemical peels that are corrective and can really affect change in your skin more gently. The new ingredients that are being put into the peels give you a much better corrective result without all of that down-time and inflammation.

I use products from Lira Clinical that create amazing chemical peels. Everything from the lightest Pumpkin Peel all the way to a pharmaceutical grade TCA (trichloracetic acid) are available. The difference with these peels is that they incorporate plant stem cells, peptides and minerals of gold and silver in the peels so you get a much quicker healing process. We also believe in pre-treating the skin which is really important. Many clients will walk into an Aesthetician's or a Doctor's office and have them slap a chemical on your face without preparing you for it. This is like running a marathon without ever stretching or walking around the block! Your skin will inflame, you can get post-traumatic pigmentation, those brown spots will come up- especially if you're not pre-treating and post-treating to heal your skin properly.

In my business and the way that Lira Clinical works, preparing the skin with products such as Pro Lite TX Serum several weeks prior to having the peel, which will suppress the melanin and prevent those dark spots from coming out. You're also instructed to use a good chemical-free sun block with zinc & titanium dioxide to help deflect the UV off of your skin. UltraViolet rays produce an enzyme which will excite the melanin and bring pigment back to your skin. The healing process is very important as well. After doing a chemical peel and shedding layers of skin you have that brand new baby skin underneath that has to be treated. So you do not want to use any alpha hydroxy's or retinols afterwards. You want to use Vitamin C serums, the Pro Lite TX; which is a Sea Fennel stem cell serum to help suppress the melanin and also to help repair any damaged melanocytes in your skin. This will give you a much quicker healing process and you will get a much better result.

Lira also promotes a series of three peels which is called The 3D Peel Series. 3D stands for three different peels. The first step is to prepare the skin, then using a salicylic chemical peel that melts the top layer of the epidermis allowing the aesthetician to go deeper into the epidermis with a second peel.  Two weeks later, you can do a really corrective peel such as  a Jessner if you have an acne client, or a TCA if you want to correct pigmentation and wrinkles. And when that skin heals, two to three weeks later, we'll do the final peel to re-gain the structure and the moisture in your skin. Maybe a Lactic Peel or something call "Vita-Brite" which is a Vitamin C hydrating peel to restore the barrier function of your skin. Doing three different treatments this way will give you the same or better result that doing six peels gave in the past.

So that's just a little bit of insight into chemical peeling. Good times to do it are in the Fall & Winter months when the weather is cooling down a bit and you're not in the sun quite so much. Don't be afraid of doing chemical peels as long as you are working with an Aesthetician that understands your skin and how these acids work. Remember to prep and post treat your skin and happy peeling!