Chemical Peels

Q. What is a chemical peel?
A. A technique for improving the appearance when wrinkles of the skin are present.
Q. How far down in the skin does the peel effect?
A. Strictly on the epidermis. Any peel that penetrates further is beyond an esthetician’s licensure.
Q. What type of peeling can an esthetician perform?
A. Superficial Peeling: removing only the dead cells of the epidermis. Medium depth peeling is performed by dermatologists or plastic surgeons. Deep peels are medical surgical peels performed with phenol (a highly acidic chemical).
Q. What are the benefits of a peel?
A. The skin appears smoother, softer, in some cases lighter. By eliminating dead cellular debris, the skin has more clarity, luminosity, and shows an improvement in fine lines.


Q. What are contraindications for a chemical peel?
A. Anyone: who has used accutane in the last 6-12 months, is currently using prescription keratolytics, being treated by a dermatologist for a facial skin disease, has an autoimmune disease, Fitzpatrick types 4-6, with a herpetic breakout, with moderate to severe rosacea, pregnant or lactating, sunburned or windburned, with an infectious disease, with open sores, suspicious lesions, or basal cell carcinoma, is not willing to comply with the home care program.
Q. What is the deepest peel an esthetician can offer you?
A. Jessner’s Exfoliation: contains lactic acid, salicylic acid, and resorcinol in a solution of ethanol. This peel is appropriate for clients with rough textured skin, fine lines/wrinkles, hyper pigmentation, or with many closed comedones. Jessner’s should not be performed as the first technique and produces a much more dramatic and sudden result with numerous side effects.
Q. What is the differences between AHA’s and BHA’s?
A. AHA’s (alphahydroxy acid) work by loosening the chemical bonds between the keratinocytes. They also break up the lipids that make up the intercellular cement. When the keratinocytes are loosed, they shed from the skin’s surface getting rid of the dead skin. BHA’s (betahydroxy acid) dissolve oil-based accumulated dead cells.
Q. Where do chemical peels come from?
A. Anywhere from man-made acids to supplements from nature, i.e. Fruit acids: passion flower, grape, apple extracts, sugar cane, mushrooms, bitter almonds, meadowsweet, willow bark, sweet birch, and wintergreen.


Q. How often should a client receive a chemical peel?
A. As with any other treatment, peels work best in a series. 10-14 days should be waited in between each peel depending on personal reaction.

information from mildays standard text, images from google.images