The peel that took 9 months to finally get right

I have been doing chemical peels for about 5 years now, but this one specific protocol for melasma on a client just would not cooperate. She came in every 6 weeks like clockwork, we tried the usual lactic and mandelic combos, and her skin would look great for a week then the dark patches would creep back with a vengeance. Finally after the 5th session, I stopped guessing and started testing her actual pH and moisture barrier at home for two weeks straight with those little test strips. Turns out her barrier was compromised way more than I thought, so I backed off to just gentle enzyme masks and a super basic ceramide routine for 8 weeks before touching a single acid. When we finally did the same peel I started with, it actually stuck, and it took a full 9 months from first visit to seeing consistent clearance. Has anyone else had a case where the real fix was pausing all actives instead of adding more?

1 comments

1 Comment

evan_grant702d ago

Ran into this exact thing with a buddy of mine who does skincare stuff on the side. His wife had this stubborn patch on her cheek that wouldn't budge no matter what peel he threw at it. After like four months he finally had her stop everything except water and a plain moisturizer for three weeks, and that patch literally faded on its own. When he slowly added a mild acid back in, it never came back the same way. He still jokes that his biggest mistake was thinking more acids would fix what was actually a broken barrier.