Warning: I was over-exfoliating clients for 2 years before I caught on

I had this one client, Maria, who kept getting these tiny red bumps after facials no matter what I tried. Finally a dermatologist friend asked me what strength acid I was using and I said 30% glycolic every visit. She looked at me like I was crazy and said that's way too aggressive for most skin types. How did nobody tell me sooner that less is more with chemical peels?

3 comments

3 Comments

beng515d ago

And the worst part is nobody tells you until you've already messed up a bunch of clients. I was doing 25% TCA peels on everyone for like 8 months thinking I was giving them amazing results. Then this one gal's face turned bright red and stayed that way for two weeks. Her esthetician friend finally told me I was basically burning people. Now I use 10-15% and my clients look way better with way less drama. Take this with a grain of salt but I honestly think a lot of us start out too aggressive because the products make it sound like stronger is better.

waderamirez5d ago

Your face turns red and stays that way for two weeks" - that happened to me once with a new moisturizer.

park.aaron5d ago

Wait, how long did it take your skin to recover after realizing you were overdoing it? I've been wondering about this because I see so many estheticians online pushing these crazy high percentages and acting like it's normal... but your story makes me think a lot of them are just going through the same learning curve. Did you notice your own skin texture changing once you backed off or was it mostly your clients that saw the difference?