Hey y’all! I am sharing my chemical peel experience with you all now that I have had two with Bare Med Spa. I’ll go into what to expect during the peel, along with the chemical peel process, and what to expect after you leave the med spa. I alternate between chemical peels and hydrafacials with dermaplaning since July. My skin is overall more even toned, fine lines are becoming more minimized, and my pores are looking smaller!
Why I Started Going to A Med Spa
One of my goals in 2019 was to really take better care of my skin, and I am so happy I was able to partner with Bare Med Spa to do so. Previously, I would do at home facials and have always loved trying the latest skincare products to see what works best for my skin. My skin normally is pretty well behaved. Exceptions are for the occasional breakout during that time of the month, or when I would sleep in my makeup(I know, so bad!). In late 2018/early 2019, my skin started becoming much more dry and I was getting more breakouts than normal, so I decided it was best to go to an esthetician have a professional take care of my skin. I go to the Park Place Bare Med Spa location in Leawood and I see Madi, who has been wonderful! She has tailored our monthly facials to my skin, always explains what she is doing and what to expect during and after each facial, and has gotten me hooked on my new favorite cleanser and moisturizer!
If you are local to Kansas City, you can go to any of the Bare Med Spa locations and get 15% off services by mentioning by blog! I highly recommend treating yourself to a facial, especially with this harsh winter weather we have been having lately!
What Does A Chemical Peel Do?
Chemical peels give you a new, fresh face of skin, literally! The chemical peel solution applied to your skin helps to shed your top layer of skin and make room for brand new, healthy skin. It gives your skin accelerated cell turnover and helps to stimulate collagen production, so overall your new skin will be younger looking and plumper. It can help with reducing fine lines and wrinkles, help with acne, scars, and also help with hyperpigmentation to give you a more even skin tone.
What to Do Before Your Chemical Peel
I wanted a chemical peel because I had seen amazing results on others! I was definitely nervous though before my first time. Flashbacks came up of thoughts of the Sex and The City episode where Samantha gets a chemical peel and her face was bright red and just looked horrible and painful! I promise it is not anything like that though!
In the three days prior to your chemical peel, make sure to not have any waxing of your face done, laser hair removal, or use retinol. These will all make your skin so much more sensitive, which could cause the peel to be a bit painful.
The Chemical Peel Process
The chemical peel process itself is non invasive and was not painful at all. Your esthetician cleanses your skin just like before any normal facial. Then the chemical peel solution is brushed onto your skin by your esthetician. I have done lighter peels each time, so they are not the super deep peels that can be more painful and require more recovery time.
Once we have done one pass over my skin of the chemical peel solution, it sits for a minute, and then another layer was brushed on. At this point, Madi let me know that there could be a slight tingling sensation and my skin may feel warm, and also checked in to see if I was doing okay. My skin would feel a bit warm and the tingling sensation was maybe a two or three out of ten on a pain scale, so really not painful at all. The first chemical peel I did we just did two passes with the peel solution because we wanted to see how my skin handled the recovery and I was going on a trip a week later. The second peel I did in December, we did three passes to really work more on my skin. Those peels were to get rid of my top layer of skin to have healthier skin come through. It purged my old skin and deeply exfoliated, while also helping with uneven tone and texture and reducing fine lines.
This month, after my hydrafacial was complete, we did a really light layer of peel that was more for brightening my skin and creating an even skintone.
Chemical Peel Recovery
Immediately after your chemical peel, you will want to avoid water, steam, sweating, or any makeup for at least 6 hours. On each of my peels, I waited 24 hours before exercising or putting any makeup on, and only washed my face with a super gentle cleanser the evening of. Your skin will feel a bit tighter the day of and also can be a little pink, just looking like a slight sunburn.
The second day after my chemical peel, I started to see some flaking and peeling around my nose and mouth area and my skin still felt tight. This is to be expected, as I am on the phone for hours a day at my day job so I am talking and those areas are constantly moving. The hardest part for me was to not peel the pieces that started to peel off! You want to let them come off naturally, so then the new skin coming through is fully ready.
You still want to wash your face with a super gentle cleanser and make sure you are moisturizing morning and night. I also used a really gentle exfoliator each night starting on Day 2 to help the skin peeling process along. I also avoided any makeup for the first 5 days after each peel. If you want to put makeup on, you could, but your skin will probably be pretty flaky! You also want to make sure you are using SPF(as you should every day!) after the chemical peel because your new skin coming to the surface will be super sensitive and you want to keep it new!
Days 3 and 4 were pretty similar to Day 2, just with the peeling starting to move out to the edges of my face, so along my hairline, jawline, and also my neck.
By Day 5, my new skin was starting to finally make an appearance and I could see how healthy and young looking it was! And my skin tone with the new skin was super even! It can take a week to a week and a half with a lighter peel to fully peel.
Chemical Peel Results
Overall, it took about 6 days on my first peel to finally stop peeling and about 8 days on my second peel to finish peeling. The glow is real after each one too! After my second peel is when I really started to see a lot more of a difference and see my old skin that I loved coming back! It does take a few treatments to see results, and I can attest to that. I can’t wait to see what my skin looks like after more peels, but make sure that you consult your esthetician to how often and how many you will need for optimal results for your skin type.
I am so happy with how my results have been so far and can not wait to continue to better my skin! Also, right now Bare Med Spa is having a special on chemical peels, where if you buy any two peel packages, you get one free!!
Let me know any other questions you have on chemical peels or Bare Med Spa! Also, let me know if there are other skin treatments that you are curious about so I can try them out and give y’all an honest review! You can also check my post on my hydrafacial and dermaplaning experience in this post!
