New Year, New Skin: Your Transformation Journey Starts Here
Because there are many acids, there are different percentages, there are acids that are gonna make you barely peel or not peel visibly at all, and then there are acids where you're gonna have some social downtime.
Obviously, your skin coloring is very important. The lighter colors tend to be a little safer, and the darker you go, the more prep you need to get your skin ready for a nice, safe peel without any unintended consequences.
Well, it's the first week of the new year. Happy New Year to you.
Happy New Year.
Absolutely. And this is an amazing time for anyone who is looking to get started on a peel journey to kind of jump right in. I mean, January's perfect.
Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. There's a whole theory where people like to take the summers off, and then this second, even September, like when the kids go back to school, that's a good time to start.
At least start your prepping, get ready to do your peel, but like now, when it's cold, and not to do a peel.
Everyone hibernates in the winter, at least in our neck of the woods, because it gets dark at what, five o'clock?
Ridiculously early.
Ridiculously early time. You know, the air is cold, there's less sun, and you know, we just kind of all get into that you go to work, you come home, if you're gonna stop and do something on your way home, you better do it. Because once you get home, you're probably not going to go back out.
No, I look out the window, and it's dark, and I'm like, ‘Well, I'm not going anywhere. Can we run to the store for this? No. No, we're home now.’
Right. So it's a great time if somebody wants to start or continue a peel regimen.
Yeah.
So we are going to talk a little bit about that and the path they can take to help transform their skin before springtime.
Yes. And there are many months to do so.
Absolutely. Absolutely. So let's talk a little bit about that. They need a plan. So they have to decide which type of peel to use. What are your recommendations for someone getting started?
Well, number one, I always want to send people to Peel University so they can learn about the different acids and how they affect your skin, because before you jump into picking an acid, there are many acids and different percentages.
There are acids that are going to make you barely peel or not peel visibly at all. And then there are acids where you're going to have some social downtime.
For sure.
So I always want people to consider their social downtime. And obviously, your skin coloring is very important.
Yes.
The lighter colors tend to be a little bit safer. And then the darker you go, the longer you have to prep to get your skin ready. So you can have a nice, safe peel without any unintended consequences.
So you're going to learn all that at Peel University. You'll be able to pick and learn your exact Fitzpatrick type, gauge your skin, see where you are, and identify which acids will work best for you.
Right.
Like, I mean, of course, I have some favorites for anybody that wants to get started. And let's say they want no, little to no social downtime.
Right.
You know, I would suggest something like Mandelic. It's suitable for all skin types. It's a very mild feeling. You're just going to get just a hint of dryness, maybe a couple of flakes. It's like so doable.
Right.
You can do it once a week, once every couple of weeks. But if you want to do something stronger and get more aggressive flaking, you kind of have to move from the hydroxy acids.
So that's like Mandelic, Glycolic, Lactic, and Salicylic. They're all going to give you the same downtime, really nothing.
Right.
And if you want to get some actual visible flaking, well, then we need to move into like the layered peels. So you've got your TCA and the four different percentages.
And then we have Jessner. You can combine those. You can do the vitamin A peel.
So just to recap on that, basically, if you really think about it, there are two kind of types of peels.
Yeah.
Either you want something weekly or bi-weekly where you're not going to see much visible peeling, or you want something where you're going to see that visible peeling, and you can layer that peel to control the depth a bit.
Yeah. And I think pretty much everybody falls into one of those categories.
Right.
Some people do, like me personally. If I want to do a peel, I choose based on how much downtime I'm willing to deal with. And I'll usually do either a Mandelic peel or a TCA peel.
Like, I kind of pick and choose, wanting more flaking this time, well, I'm going to go do TCA. If I don't, I just want like a nice little light refresher, well, I'm going to do a Mandelic peel.
Right. Your schedule sometimes kind of tells you what you should do, right?
That can dictate it. And you know, no matter what, you still kind of have the same amount of downtime, right?
You know, you do a peel, and it's going to be somewhere between three to five days before you start with your dryness and flaking, and then another three to five days to finish.
It's just depending on, like, the strength of the acid, how severe that flaking is going to be in that timeframe. But everybody will be done at some point between 6 and 10 days; you will be 100% done.
No matter if you did the strongest peel or the mildest peel, all that skin off, you're done. You can start again.
Okay. Sounds good. So let's talk about spacing the peels apart, of course. So obviously, the heavier peels like TCA and Jessner, those are monthly, four to six weeks, sometimes depending on how long you have to prep.
We're going to talk about prep next. Or the weekly peels, you know, many clients have non-sensitive skin, and they're doing it every week.
They can do it weekly. Yeah.
You know, some people who have sensitive skin sometimes alternate with their tretinoin.
Yeah. I find that. And this is like a little tip. If you're using retinoids, right, which we hope you are, we want you to be; that's part of your prep. You need to stop using that for 4 to 6 days before you apply your peel. Because it makes it thins your skin thin. It makes your skin a little bit more hypersensitive.
So we want to, like, stop and get you off that for a few days. So if you're doing like a weekly peel, you're just never going to have time to use your daily retinoids, acids, and all that kind of stuff.
So if you want to get that in your regimen, I think it's much easier for people to do light peels every other week, because you're generally done five or six days in, and you're done with any dryness and flaking.
Then you can resume your retinoids for 2 to 3 days, then stop again. But at least you're going to be able to use your retinoids or your serum 15, those stronger acids, for a few days and then get back off and then do that cycle for six to eight times and give yourself a little break.
Let's touch base on the people who really should take caution, who should not possibly start a peel series.
Who shouldn't? Well, obviously, depending on the acid, if you're pregnant or if you have an illness.
Correct.
Because we always want you to be in tip-top health when you do a peel, because even if you're like, I just have a little cold, I have COVID, whatever it is, I'm off for work this weekend, but I haven't had the flu.
Like, you really need to be healthy because the skin is the largest organ, right? So when you put that on, now your body's got to focus on healing that.
And that we know it takes time. It takes about 10 days to do that. So we don't want you fighting something else at the same time.
Yeah. You don't want to take away those healing powers.
No, you want your body to focus 100% on just this one injury. We'll call it an injury. You know, just focus on that.
We don't want you focusing on that, your stomach bug, this, and that, because everything won't heal appropriately. That your stomach bug is going to take a long time to heal. Your face might take longer.
You just, you don't want to do that. You've got to be super healthy. So, like if you're pregnant, if you have anything, if you've been on Accutane, some will say six months, some say a year.
That's 100% dependent on your doctor and the cycle that you were on. So you have to get your doctor's approval on when they feel you can do a peel.
What else do you have on a little list over there? If you have an injury on your face.
Yeah. Basically, open wounds, pregnancy, and Accutane. Those are the big ones.
The big ones. And in pregnancy, I do want to say, like you can do peels when you're pregnant. That's not a problem.
Just depends on what peels you're choosing. So we don't want you to do Jessner's. We don't want you to use Salicylic acid or TCA.
So TCA, that's just a given. They will never test on a pregnant woman to see if these things are okay to use. So we just say it's not safe.
With the Salicylic and their Salicylic and Jessner, Salicylic comes from aspirin, and that's a blood thinner. And there are certain times in the pregnancy where it's very important that your blood's not super thin.
They want you to stop. They don't want you to take aspirin and things when you're pregnant. And I can't remember if it's the very beginning or the very end, could be both, that we don't want anything that's going to thin the blood. So they want you to steer clear of stronger Salicylic acid.
But the other acids, like Lactic, Mandelic, and Glycolic, are all perfectly fine to use. Another one I would say not to use is the Vitamin A Dream Peel, because we want you to avoid strong retinoids while you're pregnant. That's another one.
Well, it's perfect for anti-aging, acne, pigmentation, and scarring.
Those are the main.
Those are the targets, right there.
Yeah. Peels are wonderful because, obviously, they force the turnover of the skin and help remove dead skin cells, scars, and all that kind of stuff. And then they force your skin to regenerate, and it regenerates from the bottom up. So scars and pigmentation, they say up and out, up and out, up and out.
And then before you know it, you're looking at clearer skin. And I do want a little, because we're talking about scars, I do want to say, like, you have to think as if you have a scar, an acne scar, it runs deep, deep in your skin. So there are times, especially if you've had, let's say, acne, and you had a lot of acne, right?
And you have lots of big pimples. Let's say you had the larger cysts or pustules. And then you've got like, you may have some of these scars that are still deeper under your skin. So when you start doing peels, sometimes people are like, "My scar looks worse. It looks bigger. It looks deeper. Oh my God, is this making it worse?”
No, it's not making it worse. Well, let's go like this, your scars down here, and you get all 20 layers of dead skin as this comes off, off, off, all of a sudden, these deeper scars, they're moving their way up. Just keep going, keep going, before you know it.
You get discouraged.
They're going to start going away.
It's a process.
It is a process.
There's no one-and-done.
But don’t be scared.
There's no one-and-done. It's a series.
Yeah.
You know, and the goal is like you said, to keep going, get that off, keep that collagen stimulating. And it's not just about the exfoliation part of the peel.
No, that's nice. A little smoother to deeper.
But so much have happen those few weeks after that.
Yeah. You're not going to see anything. The only thing that you're going to see immediately is maybe a little bit smoother skin. It might feel smoother because you have some dead skin has come off, but you're not going to see substantial changes.
Maybe some light hyperpigmentation in the upper layers came off, but the real changes are when you're talking 30, 60, 90 days away, where that new collagen and elastin are building deep in the skin.
I mean, that takes a long time to work its way up to months. So it's, it's a good 90 days before you start to see real changes, but boy, that's what pictures are for.
Absolutely.
That's what pictures are for. And that's why, by the time you hit like your third month of taking pictures, you can start seeing the changes, because now they're starting, and that's just going to continue on.
For sure. Let's touch base on the Fitzpatrick scale, prepping your skin, why it's so important, and who it's most important for.
Right. So Fitzpatrick goes from one to six, and one is the very lightest think of somebody that's like Irish or something.
Right.
And then you work your way up. I think I'm like a two, you're like two slash three. And then you get to like four, we're talking about like olive skin tones, maybe like Italian, Asian.
Right.
And then we just keep getting darker, darker, into like six, which is like the very, very darkest. Like someone like right in the continent of Africa that has very dark skin, very dark, dark Brown.
And it's not that they can't do peels. And it's not that these people at Fitzpatrick One are the only ones who can do peels. Everybody can do peels, but that's where preparation is most important: not only are we using acids and retinoids to make your skin turn over faster and thin the dead layers, but we're also using antioxidants to keep your skin healthy. We're also using things like melanin inhibitors.
Right.
So this becomes extremely important, the darker skin you get, because we don't want you to run into something that's called post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation.
When you put a strong acid on anything, any kind of wound or inflammation in the skin, even a pimple.
Right.
That's a good example. As a matter of fact, if you had a pimple, it can leave a pink or brown mark when it goes away, right?
So pink marks usually occur at Fitzpatrick types 1, 2, and 3. But if you're Fitzpatrick four, five, six, now you're left with a brown mark. And what that is, is post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation.
And what we don't want is for you to apply a strong acid, let's say like TCA, to your whole face. And now that gets inflamed and goes away. And now we're left with like brown marks on your skin.
That's the last thing we want. So, to prevent this for most people or to greatly reduce any hyperpigmentation you might have, we need to use a melanin inhibitor.
So we have our Fade Bright, which contains alpha-arbutin as its main ingredient. That's the melanin inhibitor. There's a whole bunch of other things for lightning, but that's the key one. An alternative is hydroquinone.
And I don't care if it's our product or anybody's product, but please use this. So you want to use this for at least 4 weeks, apply it to your skin, and it reduces melanin production.
So when melanin production is low, and you put something strong on, even though it gets inflamed, that pigmentation isn't there. That extra melanin isn't there to like dump into those layers and cause this brown effect.
Because that melanin is really trying to protect the skin, correct?
Well, it is. I mean, especially when you're thinking about the sun, it definitely is trying to create an umbrella, like ‘help us, save me.’ But yeah, we don't want that. So when we're using that inhibitor, it's not producing as much melanin as it normally does, like this excess.
It’s dial down.
Yes. And it's obviously temporary, for as long as you're using those types of products, but extremely important to use it for at least 4 weeks for any skin color. But even if you're like Fitzpatrick five or six, I would actually even recommend a little bit longer, five, six, seven weeks, just especially if you're prone.
Because a lot of people come to us and they're like, ‘Oh, I've got dark knees, dark elbows, dark everything, knuckles, toes.’ Those are the people who are really prone to getting that PIH. And those are the reasons they come to us.
Those are the people who need to use that melanin inhibitor for a little longer, then proceed with your peels.
A question I get often is: let's say somebody is working on pigmentation on the body or even on the face, has dark skin, and is pre-treating for 4 weeks with Fade Bright. And we kind of say, ‘Oh, the TCA and the Jessner are monthly.’
Not always, because if you're pre-treating for four weeks and, let's say, you're doing a body peel, it takes your body two weeks to peel. And then you have to start your pre-treatment again. So your peels may be more space, more like six to seven weeks apart.
And that's fine.
And that's okay. So don't rush it because prepping before every peel is important, not just your first peel.
Well, like you were saying, it generally starts to flake in two weeks. Now you're going to flake another week or two. So now you're at 30 days, and you've just finished flaking. And then now you've had no time to prep.
So yeah, I would suggest you start getting back on your melanin inhibitor for at least another week or two before you do another peel.
You want to suppress that before every peel so you don't get that spike in pigment.
And you might be able to use it a little bit during, especially on the body, you might be able to use that Fade Bright a little bit before you're done.
If your skin's not sensitive or irritated in any way, and let's say you've already been peeling for like a week and a lot of it's done, you could probably start right up with your Fade Bright again, as long as it's not stinging or anything like that. And then put your Emu oil, lotion, or Shea butter. I love Shea butter on that after a peel.
What are some of the other products that they can use to prep for optimal results?
For the body or just any peel?
Any peel.
For the body, I usually suggest Triple Treat and Fade Bright, right? That's 25% acid. So that helps to exfoliate.
I don't generally recommend retinoids on the body. That just would be too costly, too much to cover.
Again, that Triple Treat, they should stop five days before their peel.
Same, yeah, same as the retinoids, four to six days. So, with the rest, it's like our normal prep regimen. A prep regimen is literally the same as what we consider to be a good regimen, right? We want you to use an acid cleanser to help remove that dead skin.
We want to use an antioxidant because it protects your skin daily and supports its healing. A moisturizer, of course, SPF, because you've got to protect yourself from the sun and make sure you put enough on. And then at night, a retinoid.
A retinoid is key, stimulates a really fast turnover of the skin. So I mean, those are the key products you can add all day.
And then obviously the melanin inhibitor. So I like to tell everybody to use it, though there are always some, like Fitzpatrick 1 or 2, who don't want to. Okay, it's always your choice. It's always your choice to use it or not.
We recommend it. And if I didn't tell you about it and you came up and had post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation, you would be angry at me for not warning you.
Absolutely.
But it's your choice not to use it. That's it. Those are key.
If you are, though, Fitzpatrick 4-6…
You should. We consider that mandatory.
You're really gambling if you're not going to use it because you don't know what's going to happen.
And there are some types that are just really worse. Like if you're Asian, high risk. And also Indian, high risk. Those two are the ones we see all the time.
When they don't properly pre-treat, yeah, those are the photos that we get. And when we kind of go through their prep and things, and nine times out of ten.
It's one of those two groups.
They only had a free sample.
A small sample size isn't enough. That's enough to test something out. Make sure you don't have allergies. It's not enough to use it for four weeks.
Yeah, absolutely. All right, now let's talk after your peel.
Yeah, after your peel is easy, right? You know, just a couple of healing products on your face. We recommend things like Emu Oil or Essential Healing Blend. That's like a vegan alternative. Or I personally like to mix both of those and put them on. I don't know why.
I like that too.
It feels good. It spreads so nicely. And I really like that. For the body, I always want to say either Emu Oil or Shea Butter. I find that Shea Butter lasts a really long time on the body.
And so you don't get all dry and itchy. As soon as you get out of the shower, you're still damp. Put either the oil or the butter on, and you'll stay comfortable.
Other things that you could put on, of course, especially like that special time, like right after you rinse your acid, you can put some key ingredients on there. Key treatments like Fade Bride or Copper Peptides, any of the potions, PDRN, and exosomes.
Your skin is super receptive right after the peel.
Regenerate growth factors. The second you rinse that acid off is like prime time to put anything you really want to penetrate. The only things you want to steer clear of are like an acid serum, like Serum 15 is a no, or Serum 30 is a no.
Retinoids are also good, at least after the TCA or Jessner. You could do something like our Luminosity Method or the Dream Peel.
For sure.
That's pretty much it for like the afters, I think.
And you only have a small window to apply, too.
Just that one day. Just that one day. Other than that, it starts to dry, and kind of thicken and tighten, and nothing's going to penetrate.
Yeah.
So just put in what you need. Just be comfortable.
It's better to save your products for when you're done peeling and flaking. And then you can start working.
Then you start over. People feel like they're just losing out on that time. It's like you're going to be fine.
Yeah. And I always say you don't want to waste the product because it won't penetrate.
No, we don't want to.
You want to preserve that for when you are completely done, and you can start back up.
Exactly.
Obviously, avoiding the sun is a big factor. Wearing protective clothing, avoiding any aggressive dermaplaning or scrubs, that sort of thing.
No needling at that time. And yeah, make sure you apply enough sunblock. I can't say this enough, like not a pea. You put it up your whole finger. You have to feel like you put too much on to actually get the right.
This says SPF 50. It's only SPF 50 if you literally put on too much. If you're only putting in a pea-size amount, you're getting about half that. You're getting like SPF 25. So you really have to put enough on.
I'm guilty.
I am too, especially in the wintertime or if I know I'm not going to be spending time outside. I know. But if I'm going out to the pool or on the boat or things like that, I will put more on, and I will bring more, and I will bring my big fat hat along, and I will put that hat on.
I do like the Cotz Mineral Stick, too. I take that on my boat and will reapply it. That's super easy.
That's a good one.
You know, just have it in your little bag.
It's not as messy.
Yeah, it's easy.
Because that one has a slight tint.
Exactly. Okay, so the biggest thing is to make sure you're spacing the peels appropriately.
And that's what your manual's for. Like you don't have to ask me. You don't have to ask our Platinum Skin Care Guru group as opposed. Everything's in your manual.
Like you don't need to ask anybody any questions. I don't know if any of these are open. Probably not. But in here is your peel.
No, of course it's not in here. Here is the peel manual, which includes instructions for pre-treatment. It has how many layers, how many weeks, and when you can do your next peel.
It has post-care. It has what? Just any question you could ask is already in your peel manual. So if you're not reading that peel manual front to back, read it at least once.
The first few pages are crucial.
At least once, read it. And then you can just focus on the acid you're working on and follow those recommendations.
But please read your peel manual. 90% of the time, when people ask questions, I'm like, 'Did you read your peel manual? That's on page one.’
‘No, I didn't open the box yet.’
Okay, well, let's try that. And then we're going to watch this video, and then we're going to do this, and then we'll tell them, but it's like, it's right there, right?
Well, and we do have some other resources for them. Obviously, our Peel University.
Yep.
And if you know, they can obviously email us. We have that Regimen Builder. We have the Peel Tool Finder.
Yep. And then of course, Platinum Skin Care Gurus. There's over, what was it? 40,000 people, 42,000 people.
It's a very insane amount of people in our group who are posting. They'll answer your questions, but always wait for the admin. I just want to stress, always wait for an admin comment.
Or just email us, support@platinumskincare. You'll hear back from Jennifer or me.
Yeah, within 24 hours.
Exactly. Exactly. We will certainly guide you in the right way. We'll give you some links to videos to kind of bring you up to speed on a couple of things.
And I want to say too, our help desk is also attached to the chatbot.
That's right.
That's on the website, and every bit of information from the entire website is there. Every bit of information from your Peel Manual is there. So you can ask a very specific question.
That's nice.
And it will be able to give you an appropriate response.
Every once in a while, AI throws us a curveball and says something bizarre.
And then I've got to find where that comes from?
Where did it find this, right?
But for the most part, you can literally just ask the little chatbot, how many weeks do I have to wait after a three-layer TCA 20? And it's going to tell you.
Yeah, for sure. Well, they're not alone. If they use these resources and reach out to us, we will absolutely get them on their way for a new you, new year.
Yes, new year.
Yes.
New skin.
Exciting times.
So please don't hesitate to reach out again to support@platinumskincare.com.
Or call us at 1-800-917-3155. Have a great day.
