TCA vs. Jessners: Which Layering Method is Right for You?
Hot peppers are a really good explanation because they're almost as hot. It feels…
Like when you get peppers on your lips when you're eating something, and like your lips burn for maybe 10-15 minutes after.
Yes, that's what it feels like.
Well, hello there.
Hey.
Today, we're going to touch base on a bit of a frustrating situation. Everybody wants instant type results. So I do get this question a lot when people, let's say, start with a pretty safe, you know, superficial peel like Mandelic or even Glycolic, and you know, they aren't seeing, you know, a lot of visible peeling. However, that peel is formulated that way, and there is no true downtime with that.
But let's talk about how it is, you know, what is a safe way for them to progress to something stronger where they're going to see more results?
Right. So you're starting low, and you don't have to start low and safe. You can start anywhere.
Like, if you want to do peels and don't feel you need the milder ones, you can start with TCA. You can start with Jessners. I mean, that's never a problem. We always want you to start with a lower percentage. But you know, some people aren't comfortable. They've never done a peel before. And we're like, if you've never done a peel before, you're a little bit scared about the whole process.
Yes.
Absolutely. Start with something mild.
Like I love Mandelic. Mandelic 40 is probably the one I recommend the most. So like, so you start with that, and you've done that. And if you've taken your before-and-after pictures, you should be seeing changes. Number one, if you've done a whole series, which is going to be eight peels in a row. So if you're doing it once a week, once every other week is really common.
You know, you're going to get that done in, you know, a couple of months or so. When you're done with that, you know, you can absolutely feel like, “well, this isn't enough change for me. I want more.”
So yeah, you could certainly keep going and do more series. And a lot of people do that. Or a lot of people kind of bounce back and forth, right? They'll, you know, do like a Mandelic series now, then they'll do a TCA series. But so let's say you've been doing Mandelic and you're ready to pop into the next acid. I usually recommend TCA, of course, if you're more concerned with aging or scarring. If your focus is more on hyperpigmentation or acne, I would put you in touch with Jessners.
So you can kind of choose, those are your next steps, right? The multi-layered peels, Jessners, or TCA. So there's only one percentage of Jessners. So if you want to move to that, I usually tell people to start with one to two layers. That's what we always recommend. Now with TCA, there are multiple percentages, though, right? So we have the seven, which I think is an excellent place to start, especially if you're, you know, concerned about more stinging or anything like that. I think seven is a wonderful place to start.
But if you're like, “No, I'm not scared of that.” You know, just go right to the 13. 13 is considered, you know, normal. That's not like anybody with normal skin starts at 13. And you know, the seven, that's for someone who's either really sensitive or younger, scared of something, then that's a great way to ease into it. So I guess you could do either one.
And, of course, you know, you always want to keep prepping. As per usual, when you're not doing that Mandelic peel or that TCA peel, you want to be on that prep regimen, which you don't even think of as a prep regimen anymore. Just think of it as your new daily regimen.
You know, if you've got acids, you've got retinoids, you're putting SPF on, maybe a melanin inhibitor. That's the only thing that maybe not everybody was using every day that you should add in. I mean, that's what you need.
If you're using those, you are a hundred percent always ready to do a peel, you know, so you can move up at any time. You can do three Mandelics and decide you want more.
Kind of depends on your schedule, your personal lifestyle. You know, you obviously don't want to move up to something heavy right before a vacation or something like along those lines. However, you know, I really do feel like they just get super anxious and want to move up, up, up. I don't want to take away the thunder from Mandelic because we've seen some amazing results with people who consistently do that for the long term.
But when you are ready, let's, you know, when they're ready to move up to that layering, what should they do first? Should they start with a Jessner? Should they start with a TCA? Big question I always get, “What's stronger, Jessner or TCA 13?”
Right. Neither is really stronger than the other. Multi-layer, when you're applying something in multiple layers, it's not that they're stronger. It's like each layer helps the acid penetrate deeper. Doesn't ever change the strength of the acid, right? Still, you know, 7%, 13%. Are you not adding them together or anything like that? That's a common question.
People think, “Oh, I put two layers of a TCA 10 on, does that equal a 20?” No, no, that equals two layers of a 10. Now you can do 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 layers of that 10. It's still 10%.
It's not increasing in strength. It's penetrating in depth.
Right. Great question, though. And it makes sense, but it's just not the way the acid works.
Right. Yeah. I mean, in your brain, I could put that together too. And the same thing with Jessner. I mean, like they're both just, they're both equal strength. I mean, that's not, they're different. They're completely different acid peels, right? So you can't; they're never apples-to-apples.
I mean, you're comparing oranges to cantaloupes. There's not, you're not going to get that. But I love a layered peel because the beauty of that is, let's say, you are moving into this TCA and you're still scared about the downtime and all the heavy flaking and all that.
We'll do one layer. You don't have to do a whole bunch of layers and end up with excessive flaking. You can put on one layer, and that's really not, it's going to be a little bit more dryness, maybe some, a little bit extra flaking than you would get with, let's say, a hydroxy acid peel, but it's not that intense. It's the layers that are taking, they're making more skin come off. So I think it's just like one of the greatest things. That's why anybody can start with that. You can just start with one layer. You don't have to do, you know, five layers. We don't want you to ever start that way. You're starting with one to two layers. And that's where you get the people like, even, you know, someone's starting with TCA. What if they started with like, “I did one layer of TCA seven. I'm really not seeing anything.” Well, yeah, that's pretty mild.
Right, right.
That's pretty mild.
It is pretty mild. Let's keep adding customers of all skin types and sensitivity levels. So I may answer a phone call where, you know, somebody did get some peeling and flaking from that. And then some people think, you know, and that is the beauty of it, where you can layer it to achieve a deeper result.
Yeah.
It's customizable.
Well, I would just say to that too, is that, okay, you didn't get as many results, but at least you were safe. At least you didn't destroy your skin.
I agree. Yeah. You did it safely.
Yeah. Yep.
Absolutely. Moving forward is, it's just easy. Cause he just, you know, each month that you go to do your next peel, you know, you have a plan.
Yes.
It doesn't mean your plan will come to fruition. Let's say you did three layers of this 13 last month, and it works fine. And this month you're like, I'm going to do four layers.
Well, and then you get to layer two, and all of a sudden you've got frosting all over your face. Well, you have to kind of stop there. You know, if you've got white all over, you know, for whatever reason, we've removed skin multiple times.
So your skin might be a little bit more prone to frosting, or maybe use retinoids too close to when you did your peel. There are many reasons you might frost more quickly than usual. And every single peel is different. Right. You know, just because you could do the same thing and get different results every time. But I mean, it's, it's, you know, that's an easy way to move up.
So let's go over a good rule of thumb: we want them to use each acid independently prior to combining them.
Yeah. So combinations.
Yeah. Well, combinations. Yeah. Right. So if we want to take a TCA, that's okay. So that's your next, next step, right? Let's say, “Okay, I did Mandelic. I've moved up to TCA or Jessner. Now I want to do both of them because I've heard about, you know…”
They all have heard about it.
And they all want to just like start that way, but we want you to go slowly. And you know, the reason is: let's say you've been using Jessner for a while and you want to add TCA. Well, we know that your skin is okay. We know you don't have any allergies, you're doing well, but if you were to just do your Jessner and TCA at the same time, and you've never used either, and you have a reaction or an allergic reaction or hives or bumps, you know, swelling, you don't know which one did it. So you always need to use them individually.
Right? So if you've used Jesners on your own, you've done a few peels. Now you want to combine them. Well, you have to use TCA all by itself, right? You know, one layer probably is safest to start, especially if you're just testing for an allergy, or you could even do, as we would always recommend, a little patch test, because you want to make sure, okay, if I am going to have an allergic reaction, I just want a teeny tiny little spot.
Yeah.
Oh, that went okay. All right. And I'm going to, you know, 24 hours later, you can go ahead and do, you know, one to two layers of this. And if that goes well, you know, you don't have any allergies, issues, or sensitivities. Next time you do a peel, you can put them both together.
Correct.
But it's not, and then people kind of want to know, “Well, how many layers do I do of each?” And I kind of say, you know, start with one of each. I don't care if you've been doing four layers of TCA, and I want you to start with one layer of Jessner and one layer of TCA and see how your skin handles that.
Because Jessner changes your skin a little bit. It's like a prep for TCA. So that TCA can penetrate better. It's going to be a more intense peel with these two than it would with, you know, each of them singly. So I say one and one. And then the next time when you're ready to do a peel, I'm always kind of like, “What's really bothering you right now? What are you more focused on?” “Oh, you know, my hyperpigmentation is bothering me.”
Okay. Then do your extra layer of Jessner. Do two layers of Jessner and one layer of TCA. And then so now you're up to three layers. Right. Next month comes around, you know, “Oh, what's really bothering you this month?” “Oh, really? You know, it's my lines.”
You know, this is okay. Okay. Well, you can still stick with your two layers and then add on an additional layer of TCA. You just kind of pick and choose what's bothering you most, and then add an extra dose of the acid that's going to help. That's what I usually recommend. And I'm not saying you have to do that, but I feel like if you have no concerns, then it just doesn't matter. Just add one more.
I do want to touch base on the TCA percentage when you're layering.
Okay.
So I had a customer email me last week, and, admittedly, she said I didn't use; she actually did a triple-layer peel. So she had the Dream Peel on as a peel booster on top of Jessner and TCA. She had not used them independently and did a TCA 20.
So…
She did Jessner TCA 20 plus Dream Peel?
Jessner TCA 20 plus Dream Peel.
I've never used any of them.
As a starter. Okay. So, you know, she was really concerned because, you know, she had swelling, redness, and some darkness. Admittedly, she says, you know, I didn't use them independently. I know I screwed up. Please help me. Is this permanent?” Well, at that time, I couldn't tell her if it was permanent or not. I don't know yet.
Because it is natural for your skin to darken a little bit. That dead skin that is sitting there, especially now, it's not so common with someone who has a skin color like mine. I'm very, very light. My skin never darkens and then flakes off. But if you have like an olive skin tone, like Fitzpatrick, even three, four, or darker, it's very common for, even if you did a salicylic peel, I've seen it. We actually have some pictures on the website of someone doing a salicylic. She has Mediterranean-type skin, and it turned brown.
But that's just dead skin. Dead skin that's sitting there turns brown, and it's dead. It's just going to flake off on your normal skin color underneath.
After it peels, if you have that. Yeah.
So when everything is done, said and done. And if you have a darker area, it's likely PIH, or post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation. And obviously, the way to prevent that is not prevent. I don't ever want to say prevent.
Lessen the chances. Reducing any kind of response is by prepping with a melanin inhibitor. We have our Fade Bright, which is the alpha arbutin, of course, hydroquinone, which is a prescription here in the U.S. That's another excellent option.
It doesn't matter. As long as you have one of those two ingredients, use that for at least a month. That will help drastically reduce the rate at which you get PIH.
And if you do get some, it will be way less than it would have been if you weren't using that inhibitor. So even, you know, sometimes, you know, people are like, oh, I used it all the time, and I still ended up with a little bit of PIH. It's like, well, it's not going to eradicate it.
It's just going to lessen. And I guarantee it's probably 50% less than you would have gotten if you hadn't used that. So just, you know, now you just have to continue treating it again and letting it go.
And I usually suggest not to do peels. Like, well, if you're trying to target PIH for at least a couple of months, just target it with your topical products, lessen that, get it, you know, going away or gone before you start up peels again. And this time, obviously, be a little bit milder, because we know that if you've got that rate of inflammation, it's going to cause problems.
So use a milder peel or use fewer layers, you know, make some adjustments. Don't do the same thing again.
I'm not quite sure why she decided to go with that 20 on top of the Jessner. I have not heard back from her.
She saw a video. I guarantee you she saw a video.
I haven't heard back from her yet to see, you know, cause I said, you know, you're going to have to wait, you know, normally peeling doesn't really commence until maybe day four, five, six. We'll see what happens there. The other issue was that she didn't pre-treat properly. She was using another brand that, you know, after I did a quick Google search, had about half the amount of alpha Arbutin as our Fade Bright.
So, you know, I mean, she, a lot of times they think if they're using tretinoin and vitamin C and…
Azelaic acid, and those are all excellent, and they all are inhibitors in a way, but it's not the same as using alpha Arbutin or hydroquinone. Like those whose main goal is. It's not just exfoliation with a, with a side of lightning.
It's, it's actual inhibition. So that's why we like those: other ones, yeah, they all have inhibitory properties, but I really feel like you need to focus a little bit harder on the keys.
And this lady did have Asian skin, too. So she had…
Very highly.
Yeah. So she's already on the high-risk side. So, you know, I counseled her and recommended that she purchase the Fade Bright in the future, you know, let's try these things separately, because her subject line was 'allergic reaction.'
Oh, yeah.
Really wasn't an allergic reaction. This is a controlled chemical burn.
That was a very strong peel. You did a Jessner, a TCA 20, and a Dream Peel at one time, and you've never used any of those before. I guarantee you, she's a heck of a peel.
Sure.
And anytime I add Dream Peel, I find that when I use it as a booster with either Jessner or TCA, my face is physically warm for a couple of days. It is warm until it starts peeling.
Like I feel like, like you have a sunburn.
Yeah, 100%.
It's sensitive, and I don't want to say 'hot,' but it's warmer than usual.
I can feel the heat. I can feel it. And I'm like, that's, you know, not everybody has that, but I have that.
I have that as well. I know I have done a peel before, and came in, and you go, “Did you go tanning? No, I did a peel.”
Yeah. Like a little mild sunburn.
Yeah. I had a little bit of a glow to myself.
So that probably did it. It was all of them together, but for sure. That's a, that's a reaction.
So it's important for them to start with a seven or 13 if they are deciding to layer on top of the Jessner.
Yeah. I think that's a safe bet. You never want to start with a 20 anyway. Now, let's say there's just one other option, though. Let's say you had used the 13 for a long time.
You have moved up to the 20, and you've been using it for a long time. Now that's different than just starting with a 20. Your skin has worked up to your 20s, and then you go, Oh, I want to throw Jessners in.
Well, that's okay. That's the only time it is okay after you've tested your Jessners alone to do Jessner plus TCA 20. That's if you've gone through, you know, five layers of, you know, five, six layers of 13.
Now you're into the 20s. Now you can do that.
Right.
Yeah. That's the only way I would say that's okay.
Another question I get often is: when they are doing the trifecta with the Jessner, TCA, and Dream Peel, you know, they want to put other things on because we talk about your skin being very receptive right after your peel, after you rinse.
Well, you wouldn't technically be rinsing if youare using those acids. However, you could splash your face with cold water. If you are just on fire, it's for comfort reasons.
It's not going to neutralize, but they want to know when they can put on their actives and use the Dream Peel.
Yeah. And I get that, anyway: people even using Dream Peel singly, they want to put other ingredients on or, you know, put Dr. Potion or something like that, and then put Dream Peel on, but we don't want you to do that. Dream Peel needs to go on clean skin, if it's by itself, and don't put anything on top of it either. No Emu oil, no essential healing blend, nothing. Just the peel should be on your skin.
If you're adding it on after, okay, let's say this after a TCA, TCA is rinsed, right? Once the TCA is rinsed, you can put this on.
Right.
Right. Let's say you're only doing a Jessner. Okay. Jessner stays on the skin, right? So, “Oh my gosh, what do I do? Do I wait four hours, rinse it, then put this on?”
Yes.
No, you could put this right on top of your Jessner while it's on your skin, then leave all of them on for, you know, 6 to 8 hours. The next day, rinse it all off, then start applying your healing products. So I guess the key takeaway here is if you have any one of these peels still on your skin, whether it's Jessner or TCA or Dream Peel, we don't want to add anything else.
Got it.
Right. Once they're all rinsed off, you can add different things if you want, because you're just rinsing your peel off now.
So yeah, technically, if you had all three of these on and went to bed with it, and woke up in the morning, “could I put like Dr. Platinum Potions, could I put Regenerate on?” You could, right? You've just rinsed your peel off. It doesn't matter if it's been eight hours. You've just rinsed the peel off.
Things are still going to penetrate lovely. It's been just a matter of hours. You can put that on, apply your healing products, and you'll be good to go. You know, next day, you know, that's where we go back to just healing, healing only. You're only putting those extra bonus things on, like right after the peel rinses.
Right.
After that, we just want to put healing things. You don't want to waste it because the skin's going to start tightening and thickening, and nothing's going to pass. Just sit on top.
Don't waste it.
Sure. And when you are doing this advanced method, you know, you're, you may be doing those peels, you know, normally we say, oh, monthly, but you may be pushing that back, you know, more six, like six weeks.
Oh yeah. Because you need that prep time before your next peel.
Yeah. Well, and when we say monthly, I mean, there's a range in your book. It might say four to six weeks, but everybody jumps on that four-week bandwagon. You don't have to do it every four weeks.
You can do it once every eight weeks, if you want. That's just, that is a safe range for most people. If we say, you know, four to six weeks, maybe that's too much for you in four weeks. If you do that next peel and you're not getting a lot of flaking, your skin's irritated, more sensitive, it was too soon for you.
Yeah.
You know, you need to just push it a little bit further off. You don't have to constantly, constantly be peeling. I think people feel like I gotta, I gotta, I gotta, you know, or my results won't happen. Your results will last for months and months after that one peel. Even if you did one peel, your results are going to be, you know, coming about for the next several months. It's not mandatory to do this every month, but if your skin is comfortable and tolerates it well, you can certainly do so.
A phone call I got yesterday was with a client who wasn't adding the Dream Peel, but she was doing the Jessner and TCA. And in our conversations, I mentioned, you know, you may be doing them maybe six weeks apart because you're prepping. And she's like, “Wait a minute, I have to prep before each peel?” And yes, that is a common question sometimes as well.
And that kind of brings us back around to what I was saying, like, you know, your prep is your daily regimen. So as long as you're following the regimen that we recommend, you are prepped. When you're, when your peel's done and when you go back to using your products and you're using your acid cleanser and you know, your antioxidants, you're putting your, your retinoid on every night, you're using your melanin inhibitors. You're good to go anytime you want to do a peel.
For sure. Absolutely. And even if they're not working on pigmentation, you know, Fade Bright is important for that preparation, especially if you have that olive skin tone or darker. Yeah.
Yeah. You know, that's just one of those things. It's like, it is best practice to use a melanin inhibitor before a peel. It doesn't matter if it's a Glycolic 30 or a TCA 20.
Yeah.
It really is best practice, and it will help minimize your risk of unintended, you know, skin color changes. Do you have to do it? I mean, that's always your choice, but we're telling you to do it. So if you choose not to do it and then you end up with PIH, then all I can say is we told you to do it, and it is best practice, and it is safest for everyone. And you know what? Fade Bright, yeah, there's the alpha-ibutin, and there's all these other ingredients in there, but it's, it's just, it's good for your skin.
There's a whole bunch of benefits to that product. It's not only a melanin inhibitor. I mean, there's a retinoid in there. There are other acids, even your skin tone, that brighten it. There's the resveratrol in there. It's anti-aging. There are tons of wonderful benefits, and it's just, it's a good daily product for anybody. It's just exceptionally beneficial if you have pigmentation.
Now let's talk a little bit about aftercare.
Yeah.
So hydration, hydration.
Let's get that for a second. So based on that, one of the things that I see a lot in the group, too, is, you know, someone was doing glycolic 50, and they moved to TCA 13, and now they're like, “Holy, this is so painful. My face is red.” What are some of those things that are indicators that, okay, maybe this was too soon, or you shouldn't be in this much pain, or it's going to hurt? So realize that this is a painful situation that you have to figure out for yourself.
Yeah. And I think you can, everybody's different, right? Everybody is different.
Whether this burns you a lot or not. With Jessner’s, I feel like hot peppers are a really good explanation because they're almost as hot.
It feels like when you get peppers on your lips while you're eating, and your lips burn for maybe 10, 15 minutes after.
Yes. That's what it feels like. Now, TCA feels different. TCA is more of a sting, but I feel like Jessner’s is worse. But to me, Jessner’s is like fire. It really does burn. TCA is much more tolerable to me, but I love them both. You know, like I love Jessner’s and I will suffer through it, but they're okay. So obviously, we need to stop our retinoids.
We need to stop our levon acids at least four to six days prior. If you're having, you know, intense burning, okay. If you're like, “Well, I stopped at four days.” Well, stop at six days. You know, err on the side of caution. Stop it a week in advance if you have to, especially if you have sensitive skin.
Yes.
Stop longer.
Absolutely.
Also, make sure that it's not that time of the month for the ladies. You're more sensitive to pain at certain times of the month. So try not to do it then.
Right.
What else? Obviously, there's the numbing.
We have the lidocaine.
We have the lidocaine you can use. Of course, you can; you can find stronger lidocaine options out there, too. Other things that can help. I feel like lidocaine really helps. It really helped me.
Also, our handy-dandy fans. This will help too.
Fans really help. And that's pretty high.
Yeah.
That can be, that's a great fan. Some people like to stand in front of the freezer. I feel like that's that. Okay. I've tried that too.
I prefer to blow something on my face than to stand in the freezer. I feel like this is so hot. And when I stand in the freezer, I feel like it makes my face hurt more. Now everybody's different. I didn't like the freezer being ice-cold. I prefer just blowing air on my face or waving something in front of my face. That's more tolerable and cooling. And no matter what, it really does die down in a matter of a few minutes.
For sure. But then it's time to put on your next layer.
And then it's like gone. And if you have to, like, there's one more tip: especially with Jessner, I feel like when I did the Jessner videos, I don't know. I don't, I think maybe I did like two or three layers. The first layer is really darn spicy, right? And then, you know, you wait maybe three, four minutes. You've got to wait five minutes anyway. But the time you're going to put on that second layer, you feel nothing, right? It feels just like normal. Then you put it on, it's like, oh no.
And then it goes up again.
It goes really bad, but then it comes down faster. Like, instead of four or five minutes, it's like two minutes. And then the third layer, it's like fire again for a second, but then it doesn't stay there very long. It's maybe a minute, maybe two. And then it's gone. Like, you're like, la la la, I feel like perfectly fine.
It's really weird, but you can, you can tolerate it. And then what you don't want to do is like, you get to that point, and you're like, “Oh, I just, I just, I just can't, I can't.” And they rinse it, and they feel fine.
And they're like, “Shoot, like I should have done another one. I'm like such a sissy about this.” You can just do it; it doesn't have to be in five minutes. No, I don't want it to be 30 minutes from now. If you want to wait 10 minutes till you feel calm and good, my skin feels okay. I'm ready. It doesn't have to be at that five-minute mark. Wait 10 minutes if you have to, like, don't wait a half hour. That's too long. 10 minutes, I feel like it's pretty good. Get that next layer on. And then what else were you just saying?
So let's say someone's doing their first peel, and they moved to TCA 13, and they're putting on layers, and they get to the second layer, and there's a ton of frosting and all this stuff going on. What should they be looking for that might be a red flag, or should they just push through those things? Like, is there any danger in the peeling process itself that would tell them, “hey, maybe you aren't doing this right?”
If you're seeing frosting after one layer, it's usually because you didn't stop your retinoids early enough, or maybe acids, or you're using something that's thinning your skin too much, making it sensitive. Sometimes oral medications can cause extreme sensitivity. You would have to look into that because it's not super common.
TCA, one layer, shouldn't cause an all-over frosting. It should not. Now, maybe a couple of little speckles here and there.
So as to what's too much frosting to continue and what's not too much frosting to continue. You'll see that a lot: you get them on your forehead, just a couple of little white spots here and there. That's not a reason to stop applying layers. You wait for your five minutes because it takes about that long for your skin to finish up. So that's why we wait five minutes. Sure, some will peel after 2 minutes. That's not enough time to allow your skin to process that first layer. We need to wait. That's why we say to wait five minutes. We want to make sure everything is done and processed before you add more fuel to the fire.
Because it takes five minutes for the TCA to go down and do its job.
Yeah, well, you know, and we don't know. Everybody's different, too. You could be done in two minutes, or you might take the whole five. So we want to make sure. And then if it's just the tiny, tiny little white dots, I think I have some pictures of them too, even in the manual and on the page. That's okay to add another layer. If you're putting a layer on and you have a whole thing that goes like white, like, well, that's a stop.
You know, that's a hard stop. At least in that area. If, let's say, only your forehead goes white and there's nothing down here, and you did two layers here, and you plan to work up to four layers, and this part doesn't have any. Well, obviously, don't apply any more here, but you can apply your next layer here.” Oh, that's okay.” All right, then apply your next layer here. Just do the areas that have not frosted. You can continue on to what layer you've worked up to. What I want to stress, and I want to stress a thousand times, is you're not going to keep layering until you frost.
Frosting is not the goal with an at-home peel. You know, we want you to be safe. There are instances where, like, there are different levels of frosting depending on how deep in the dermis and stuff it goes. It might not be white anymore. Then it gets yellow and things. That is the danger zone. That is like a phenyl peel zone. You would never, ever do that at home, which is why we always tell you to stop as soon as you see frosting.
Yeah.
No, that's not the only reason to stop. But that's all reason to stop. That's a stop point.
Let's talk about Jessner's frosting.
Yeah. Okay. So this one may, this one, and we were just talking about this earlier today. This is a very common, scary thing because Jessner contains salicylic acid, lactic acid, and resorcinol. And the three together, you know, kind of create a chemical reaction. But salicylic itself, when salicylic dries, when the alcohol dries off of salicylic, it crystallizes, and it turns white. It's called a precipitate.
And that is left on your face. So, with Jessner's, one layer of Jessner's is never going to cause a frost; two, three layers. Jessner's is actually hard to make your skin look truly frosty. It's actually, really, way more difficult than with TCA. So when we, when someone comes to me and says, “Yeah, I put one layer of Jesner's on, and I frosted.” I'm like, “No, you didn't.” You didn't frost. What that was was dried salicylic. And how you can test this, you can't test it, you know, just rubbing on it or something. You need to wet it again. So you could, yeah, you could take your peel solution again. You've got your saturated gauze, let's say your whole forehead's white.
And you're going to swipe across your forehead, and that wetness is going to, if that turns, you see your skin color again, and then it turns back to white, you know, it's not a frost. Another way a frost is when your skin turns a color.
And it will be like that for about an hour.
You can rinse and rinse and rinse, and it's still going to be white until it calms down and changes. So, you could just take, let's say you don't want to put the peel on, you just, you're testing, get a wet washcloth with just water, you know, wring it out. It doesn't have to be soaking wet, and go ahead and wipe across the area that's, quote unquote, frosted.
And if that, if you can wipe away the frost, it's not a frost. It's just the dried salicylic. But the only way to tell is really to get it wet again. You get it wet again, and you'll see frosting doesn't change back to skin tone and back. That's not a frost. So you're not going to frost at one layer of Jessner. You'll generally be able to go on two, three, or four. I mean, you can go on several layers for Jessner. Yeah.
And I mean, let's face it, this is a controlled chemical burn. So we are putting an acid on our skin, you know, to purposely damage that top layer and force it to shed quicker. So it is going to sting. It is going to burn. You will see some redness.
Yeah.
But are there any alarming signs, as Darren said, where somebody would be like, “whoa,” you know, “I shouldn't,” you know, “I need to splash this off immediately.”
Well, I mean, if it's burning too much for you.
Yeah.
Right. If it's just something you're like, 'I can't tolerate this.'
Yeah.
Yeah. Cold water, just keep your eyes closed and keep splashing, splash, splash, splash until that goes away and you feel okay. I mean, like, an allergic reaction isn't really going to be that immediate. Like, you're not going to know that there's really an allergic reaction for a little bit, you know, at least by 10, 15 minutes, maybe an hour before you realize that there's like, “oh, I've got hives or I've got a red rash all over,” but obviously rinse it off if you are in. And sometimes it's just because it was your first time. You didn't know what to expect.
You're like, “I can't, I can't, I can't rinse it off.” That's okay.
Yeah.
You know? And many people will do that. They're like, well, “I freaked out, and I rinsed it off. Can I do another peel?” Nope.
Yeah
You've got to wait a couple of weeks. Then you can do it again.
Cause then they're like, well, I guess that's just how it was. Right. It stings a little bit. And some people it stings more, and some people it stings less, and we're all different. I feel like I'm probably a real sissy. Like, I feel like this stings me more than anybody else does.
And I'm going to be honest, when I do a peel, I feel like I need to call the helpline. Right. Because it is a bit of a panicky, a little bit of a shocker, you know, even though I know exactly what is occurring. It still is like, “Oh, why do I do this?”
“Why did I do this?”
Exactly. But you go through it. And then sometimes, when you splash your face with water, it feels hotter. Because of that pH change, you know? So, you know, even experienced people can panic a little bit. Can panic.
Yeah.
Because let's face it, you know, your face is on fire.
Yeah. Well, so I mean, if you've had an experience like that, like what was the first time you ever applied either a TCA or a Jessner, right? What was your experience? I'll tell you my first experience.
I, it was one, and I've talked about this before, where, you know, I had like grade three acne, and I was going to a place down hall road here. And that was my first time ever getting a peel.
Yeah.
And I went in there because I was on some program, and they were like, okay, we're going to do a peel. And I know it was, I think it was a TCA. Cause they don't always tell you. It felt like a combination peel. I feel like it might've been like, I don't know. I think it was TCA, and she put it on me, and like, I, I'd never felt that in my life. And I don't know what percentage I'm at, like a doctor's. So this could have been, like, 20% TCA or something. I thought I was going to croak. I don't want to say the D word. Um, it hurt so bad. I was like, “Oh my God. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh.” I'm like, I just didn't know what to do. She helped hand me a fan. And I'm like, I just couldn't take it. And finally, she was like, you know, it had to stay on for so many minutes, and she's like, okay, go rinse off. Like they don't take it off you.
I'm like, “okay.” Okay. Well, she didn't like telling me to rinse it off with, you know, cold water or anything like that. So I go, you know, with normal water, and I go warm water, and I'm splashing and splashing, and it's just not getting any better. I'm like, it's still burning. And she's like, it shouldn't be burning by now.
Like she doesn't know. She just handed a cup and applied it to me, you know? And I'm like, “Oh my gosh,” my face burned for an hour until it finally just like calmed down, and it was all rinsed off. And to this day, I still don't even know what she put on there. I think it was TCA, but it was horrible because it was such a shock. And if you don't know that, like…
Yeah.
And not even knowing what percent she, I know it was high. Oh, I know it was high because I've been doing peels for 25 years since that experience. And I know what TCA feels like. And I know what TCA 20 and 13 and it wasn't a 13. I'm going to tell you that it was, it was, it could have been a 30 for all I know.
Yeah.
It was horrible.
Even with milder acids, like glycolic, it really stings. It does sting. Lactic stings.
Lactic stings.
Yeah.
So bad.
Yeah. Lactic, I swear. Lactic feels like you're putting on a TCA.
And it's technically one of our mildest acids.
And it doesn't really cause any flaking. I'm like, “Why?” That's why I usually steer people to Mendelic 22 if they have super sensitive skin over lactic. And there have been a couple of times I've teetered on just dropping lactic, but there are so many people that love it that I can't.
Yeah.
They just want the zero downtime.
And it does have nice lightning properties.
It does.
I always recommend it.
It just stings.
When somebody is dealing with post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation, you know, let's say they did something too aggressive and then now they have some PIH, that's always a safe way for them to go, you know, with the fade bright.
Lactic, yeah.
Or Mendelic 22.
Sure. Yeah.
Something very mild.
Now, I was one of the ones who thought I frosted with the Jessner. I remember coming to work the next day and saying, I frosted. My forehead was frosted. I couldn't get past one layer. And you were like, it wasn't a true frost. I don't think. I'm like, “Yes, it was. Yes, it was. I swear it was. My forehead, yeah, it was white.”
I was on fire.
But you know, then you told me, "Let's see how this goes."
That must have been when we first got it.
Oh, yeah.
Years and years and years ago.
Yeah. When you're still kind of like learning every little nuance of an acid.
But yeah. Good times. Good times. But I really love the Dream Peel on top of any acid. I feel like that is a game-changer. I feel like it is. Not only does it help you peel a little bit quicker, but I just really feel like it just gives you a better overall result.
Yeah. It increases the quantity of flaking. And of course, then you're also getting the benefits of vitamin A. And the same thing to what, like everybody's like another really common question, just because we're thinking about it right now is, you know, what is the difference between Dream Peel versus Luminosity? Right. So the Luminosity method is our .55. That's an option to put on after any Jessner or any TCA. So, Luminosity .55, we call it our Luminosity method.
That is put on one time per day until your skin starts to flake, usually, maybe three days, four days. Dream Peel is applied once and rinsed. The difference is that Dream Peel is many, many, many, many, many times stronger.
Yes.
Right. Higher, higher, much, much higher percentage of the retinoids in this, as in Fusion A, because that's our daily line.
Yes.
That's the strongest of our daily line. It also helps increase stimulating, more aggressive peeling. It can help to speed things up. The difference is just in the strength.
Right.
Right. This is a standalone peel.
Yes.
And that's just a daily product. So this is helping people like both, you know, some people like both. You just have to figure out what you prefer.
Yeah.
I prefer Dream Peel personally.
I prefer Dream Peel as well.
But other people prefer the Luminosity. So it's just whatever you like. This definitely causes some warmth.
Yes. Yeah. I mean, and let's face it, you created that product.
Yes.
It has a patent.
Yes, it does.
This one is actually patented. That's all fun and exciting. I don't know if it shows it on this box, but it certainly does on the new boxes, our little patent number and everything.
That's awesome. Very exciting. That is very exciting.
All right. So if you want to do what a lot of people want to work up to, for whatever reason.
Yes.
Jessner plus TCA plus Dream Peel, your trifecta, you call there. So you can't just start with all three, right?
Correct.
So no matter what, just like we said, just want to reiterate, you have to use Jessner alone by itself. You have to use TCA alone by itself. You have to use Dream Peel alone by itself.
Yeah.
So right there are three months. I feel at that point you could put all three on if you want to, or you could move to just Jessner plus TCA. Do that a couple of times. See how your skin responds, because the Jessner is going to increase the strength of that TCA.
Yeah.
I don't feel like it's. I feel like this is something you add on to most people a little further down the line. Like, I don't think it's like a goal. Let's do three peels and then do all three.
Right.
I think you have to give each acid its chance to work separately because they each have their own specialties, and use those two together for a little bit. I mean, yes, you could, you know, by month four, put all three on, but I feel like it's not a race, and you always want to be able to have somewhere to go next. So do these two for a little while, you know, or sometimes do Jessner plus Dream only.
Yeah.
Sometimes do TCA plus Dream only. And then when you feel, you know, maybe six, seven months down the line, that you want to do all three, then do all three, but don't rush to do all three.
Right.
Play around, mix and match.
Absolutely.
This one, and then these two, and then these two, and then these two, and then these three.
Sure.
Just see, because a lot of times you don't have to do all that.
I do want to make a note of whether you are the Dream Peel or any peel, you know, on your face and neck, if you are finishing with the Dream Peel.
Yes.
Make sure you are diluting that Dream Peel down for your neck.
Yes.
You know, even if this is a finishing layer, if you are doing Dream Peel on its own, there's a neck warning on there.
Yeah. Right at the top. And I know, like in the new one, this is an older box. I know that it's not a sticker any longer. It's part of the design, but there is a neck and body warning on here. When the neck and the decollete, your neck and chest are more sensitive and reactive than your face, right? It's thinner skin.
It's movable. You move your neck.
It's highly, highly sensitized. So sometimes you can only put this on your face.
Some people can't put it on their neck and decollete at all.
Right.
They'll get a rash.
So what we're telling you on here is if you want to put this on your neck, dilute it in half with a secondary cream or serum and apply it one time only, because Dream Peel can be applied, you know, three nights in a row. So let's say, you know, you apply it to your whole face, neck, and decollete night one, you're only going to do your face night two, your face night three. You're going to leave this alone.
Yeah.
And even in our testing, you know, obviously, we were doing this full strength. We think we did up to four or five days in a row, which was horrifying. Never do that. But that even I was getting, and I'm not really sensitive to the retinoids, but I was extremely irritated on my neck because I was applying this full strength, you know, but yes, you really have to be careful with that and follow. Everything is in the manual.
Everything is on your direction card or on the box. Please read the warnings and the directions and heed those warnings. Don't just think you know better because we test these to learn. We test these, and we figure out what is best for most people. And you know, please don't learn the hard way. We had to learn the hard way, but you don't.
No, no, absolutely. And then remember, if you are layering the Dream Peel on top of an acid, it's only one time.
Yes. One time only.
Yeah. One time only. And that's in your manual.
Yes. One other thing. I get this question all the time. People want to layer the Dream Peel on top of a superficial peel like Mandelic, Lactic, or Glycolic. You know, let's address that for a quick second.
Yeah, that's not what it was meant for. These acids, these hydroxy acids are not meant. They're a surface level. You know, they're only barely getting into the stratum corneum, just the upper dead layers of skin. And so it's treating those top layers. And if you put something on the top layers and now the top layers are irritated, and then you take this and put it on there. Now that's also working on those top layers. It's just a bunch of irritation. It's not how it's supposed to be done.
The reason it works with Jessners and TCA is that we're targeting deeper layers. So we're targeting, it's like penetrating down, down, down in these upper layers. They're not going to be bothered by this at all. It's actually an almost soothing feeling, but it's meant only to be used with Jessner or TCA. It is not meant to be used with Mandelic, Glycolic, Lactic, or Salicylic on its own like that.
Right. Because if you think about it, you know, those lighter superficial peels are formulated So you do not see visible peeling, really just a little bit of dryness and flaking. So it doesn't make a lot of sense to try to put a peel booster on something that's formulated not to peel.
You know…
Yeah, that's another good way to look at it.
Yeah, for sure.
Yeah. But it's a common question.
Very common.
I get it. I get it. And, you know, I'm sure many people have tried it. “I got great results.” Well, I mean, that's fine. But it's not what we recommend.
Super irritated.
Yeah. A lot of people will be very irritated. You might as well just do it. Just do them alone. Yeah. You know, the only things that are meant to be mixed are like Jessner’s and TCA and Vitamin A. That's a common mixture. It's been used for many years.
If you are just getting started and you kind of want to plan out your year, a great place for them to start is the 2026 Transformation Guide.
Yeah. And we'll put that on the screen here and make it easy for you to click on. And that's another video that we did. Obviously, we have tons of videos, and it can get a little bit overwhelming. So, you know, whenever we give you something like that to specifically go there.
Yeah.
Try that. That's going to be your easiest bet. And then, of course, you know, join us in the group.
Yeah.
You know, Platinum Skin Care Gurus on Facebook. You can call us Monday through Friday, 1-800-917-3155.
Yeah.
Or email us.
And email us.
support@platinumskincare.com. We are always happy to help you out and guide you on your journey.
Yeah. Have a great day.
