Orange, bananas, and face peels?

With two young boys and a lot of different work responsibilities, I don't tend to have a lot of time to take care of myself. So I am always looking for easy ways to make my skin look and feel better. And when I heard that face peels can help everything from fine lines to pigmentation, I was intrigued. But the thought of putting chemicals on my face completely turned me off. Then I learned that a safe option existed. And when I learned that you can do it at home and with just two pumps followed by a moisturizer, I was sold.

If you have spent anytime on this blog, you probably know that I am a huge fan of Beautycounter, so naturally when they recently came out with the Overnight Resurfacing Peel, I wanted to try it out.  It is formulated with 15 botanically-derived acids. It is a leave-on AHA/BHA peel that improves skin texture and minimizes the appearance of pores, fine lines, and dark spots without irritation or over-drying. So it's basically good for everything we don't like about our skin ;) It had glycolic, lactic, and malic acids which clear away surface skin cells, while hyaluronic acid and essential fatty acids soothe and nourish. And it feels great!

The crazy things about chemicals is that they're not all are bad. But it can be overwhelming to know which are natural, which are toxic and which do we not have enough health data about. I wanted to know a little more about the chemicals that are getting people so excited about face peels. So I found out that Alpha-hydroxy acids (AHAs) are a class of chemicals that are naturally occurring and may be found in fruits, milk, sugar cane, or may be made synthetically. They are water-soluble and are used for the purpose of exfoliating skin, leading to increased cell turnover. And Beta-hydroxy acids (BHAs) are chemically very similar - the most common one used is salicylic acid. BHAs are oil-soluble. They work on the skin’s surface but are also able to work inside the pores to unclog and clear out any dirt, impurities or excess oil to reveal a more clarified skin tone.

There's quite a bit out there about the dangers of salicylic acid and after doing some research it turns out that the jury is still out on how dangerous and how much is dangerous. According to WedMD, "salicylic acid is a keratolytic. It belongs to the same class of drugs as aspirin(salicylates). It works by increasing the amount of moisture in the skin and dissolving the substance that causes the skin cells to stick together. This makes it easier to shed the skin cells." EWG's skin deep database rates it a 4 and from what I can see most people agree it's safe under 2% and Beautycounter's peel is .5%. 

I don't believe that there is a miracle cure to fix everything and aging gracefully is the new beautiful (right?!?!?) but honestly, I am in LOVE with this product! I used it every other night for about a week before I left for a work trip and immediately noticed a difference. I didn't take it with me on my trip and regretted it! It's small enough for TSA and all be going with me from now on!


To learn more about how peels can help everything from pigmentation to scarring, hydration to acne, skin texture to fine lines and wrinkle, you can read more here and here.