The ordinary aha bha peel

[julliii44]

Hi Ladies,

I have just started to use aha bha peel from the ordinary, i am wondering which cleanser before  using this product  for your face and which spf cream after using this product? Thanksxx

[figgy2008]

Skinfix has a really nice gentle cleanser that works great for my drier skin as well as my other family members who have combo oilier skin.

[ibblej]

@julliii44 What cleanser you use depends on your personal preferences, but you do want to make sure that whatever you're using doesn't contain any acids itself. If your cleanser contains its own serving of A or BHAs, you might find yourself the victim of skin irritation from the unexpectedly high dose. Additionally, you don't wan't to layer AHAs and BHAs with retinoids or vitamin C, as they'll render each other ineffective due to pH conflicts.

Personally, I find cold cream style cleansers nice and gentle for when I'm chemically exfoliating. (I like Albolene, myself.) Whatever you choose, you want to avoid cleansers that are too hash.

[WinglessOne]

@ibblej  Quick clarification about this bit: 

Additionally, you don't wan't to layer AHAs and BHAs with retinoids or vitamin C, as they'll render each other ineffective due to pH conflicts.

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Vitamin C or retinoids don’t stop AHA or BHA from exfoliating, nor do AHA/BHA stop retinoids/vit C from doing their jobs. An AHA or BHA exfoliant should have a low pH itself to be effective. Vitamin C serums are acidic, so they have a low pH. And retinol works fine in a low pH environment: skin’s natural pH is a bit acidic (below neutral) and retinol has no problem with that. 

The only reason not to layer vit C, retinol, AHA, and/or BHA is your skin’s tolerance of the combo. Not everyone’s skin can handle an OTC retinol + AHA, for instance, but mine can because I gradually built up tolerance. 🙂 And I sometimes layer BHA and my vitamin C serum in the morning. I do all of this with my dermatologist’s blessing. 

Speaking of tolerance: good point about avoiding cleansers that contain AHA or BHA. Though again, that’ll depend on individual skin sensitivity. The only way to get much exfoliating benefit from such a cleanser is to let it sit on your face for a few minutes before rinsing, but a sensitive face might not like even a quickly rinsed off AHA/BHA cleanser followed by an exfoliant. 

[AshGarcia]

True! I mix vitamin c and retinol too. I started out about once a week with a very small bit of the retinol and haven’t had any issues. I like the combo 🙂

[WinglessOne]

@julliii44  Any cleanser that works well for your skin type without stripping your face (leaving it feeling very dry and tight, with flaky dry patches) is fine. If you have dry dry-leaning combo, or dehydrated oily skin, you may want to use a moisturizing/hydrating gel, cream, or jelly cleanser instead of a foaming cleanser. Since I have mostly-dry combo skin, I like Paula’s Choice Hydralight Cleanser. CereVe Hydrating Cleanser is also a good option. If you have oily skin, you may prefer a different type of cleanser. 

Also, any sunscreen with a minimum SPF of 30 is fine. My favorites are SUPERGOOP! - Unseen Sunscreen SPF 40, COOLA - Full Spectrum 360° Sun Silk Drops Organic Sunscreen SPF 30, and COOLA - Mineral Face Matte Tint Sunscreen Moisturizer SPF 30. But there are lots of other good options out there. 

[Brutalitops]

@julliii44I really think any general use cleanser should work, my favorite SPF is the one by Biore but there's a lot of K-Beauty brands with nice light textures and great reviews on amazon