Weekly AHA Peel suggestions?

[AnnaCassandra]

Hi ladies and gents, I have dehydrated/oily skin with large pores on my nose/cheeks/forehead, I usually have *some* acne- it's usually a few smaller pimples that could show up anywhere on my face, the occasional deep pimple on my chin or jaw line- usually related to stress. I also get blackheads- sometimes ordinary blackheads like the kind you can actually extract but usually my nose, cheeks, forehead and chin are filled with "brownheads"- where the pores look dirty no matter how much I wash my face and no amount of squeezing would extract them (don't worry I don't do this). I generally avoid anything geared towards acne prone skin- although it seems it would be the right course of action it always makes my skin SOOO much worse. I've generally used just a gentle cleanser and good moisturizer- I've avoided acids and peels thinking it would irritate my skin and make things worse, I tried a retinol product once but it was a moisturizer and I don't know if it had enough active ingredients and I think it had some not so great ingredients because I didn't find it gave me any positive results and it felt really heavy and sticky on my skin. All this to say that I've recently started using the Drunk Elephant products and my skin has been feeling amazing- I'm really loving the C-firma and Framboos and the moisturizers are great at balancing my skin back to normal without drying it out. BUT I'm still getting the occasional pimple, and I still have large "dirty" looking pores despite washing twice a day. What I'd really like to try is the DE babyfacial, but we can't get it here and the AHA peel from the Ordinary that people seem to recommend as an alternative doesn't seem to be available either. So I'm wondering what you all might recommend as an alternative- I'm not a fan of clay masks I feel they dry out my skin too much and don't really do that great a job of cleaning out my pores either. I was at Sephora yesterday and they gave me a sample of the Peter Thomas Roth Firmx peeling gel and Boscia charcoal peeling gel- I tried the PTR one last night and I wasn't really a fan- I'm not sure it really did much to exfoliate my skin and I really don't like the balled up little bits the charcoal one operates the same way so I don't think I'd like it any better. 

Any suggestions?

[Melanna]

The best I have tried is The Strivectin 5 minute peel, but it's sadly now discontinued.

I'd suggest to splurge on Oskia Reneissance mask (cultbeauty (whre you can also get Ordinary 30% peel) or lookfantastic) it is great for newbies in skincare.

Also, Neostrata (sold at drugstore) has a weekly peeling, it was good, but now the company has a new owner, so I'm not sureabout the new formula. They also had AMAZING acid toner, which they package in a smaller bottle now with the same price tag, however, it is a great place to start. I feel I never have blackheads but I use acid twice a day for the last couple years. My choice is acid toner and treatments.

[Fortyniner49]

I highly recommend the Dr dennis gross alpha beta daily pads! They are amazing! Use them 2 to 3 times a week and you will be amazed at the difference in your skin. I use them twice a week and I cut them in half, trust me half does the job, just put it back in the package and tape it closed, it stays wet. You won't be disappointed. Use the regular strength. It's so good !

[alexasteph]

@AnnaCassandra My favorite weekly peel is PHILOSOPHY - The Microdelivery Resurfacing Peel. It’s a two step physical and chemical exfoliation with vitamin c for brightening. When someone is looking for a variety of skin care solutions, I think this is a fantastic all in one product perfect for any skin type. 

[fieldsofclover]

@AnnaCassandraSounds like we're sort of similar... my skin isn't oily but my pores clog really easily. I've been using the C-Firma and Framboos for about a month now. I do use the Babyfacial once a week or so, but that seems to affect texture more than keeping my pores clear.

There are three other things I do that have really helped clear out those same stuck areas like you're describing. One is to use the Pyunkang Yul essence toner every day... Sephora doesn't carry it but in Canada you can order it from yesstyle. I do the 7-skin method (like in the Gothamista videos on YouTube) and its the most effective thing I've ever done... I'm on my third bottle.

Second is just a plain old bottle of salicylic acid from The Ordinary. This is a BHA, not an AHA. I use it at night 2-3 times a week.

Third is using a Clarisonic twice a week or so. This doesn't scrub everything out by itself, but it makes all your other treatments more effective (and makes extractions much simpler). This is obviously a lot more expensive than my other two recommendations, so it's more of an optional thing if the others aren't getting you where you want to be.

Of the 3, the Pyunkang Yul makes the biggest difference for me. I forgot what blackheads were until I ran out of it for a couple weeks.

Edit: One other thing you could try is a month of the Dr Dennis Gross peels. Those changed my life when I had more actual acne, but you'd want to commit to using them daily or every other day for a month or two... using a sample here and there isn't enough to get the full results. I honestly don't recall whether they completely cleared my pores or not, but a few months of those broke my acne cycle for good, and all my texture was gone.

[AnnaCassandra]

I’ll have to check out the 7-skin method, do you skip the framboos when you use TO salicylic acid? I had considered the dr Dennis gross daily peels but I didn’t want to layer multiple aha products and overdue it. I’m not crazy about timers but I’ll check out the one you mentioned