Chemical Peel: Stories

I had my first peel ever yesterday. I told the aesthetician that I wanted a peel that would clear out my pores and even out my skin tone. She highly recommended the Miami Peel because it has five acids (kojic, citric, lactic, salicylic, and forgot) so they would clear and brighten it. She also said that even though it's called a "peel", most people do not actually peel because the ingredients are coated with something when it goes through the skin.

So these were the steps when I went in:
1. Cleanser- she wiped my face with a cotton ball with gel type cleanser.
2. Alcohol- she wiped my face with alcohol and gave me a small hand fan. However, i did not feel any burning so I just turned it off. I suppose if you use face scrubs daily, or have any recently popped zits, it would burn.
3. Aquaphor- she put aquaphor all around my eyes, crease of my nostrils, and my lips.
4. Alcohol-she redid the alcohol
5. Peel- she put the peel on, it sort of smelled sour but it did not hurt. Then she said we had to wait 5 mins.
6. 2nd layer-she put a 2nd layer again. She said a lot of clients get three layers but she would do 2 to get me started.

I was done in 15 minutes, and the charge was $125 :S Of course, I know i'm not paying for time but at that moment, I could understand why people get tempted to do peels at home!! After my peel, I did not feel any discomfort. I was instructed not to wash my face for four hours (5:30 to 9:30). I washed my face around 9:00 with cetaphil cleanser; my forehead was shiny and my skin felt very smooth with red patches on my cheekbones and chin. Slightly windburned or chapped feeling but nothing overwhelming.

In the morning, I woke up and my face felt a little bit burning!! I washed my face and it looked like I had a bunch of emerging zits! I thought, "ok that's part of the peel" but when I looked close in the mirror, they were not zits at all; they were just surface itchy bumps. That was around 1 pm. It got worse and worse and my face was so itchy. I had a hot shower and that somewhat improved it but i felt slight burning. I put a layer of Dr. perricone organic face cream on to calm it down. I called the dermatologist's office and asked, "hi, i had a peel yesterday and today my face is burning up and covered in hives...can you tell me if this is normal or should i just wait it out? i just want to make sure in case." The lady said my aesthetician was in another location and would call back on my cell. I then received a call an hour later, and another lady said my aesthetician was doing a peel so she would call back later. I did not receive a call. I wiped my face with aftershave (high alcohol content) to kill bacteria just in case. My face is still super itchy. My bro never notices anything and he said, "omg what the hell happened to your face?"

I was doing this to look good when I go in for jobs because right now I'm unemployed...now I'm out $125 and i can't go anywhere...:( It would have been nice if my doctor's office at least called me back and said "hey don't worry about it" or whatever...however, I will give the benefit of a doubt and wait until tomorrow.