What Chemical Peel is Best to Tighten Skin?

In order to understand the best way to treat skin laxity, it is important to understand the causes behind why your skin loses its firmness and elasticity.


These qualities are attributed to protein fibers in your skin like collagen.
Exposure to UV rays as well as the presence of free radicals from food and environmental sources causes damage to these fibers, making your skin less firm. Wrinkles are likely to form at this point.


Chemical peels primarily address the surface of the skin. And results will vary widely across individuals. Lasers like Fraxel, offer safer and more predictable results. The laser energy is turned into heat which prompts the dermis layer to produce new collagen fibers.

Both Fraxel Repair and Fraxel Dual use this principle. However, Fraxel Repair may be ideal if you have fair or light olive toned skin. The laser vaporizes numerous  vertical columns of skin and reduces the overall surface area. This of course tightens the skin. Fraxel Dual will be a better choice if you have darker colored skin.

Generally, medium peels are great for fine lines and wrinkles, but if you want something more aggressive then I suggest other treatments. Deeper wrinkles can be treated with fillers. Laser skin tightening can also work.

Alpha and beta hydroxyacid chemical peels erase fine lines and give the skin a smoother appearance within 1 to 3 treatments. Light TCA chemical peels (including Obagi Blue Peels) use trichloroacetic acid to more aggressively erase wrinkles and tighten the skin, minimize enlarged pores, and even pigmentation. As TCA is more aggressive in nature, recovery time is increased.