Gave Myself my First TCA Peel Today - Bay Area, CA

I got the 30% TCA solution from Amazon and read the instructions carefully. I did a test yesterday on my neck, diluting it a little with water first. It barely stung and never frosted so I figured I'd go ahead and use the full strength on my face. Well, I had a lot of anxiety about doing this to myself but, wow, there was nothing to it! I Q-tipped it on, one side first, then waited about 90 seconds, rinsed, then did the other half. That was a good plan because my face started frosting right away. I should mention that I've been using retinol for 8 months leading up to this, so perhaps that's why I could take the 30% strength.

Anyway, how easy! It hardly hurt at all, and after I rinsed it off with cold water I just felt a little warm, and no pain at all. I don't like ointments so I opted to just dab on some Noxema skin cream and my face feels good, just a tad stiff. Can't wait to see what happens next. What's interesting to me is I've done alph-hydroxy peels and I hate them -- they hurt and they don't make any noticable difference. I'm hoping a TCA peel will actually do something! Anyway, I'll post again in a couple of days.

Okay, it's been 24 hours and my face looks and feels almost completely normal. I'm thinking I probably didn't leave the solution on long enough. Anyway, we'll see...maybe my face will fall off tomorrow and I'll change my mind about that ;)

Also, I said I'd done alpha-hydroxy peels before and didn't like them. I meant to say "glycolic" peels. I really think the glycolic acid peels are a total waste of time.