See Ya, Melasma! - Portland, OR

Apologies, the photo didn't upload on my last post.

Yesterday marked two weeks since starting Cosmelan 2. The discoloration is nearly gone, however I'm experiencing embarrassing peeling/flaking/redness daily and there's no indication of normalizing anytime soon. I've been using Cosmelan 2 twice a day, but starting today have decided to apply it only once a day going forward. It burns severely upon application (why has nobody mentioned this?) and my skin has peeled nonstop for two weeks straight; hoping a reduction in use will calm the irritation without sacrificing the efficacy of the peel. I applied prescription cortisone a couple times, but that didn't do much; also paranoid about using cortisone too often, as it thins the skin. If I could cover the redness with makeup, it wouldn't be so bad; however, the flaking and peeling makes it impossible to wear makeup. Don't understand how others have been able to. Here's how every day has gone, just like groundhog's day: 7:00am apply Cosmelan 2 which stains your face a strange yellow/orange/fake tan tinge (how come nobody talks about this?) > apply Hydra-vital Factor K 15 minutes later, which only slightly neutralizes the yellow/orange tone > apply sunscreen which unfortunately clings to the dry patches > apply makeup which cakes onto the layer of sunscreen on top of the layer of moisturizer on top of the layer of Cosmelan 2 > try to blend makeup, which exacerbates the dry patches > apply more moisturizer in an attempt to blend all the layers of products and makeup > go to work red/orange faced; apply moisturizer and/or hyaluronic acid and/or argan oil every couple hours, which removes all traces of makeup/sunscreen; even eye makeup melts right off because of all the layers of moisturizer > respond to people all day asking, "have you been in the sun?" > 3:00pm face is starting to crack and flake no matter how frequently moisturizer is applied > 5:00pm skin is peeling, red and fairly unpresentable > 6:00pm rush home from work to get out of sight as quickly as possible > 7:00pm wash face, apply Cosmelan 2, writhe in pain for 15 minutes until moisturizer can be applied; awake the next day, do it all over again. Don't get me wrong: I'm glad I did this and would fully recommend it for anyone bothered by their discoloration. I just want to give an accurate account of what can be expected in terms of recovery. I'm experiencing longer downtime than other people's reviews on this site. Personally, going back to work a week later was too soon. I would never do this again without giving myself two weeks off. My guess is I'm still about a week out from looking normal, now that I've cut Cosmelan 2 usage down to once a day. Yesterday I went to a BBQ and had to excuse myself five times over the course of four hours to sneak into the bathroom to remove chunks of peeling skin hanging off my face and try to disguise the flaky patches and redness. Below is a photo of the lower half of my face (where the peeling is most extreme) taken at the end of the day after work. I do not have any Cosmelan 2 on my face, so my skin is actually a fairly normal color in this photo. Hope this info is helpful!

The melasma and discoloration is around 70% gone already—yay! That in itself makes the process totally worth it in my book. The heavy peeling is nearly done as of last night, however the snake skin is in full effect and just getting started. Essentially my entire face is tomato red and has the appearance of snakeskin—all-over scaliness, flakiness and light peeling. I use moisturizer about every half hour—it really is that parched. It doesn't look like it'll get better or worse—just constant. Will the skin ever adjust to the Cosmelan 2? God I hope so, considering I've got months ahead of me using the product daily. I'm nowhere near having the smooth, pink, shiny skin everyone describes, but it's bound to happen soon, right? So that's the latest. I'll wake up tomorrow hoping it'll be better than today, and so on and so forth.