TCA peels, my experience and photos of treatment stages
TCA peels, my experience and photos of treatment stages
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This will be my 2nd hand lift (I did one a year ago), I will post some pictures of the stages so you can see before/during/after. This is the before pic, you will probably need to tilt your screen back a little to see the pigmentation issues as online pictures often have a white sheen to them which you can fix by tilting your screen.
My issue is light pigmentation from me being naughty and not using sunscreen while driving, I spend a lot of time in the car. They are not freckles as such (you can clearly see one freckle in the pic) I am trying to show the pigmentation.
Pic one: (before treatment, pigmentation circled)
recent forum activity
Great addition to skincare routine
I highly enjoyed being able to add this to my daily skincare routine, one extra step, but worth it!
After the first use, my skin felt hydrated.
Avoid for oily skin great for dry skin
My skin feels well moisturised after a dry day, but can feel a little sticky if it is been too humid or if I am a bit oily that day.
Avoid for oily skin great for dry skin
My skin feels well moisturised after a dry day, but can feel a little sticky if its been too humid or if I'm a bit oily that day.
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picture 2 - shows the immediate redness and "frosting" which happens just after treatment and lasts for up to several hours depending on your skin type/individual responses, how strong your peel is etc. I am doing a fairly strong/deep peel to remove as that is what is need to remove pigmentation.
My redness typically lasts for 3-6 hours. It can be shortened by placing your hands periodically in cold water. This time it lasted around 4 hours and the picture shows it just after the acid has been removed and the Aquaphor has been applied (immediately after the acid is rinsed Aquaphor is applied)
pic 3 - 24 hours later
The skin looks dry, leathery and wrinkly when moved, and tight when your hand is flexed. You can now see the pigmentation more clearly.
In a few days it will peel and I will update with those pics
How do you tell the difference between a mole and pigmentation? The black dot could be a mole?
Think the picture makes it look darker it's only a small brown dot, just a basic freckle. I'm not trying to remove that but the light brown patches of pigmentation, or age spots I guess but they aren't spots so much they are like patchy melasma, except on my hands.
Duality ah. makes sense. will you use TCA for spot treatment instead of a large area?
some of my light pigmentation doesn't even come up in the photos.
Dr Hannah Sivak, the founder of Skinactives shared a spot treatment she used TCA to get rid of her pigmentation. I don't buy my TCA from them because they are pricey but the video is good for me to get an idea.
https://youtu.be/e_WciIcaKTs
oh yes..the peeling tip is so hard to follow. i am guilty of that too!
TCA is TCA like sugar is sugar, it should be cheap and it doesn't need to be in a fancy package and cost $$$ but sadly it often does. Some compounding pharmacies have it and will sell it to you - I found theirs is stable and fresher than buying from cosmetic companies/spas etc.
You can buy 100% tca fairly easily and then dilute it to the right mix yourself, and this is the problem and this is where most of the tca nightmare pictures come from. People don't understand how to dilute it. Better for them to buy pre-prepared dilutions but these don't tend to last as long or be long-term stable like the undiluted stuff is.
Oh and word of warning, don't add water to the bottle to dilute. I always get a glass eyedropper and a saucer, add the tca to the saucer then drop the distilled water to dilute. If you add water to the bottle it causes a reaction and the entire contents will go off really quickly and can blow out a plastic bottle.
Very good tips... i wonder which compounding pharmacies to buy it from. How much do you pay for yours?
I bought overseas as it's easy to get but I have a compounding pharmacy where I live and I did buy a pre-diluted bottle of 35% (the one I'm using now) for around $15 or 20 from memory for 30 mls. I bought a 100% bottle last time, it was tiny I think 10mls or something but it lasted well. I prefer to dilute my own because I don't trust someone else to dilute it properly (the chemist I do, I mean more online purchases). That one was really cheap I think like $8. Some tattoo suppliers sell it as they use it too.
Should i just go to a compounding pharmacy and ask if they sell TCA? never bought anything from a compounding agency, so i am not sure. MUAC does sell 30% TCA peels, not 100% though. duality if you are getting it again, we can find out the source from you... esp if we can buy it online :)
other than MUAC, the other place i saw is http://skinpeelshop.com/ from France
ps: MUAC did recommend to do a series of lactic acid prior to TCA for pigmentation.
i'm the first to click follow. Been waiting for your review on TCA Duality thanks for starting this thread.
what strength TCA did you use?
35%, so it's a deep peel due to pigmentation needing that strength to disappear. Chest area is next, but I only do one section at a time.
Looking forward to following your journey duality. I didn't realise your TCA experience was DIY!!! Did your derm do your face first?
oooh good point I should have mentioned that! Yes I have been with 2 derms (overseas) and I had all my treatments done by them so I learned the procedure, knew the strengths my skin could tolerate so I didn't just wing it. My face I had done by them several times but I was a wimp and wouldn't let them do my eye area, it took me a year before I let them! I started with really low peels, like 8-12% even though they said they would do higher - I was really worried that I would get burnt or something horrible would happen (didn't even trust the professionals).
They always tried to talk me into higher strength because it means your skin sheets rather than flakes - anyone using peeling agents know how much a pain flaking is, difficult to put makeup on for weeks. Sheeting means it comes off all in one go pretty much - it's weird and gross at the same time lol. Good point, thanks for reminding me to say never do this yourself without a derm consult or you can get bigger problems than you are trying to fix.
Thanks for clarifying :) My derm has in the past mentioned tca peels for my pigmentation but he was blase about it all. I'm far too much of a wimp to even get it done professionally at this stage. Perhaps as I get older I will re-consider. But love hearing others experiences anyway.
EDIT - plus I remember watching that show 'The Doctors' and they showed TCA peels gone wrong! It seems quite common place in America to DYI everything. Scary stuff if you don't know what you're doing.
will be good to learn what you do before or after too.
i have the precaution for peels from MUAC somewhere.... looking
duality if i want to start on TCA... i think winter is the best time to do it.
I'm a sook/wimp/have trust issues so I would only do a 12% peel first time as I swore I'd be one of those people that get issues/nightmare/freak responses. It gave me a nice peel with brighter, softer skin that is so soft and hydrated it's weird and hard to describe. But it didn't remove my freckles or light pigmentation and the derm is sighing in the background with the "I told you so" face because he wanted 35% first go.
Eventually I got it done and he was right, it was much better results. You could see the pigmentation in the sheets of skin - cool, and gross! When I finally got my eyes done I was really blown away - my eye makeup looked really clean and smooth and no crepey lines anymore (and my eyes weren't so bad because I always wear sunnies). It also removed a flat pea sized amount of pigmentation blob that was under my eyebrow - gone!
Only do one area at a time. Just eyes, or just rest of face, or just hands - no multiple procedures to save time because it can swell and cause fluid issues like a heat burn can. Down time depends on your strength. Higher means sheeting skin so quicker recovery time and you can still wear makeup as your skin is just dry and leathery and wrinkly but it is still intact. When you do lower peels you get flaking constantly which can last for one to two weeks. When the sheeting happens it's all gone in 1-2 days.
know your Fitzpatrick score, anything III or over then only ever go to a derm as you are at risk of hypo/hyper pigmentation issues. If you have any ethnicity apart from Caucasian then also get a derm opinion as Asian, Indian, African, Latina skin types are really prone to more harm than good from TCA
stop all other treatments like retinoids, salicylic acid, bha/aha, glycolics etc for around one week
de-fatting the skin: on the day of proceudre a chemical (usually acetone!) is wiped over the skin so all oils are removed which allows even penetration of the acid. I refused acetone point blank and instead use Clinique no.2 toner (which honestly smells no better than acetone but it's designed for the face at least)
a layer of Aquaphor is placed on all areas you don't want peeled that are close to the site so it it runs/drips etc only the area you treated is safe
depending on the area treated either a cotton bud or a fan brush is used to apply the acid
wait up to 1 minute until it "frosts" (yes, it looks just like white frost) If it doesn't frost then apply another layer and wait 30 seconds. If still no frosting then maybe the solution is off as it should frost in 2 layers.
when it has evenly frosted then immediately rinse with cold water. Some places say use a bicarb soda solution to neutralize the acid, for me this is unnecessary and bicarb doesn't agree with my skin and I don't like it so plain water is fine.
pat dry with reinforced soft paper towel then apply a layer of Aquaphor
use barrier methods of sun protection (hat, scarf, gloves etc) if you can instead of chemical sunscreen if you can for the first couple of days
avoid workouts where you will sweat a lot, or hot baths or you can get "sweat bubbles" under the skin (look like blisters, sweat trapped under the dead skin)
don't pick off the skin (cough I need to read that one and do it but honestly I pick it once it is loose and not attached)
only use simple cleansers like Cetaphil (my derm said that one, it works for me but if you don't like the ingredients in it then ask your derm for another recommendation). Avene also make a range for post-peel or post-laser treatment, it's really good, I got one first time I had procedure done but damn it's expensive! http://www.aveneusa.com/sos-complete-post-procedure-recovery-kit
if you can't commit to sunscreen daily (even in winter) then don't do TCA because your results will depend on continue sunscreen use
Will edit this list as I remember more.
edit for extras I forgot:
leave an edge or feathering for the border of your peel, this is especially important for areas like eyes and around the mouth. The peel with extend further than the border of where the acid was placed. So a couple of mm from the edge of the lip border for example the peel will continue right up to the lips. Leave an edge and remember that the peel will push past it (I worded that really badly I know, I will tidy it up when my brain decides to cooperate with me)
if you are doing deeper peels (over 15%) then only do them twice per year and don't do them in summer or in the month leading up to summer. They work best (and you are more comfortable) when done in autumn and winter.
Very helpful Duality two thumbs up! i am saving your list and will be referring back to it.
I can't emphasise how important "de-fatting the skin" is i tried my milder MUAC Radiance and it made a big difference when i "de-fat" the skin prior review of my MUAC Radiance Peel: http://loveneedwant.wix.com/blog#!REVIEW-MUAC-Radiance-Peel/cmbz/5739d3be0cf26f2f1b283e26
MUAC sells a pH Prep solution and it is not as harsh as acetone. It's quite lovely and very affordable.
May i just add that Aquaphor is a good occlusive but not 100%. Vaseline can be used in its placed as vaseline is 100% petroleum white parrafin... Aquaphor is only partially occlusive.
I remember having a convo with the derm about this and he said no to Vaseline during derm treatments like laser or TCA. Something about the ingredients in Aquaphor being more moisturising or something to do with the healing layer. Honestly I forget but this post by beautybrains leans towards it a bit:
http://thebeautybrains.com/2014/01/whats-the-best-moisturizer/
Edit to add, this site explains it, this is what he told me http://healthresearchfunding.org/aquaphor-vs-vaseline/
Vaseline is good but it contains nothing but paraffin which has nothing skin beneficial. It is good as an occlusive. Best if applied over something skin beneficial to seal the nutrition in. Used alone, it is insufficient.
Aquaphor contains Vitamin B5 Pathenol, Bisabolol (good for irritation, from the camomile flower) & Glycerin. It's a good all in one.
For purposes of protecting the skin from TCA acid. Vaseline may work better. That was the advice given by another doctor.
I am thinking of perhaps having a good skin peel, to reduce pigmentation and to give my skin a fresher look. I am wondering how much these procedures cost? And if they really do make a difference. I can see the difference on your hand. And I am too scare about trying a DIY on myself incase i get it wrong.
Ellelily I got my treatments when I lived overseas so I guess I can't help you with cost here, but maybe google it and call a couple of clinics. I highly suggest going to www.realself.com and go to the chemical peels section as it has lots of info, pictures, reviews etc and you can submit pictures and get advice from the professional docs and derms.
I must admit the difference was huge, I didn't have a huge issue with wrinkles etc just pigmentation from inconsistent sunscreen use and dry skin. The skin that the peel revealed was so different, really hydrated and soft and smooth. They eye area was really amazing though but it was the area I was most scared about doing but it wasn't an issue in the end.
oh the precautions i promised (see photo) this applies to ALL chemical peels
TCA Instructions from MUAC http://www.makeupartistschoice.com/assets/images/Product%20Directions/tcapeel1page.pdf
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