Facial peels are ideal for erasing some signs of ageing and giving your face a natural glow. This technique is designed to eliminate the upper or deeper layers of the epidermis for clearer, more radiant skin. Peels help brighten your complexion, smooth the skin’s texture and reduce fine lines by regenerating the epidermis and dermis. This procedure applies a product with a varying acid concentration causing the skin to flake. Your skin is younger, radiant and ‘renewed’. Peels can also be performed on the hands and cleavage.

There are several types of peels depending on whether you are simply seeking a ‘healthy glow’ or a true anti-ageing treatment:

• superficial peels (containing fruit acid, especially glycolic acid) give the face a glow, tighten the pores, even the skin tone and the pigmentation or redness caused by acne.
• medium peels (trichloroacetic acid) have a stronger action to reduce marks, fine lines and smooth the skin. They help to even the skin’s surface texture.
• deep peels (containing phenol) produce a similar effect to a facelift. Phenol peels can cause significant complications and are therefore not explained in this section.
• specific peels for marks or ‘spot peels’ are used to help depigmentation agents penetrate into the skin to treat melasma.

A few weeks before your first session, you may be asked to use creams or cleansing lotions to prepare your skin for maximum results. The session itself lasts 15-40 minutes.

The product is applied onto the skin with a brush, a pad or a cotton bud. It is left for a few minutes and depending on the type of peel it may or may not be neutralized using a lotion. A soothing cream is applied at the end of the session.

For superficial peels you may experience some tingling and slight redness that will only last a few minutes.

Medium peels produce a burning sensation that lasts one or several minutes. Your skin will be fanned to mitigate this feeling.

There is a dual effect: the skin is tightened and the complexion lightened, which improves over the following weeks. Some downtime may be necessary depending on the type of peel and flaking time.

• For superficial peels, the flaking is limited to surface ‘fluff’ lasting 24 to 48 hours, generally starting two days after the peel, which can be concealed by a moisturizer. This type of peel requires no downtime.

• For medium peels there can be heavy flaking for 4 to 10 days requiring healing creams and downtime. It is important not to tear off the micro-scabs.

Sun protection is mandatory for one month for any type of peel.

LED (Light Emitting Diode) phototherapy is a gentle skin regeneration technique that emits a monochrome light that directly targets the heart of the cells to repair your skin. Its anti-ageing effect is an ideal addition to other cosmetic dermatology techniques.

Combining your peel with LED treatment reduces the immediate side effects of the treatment and significantly maximises results.

The results depend on the type of peel and the extent of flaking: gentle peels will refresh your complexion and smooth your skin. The results are gradual, improving after each session; three sessions 2 to 3 weeks apart are often necessary. For medium peels, there will be more visible results. Dark spots are reduced and wrinkles toned. One session may be enough.

Side effects are extremely rare with superficial peels. Medium peels can cause residual redness or hyperpigmentation which is always reversible but in some cases there are permanent achromic spots, especially with deep peels using either trichloroacetic acid or phenol.

From €120 for a superficial peel and €250 for a medium peel