How to Choose Between Enzyme and Chemical Peels

Taking good care of your skin can sometimes require nothing more than just keeping it healthy, moisturized, and steering away from any cosmetic or care products that are not good for your skin type, or not good at all. Dealing with ageing, acne scars, pigmentation problems or lifestyle-related skin damage usually entails more than simply taking good care of your skin – and that’s where peels come in. And if you’re wondering about which type of peel is right for your needs – enzyme or chemical – here’s the information you need to know to make a good choice.

Enzyme peels, as their name implies, are performed using enzymes, often derived from fruit. Enzyme peels usually affect the topmost layer of the skin only, the stratum corneum, which is made out of dead skin cells. An enzyme peel will help the skin shed the dead cells, which will even out your skin’s texture and tone, and will also help with clearing out acne and making scars, wrinkles and lines less visible. However, you shouldn’t expect dramatic effects from an enzyme peel. It won’t take a lot of years off of your face, but that’s also what makes an enzyme peel a good choice for someone who wants to incorporate a peel into regular skin-care regiment. Enzyme peel will not leave your skin overtly sensitive like chemical peels do, so you won’t need any time to recover after it.

Chemical peels, on the other hand, affect more than just the topmost layer of the skin. This way, they are able to produce results that are not as subtle as the results from an enzyme peel, and the stronger the chemicals used for the peel, the more pronounced the effects will be. However, stronger chemicals also increase the chance of your skin actually being damaged. Light chemical peels, such as peels performed using a low concentration of glycolic acid, are usually not painful at all, and require little to no recovery afterwards, while still being able to improve your skin texture, remove some spots, help with acne and blackheads and diminish visibility of scars, wrinkles and lines. A medium peel, such as a TCA peel, is more aggressive and produces more visible results, but can be painful and requires up to two week of recovery time, and shouldn’t be done very often. Medium peels affect deeper skin layers, and are thus able to correct skin imperfections, from hyper-pigmentation to facial lines better, but they can’t be done often.