Why do we need acid scrubbing for skin care?

Acid peeling can be said to be a fashion in the skin care industry. Many people have followed the trend and have done acid peeling, but many people have also encountered some problems during the process. So, can this acid peeling still be done? Don't worry, first of all, we need to really understand the essence of acid peeling in depth. After all, skin is related to appearance, and the reason for acid peeling is to have better skin.

So, let’s talk about acid removal today.

01. What is the essence of acid peeling?

Acid peeling is essentially a chemical exfoliation process that involves applying chemicals to the surface of the skin, destroying the top layer of skin and then replacing it with new skin.

Currently, common acid peeling ingredients include salicylic acid, fruit acid (such as citric acid, mandelic acid, malic acid), retinoic acid, etc. After these acidic substances are applied to the skin, they will react chemically with the skin, destroy the existing skin structure, and then prompt the body to start the skin's post-traumatic healing process, thereby quickly renewing the skin.

Of course, acid peeling can be divided into superficial peeling, middle peeling and deep peeling. We can get a glimpse of this from the structure of the skin, that is, we can see the gradual deepening of the damage caused by acid peeling to the skin structure.

For example, many acid peels target the stratum corneum, because the stratum corneum covering the skin will aggravate the aging of the skin, block the penetration of skin care ingredients, and may even cause pores to become clogged, so they will choose to remove the stratum corneum.

02. What are the dangers of acid peeling?

Acid peeling can indeed solve skin problems to a certain extent. For example, for stubborn skin problems like acne, spots, etc., because they stay on the skin for a long time and form a stable structure, they will stay there no matter how the skin is renewed. In this case, acid peeling can alleviate these problems to a certain extent.

However, as an ingredient that damages the skin itself, acid peeling is not as safe as imagined. In fact, if you do a random search, you will see cases of health problems caused by acid peeling.

For example, a CCTV program once exposed the chaos of acid peeling beauty treatments promoted by internet celebrities, pointing out that many acid-containing cosmetics currently recommended by internet celebrities exaggerate the effects of their promotions and are likely to mislead consumers. For example, there are slogans such as "nanny-level immersive acid peeling" and "hand-in-hand teaching you how to do medical-grade fruit acid skin peeling", etc., without mentioning a word about the risks of acid peeling. As a result, many people have developed health problems during the process.

In fact, as we mentioned at the beginning, acid peeling is a chemical method to damage the skin and promote regeneration. This process will inevitably damage the skin's first innate immune barrier, making it more susceptible to invasion by microorganisms. Excessive acid peeling, if not followed up with care, will lead to aggravation of skin problems or even new problems. In addition, the skin tolerance problem caused by excessive acid peeling cannot be ignored.

03. Acid flushing has risks and needs to be treated with caution

The National Medical Products Administration has also issued a special document to point out the current chaos in the acid peeling market, pointing out that acid peeling should be performed in hospitals or clinics with medical qualifications and by trained professionals, so that the appropriate concentration can be selected according to the patient's condition, a scientific diagnosis and treatment plan can be formulated, and timely intervention can be made for any problems that arise during use. However, ordinary people do not have this judgment ability, and it is not easy for them to control the dosage, and they cannot even detect any side effects in time. As a result, "rotten face" and "peeling" are common, affecting the health of many people.

Therefore, acid peeling is risky and needs to be treated with caution.

Some people may ask, since acid peeling has risks, but removing part of the skin barrier and promoting skin regeneration is also a great need to some extent, how can we solve this problem?

04. How to avoid the risk of acid flushing?

This is back to the original essence. The essence of acid peeling is the process of exfoliating the skin, as long as this process can be achieved. Our common methods can be divided into at least three categories, physical, chemical and biological. Physical methods use instruments, which are not acceptable. Chemical methods use acid peeling, but are there any biological methods**? Is the popular concept of "acid-free peeling" on the market a waste of money? **Of course not.

Acid-free skin exfoliation is essentially a biological method, using enzymes in organisms to work. It actually better solves the risks and irritation of chemical acid peeling while meeting the needs of acid peeling, making the skin delicate and smooth .

I believe everyone knows that enzymes are biologically active macromolecules, mainly proteins, that can function in a mild environment. The purpose of many people's acid peeling is to accelerate the metabolism of melanin that has been produced by epidermal cells, and then brighten the skin. When it comes to products that improve skin color, the most common one is to inhibit tyrosinase activity and reduce melanin production. What substances can do this?

For example, the Chinese traditional medicine classic "Shennong Bencao Jing" records that the rare licorice root has extremely high value. As shown in the figure below, it is a cell experiment to verify the inhibition rate of different concentrations of components on tyrosinase: at a low concentration (3.125mg/L), the inhibitory effect of glabridin on tyrosinase is 140 times that of nicotinamide and 18 times that of VC ethyl ether. [1]

External factors such as ultraviolet rays, stress, and pollution lead to the release of inflammatory factors, which will aggravate the melanin reaction of the skin. Therefore, the first step to improve skin color should be to relieve inflammation at the source and reduce the factors that stimulate the production of melanin. "Glycyrrhizin" achieves this very well, and intervenes in all pathways of melanin formation. A single ingredient can achieve four major pathways to brighten the skin.

Not only that, glabridin can play a role in soothing and stabilizing. These combined effects can repair the skin while exfoliating without acid. And it avoids the damage and tolerance problems caused by chemical acid peeling itself to the greatest extent, which can be said to be safer and more effective.

In general, acid peeling is very popular now, but everyone must be cautious about it. After all, there is still a certain risk of damaging the skin. It is best to go to a professional institution for acid peeling, so that you can control the amount and degree. For daily use, it is better to choose a gentler biological method.

[1] Wang Ruixue, Zhao Zhen, Zhong Yan, Li Xiaodi, Wang Zhiyong. Study on the synergistic effect of several commonly used whitening agents[J]. Surfactant Detergent Industry. 2014, 44(10): 572-576.