Shed Your Parched Summer Skin and Look Forward to a Fresh, Radiant Winter

With summer a fading memory, our thoughts now turn to the party season and how to sparkle. For many, the two weeks spent basking in foreign climes may have left you with skin feeling parched and lifeless as your suntan fades. Fine lines and wrinkles can also appear more visibly after exposure to the sun leaving your skin looking desperately in need of a pick-me-up.

A glowing, radiant complexion, however, is more achievable than you may think and help is at hand in the form of several different treatments. One of the most successful skin treatments available is a chemical skin peel.

Chemical skin peels are chemical solutions used to improve and smooth the texture of the facial skin. Skin peels are used to treat various medical and aesthetic skin conditions. These conditions include fine lines and wrinkles, sun damage, acne, mild acne scarring, hyper-pigmentation and many other skin abnormalities.

There are different degrees of skin peels available depending on each persons individual skin and the results are extremely visible. A course of four once-a-week skin peels really puts the glow back into tired skin. It can also be used to rejuvenate the hands and to treat acne, scars and stretch marks. The peels can also be used in conjunction with other treatments such as wrinkle relaxing or dermal filler treatments..

This Autumn we have looked at the most popular types of chemical peels and applied our Harlequin Rating:

Easy TCA
This type of peel is the most aggressive of  Harlequins peels but also gets the best results. Brown spots, hyper pigmentation and -other skin disorders from photo ageing are effectively treated with a system that uses trichloroacetic acid to repair these defects through a process called photo-rejuvenation. Additionally, photo-damaged décolletage and hands can now be treated, contributing to a more youthful appearance.

These peels are done in a course of four spread over 4 – 6 weeks and are used with a luxurious vitamin based cream that is carefully selected for your age and skin type.

After the TCA skin peel treatment, the cells feel the effects of the stimulation for more than 4 weeks. During this time the collagen builds up and subtly fills out the top layers of the skin. Improvements may take 1 - 3 months. With each subsequent treatment, subtle changes will accumulate until you have achieved the improvement you desire.

PROS:  * Fantastic results in only 4 peels * Great creams that are very rich * Can be used in conjunction with almost any other non surgical treatment

CONS: * Need to have a very experienced doctor when it comes to ethnic skin types * There are a couple days where you peel as if you have had a sunburn

The HM Rating