[Review] Let's talk MUAC: At-home chemical peels changed everything

Beauty Tips For Body Care
So first things to note - I'm very used to all kinds of different acids and strengths, and I do not mean "peels" as presented by regular brands, even things like the 30% AHA + 2% BHA by the Ordinary. I'm talking about professional-strength acids that result in mild to heavy peeling and can be dangerous if not done correctly. Everything was sample sized, nicely priced, and yielded several uses. TL;DRs are in bold.After ~ a year of playing around with all forms of acids, strengths, Differin, etc etc, I finally decided to try out the brand Makeup Artist's Choice, which I came across on here long ago.I have successfully done maybe 10 or so peels from their products, and have purchased:Mandelic 15%/Salicylic Acid 15%Radiance Peel (lower % mandelic + organic peels such as kojic acid)TCA Peel 12.5%Mandelic Acid 5% TonerAzaleic Acid + Salicylic Acid leave-on maskSilicone makeup primerPressed banana powderPeptide eye cream​With each shipment (2-3 now), they sent me a free cucumber toner or rosewater hydrosol sample to use after my peels, and very clear, big font instructions. Via digging on comments, I also found out their customer service seems to be top notch, offering refunds if things go wrong, and their staff is highly trained in offering accurate and safe advice before and after purchasing.I have done maybe seven MA & SA 15%/15% peels, I did that one first because I really wanted to dive in with a decent strength but not too high. I have very good tolerance for acids, even while on Differin, I was using the AHA 30%/2% BHA. I wanted to try a higher % BHA (or salicylic acid, specifically), because I heard SA wasn't very painful, and 15% mandelic acid, a more gentle AHA with larger molecules (therefore less irritating as less penetrate the skin), seemed like a perfect combination. (Fun note, mandelic acid is highly recommended for those with rosacea, or those with darker skin bc of this.)Pretty much all their stronger peels say the same thing, no actives/retinols/oids, physical exfoliaton of any kind 24 hrs before + after. I more or less followed this except for the Radiance Peel, which was peanuts imo.However, what I did NOT follow, was not picking off the flaking skin rather than letting it flake off itself. If you can't remove it with gentle oil cleansing, then leave it be. I, however, multiple weeks in a row, picked at the flakes outside of the corners of my mouth, and resulted in gross burn-looking skin, raw, which eventually healed into gross brown PIH patches. So yeah pls learn from my mistakes. I did experience gnarly, true purging on my jawline which definitely had trapped CCs that had never budged but stayed tiny cones. These painful pustules + the PIH were gone pretty quickly.Fast forward weeks, and my oily, forever-clogged, blackhead-ridden, big pores, fine lines, and stubborn CCs that had never once lifted a pinky, not to mention my SFs, were finally nice cleared and mostly kept at bay with consistent exfoliation throughout the week + Differin. The turnaround time for this (peeling-wise) is 3-5 days ish.The instructions for the mandelic/SA were once weekly, but I found this a little ridiculous and soon ordered the Radiance peel for maintenance, & doing the 15%/15% peel 2-3x a month. I finally got to the full 5 minutes without frosting this last time after fixing my moisture barrier.This has given me to best skin I think I've ever seen. My SFs and some blackheads still come back regularly, but not like before. I cannot praise this highly enough. I will be looking into the 40% lactic acid eventually also. 5/5 HGThe Radiance Peel is really nice & gentle but effective. I don't know the exact ingredients or % of mandelic acid, but I believe it also has kojic & other supported natural exfoliants. Not much else to say. 5/5 for providing exactly what it states, nice clear skin while being gentle, there's almost zero tingle to thisThe TCA Peel (12.5%) on the other hand, still kinda scares me and requires a full 7-10 days of babying/recovering time for peeling, so I've been avoiding this. ?/5, I haven't used it yet, too scared toThe Mandelic Acid Toner 5% was okay but weirdly enough a little tingly and underwhelming & didn't seem to do any new or different. Since I have 2 other bottles of 7% AHA glycolic acid toners, I declined on buying more of this. 3/5 Not HGThe azalaic acid & salicylic acid overnight gel mask or whatever it's called piqued my interested and I grabbed a sample. I was a little skeptical when I saw how itty bitty the sample is, but it was like $3 and I've gotten maybe 4-5 uses out of it sooo, I like it. I thought this was awesome. I don't know the % of azalaic acid, but it doesn't tingle when I leave it on, it has nice slip, and it dries a little tacky but everything went over it very nicely. And it blasted my SFs and a ton of my blackheads away. I will be repurchasing the full sized item at some point for sure. 4/5, maybe HG?​The silicone makeup primer took forever to dry down and did almost nothing for stopping my makeup from appearing cakey, or smoothing my flakes, or controlling oil. The sample was awful in terms of delivery of product also, it was just a little open tube with a huge hole for a very liquidy substance to come out. I use monistat's anti-chafing gel as a silicone primer and much much prefer this versus the $15 or whatever it is for the full size. 1/5, not HG, will not repurchase​The Pressed banana powder was supposed to replace my Innisfree no sebum mineral compact as a cheap alternative since I was already ordering from them, it had good reviews, and Ive been intrigued by banana powder. Seriously regret it - no matter how I do it, it looks cakey, settles into fine lines, and clings to dry patches. Damn. I'll have to rebuy the mineral compact, this was a waste of money imo. Not even good for baking. 1/5Peptide eye cream supposedly erases fine lines & peptides supposedly encourage collagen growth over time. I've since learned peptides are more complicated and need assistance with delivery into the deeper layers of the dermis. I haven't bothered to do my research into this product since I use TO's Matrixyl 3000 on my whole face incl. eyes, but this cream feels LOVELY and very smoothing. I didn't see a lessening of fine lines but, peptides are comprehensive meaning they need constant application to work, which I didn't really do with this. 3/5, felt nice, but won't repurchase​So yeah just wanted to revive a little love for this brand since I've had such a positive experience recently!
Girls Blog 2015
Submitted by sapphocating