Lactic acid peels changed my mind about mandelic acid

I used to swear by mandelic acid for my acne-prone clients because it's gentler. But I read a study in a dermatology journal last week that said lactic acid actually penetrates deeper and boosts collagen more at the same pH level. I tried a 30% lactic acid peel on myself after that and saw way better results with zero irritation. My client Sarah had a similar reaction after I switched her from mandelic to lactic for her monthly peels. Has anyone else found better results swapping out their go-to acid?

2 comments

2 Comments

christopher_hunt15d ago

Well I'll be, that's interesting. It reminds me of how people get stuck in a rut with routines in general, not just skincare. You find something that works okay and you stick with it for years without questioning if something else might work better. I see this all the time with how my kids eat their lunches or how we organize our weekends. We get comfortable and stop paying attention to new information. So it makes perfect sense that you'd see better results with lactic acid once you actually compared them properly. Good for you for keeping up with the research and trying something different.

the_hannah14d ago

Right, it's wild how easy it is to just stay with what's comfortable even when it's not the best fit. I've totally done that with my own routine until I got tired of the same old results and finally just switched things up one day. Honestly, once you do it once, it's way less scary to try something new next time.