I thought I would be abandoning this place but since I am basically rotting at home this break (thanks to COVID-19), I have finally decided to do something about the stash of empties I have been collecting, thinking I might be doing something with them one day. So today would be one of those “day” lol
Why use Chemical Exfoliants?
And this Paula’s Choice BHA exfoliant is one of the empties I have been wanting to share/ talk about. Before getting into the actual product, I really want to talk about how useful chemical exfoliants are and why it is good to have them in our routine. So what are chemical exfoliants? You’ve probably heard of AHAs and BHAs or even PHAs. (Will only talk about AHAs and BHAs in this post as I am not so familiar yet with PHA other than knowing that it is gentler than the others) All of these are chemical exfoliants, they can help to speed up dead skin cells turnover rate, unclog pores, smoothing and evening out your skin tone. Unlike physical scrubs, they tend to be more gentle as it doesn’t physically irritate your skin and doesn’t cause micro-tears on the skin like physical scrubs. Moreover, some of those face scrubs can leave behind non-degradable microbeads or particles which can be bad for the environment!!
AHAs vs BHAs
The difference between AHAs and BHAs is that the former is water soluble and the latter is lipid soluble. In that case, BHAs are said to be more effective in terms of exfoliating properties in areas where sebum production are more visible or active (though this can be different for everyone, it can be the nose areas, the T-zone and around the chin area), in other words, BHAs can be more effective for people with oily skin type or heavy sebum production. Whereas AHAs such as Glycolic acid (main chemical exfoliant in Krave Beauty’s Kale-Lalique-yAHA), Lactic acid, Mandelic acid and Malic Acid can be more effective on areas where oil and sebum secretion is comparatively less. AHAs can help speed up the skin cells turnover rate and also the production of hyaluronic acid in our skin, making it more suitable for those with dry to normal skin types.
About the Product
Now, back to the product that I was going to talk about - Paula’s Choice Skin Perfecting 2% BHA Liquid Exfoliant. This product uses Salicylic acid and claims to unclog and shrinks enlarged pores; smooths and evens skin tone; and is lightweight which helps to absorb quickly. It also contains Green Tea, is fragrance free and not tested on animals!
I usually use this every other day (or every evening when I feel that my skin is congested). I am actually on my second bottle in I think the almost the third year of using it? I especially need it during hotter months when my sebum production is off the roof. During the start of spring to summer transition, my skin was actually feeling more congested and I almost went looking for another chemical exfoliant forgetting that I have this since I don’t use it a lot during winter. Now that I am back to using it, I didn’t need to get another exfoliant. This product surely doesn’t give you instant results after one or two uses. For me it takes around a week of using it to notice that my pores are slowly unclogged and my skin feels smoother *with consistent use! Whenever I use this, I pour some of it out onto a cotton pad and swipe it across my face and it actually leaves a bit of hydration on my skin. I have oily skin so areas such as my nose, cheeks, chin and forehead areas tend to have a lot of sebum. With consistent use of this product, it did lessen the appearance of my pores and makes them look cleaner?? My pores are visible BUT they look less noticeable ?? If you get what I mean. In terms of skin tone, I think it does kind of gives you a brighter complexion but since I have been using it for quite a while, I can’t tell the difference too much . I still have blemishes and I use a few other products after this, so I wouldn’t really be able to tell.
The thing with this is that it helps unclogging pores, giving you a well-prepared foundation (clean unclogged skin) to allow the products you apply after to be absorbed into the skin and perform better. In a way it allows whatever you apply later on to actually do what they do because imagine if your pores are clogged with heavy sebum, the products you apply wouldn’t be able to penetrate into your skin to properly perform its function and might even make your skin even more congested as the layer of gunk stays and builds up on your skin.
Why I kept using this over so many other chemical exfoliants?
I think having oily skin is what keeps me using this consistently. I have tried a few other AHAs, like the Kale-Lalu-yAHA, The Ordinary’s Lactic Acid Solution, both of these I have actually enjoyed using and they do feel good on my skin but when I needed something that could keep my sebum, blackheads and whiteheads at bay, they tend to be less effective in doing that. But on days where my skin is less congested (ie. during winter, less breakouts and not a lot of skin problems) I would just use them instead of PC’s. I have also tried Neostrata’s AHAs a few years back but my skin was too chaotic back then to tell whether it was helping my skin or not.. As for other BHAs that I’ve tried, like the Corsx Blackhead Liquid, their BHA and AHA toner, and toners from other brands that contains BHAs, none of them worked as well as PC on my skin? I have also tried The Ordinary’s Salicylic Acid 2% Solution, but I actually prefer their AHA over this one as TO salicylic acid tends to leave my skin feeling sticky and feels less hydrating that their lactic acid solution? Plus, the size of PC’s Salicylic Acid just wins me over with a whopping 118ml compared to most TO acids which are in the dropper size of 30ml or even lesser.
However I am also keen on trying REN’s Steady Ready Go AHA Tonic to see how that’s gonna work on my skin and whether it would help smooth out my skin tone more than PC. Might give that a go when winter comes (less sebum production for me) and I am done with this! (Or maybe even before I run out of PC hahah)
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