Hello everyone! I hope you're all having a good day today. In today's blog post, I'm going to be discussing chemical exfoliation and AHA's and BHA's. This post can be considered a pre-cursor to a review on a beloved skincare favourite in the beauty community - Pixi Glow Tonic.
A key ingredient in Pixi's Glow Tonic is glycolic acid - which falls under the category of an "AHA" - also known as an "Alpha Hydroxy Acid". In simple terms, AHA's are great at detaching dead skin - they help to loosen up the dead cells of the skin allowing them to fall away revealing brighter, healthier and plumper skin. This helpful subreddit explains the main AHA's and the uses and purposes of each. As an ingredient in skincare, due to their focus on the renewal of dead skin, AHA's are popular for those of us who have drier skin types.
You may also be thinking of other acids that have not been mentioned above such as salicylic acid. Well, that falls under the term of a BHA instead. Unlike AHA's, BHA's focus more on purifying the skin and deeply penetrating and cleaning out the pores. Due to this, BHA's and salicylic acid as an ingredient is very popular with acne, oily and blemish prone skin types and it will often be an ingredient found in skincare products used to treat these skin issues. BHA's however are well known to dry out the skin which is why adding moisture back into the skin is important in order to prevent skin from once again overproducing oil and breaking out. Again, this subreddit contains more information on BHA's and their uses.
In terms of exactly when to use a product with a BHA or an AHA within it, it depends on the product itself. If it's already used within a moisturiser then you would apply it as the last step in your routine as normal. If however it is a concentrated standalone product and you would consider it more as a treatment, then you would apply after cleansing, toning and drying the skin. BHA's and AHA's are not advised for every day use unless the tolerance of your skin is known. Use every third day and then working to use it every other day is advised as this will allow you to understand your skins tolerance to such ingredients - this is an especially important point if you have sensitive skin.
AHA's and BHA's are great ingredients for renewing skin in the ways described above. Chemical exfoliation has many key benefits in promoting healthier, younger looking skin. Whilst they may not be as important to those of us who are young, incorporating them into a skincare routines even in small amounts can help us to take preventative measures for the future of our skin as well as allow to treat our skin concerns.
This is definitely still a new topic for me but my interest in all areas of skincare continues to grow - a really helpful source for some insight is Youtube Stefanie Nicole - for me she has been a reputable and reliable source on this and similar topics and I'd definitely recommend her channel if you're a skincare and beauty enthusiast. She too has spoken about chemical exfoliation on her channel and this is what encouraged me to look into it myself - click here for a great video in which she too discusses AHA's and BHA's.
Hopefully this has been an interesting and informational post for you guys and I hope that it encourages you to think more about the skincare you use and the ingredients within those products. As mentioned, this post will be followed by a review on Pixi's Glow Tonic so look out for that soon!
Hopefully this has been an interesting and informational post for you guys and I hope that it encourages you to think more about the skincare you use and the ingredients within those products. As mentioned, this post will be followed by a review on Pixi's Glow Tonic so look out for that soon!
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