As much as I?d like to call myself a skin-care addict, I literally can?t remember the last time I got a facial. Sure, facials are an excellent way of sloughing off dead skin, destroying blackheads, and combating acne, but there?s something about paying a ton of money for a treatment you need at least every month that I?m just not about. So, believe me when I say my little beauty-product obsessed heart sang when I discovered a new, game-changing solution: at-home facials.
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Nope, these aren?t DIY masks filled with the contents of your refrigerator, or hardcore chemical peels that leave your skin red and sensitive for three weeks after. Instead, at-home facials are powerful, yet surprisingly gentle, formulas loaded with skin-fixing ingredients, like brightening and smoothing fruit acids, acne-fighting beta hydroxy acids (BHAs), and dark-spot and discoloration-fading alpha hydroxy acids (AHAs). Yes, it all sounds kind of intense, but we promise these acids are nothing like, well, whatever comes to mind when you hear the word “acid.” Photo: ImaxTree
Instead, fruit acids (like papaya and lemon) tend to be the most-gentle and well-tolerated of the acids, followed closely by low-percentage BHAs (commonly known as salicylic acid, a.k.a. the ingredient you’ve been slathering on your zits since puberty), followed by low-percentage AHAs, like lactic acid (the gentlest) and glycolic aci...