The shift in acne treatments over 20 years

I started doing facials back in 2003, and back then we used mostly harsh scrubs and alcohol-based toners. Now I see so many young estheticians using gentle acids and barrier repair, and my clients heal way faster than they used to. Has anyone else noticed how much less peeling and redness we get with modern products?

3 comments

3 Comments

karen_sanchez491mo agoMost Upvoted

Oh totally, that's exactly it! The old way was basically just beating up your skin over and over thinking you were winning the war, but it was just making everything more inflamed and angry. Now we know that keeping that barrier strong is like the number one thing for actual healing, not just punishing the breakout into submission. It's wild how fast things changed once we started paying attention to what the skin really needs instead of what felt aggressive enough.

michael6691mo ago

Ain't it just that we got better at marketing stuff as "gentle" when it still does the same thing? Old school scrub was free, new gentle acid costs 60 bucks a bottle, seems like a business move not a science one.

emerym361mo ago

I read somewhere that the old school way of stripping the skin actually made acne worse in the long run by damaging the barrier. The new gentle methods make so much more sense.