Exfoliationwithmusicbreak

The podcast episode discusses chemical exfoliation and two recommended products. Chemical exfoliation involves using acids to remove dead skin cells, revealing smoother and more even skin. It is different from physical exfoliation, which manually removes the outer layers of the skin. The host recommends two products: AHA 30% + BHA 2% peeling solution from The Ordinary ($9.50) and 25% AHA + 2% BHA exfoliant peel from Paula's Choice ($44). The host prefers the Paula's Choice product for its effectiveness, but notes that it is more expensive. The podcast also mentions a recommended Allure Magazine podcast episode that provides more information on acids and chemical exfoliation. Welcome to the podcast. It's a Binghamton thing. Hot takes on pop culture, beauty, and local legends. Today I'm really excited to be talking about chemical exfoliations and everything you need to know about chemical exfoliation. I'm really excited about this because I have a couple of products here that I've been using for, I'd say, two or three years by now. It's amazing, both of these are. So, first of all, let's talk a little bit about what exactly is chemical exfoliation. So chemical exfoliation is when you're using acids to get rid of dead skin cells. They come in various concentrations. You can buy weaker formulas over-the-counter and stronger ones are usually applied by a dermatologist in the form of a chemical peel. They work by breaking the bonds that hold these skin cells together. All those bonds are broken, the top layers of the skin cells are shed, revealing rejuvenated skin. With regular use, the skin will feel smoother and look more even in tone and pores are unclogged. Now, what's the difference between that and a physical exfoliation? Okay, so acids chemically remove the outer layers of the skin. Physical exfoliants do it manually. Okay, you can use a scrub, a brush, you could do micro, I think it's microdermabrasion. Physical exfoliation can be harsh for some people and it doesn't penetrate as deeply as a chemical version and therefore may not be as effective. I have been physically exfoliating my skin for probably 15-20 years now. There is a little tub of baking soda in my shower that I will mix with my cleanser and you do not need to go and buy some expensive scrub. You can use baking soda and add it to your cleanser and make a little paste and it does a great job for the physical exfoliant. I like to use the chemical exfoliants and the physical exfoliants and my favorite is glycolic acids, AHAs. They can come in the form of a glycolic acid, a lactic acid, a citric acid, and a malic acid. They are amazing and my favorite is glycolic. Glycolic and lactic, I think, are the most commonly used. Beta hydroxy acids are oil soluble so they can penetrate your pores and they can also be used for unclogging those pores and removing acne causing sebum. Examples of BHAs, they are called beta hydroxy acids, are salicylic acid. You will see salicylic acid in a lot of products that are aiming toward those that are dealing with acne. Now, the things I'm really excited about are the two chemical exfoliants I'm going to talk about today, which I've used. The first one is from a company called The Ordinary. If you're not familiar with this company, it has a broad range of many different skin care products and the price point is really, really nice. The product I'm talking about today is $9.50. It is an AHA 30% with a BHA of 2%. It's called a peeling solution. What you do is, of course, that peeling solution exfoliates multiple layers of the skin for a brighter, more even appearance. The thing about The Ordinary is that it is red. I take a paintbrush and I paint it on my face and you leave it on about 10 minutes. I use it probably twice a week. You don't want to use it on wet skin. And then it rinses off. It is amazing. I love it. It's $9.50. I use it on my neck. I'll use it on my chest. I've seen people on YouTube put it on their whole body because it's $9.50. So, it's so inexpensive. It's definitely an amazing product and I've used it and I use it probably at least once a week if not twice. My second favorite is a 25% AHA with a 2% BHA and that's called an exfoliant peel and that's from Paula's Choice. Paula's Choice is an amazing company that was founded in 1995 by Paula Bagon. She is an amazing scientist. She was called the Ralph Nader of the cosmetics company in the 80s. She wrote a book that was called Blue Eyeshadow Should Be Illegal and then Don't Go to the Cosmetics Counter Without Me. She was on Oprah in the late 80s and she is still running this company and it's an amazing company. This 25% AHA and 2% BHA is an incredible product also. It's the same idea as the ordinary. It's multi-acid. It rinses off. It's supposed to dramatically resurface your skin for visibly smooth wrinkles, refined bumpy texture, brightened tone and unclogged pores. I love this product. This one is $44. Usually, you can get it on sale for maybe $35 and sometimes they've even had sales at $29 and when they're $29, I buy two of them. Those two products are my two favorite chemical exfoliations that I use off and on all the time. If I had to pick one more than the other, I would probably pick the Paula Bagon only because there's something about the formulation of it that when I take it off, my skin looks just so amazing and bright. Not that the ordinary doesn't do that but I just notice a little bit difference with the Paula. Now, the Paula is about four times the price. So, I don't use that all over where the ordinary, I don't mind just sort of slathering that on and put it, you know, like I said on my neck and on my chest where the Paula Bagon is more expensive. I'm a little more careful with that. And the Paula Bagon is a purple sort of creamy-ish. You wipe it on with your fingers and then it rinses off. It's not a peel. Neither of these are peels. They don't peel off. They go on wet. They don't really dry necessarily. They dry a little bit maybe but you don't leave them on longer than maybe 10-15 minutes. My skin is able to tolerate both of these very easily. I've been using these types of things off and on for years. I've been using glycolic acids for years. These are just stronger. You can't, you know, you're not leaving this on for more than 10-15 minutes, either of these. So if you haven't tried chemical exfoliation, you should look at these two and the price points on both of them are nice. Spend $9.50 for the ordinary or $44, maybe get it on sale for $35 for the Paula Bagon. And I want to direct you to a podcast from 2020 that I found really explains a lot of information about acids. You can find this podcast on Apple or Spotify. And I'll podcast notes at the bottom of this episode. And it's from Allure Magazine and it's called The Science of Beauty. It's from November 19th, 2020. It's Episode 6 from Season 1. It's called Acids. It really explains all the information I'm talking about and a little bit more and then some. It's about 42 minutes long. So if you're really interested in learning about acids and chemical exfoliation, I really think you should take a listen to that. But that's my beauty bite for the day. I love these things. I was using the ordinary at yoga after my yoga sesh, my hot yoga session. Some of the girls in the bathroom are like, what is that? It's red. You know, it's red. The ordinary one is. It looks, they call it vampire blood or something. I guess it was a hit on TikTok. I don't know. I missed that. But anyways, I talked about it and then, you know, I told them about it. I told them how inexpensive it was and what a great company the ordinary is. And they went out and bought it. And I saw them a couple weeks later like, wow, I love that. It was great. And yeah, that's really good. And I thought, OK, I need to tell people about this. So here it is. Exfoliants. Have fun and be careful with them. If you haven't used these before, any kind of chemical exfoliants, take your time. And if you are interested in using any kind of AHA, you know, you can buy a lot of over-the-counter AHA products that are about 10 percent. And that's where I'd start if you've never even tried any of this. This is a little bit more hardcore, but enjoy. Thanks for listening. Tune in next week for another episode of It's a Binghamton Thing.