What does Glycolic Acid do for your skin?
- helps smooth fine surface area wrinkles and improves the skin’s tone and texture
- plumps the skin and helps boost hydration levels
- exfoliates and therefore brightens the complexion
- can be a preventative against ingrown hairs
- reduces large skin pores and keeps pores clear from blockages which in turn prevents blackheads and breakouts
What is Glycolic Acid?
Glycolic acid is a water-soluble alpha hydroxy acid (AHA), derived from sugar cane. One of the most well-known and widely used alpha-hydroxy acids in the skincare industry.
How Does It Work?
With the smallest sized molecules of all the alpha-hydroxy acids, glycolic acid can easily penetrate the skin allowing it to effectively exfoliate the skin.
When it exfoliates the skin in this way, it speeds up cell turnover by dissolving bonds that hold skin cells together. This allows the sloughing off of dead skin cells.
Glycolic acid also stimulates skin cells to create more collagen.
Collagen is a fibrous protein that keeps the skin strong and helps tissues withstand stretching. Collagen gives skin firmness, plumpness, and elasticity.
Around the age of 35, collagen production begins to slow; by 40, collagen depletes faster than the body can re-produce it; by 60, over half of your body’s collagen has been depleted.
Using glycolic acid regularly can help prevent the breakdown of collagen.
Where You Can Find Glycolic Acid
Glycolic acid is a very popular ingredient because it works!
Chemical peels using glycolic acid at your salon or dermatologist’s office is a strong treatment if needed.
Estheticians do lighter glycolic acid peels.
For making your own, the sugar you have in your home is not the same.
How to Use Glycolic Acid
Trust the dermatologist or esthetician you are using and if buying home-use products, trust the company you are purchasing from.
You must wear sunscreen whenever you are using glycolic acid treatments because it makes the skin cells sensitive.
Some people need to slowly ease into products with glycolic acid in the beginning but most skin-types acclimate quickly to this ingredient.
Products I Love
I like goPure’s Enzyme Masque with glycolic acid, active fruit enzymes, hydrating oils and more.
It goes on like a cream you apply to the face, you let it set for 5 minutes. It doesn’t harden and easily rinses off with water. Your skin will feel super soft after use.
Combine their Enzyme Masque with their Microdermabrasion Cream for an Exfoliate and Glow Duo!
The goPure Microdermabrasion cream also contains glycolic acid for exfoliating plus specially ground down pumice powder and bamboo stem powder to exfoliate without creating micro-tears in your skin.
Summary
This well-known and widely used ingredient is a water-soluble alpha hydroxy acid (AHA), derived from sugar cane.
The small-sized molecules can easily penetrate the skin allowing it to effectively exfoliate the skin.
Glycolic acid also stimulates skin cells to create more collagen.
The benefits of using a product with glycolic acid are a reduction in fine surface area wrinkles and improving your skin’s tone and texture; plumping of the skin, exfoliation, brightening, reduction of skin pores, and keeping skin clear of blackheads and breakouts.