Know Your Ingredient- Glycolic Acid

         Hello my beautiful ladies(and gentleman.we don't discriminate here on head2toevogue). Thank goodness its Friday! TGIF TGIF TGIF! How has your week been? If it was bad just remember that everything happens for a reason, maybe this week was bad to make next week amazing! Anyway, I know that a lot of people including me don't know a lot about different ingredients in their products. Whether they're harmful or harmless, if they are for your skin type or not, if they are irritating or soothing. Today I am going to talk about an ingredient that not a lot of people know what it does, Glycolic Acid. The name sounds very scary.. doesn't it?

What is it?

     Glycolic Acid is part of the 5 fruit acids or Alpha Hydroxy Acids(AHA). The AHAs consist of glycolic(sugar cane), lactic(milk), citric(citrus fruit), malic(apples and pears) and tartaric(grapes). I don't know why they call them fruit acids because I am pretty sure sugar cane and milk aren't fruits? Glycolic acid is commonly found in skincare treatments for acne, exfoliation and peels. Glycolic Acid is said to be the safest form of AHA.

What does it do?

     Glycolic Acid breaksdown substances that keep dead skin cells together under the top layer of skin. Dead skin cells are then washed away with water. Dead skin cells cause clogged pores and dull looking skin. It essentially gives you that healthy glow we all want. 

Benefits?

      Besides giving your complexion life, it helped diminish fine lines, wrinkles and age spots with long term use. It can help with toning down surgery scars, acne scars and any other blemishes. It is a great acid for the treatment of acne too! Products usually contain up to 6-10% but some people say that under 10% does nothing while others say it works perfectly fine. It's all about trial and error. 

Risks? 

      Since it is a very powerful acid you should always talk to a dermatologist before or make sure you know your skin type and how it use it. Glycolic acid needs to be neutralized so it doesn't ruin your skin. Under 10% is neutralized and washed away with water but above 10% has to have a neautralizer used right after. The chemical peels you get at a dermatologists has around 20-70%. 

Sideeffects?

      One thing is that it will insanely dry out your skin so you have to make sure you follow with a moisturizer if you use glycolic acid. Dryed out skin will cause dry patches and excess oil from your oil glands trying to moisturize the skin. Glycolic acid takes the entire layer of your skin off leaving you with a new layer of skin, this new skin is super sensitive so always wear sunscreen or avoid direct sunlight. You will get burnt to a tomatoe. 

Here are some products that contain Glycolic Acid. All of these are over the counter so you don't need any type of prescription for them. Go to my polyvore page: beautywarrior1 to get a full list of the products and the prices. Let me warn you though all these products are quite expensive and will leave your wallet crying. 

That is all you need it know about Glycolic Acid. This can be a miracle product or a nightmare of a product. Always take caution when using glycolic acid. I don't want any of you beauties to get hurt. I really would recommend talking to your dermatologist or doctor first. Thanks for reading my loves!

    

      Whats your experience with Glycolic Acid? Have you used it? Heard of it? Reacted to it?     

                                              Love you all! xoxo, head2tovogue