Which AHA or BHA To Use?


Hello friends 🍋 I’m back with another skincare review! This time it’s acids!

Acids are the second Holy Grail in skincare after Retinoids 💎 As far as your skin tolerates, I would strongly recommend working some into your skincare 🙌🏻 They help to encourage cellular turnover (building new and healthy skin) which essentially means brighter, more glowy, and refreshed skin!

Acids range from milder toners all the way up to peels ↕️ I don’t recommend doing your own peel unless you know what to expect and have a good understanding of what actually happens. (And of course if your skin can tolerate lower doses/concentrations of acids first!)

Personally, I try to apply acid daily from Monday to Friday with a rest day (called the “non-acid day”) in between - usually Wednesdays - as part of my skin cycling program ♼ Retinoids go on at night 🌙 Weekends are for peeling 🔥 I either peel on Saturday or Sunday and the other is the rest/recovery day 😌

Anyway, here is my current acid collection and I’ll briefly review each of them:

🍋‍🟩 Paula’s Choice 8% AHA Gel Exfoliant (Glycolic Acid) - my Monday acid - I love starting the week with glycolic acid to brighten up my skin - easy to use and not sticky, works like a charm ✨

🍋 Key feature: general purpose acid

🍋‍🟩 Paula’s Choice 2% BHA Gel Exfoliant (Salicylic Acid) - my Tuesday acid - BHAs are great for oily skin and clogged pores as they cut through oil and really help to keep acne at bay, similar texture to the AHA and easy to use ⭐️

🍋 Key feature: for acne-prone skin

🍋‍🟩 Pixi Glow Tonic (5% Glycolic Acid) - I use this whenever I feel like it, as a base layer as it is light and watery. Don’t be fooled, it certainly is still potent as I can feel the sting if there’s a raw wound/recent acne on the face. Nice smell is a plus! 🌹

🍋 Key feature: lightweight texture

🍋‍🟩 Paula’s Choice 25% AHA + 2% BHA Peel - one of my weekly peel rotations - I got it because the gel looks shiny, glittery and like the galaxy - strong stuff, but strangely my skin doesn’t peel even with this - so I can use it comfortably for maintenance. Smells slightly funky though 🐽

🍋 Key feature: More intensive treatment for acne

🍋‍🟩 The Ordinary Lactic Acid 10% + HA - quite lightweight texture, not really a gel. Again don’t be fooled, it is some strong stuff. Hardly any smell, I’ll use this with some Niacinamide sometimes. Is slowly becoming my Thursday acid (Wednesday is acid rest day) ☺️

🍋 Key feature: Above average strength serum

🍋‍🟩 The Ordinary AHA 30% + BHA 2% Peeling Solution - also pretty strong stuff - quite iconic dark red solution. Smells sour so you know it’s going to really peel. I can feel the peeling effect, but again, my skin is so thick that it hardly physically peels off even with this 🖤

🍋 Key feature: Intensive treatment (as a peel) for correcting blemishes

🍋‍🟩 Bffect AHA 30% + Mandelic Acid 4% Exfoliating Peel - I thought I’ll just go as high as it gets so I got this on Shopee to try as it has high concentrations of both AHA and BHA. Also didn’t successfully peel my skin, but I’ll use it as one of my weekly peeling things 🫠

🍋 Key feature: Pretty strong peel

🍋‍🟩 Sunday Riley U.F.O. acne treatment face oil (BHA) - yes it is really an oil, which means the texture is not for everyone, but I forced myself to try it despite not liking the oily feeling. Has a herbal smell, and yeah it kinda works. Just strikes me as odd as to why you’d put oil on an oily face and call it an acne treatment. Perhaps better for caucasians or people living in dry countries? Not my fave, but I’ll use it for the interesting smell and what it’s worth in BHA haha! 🎃

🍋 Key feature: Facial oil, if you’re into that

🍋‍🟩 Skinbetter Science AlphaRet Overnight Cream - Acid and Retinoid all in one solution? You bet - the lazy man (or girl’s) hack to skincare. Usually we don’t combine acids and retinoids in one as the pH of the acids may impact the efficacy of the retinoids, and also it can be too irritating for most skins. This company has successfully done so with a special formulation! Needless to say my skin is hardly irritated by this, so I use this on nights when I’m doing an acid rest day. Texture is fine, and although there’s a bit of smell, I can manage. On my acid rest days, I’ll usually applying the SkinBetter Mystro Balance Serum in place of my acid 🤖

🍋 Key feature: All you ever wanted in active skincare packaged into a lazy solution

So that’s my ultra-long review of my current acid collection (actually I have a few more but I think it’s quite enough for now 😅)

I’m a big acid fan as it really helps to keep acne away and turnover my skin cells to let my face glow and maintain a good texture. ⚠️ Disclaimer once again: my skin is really very thick, insensitive and resistant, so these products are not manifesting as much redness or sensitivity. It might not be the same for everyone 😿

A simple guide to starting or trying new acids: start low and go slow, don’t be a hero! But yeah, work some in and you’ll likely be amazed at the progress! ✨

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