TCA peel at home gone wrong - burns all over my face. | Beauty Tips & Tricks discussions | Well Being center

Guest over a year ago

I'm desparately looking for help! Did a TCA peel 20% at home and noticed a burning sensation right away. Later on my skin turned a darker color. I only left the peel on for a total of five minutes and expected to see peeling and good results but the whole thing went horrendously wrong and I am now left with burns all over my face. I cannot describe how upset I am. Wish I could turn time back so much. What an awful mistake.

What on earth do I do now??? I don't want to look like this forever. Please help!!!

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Guest over a year ago

It is so hard to get a good idea of what is going on with your face without seeing what it looks like. I don't know if it is possible to post pictures here?

In any case, the most obvious thing to do at this stage is to see your family doctor. You'd see your doctor if you got burns on your face from any other cause, so why not this? The longer you leave it, the higher the chance that you will need invasive treatment to fix your problem.

This is exactly why I would never do chemical peels at home, for what it's worth. I know many people do them successfully, but there are risks especially if you simply don't know what you are doing. Please don't do this again, and don't attack your skin with things you think will cure this without consulting a doctor first.

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Tomato over a year ago

It IS possible to get nasty second degree burns from a chemical peel. If you don't have that treated, you can end up with bad scarring. Of course chemical peels work by irritating your skin and stimulating the skin to produce new cells, transforming it and leaving it looking younger and better in the process, but if you did it wrong and you ended up with burns or even just hyperpigmentation, you need to see a medical professional pronto if you don't want to end up with long term problems that can't be repaired.

Will you let us know how you are now and if you did see a doctor?

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Guest over a year ago

I did the exact same thing today and now my skin is looking red, especially the cheek area!!! I am freaking right now and hoping if I did something wrong there is still something I can do to reverse it. I made the mistake of wanting to do the peel as soon as I got it and I know I should have prepped. Does redness indicate burns all by itself? What does your skin look like now and how long has it been since you did the peel?

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Guest over a year ago

After you have done a TCA peel, your skin just needs time to heal. It's always like that: look awful for a week, look awesome after it. That is why I only ever have TCA peels done during the holiday period when I don't have to show my healing face at work! A few things though, you don't want to be picking at the skin as it peels, which is totally normal by the way, because that is what leads to scarring and redness. Eurcerin redness relief is one product you can safely use on your skin during the healing period, to make you look slightly better.

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RosieRoe over a year ago

Keep in mind that I am not a medical professional and don't really know what I am talking about. From what I have read, however, I understand that chemical peels including TCA peels in fact work by burning the skin a little. If you are using a peel and are feeling a burning sensation, you are meant to take it off right away and just keep on rinsing it with cold water for a nice long time. Make sure you remove all of the peel.

Then after all your peel is done, you apply aloe gel and leave your body to do its natural healing work. In order to avoid creating more problems, it is very important that you do not spend too much time even looking at your skin. If you see blisters, do not pop or scratch at them. That part is very important. After about a week, your skin should look a whole lot better already.

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Londongirl347945 over a year ago

Oh, hon, that sounds nasty. I'm very sorry you did a peel expecting grand skin and you got something quite different. The fact that almost anyone can just apply a chemical peel either at a salon or at home don't make this any easier, does it? From what I'm seeing, considering that TCA is meant to be a "medium peel" and all that, some redness and flaking is pretty normal and your skin can take up to six weeks to return to normal after you've done a peel. The skin going dark as you say, after the peel, yeah, that's also supposed to be normal. Mind you, you'd normal expect that a qualified person has done the peel so if you don't trust it, yeah, better see your GP. Do check in again to share how you're doing, OK? The least we can do is commiserate with you!

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Guest over a year ago

Can I be very honest? My first thought is this — you are coming here to a forum made up of normal consumers of cosmetics, just like you. Some of them will have experience with peels, while others will not. In any case, unless a doctor shows up and even if they do (I know there are some around here, sometimes they even answer patient questions, but I am not sure how you'd get them to do that) you are talking to people on the internet. Is your face burned, or are you experiencing the normal after effects of a peel? We can't tell. We don't know what your face looks like, and even if you posted a picture that simply wouldn't be enough. The only responsible thing you can do in this situation is to see a dermatologist. I would not go to a family doctor, who might know nothing about peels either, because their advice may not make sense.

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Guest over a year ago

The same happened to me. It was really scary... At first my face started to burn so much before a minute was even up, that was with one layer and I was using 18 percent, so I washed it off. After my skin was done peeling at first it was very pink and then went a lighter color. I was advised to apply a Hydroquinone and Retin-A on my skin and now the pigmentation has faded a very good bit, but I can still see it. This will probably work for you as well. Since these are prescription products you do need to see a doc of course.

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Guest over a year ago

My wife had a chemical peel done by a beautician. She told me that her skin would look awesome afterward but the opposite was true: she looked like she had been on the sun bed a few hours too long, with severe burns. I sent her back to be beautician to check whether that was normal and she came back with a prescription cream for burn healing and prevent scarring. In her case it was far from normal. She looks normal now though and even better than before the peel.

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Guest over a year ago

How long did it take for your wife to heal? I did a 50 tvc on yesterday and there are no signs That I will start peeling soon. I look more bruised & burn than anything.

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Guest over a year ago

I meant a 50% tca. I wanted a stronger peel because I have very flabby and saggy like skin as if I were a bigger person that lost a lot of weight. However I've never been over 125lbs So I used a stronger peel not even leaving it on the full 5 minutes & I still look bruised & burned.

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Guest over a year ago

Why would anyone leave a peel on for five minutes? I use 25 or 50% tca peels and it takes less than 30 seconds before I'm using the neutralizer. Know what you're doing before you start. If you're feeling an "intense burning sensation" you've done too much already. Use your neutralizer and get that off of your skin asap!

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Guest over a year ago

I used a 30% TCA at home peel and pulled some of the dry skin off my forehead and now my forehead is scarred. It's a pinkish color and I applied a scar cream to it and it seemed to heal quickly. I am going to redo the peel this weekend and simply layer twice over the scars because they are only about a month old. It will simply peel the scars off. This time though, I won't pick at the dry skin. Lesson learned! And just to put it out there, I have done this before and had great results, but I have been using peels for 15 years now!

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Guest over a year ago

Oh goodness me. On reading this thread I see that people do not educate themselves on peels AT ALL. This is not a walk in the park and TCA is one of the worst offenders. Whenever you apply an acid to something it causes a chemical burn and the proteins in the area it touches denature and tighten hence frosting and inflammation. This is normal and skin will need to recover from the burn so anybody expecting to look decent after a people is incredibly naive. So yes of course after the immediate application everything looks terrible for a week or so. From eyes swollen shut to oozing plasma. ALL normal reactions for some people not everybody. After peeling, which can in some cases come in waves of secondary or tertiary peeling, skin is tender, soft and sensitive. But once healed - in my experience after a TCA peel of 25% upwards the skin doesn't get back to normal until a month later. So be aware and be patient and remember not everyone reacts the same.

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