New Skin: Progress and my First Peel

Time for another skin update I think! All is well and I’ve started introducing other products; not just masks but cleansers, toners and even the occasional moisturiser too, however, I always make sure that I’m on the Jan Marini routine at least every other day to keep my progress going, especially as I’m now hopefully on my way to receiving a course of peels.  Here is my make-up free skin now:

I had my first peel last week and it all went really well.  It stung a bit but nothing terrible and it was much, much more bearable than the N-Lite.  I had an Advanced Jan Marini peel* which basically consists of a 40% Glycolic Acid Peel, mixed with a Retinol treatment.  This is applied for about 1o minutes (after my skin is cleansed and prepped) and then a soothing, moisture mask is applied afterwards to nurse my skin back to health.

To give you some perspective, here are a couple of *extremely flattering* pictures of my skin around 4-5 months ago:

Regular readers will know that I’m not new to peels and I have had quite a few in the past.  This one I’d say has had the most impact on my notoriously tough skin as I’m still peeling now, five days later.  When I say peeling, I don’t mean that honking great chunks of skin are falling off, just that a few bits on my face feel rough and dry and are slowly lifting away.  It’s really nothing noticeable if you’re not looking for it and it doesn’t hurt or interfere with make-up.

I wanted to upload some pictures of my face as I’m now completely spot-free and have been for a couple of weeks.  You’ll probably look at the pictures and think “well she doesn’t look spot-free!” but all those lovely red marks are just acne scars and there isn’t a spot in sight.  Therefore, I can get away with a quick buff of mineral powder to drastically reduce the appearance of the scars to the point where only a  few show through.  I’m not too fussed about those, but if I needed flawless cover then that would be easier to achieve with a heavier base.

So happy days again! Skin is still behaving, spots are still absent and my skin feels smooth, polished and (apart from the minor peeling) extremely well-maintained.  I’ll be coming to the end of the Jan Marini review soon, but I’ll still be carrying on with using the products, I’ll just be able to be a little more relaxed in what else I use.  It would be stupid of me to disown a routine that has worked so well for me, so even though the products are expensive, I’ll definitely be repurchasing again and again for as long as I have skin…

More info about Jan Marini can be found here.