Our grooming guinea pig will try anything that might make him look better. This week, it's an Agera Skin Peel.
The Problem: your skin is looking like it has seen better days, whether it's blotchy, weathered or starting to show signs of premature ageing. If you haven't noticed this for yourself yet, look out for possible warning signs elsewhere. Like when a colleague sympathises about you having the norovirus when actually you're right as rain. That kind of thing.
The Remedy: one more advanced method of tackling these more stubborn skin problems is a treatment called Agera Skin Peel. Don't worry, it doesn't involve scraping a layer of skin from your face. Agera is actually a non-invasive range of skincare products that use natural ingredients including lactic acid, vitamin C and citric acid to penetrate the deepest layers of the skin, promising noticeable improvements in ageing, discoloured or imperfect skin. We're interested.
The Process: the peel works by stimulating collagen to reduce fine lines, generally smoothing out skin in the process. You lie flat on a bed where your face is first cleansed, then the peel is applied. Because the acids can tingle and cause a burning sensation (imagine falling asleep on a beach in Greece for 5 hours with no sun cream on and you're close), a fan is used to help cool things down. This is repeated a couple more times before a layer of wet gauze is placed over the skin to activate the peel. It sounds like a chore but the whole process is over in around half an hour. By session 3, you'll be using it as the perfect chance for a lunchtime power snooze.
The Effects: although a course of six sessions is recommended, we saw some initial improvements to how skin felt and looked after session 1. After 3 sessions, someone at work uttered the killer line: "You look well." Surely the holy grail of office compliments. Depending on your skin type, it can cause a bit of temporary redness and irritation after sessions and you need to be sure you use a good SPF moisturiser afterwards. After the course of treatments is finished, it's advised that people top up with the occasional session to prolong the effects
The Verdict: they say your skin is the first sign that all is not well with some of your lifestyle habits, so catching up on sleep and drinking a little less are good places to start. That said, if your skin problems are a little more ingrained, a course of Agera Peels could be a good start to redressing the balance. At the very least it can act as a short-term rejuvenation and could help establish some better habits (like a Daily SPF) for the long-term.
