The Green Peel Diaries, Day 1I went back for my third facial on Tuesday night, and Ms. Oh said she thought I was ready for the intensive peel. I was a little surprised since I had thought I had...
The Green Peel Diaries, Day 1
I went back for my third facial on Tuesday night, and Ms. Oh said she thought I was ready for the intensive peel. I was a little surprised since I had thought I had to wait a bit longer. But I'm anxious for my new face, so I was down.
She did the usual double clease and facial massage, then started to do the Schrammek Green Peel. It's an herbal mixture but basically felt like a thousand needles getting massaged into my skin. Imagine a face scrub with tiny beads that feels like sharp rocks, and someone vigorously massages it into your face for 8-10 minutes.
Like, wtf.
According to the Green Peel website, "the supply of oxygen and nutrition is improved and skin renewal is stimulated". Remember in my recap of my first session, Ms. Oh told me that it takes 28 days for a full skin cell turnover when you're in your 20s? Basically this peel speeds up the process and shortens that 28-day period into 5 days. Five. FIVE.
Like, WTF.
Anyway, after she finished her massage of torture, she put a cool gauze mask on my face, and applied a cool serum-like liquid on top to keep my skin from burning itself into spontaneous combustion. Lol, jk. No, but really. Then when it was time to remove the mask, instead of wiping it away, she proceeded to rub it into my skin more to make my skin absorb as much of the herbs as possible. This stuff was everywhere—in my nose, mouth, ears, behind the ears, in my hair! She did the three-step post-treatment of an herbal toner, Special Care Cream and a blemish balm to cover redness.
She told me not to wash my face for the next 5 days, that I would start to peel around Day 3 (Friday), and it would start to peel in large sheets. All I can imagine is the Baby Foot Peel, but on my face. After care instructions: use as much of the Herbal Toner as possible (basically the goal is to use the entire bottle if I can by Sunday) and keep applying, especially if I'm at home. The Herbal Toner will be my cleanser, soothing toner and cream prep all in one. The Special Care Cream should be lathered onto the face and also to use as much of that as possible as well. Use the BB cream and I can mix it with the Special Care Cream too.
After somehow managing to shower & wash my hair without getting my face drenched, I wiped down my face with the Schrammek toner, using about 8 cotton pads to clean off the BB and make sure I use as much toner as possible (Ms. Oh's advice) and my face feels heavy. I don't know how else to describe it—like my skin feels really thick and hardened. It's almost like it's drying out, but all at once and like I'm wearing a mask. I used as much toner as I think my skin will absorb, then I took a quarter size dollop of the cream and massaged it into my face. Ms. Oh advised to use the BB at night too, but I skipped it. Sleeping was tricky. I'm a stomach sleeper and tend to squish my face into the pillow, but the peel made me feel like I had a thousand little needles in all of my pores any time I touched it, especially when I was using the toner and cream.
On Wednesday, I applied all three products before work at around 6:30am. While at work, I managed to reapply all the products twice during the day, first around 11am and again around 5pm. Ideally, I would've reapplied three times, every 3-4 hours, but I got stuck working on a deck for 5 hours straight and couldn't leave my desk. You know, working while at work. This is what my post-Pilates, 9:15pm, Peel Day 1 face looked like:
I showered at night again, successfully washing my hair without getting my face wet, and applied the toner and cream before bed. I did two rounds of cream—applying once after toner, then again after I dried my hair, applying more cream before I went to bed. My skin must be parched from the peel, because when I applied round two, my face felt like I had never applied any moisturizer to it.
I didn't see any peeling action yet (it's not supposed to happen until day 3 anyway) but my skin feels really tight. At least the stinging went away! Maybe this means my skin has absorbed all of the peel herbs, since my face no longer feels like it's host to a million little needles. My pilates teachers said that my skin looked really even and smooth, before the peeling had even started! I'm not gonna lie, I'm a little scared but let's see what Thursday and Friday looks like.
Read Seoul Skincare Journey: Part 1
Read Seoul Skincare Journey: Part 2