Skin peel is one of the most effective and popular skin care procedures of improving the skin appearance and health. It helps to make your skin healthier and smoother, improves it’s color and texture and treats such imperfections as some kinds of scars, fine lines, clogged pores, brown spots etc.

There are several skin peels you can use to exfoliate your skin. Some of them are quite gentle and can be used at home without any risk of injuring the skin, these methods are usually cheaper and safer but less effective. Another group of the skin resurfacing methods are more effective but more aggressive to the skin, these methods are usually used by the professionals at the daily and medical spas. For example you can exfoliate your skin with mechanical exfoliators, enzyme peels and some kinds of chemical peels at home, but microdermabrasion procedures, laser resurfacing of the skin and skin exfoliation with high concentrations of AHA’s and BHA’s are usually done by the special trained people.

Almost all of the skin peel methods have some contraindications and you should be careful with the exfoliating products and always read the instructions. There are some general contraindications for skin peel procedures.

General contraindications for skin peel procedure:

• Sunburn skin
• Inflammations
• Heightened skin allergies
• Open wounds on the skin
• Medications that can cause skin sensitivity (for example keratolytics such as Retin-A, Retinol, adapalene, Accutane, azelaic acid, alphahydroxy acid or salicylic acid)

People with couperous skin, people with acneic skin with pustules and papules, very thin skin or skin with visible capillaries should exfoliate with gentle skin peels and never use harsh exfoliators.

There are also some special contraindications for different skin peel methods.

Contraindications to chemical peels:

• heightened skin allergies
• open wounds or open lesions
• an extreme sunburn
• recent facial cosmetic procedure
• medication that can cause skin sensitivity
• rosacea
• pustular acne
• serious sensitive-skin disorders and/or infections

It’s always better to discuss your skin type and the method of the exfoliation with your practitioner before you start using any exfoliator.

Contraindications to microdermabrasion:

• Active, uncontrolled or brittle diabetes
• Viral lesions
• Herpes Simplex
• Shingles
• Eczema or Seborrheic dermatitis
• Rosacea
• Oral blood thinners
• Vitiliago
• Skin cancer and auto immune disorders such as AIDS or HIV
• Visible, broken blood vessels
• Telangectasis
• Sunburned skin

Contraindications to laser peel:

• Tendency toward keloid or hypertrophic scar formation
• Isotretinoin within 6 months prior to surgery, and when a patient cannot comply with postoperative instructions
• People with scleroderma
• Burn scars
• Prior ionizing radiation to the skin
• Patients who had undergone recent rhytidectomy, dermabrasion or other procedures
• Bacterial or viral infection
• Impaired immune system
• Burns in the treatment area
• Poor healing in the treatment area
• Irregular pigmentation of the skin
• Vitiligo or psoriasis
• Recurrent infections
• Prior eye lift surgery

People who are going to undergo periorbital laser treatment should examine for scleral show, lid lag, and ectropion before the procedure.

Such cutaneous disorders as solar lentigines, seborrheic keratoses, cutaneous carcinomas and actinic keratoses also should be always noted by the aestheticians.