For licensed skincare professionals
Professional resurfacing peel protocol
45 minutes, of which the acid is on the skin for a maximum of 5. Every 21 to 28 days, three to four sessions.
The highest-risk protocol in this set. It is short, it is controlled, and everything that makes it safe happens before the peel bottle is opened.
Who this is for
Intact, calm skin with visible surface roughness that has not changed with a consistent home routine. Makeup catching on texture. Skin that assesses under magnification as unbroken, with no flaking, no standing redness and no stinging response to water.
Skin that is reactive, that flushes readily, that stings on plain water, or that has reacted to home actives does not belong here. Route it to Gentle resurfacing for reactive skin, PROT-BS-011, which reaches a similar surface result over a longer course without acid dwell time.
Who this is not for
- No patch test 48 hours before, or a patch test that produced any reaction at all.
- Oral isotretinoin in use now or at any point in the last 6 months.
- Any professional resurfacing or stimulation treatment in the last 28 days.
- Active infection, a cold sore anywhere on the face, or any open lesion in the area.
- Pregnancy or breastfeeding, where the clinic's own policy requires exclusion. Follow the clinic's written policy; do not decide this one at the couch.
- Sun exposure, sunbed use or a self-tan application in the last 7 days.
- Known acid sensitivity or a previous reaction to any acid. Check the full INCI.
- A compromised barrier: tightness, stinging on water, visible flaking, standing redness.
- Waxing, threading or depilatory use in the treatment area in the last 7 days.
- Home retinoid or home acid use in the last 5 days.
- Any history of raised or abnormal scarring in the treatment area.
- A client who will not commit to sun protection for the 7 days after.
Re-screen on the day. Where one of these has changed since booking, rebook. A peel done on a client who should have been rebooked is the most common way this treatment goes wrong.
Before you begin
The patch test is not a formality and it is not optional. Test 48 hours before, behind the ear or at the angle of the jaw, with the same product at the same strength. Read it yourself, record it, and treat any redness, itching, swelling or lingering warmth as a fail. A fail routes the client to PROT-BS-011.
Set the trolley before the client is on the couch: neutralizer open and measured, cool water, cotton in quantity, a timer you can see without turning your head.
The protocol
| Step | Product | Amount | Dwell | Technique |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Comfort Cleansing Milk | 2 pumps | 60 sec | First cleanse on dry skin. Remove makeup and surface oil with warm damp cotton. |
| 2 | Comfort Cleansing Milk, second cleanse | 1 pump | 60 sec | Remove fully, then blot the skin completely dry. Water left on the skin dilutes the peel unevenly and gives a patchy result you cannot correct mid-pass. |
| 3 | Barrier Repair Cream, as a shield | Thin ribbon | Leave in place | Rim the nostrils, the corners of the mouth, the lip margin and the orbital rim, plus any area being excluded. Occlude the border before the acid exists on the trolley. |
| 4 | Pro Resurfacing Acid Peel | 2 to 3 ml decanted into a glass dish | Maximum 2 min, first session | Start the timer on the first stroke. One even pass with gauze or a fan brush: forehead, right cheek, left cheek, nose, chin, perioral. Keep 1 cm clear of the orbital rim and the lip margin. Do not go back over an area. Do not leave the client. |
| 5 | Neutralizing solution named in the peel's professional documentation | Flood the area | Until the reaction stops | Neutralize in the order you applied, so the oldest area is treated first. Then flush with cool water on cotton, at least four changes, until the skin no longer feels slippery. |
| 6 | Cryo Cooling Gel | 5 to 8 ml, cool | 5 min | Lay on in a thick layer. No massage, no friction, no fanning. Remove with cool damp cotton, lifting rather than wiping. |
| 7 | Hyaluronic Skin Repair NanoSerum, sealed vial | 1.5 ml, drawn through the stopper | 5 min | Onto damp skin. Press in with flat palms. Do not rub. |
| 8 | Soothing Recovery Gel | Thin layer | 2 min | Press on, do not work in. |
| 9 | Barrier Repair Cream | Pea-sized | Leave on | Final occlusive layer over the whole treated area. Sun protection over it before the client leaves the building. |
The one thing that determines whether this protocol works: the neutralizer is open, measured and within reach before the peel bottle is opened, and the timer starts on the first stroke rather than the last. Application takes 40 to 60 seconds across a full face, so an operator timing from the end of the pass is running the forehead a minute longer than the timer says. Everything else here is judgment; this part is arithmetic, and it is where uneventful sessions and incidents separate. And where the timer and the skin disagree, the skin wins.
Maximum dwell is a ceiling, not a target. First session, 2 minutes maximum. Later sessions in the same course may extend in 60 second increments to an absolute maximum of 5 minutes, and only where the previous session was uneventful and the skin recovered fully within 48 hours. Most clients never need the ceiling. Where the manufacturer's documentation or the clinic's policy states a shorter maximum, that number wins.
Never layer or stack peels. One product, one pass, one session. Never increase the strength to improve a result: a course that is not delivering was wrong for that skin, and the answer is to stop it, not to concentrate it.
The protocol is the treating professional's clinical decision.
Stop signs and what you do about each
- Uniform erythema across the treated field. This is the endpoint. Neutralize now, even with time remaining on the timer. Do not wait for it to deepen.
- Frost, meaning white speckling or a pinpoint white deposit on the surface. Stop and neutralize immediately, wherever you are in the pass. Cool, complete steps 6 to 9, and end the session. Review at 48 hours. Do not repeat at this strength or this dwell time.
- Blanching, meaning a defined white or gray-white area, often with a visible border. Neutralize immediately, flush with cool water, apply Cryo Cooling Gel and nothing active. Reassess at 15 minutes. If the area has not resolved, this is a physician's call today, not at the next appointment. See When to refer.
- Pain rather than sting, or a sting that escalates instead of plateauing. Neutralize. A normal response climbs, holds and eases. One that keeps climbing does not.
- Itching, swelling, wheals, weeping, or any gray or dusky patch. Neutralize, cool, stop.
- The client asks you to stop. Neutralize. There is no discussion to have about this.
Frequency and course
Every 21 to 28 days, three to four sessions. Never sooner than 21 days, whatever the diary pressure, and no acid from any other source in between.
Reassess at the end of the course rather than adding sessions to it. Where texture has improved, the client moves to home maintenance and returns in three months. Where it has not, the answer is a different protocol, not a stronger version of this one.
Aftercare
- Sun protection every day, broad spectrum, from any brand. Vegalab does not sell an SPF product. Freshly resurfaced skin without daily sun protection loses more than the treatment gained, and that holds for the full course, not just the week after each session.
- No actives for 7 days. No acid, no retinoid, no vitamin C, no scrub, no exfoliating cloth, no cleansing brush, no home peel of any kind.
- No heat for 48 hours: no sauna, no steam room, no hot yoga, no hot water on the face.
- No makeup for 24 hours.
- Barrier Repair Cream twice daily until the skin feels normal again.
- No picking or pulling at any flaking. Flaking pulled off early is where marks come from.
- Give this in writing. A verbal briefing at the door is not aftercare.
What to expect, and when
Immediately after: warmth and pink coloring that settles within a few hours. Skin feels tight and looks slightly glassy.
Days 2 to 4: possible light flaking, usually around the nose, chin and perioral area. Some clients flake visibly, some not at all, and neither predicts the outcome.
Days 5 to 7: the surface looks smoother and makeup sits flatter.
Across a course: cumulative improvement in the look of surface texture and evenness of tone, judged against the first photograph rather than against memory.
Scope: this protocol addresses how the surface of the skin looks and feels over a defined course. Scarring, lesions and anything sitting below the surface belong with a physician, and consultation is when to say so.
Home maintenance
Between sessions the skin is recovering, so home care is protective rather than active.
Days 1 to 7 after each session: Comfort Cleansing Milk morning and evening, Barrier Repair Cream twice daily, sun protection every morning. Nothing else. Soothing Recovery Gel where the skin feels hot or looks pink.
Day 8 to the next session: cleanse, one 1.5 ml application of Hyaluronic Skin Repair NanoSerum from a sealed vial twice weekly onto damp skin, Barrier Repair Cream as required, sun protection every morning. Each vial covers three applications, so a three-week interval uses two vials and a ten-vial box covers a full three to four session course.
Actives return after day 7, one at a time, at a lower frequency than before. Everything back at once on day 8 is how clients arrive at the next session with a barrier that fails the screen.
When to refer
Refer to a physician, and do not proceed or continue, if:
- Blanching or frost has not resolved within 15 minutes of neutralizing.
- There is blistering, weeping, crusting, or any break in the skin after the session.
- Pain persists beyond a few hours, or redness has not settled by 48 hours.
- The area darkens or lightens visibly in the days after.
- A cold sore appears in or near the treated area.
- The client discloses isotretinoin use, current or in the last 6 months, at any point.
- Any lesion in the treatment area is changing, bleeding, crusting or asymmetric. Nothing about that is a peel decision.
The skill in this protocol is not in the pass. It is in knowing which client not to treat, and in stopping the moment the skin says so.
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