Chemical Peels

The Total Beauty Medspa at Ciaravino Total Beauty Houston offers professional chemical peels across a range of depths — superficial, medium, and deep — to address skin concerns including uneven tone, sun damage, fine lines, acne-prone skin, and textural irregularities. Chemical peel solutions including glycolic acid, salicylic acid, and trichloroacetic acid (TCA) are applied to the skin to remove damaged outer layers and stimulate the growth of new, healthier skin. Downtime ranges from none for light peels to five to seven days for medium-depth treatments.

Chemical peels at the Total Beauty Medspa within Ciaravino Total Beauty Houston offer patients a medically supervised approach to accelerated skin cell turnover and dermal remodelling using exfoliant acids applied directly to the skin surface. Chemical peels are classified by the depth of tissue penetration they achieve, which determines both the clinical results and the post-treatment recovery period. Superficial peels — using alpha-hydroxy acids (AHA) such as glycolic acid or lactic acid, or beta-hydroxy acids such as salicylic acid at low concentrations — penetrate only the stratum corneum and upper epidermis. These peels cause minimal visible peeling, require no downtime, and are appropriate for patients seeking mild brightening, pore refinement, mild acne management, and gradual texture improvement. They are commonly incorporated into regular medspa maintenance programmes and can be performed in series every two to four weeks. Medium-depth peels using trichloroacetic acid (TCA) at concentrations typically between 20% and 35%, or Jessner's solution followed by TCA, penetrate to the papillary dermis. These peels produce visible frosting at the time of application — the immediate whitening caused by epidermal protein denaturation — followed by several days of social downtime during which the skin darkens, tightens, and peels. Medium peels are appropriate for patients with moderate sun damage, dyspigmentation, melasma, and early to moderate fine lines, delivering more significant results than superficial peels in exchange for manageable downtime. Deep peels using high-concentration TCA or phenol penetrate to the reticular dermis, producing the most dramatic and longest-lasting results for severe photodamage, deep rhytids, and acne scarring — but require longer recovery periods and more extensive pre- and post-treatment care. All chemical peel treatments at this Houston practice are preceded by a skin assessment and history review to select the appropriate peel formulation, strength, and number of passes for each patient's skin type and concern. Patients with a history of herpes simplex may require prophylactic antiviral medication before medium or deep peels. Post-peel care including sunscreen, gentle cleansers, and barrier-supporting moisturisers is provided as part of the treatment plan.