My Chemical Peel Romance

The first time that I had a Samantha Jones moment was straight out of the first SATC movie where she voiced out that she wanted to buy her own bling. I had my second Samantha moment, just the other day, as I faced several people {and about to face even more!} with my chemical peeled face.

 Samantha and I don't have much difference. I look just like this right now, except that I have a fedora hat instead.

The First Time is Always the Hardest

I hadn't had time to worry if I would endure the experience, as I had all my days and waking hours booked doing something. When the clock hit 5:30 PM, I got ready to walk to Greenbelt 5's House of Obagi for consultation and peel session with Medical Director Dr. Stephen Lacson. Dubhe, one of HOO's staff, sent me a reminder via SMS which I like very much!

Upon walking in into the clinic, I saw several ladies coming out from their respective treatments. "Ah, so this is like the secret bat cave for women. It's yet another one of those, like Strip in GB5, too," I thought. Sophie shot me an encouraging text of "Kaya mo yan," and that's when the real fear began.

I have read several tales of experiences via Rowena, Liz, Shen's {TruPeel}prior to heading to HOO and I was ready for the downtime as Dr. Lacson calls it. I was ready to look like Samantha Jones for a few days since the longest weekend of the week was coming up. What I was not prepared for was the emotional change it brought.

Not Afraid of Dentists, Afraid of Dermatologists

Most people are afraid of dentists. I am afraid of dermatologists. I'm afraid of being judged because my skin is imperfect. I'm afraid of being scolded of how I did not take good care of my skin when I was younger --- which is why I can count in my hands the number of times I've gone to the derma. "Aren't male dermatologists less judgmental than female ones?," Dr. Lacson asked. I thought about it and thought about it again now, and yes they are {at least the ones I've gone to}. 

 Dr. Stephen Lacson, photo via

Dr. Lacson made the process of assessing my skin easier -- a relatively important part of the experience to determine what type of peel I should have. I easily guessed that I'll have the stronger blue peel, as both my cheeks are peppered with acne scars, accumulated from teenage years of experimenting with various skincare regimen.He explained that acne scars on the cheeks are harder to get rid of because of their convex nature. He proceeds to say that my facial skin is not hopeless and rather improvable, which made me think I should have done this even earlier. 

The Solution

As we all know, pores get infiltrated by bacteria from various sources: clogged makeup, pollution, dirt and what have you. Of course, we try hard to remove everything everyday and we exfoliate {guilty of not doing this as much} but our skin, especially when we're older, tends to take longer to renew. Thus the need for induced peeling via chemicals. 

"Is this your first time to undergo a peel?," asked Dr. Lacson after he explained all the repercussions of what I was to do, such as downtime, no sun exposure, I had to take Doxicycline and apply Erythromycin on my acne scars. I swallowed and answered yes. At the back of my mind, I knew this was going to be the most invasive procedure I've ever had to do but hey, I am not as young as I was 5 years ago, nor am I happy with the current state my skin was in. From that consultation as well, I deemed that this was not going to be a regular thing {like you know, a facial} and that this was a one-time-big-time procedure that will wipe away most of the dead skin and buildup that I had, to be maintained by milder peels and facials. I was ready.

 State of the Skin Address. Hello, acne and acne scars!

I Cried

The first thing I noticed were the small fans that were waiting for me. "You're going to ask for them later," Dr. Lacson told me. For someone who's conquered being a Brazilian {girls, you catch my drift}, no procedure can be too painful. But true enough, as Dr. Lacson applied the blue solution on my face for a continuous 15 minutes, I shed a tear maybe because it was my face's way of saying "Ouch!" because it couldn't even twitch.

Hi! I'm Tara and I'm a smurfette who can't smile! :D

"You seem to have a high tolerance for pain," says Dr. Lacson's assistant. It must be because I shed just one tear and most patients usually get teary eyed for a long time. I guess it was because I was distracting myself with talking with them that I forgot about the pain. As my skin continued to sting and to itch like crazy, I was repeating to myself in my mind the chant, "Here's to better skin, here's to better skin, here's to better skin," until I felt better.

Emotional Changes

I felt so unpretty, like really unpretty. Especially now that as I type this, my cheeks are two blobs of brown skin. When I went back to the office to get my car from the building parking, my officemate was shocked to see me with blue face and that I walked back all the way from GB5. Being the resident super vain person that they know, it was hard to believe I'd let my face without makeup seen without makeup, let alone chemically peeled. "Sacrifices for better and more beautiful skin, you know," I responded.

The morning after was even harder as I struggled to keep myself away from my usual facial wash {can only use mild wash, in my case the Obagi gentle cleanser} and light moisturizer {TBS Vitamin E}. I couldn't put on makeup as well, and even if I did, it was going to be pretty useless with my skin all tight and hard. My life was pretty much on hold as I couldn't go out under the sun for errands and I couldn't run and do yoga or any strenuous stuff to refrain from sweating.

Ugly and Scary Photos Alert.

Day 2 was still manageable, the dark area was not as dark as it is today. I could feel the skin tighter and that they were drying up. I went out in the evening to have my car washed and to meet Sophie for dinner at Lam Tin {which serves amazing food, BTW!} and the looks I've been getting from people were entirely different from what I normally receive. I even overheard a lady whisper to her friend, "Maganda sana siya, kung walang malaking balat sa mukha." HAHA. Thank you! :D

 This photo was taken when I woke up on Saturday morning. The discoloration caused by the 'burn' was still light.

By Day 3, I am not sure how I will drag myself out of my house:

I really do feel like Samantha Jones at this point. And I shall be out with thousands of people watching Jason Mraz tonight. How do I hide this?

At this point, no part of my facial skin has peeled of yet and I can't wait!

This journey to better skin is becoming exciting, bordering on scary but what the heck. No pain, no gain, right? I hope you join me as I share the next updates on My Chemical Blue Peel Romance! And hopefully they're going to be good updates <3

{If you've undergone blue peel before or any other chemical peel, please share with me your experience and tell me this will go away and that it will be better, please <3}

 xx

Disclaimer: This service was provided to the author for reviewing purposes. All opinions in this blog is of the author and is no way influenced by the brands mentioned. And for reader benefits {hi Chin!} the treatment is around Php 10,000.