Product Review: Paula’s Choice 2% Beta Hydroxy Acid Gel

Price: USD$17.95 (118 mL)
Rating: (I took a star off for not being a natural product!)
Website: http://www.cosmeticscop.com/

I’ve been using a new product for a few weeks now, and it’s been working miracles on my skin. I didn’t want to tell you about it too early in case it stopped working so well, or in case it was just a coincidence that my skin was doing better, but I think it’s time that I share my thoughts and my success with this product.

Actually I’ve already mentioned it a lot in the High on Health forum and in some of my blog comments. It’s Paula’s Choice 2% BHA gel.

First, a little warning …

BHA stands for ‘Beta Hydroxy Acid’ and it works by exfoliating the pores from deep inside the pore itself, instead of just on the surface like ‘regular’ exfoliators do. The active ingredient in Paula’s Choice BHA is Salicylic Acid which you may already have seen in a ton of other acne treatment products. Paula’s BHA supposedly has its Salicylic Acid at the perfect pH level to work properly, I don’t know weather this is true, but it seems to work well for me, and this product has great reviews from others that have used it on makeupalley.com

The gel also comes as a lotion if you prefer, and as a 1% which is a little gentler on the skin.

After using the product for a few days I realized that I should have bought the 1% because the 2% seems to be quite strong for my very sensitive and very dry skin. I can only use a very small amount each time (about half the size of a pea, yes I’m not exaggerating that …the bottle is going to last me years) and only once a day when the recommended use is twice daily. I found that if I used it twice a day my skin went a little pink and too dry. I’ve read posts in forums from beauty therapists who say that it’s bad to use BHA’s on your skin every single day, so I’m happy to use just a teeny tiny amount.

The directions on the bottle also recommend to use it underneath your moisturizer, but I found this to be too difficult. For some reason my moisturizer didn’t go on too well after I’d applied the BHA, even if I’d wait ten minutes after I applied the BHA, and …I don’t know, I just didn’t like it. So after I cleanse my face, I moisturize, then wait about half an hour before I apply the BHA. I wait for half an hour so my moisturizer has properly settled into my skin. Any earlier and it seems to make a bit of a strange mix of moisturizer and BHA on my skin.

I apply the BHA only once a day - at night.

This product is not for everyone

This product seems to be mainly for those with congested skin, blackheads and whiteheads. I started using it because that described my skin condition perfectly. If you’re a regular reader of my blog then you’ll know that I damaged my skin from using too many products on it, and I ended up with very congested clogged up pores and comedonal acne. This in turn gave me persistent mild acne, as my skin tried sooooo hard to purge the clogged pores, blackheads and whiteheads on its own. At its worst, I had a scattering of hard little whiteheads across both cheeks. It was very frightening.

I tried for months to make my skin healthy and to get rid of my comedonal acne using natural products. I did manage to help move it along a little, but it was so clogged up and so persistent that nothing seemed to work well enough. It was so frustrating and annoying. I couldn’t even use face masks because pulling all of those toxins out at once caused bigger breakouts than normal!

So, I did some research and I decided to try this BHA. In fact it was the first time I’ve ever used a Salicylic Acid product.

The results in the beginning were amazing. The first morning I woke up with much softer and less inflamed skin. Over the next three days I was so excited and felt as though I’d found THE miracle product. Unfortunately it then got a little worse. As my pores started to purge, areas of my face, including around my eyes and nose, started to get really sand-papery. It totally freaked me out. I also developed several very small inflammations on my chin. These were teeny tiny pimples. They had a small head but that was about it, they weren’t even red but there were a lot of them.

Over the next couple of days the sand-papery feeling went away and I could feel some of the bigger blackheads becoming dislodged, but my chin broke out more and more. I remember one night counting twelve little inflamed heads on my chin. TWELVE! That’s a lot. It was torture trying not to squeeze them out, and so many came and went that my chin started to look like it has a rash all over it. I realized that I must have had a LOT of congestion on my chin.

I freaked out so much that I took a break from using the BHA. It was doing good things to my skin but I didn’t like the idea of every pore on my chin turning into a tiny pimple. I’d even developed a couple of much larger pimples on my chin that hurt and I knew were going to take a few days to go away.

After a week of not using the BHA at all, my chin completely healed so I decided to start using the BHA once again. I’ve now been using it every night over the last couple of weeks on my entire face EXCEPT for my chin, and with great success. I have had a few pimples from sebum plugs that are trying to make their way out but have got a little stuck on the way, but overall my comedonal acne is clearing up beautifully, and my skin is softer than it has been in months. I’ve also noticed a big difference in the general health of my skin.

I could rave about this product, I really could. I know it’s not natural and that kind of sucks, but it’s amazing how such a teeny tiny amount can make such a huge difference to my skin. I’m not sure how well it would work on moderate-severe acne, or how well it would work on clearing up inflamed pimples. It seems to work best at purging clogged pores and clearing up stubborn comedonal acne. So if you suffer from acne rosacea, this product probably won’t do a lot for you.

It’s important not to become dependant on a product

The danger with Salicylic Acid products is becoming dependant on them. I know my pores got all clogged up from using the wrong products and using too much at once, so as soon as my skin heals and gets all healthy again, I’ll wean myself off this BHA until I’m not using it anymore. In fact, I’ve already started using it every second day only.

If you find that your pores are all clogged up for no apparent reason, then you WILL need to figure out how and why your skin got that way in the first place in order for it to heal properly, otherwise you may be stuck with using the BHA forever. Because as soon as you stop using it, your pores my just clog up all over again.

You don’t want to rely on using a product forever either, because you’ll totally freak out if they stop making it or you can’t get your hands on it anymore for whatever reason. And you don’t want to have to rely on using chemicals in your skin care routine forever, because after all - Salicylic Acid is an acid.

Often we can get clogged pores and comedonal acne from oily skin, or hormonal imbalance. So make sure you’re using an oil-free moisturizer and cleanser if you suffer from oily skin. Also make sure you’re working on balancing your hormones if you think your clogged pores are caused by hormonal imbalance.

If you’ve got any questions about this product, or about BHAs and Salicylic Acid, please write a question in the box below or in the forum. If you’ve tried this product and have had a different experience to me, I’d also love to hear from you because it’s good to hear opinions and reviews from others.

Fran