What about AHA Fruit-Acids in Skin Care Products?

As soon as an American fashion invades Europe many cosmetic companies, beauty salons and consumers, incited by advertising adopt this fad without considering the possible negative effects on skin health. By marketing people (who are often lacking basic expert knowledge) fruit acids have been touted as the decisive new development in cosmetics. They are apparently not interested in the probable long-term dermatological effects, which can be observed especially after application on a daily base.

With normal skin with a normal horny layer and, treatment with fruit acids causes thins out of the horny layer, that why treatment of normal skin with fruit acids is utmost senseless. Be ware, that the horny layer is an important barrier for protecting our body. You are well advised to support the physiological function and structure of the skin, be careful not to harm it. This is above all important with regard to sunlight protection.

If the epidermis becomes too thin, the skin loses its most effective protection, dramatically increasing the sensitivity to UV-radiation that can penetrate more easily into the skin. Malignant skin tumours can be triggered by the possible cell injury. High UV-radiation always causes premature aging of the skin. If the treatment with fruit acids is carried out during wintertime because of reduced sun radiation, cold injury to the skin may result with low temperatures. The constant everyday treatment with fruit acids also seems to have a negative effect on the physiological skin bacteria that are important as a protection against the spreading of pathogenic germs. Also, the immune defence against bacteria, viruses and mycoses can be diminished, increasing the vulnerability of the skin to allergic diseases, eczema, etc., in the long run.

Fruit acids should only be used with skin problems caused by a thickened horny layer. The peeling of the upper horny layer makes sense, for example, when it is too thick and has closed the sebaceous glands, one important reason for acne. The skin should not be treated with fruit acids on a daily base but only in the form of cures so that the skin has the chance to regenerate in the time between the single cure treatments. We recommend glycolic acid in the form of a peeling cure. Concentrations of glycolic acid in the offered preparations is 10%, 20% and 30% so that the beautician can use the appropriate concentration for the respective type of skin.

With the first treatment, concentration of fruit acids should be low and the duration of traetment should be short in order to learn about the individual reaction time of each skin, even if there is only a small or no peeling effect at all with the first treatment. Note: Fruit acids in the form of a peeling cure are perfectly appropriate to reduce an overly thick horny layer to a normal level, e.g.. if a thickened horny layer has caused skin problems like acne. From our point of view, it is not advisable and is even dangerous to treat normal skin with a normal horny layer with creams containing fruit acids every day.
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