Bloom Review: Dr. Dennis Gross Extra Strength Alpha Beta Daily Face Peel

This was really an interesting product that Bloom sent me in my Ambassador box this month - Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare's Extra Strength Alpha Beta Face Peel. The name strikes a little fear into my heart, but I was curious to see how an at-home peel would turn out :)

First off, this face peel is Extra Strength - a stronger version with more of the Alpha Beta Acids than their other products. The nicest part is that the product says it has added strength without added irritation or redness - this was my biggest concern. When I hear the word 'face peel', it immediately calls to mind the episode of Sex and the City where Samantha gets a facial peel before a big event and ends up wearing a hat with a black veil to cover her raw and oozy looking face. So, the fact that this product promises no extra irritation or redness is a big plus for me as I have had issues with other facial products in the past (like the Alchimie Mask).

Anyway, to really show the side by side results, I started by taking a before picture of my skin.

This is was taken just after removing my makeup and cleaning my face. I do have a few blemishes, but my biggest concern with my face is my pores. My pores are huge and black head filled (ew, I feel gross just typing it). Because of the blackheads, my face doesn't always feel so smooth, so I really wanted to see how this would handle my issues.

The peel comes in the form of 2 individually sealed wipes. You apply the 1st step by rubbing the wipe in a circles on your face. As one section of the wipe would get dry, I would turn it to another spot and keep going. You just keep going around until the whole cloth feels dry. At first the product doesn't feel like anything, but once you go back around and rub the same spot again with the cloth, it does cause a little bit of stinging - nothing major though. I was perfectly fine with the very little irritation it caused. After the first step is applied, you wait 2 minutes before repeating the same rubbing process with the 2nd step - again just rub in circles until the cloth is dry.

And that's it! My face had mild stinging for a few minutes afterward, but then went away and I had no other problems :) The trial I was given was for 5 days, so I took pictures on the 1st and 5th day so we could all see the progress.

I am really pleased with the results! You can clearly see how much the redness of my complexion was reduced. I'm very pink usually, so it was nice to see my skin tone more evened out. Also, if didn't shrink my pores completely, but I can can certainly tell a difference.

Here are some close ups of my skin. The blackheads are still there, but much less noticeable. One thing that may sound gross that I really liked about this peel is that it seemed to force the zits out of my face. It wasn't like a breakout, just each night I would see a small and easily removable zit that was painless to remove. I was able to get rid of my blemishes easily without causing any red spots - how great is that?

I give this product 5 out of 5 stars! Anything that can reduce my redness that much as well as make my pimples more manageable is a-ok in my book :) There is a mild amount of stinging, but it really isn't bad at all and goes away quickly. My pore size was reduced and I'm sure that if I had more than a 5 day trial of this that they would have reduced even more. My skin feels smoother and healthier and I couldn't be happier :)