LÉ Blog

The skincare world is never short of the newest, glitziest active ingredient vying for your attention. But while trendy ingredients can come and go, retinol and glycolic acid are two workhorse active ingredients that consistently top the chart. Both of these come with a rich history of clinical data on treating uneven pigmentation, fine lines and wrinkles. However, given that these are both heavy hitting actives that come with a risk for skin irritation, you might be wondering: can you actual...

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AHAs (alpha hydroxy acids) such as glycolic and lactic acid have long enjoyed the spotlight - and for good reason! These are your proven chemical exfoliants essential to most anti-aging, hyperpigmentation skin routines. Beyond these two, there are plenty of “new age” AHAs that get touted for similar skin benefits, and one of the newer kids on the block we want to shine a spotlight on is mandelic acid. As chemists, we always have to look at the available clinical evidence on these newer ingred...

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Back in the day, St. Ives Apricot scrub was probably the poster child for exfoliation. Even today, most people probably associate exfoliation with those amber scrubby beads. But! Since then, the entire exfoliation category has gotten a glow-up. Now you can choose from a wide range of exfoliating cleansers, serums, masks, sticks, pads, etc all with different strengths and efficacy levels to boot. So let’s take a closer look at why you should exfoliate, how to shop for the right exfoliant, what...

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Chemical peels are great for stubborn skin concerns such as hyperpigmentation, fine lines, and wrinkles. It used to be a treatment you can get exclusively at professional medspas and dermatology offices, but now there is a whole category of skincare products you can choose from that claim to be at-home versions of peels. So how do these home peels stack up against the professional peels? Can they actually target hyperpigmentation and fine lines like professional peels? How do you shop for the...

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In our final podcast episode of 2021, we dedicated the meat of the episode on a chemical exfoliants update. That’s the alphabet clan of PHAs, AHAs, and BHA, and it resulted in a lot of curiosity about PHAs. Though PHA research is still relatively new and not as well-studied as classic glycolic acid, there’s still some really exciting data that validates it’s use as an exfoliator. In fact, we like gluconolactone so much we use 30% of it in our Baby Steps exfoliating treatment! So let’s do a de...

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In this part 2 of our pigmentation guide, we’re going to shed some light on how to shop for the best ingredients & products to target that stubborn hyperpigmentation and build a successful routine. This will mirror a lot of what we talked about in our hyperpigmentation podcast episode, so check out the episode here if it’s easier for you to listen to it. Set Your Expectations Nope! It’s not just your imagination, that dang dark spot is persistent which makes tackling this skin concern pretty ...

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One of our most popular articles of Chemist Confessions and the center of a lot of questions is combining actives. In How to Combine Actives Like a Pro Pt. 1 we shared some tips and tricks on how to combine the big 4 actives of retinol, niacinamide, AHAs, and vitamin C. But what about all the other active ingredients? And what does it all really mean when it comes to product layering? It’s finally time for How to Combine Actives like a pro part 2! *Note: We wrote this for individuals that hav...

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Probably one of the first ways you get introduced to AHAs (alpha hydroxy acid) is an exfoliating toner. The only problem is that there are about a gazillion different exfoliating toners out there to choose from. And which one is going to be the best one for your skin type and how do you get the most out of your exfoliating toner? Let’s go through some chemist pro-tips shall we? *For a quick refresher on AHAs, check out our dedicated blog post. The who, what, when for exfoliating toners What a...

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You can find AHAs in a wide range of products from cleansers to night creams. Just what are AHAs anyway? AHA stands for alpha hydroxy acid — a class of water-soluble weak acids that has a long history of use and proven skin benefits. Some commonly used in skincare are: glycolic, lactic, malic, citric, mandelic, and tartaric acid. It's one of our "big 4" actives that we swear by. We love AHAs so much, we developed a whole line of booster masks starring our favorite AHAs. So let's take a look a...

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Head over to How to Combine Actives Like a Pro Pt 2 for more. Shopping for a "big 4" product? Checkout community-favorite products here. Finding that first effective ingredient that makes a visible difference to your skin is a bit like opening pandora’s box. Encouraged, you probably can’t wait to get your hands on all the top of the line actives on the market. But wait! Not every combination works and turns out the relationship can be complicated. So let’s figure out how to combine and handle...

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