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LÉ Blog

Should You Be Using PHA Gluconolactone Instead of Glycolic Acid?

There’s a (relatively) new chemical exfoliant in town – PHA (poly hydroxy acid) gluconolactone! It’s no secret that we love our AHAs (alpha hydroxy acid). These chemical exfoliants are tried and true ingredients, and we’re big proponents of them being used as staples in anyone’s routine to tackle anything from dry skin to wrinkles. That said, the gold standard AHA glycolic acid is not really made for everyone. For many people, glycolic acid may simply be too aggressive, leading to irritation,...

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RESULTS SUMMARY FOR OUR 2024 30-FOR-30 SUNSCREEN CHALLENGE

In celebration of summer, we decided to test 30 different sunscreens over 30 days to see how these applied, how they held up over time, and even how they wash off. Please head to our TikTok and Instagram channel if you want to see the visuals. Otherwise here’s the running list of sunscreens we’ve tried, our rating, and why: *To help readers learn more about products showcased in this challenge, we built out and organized these results in Shop My Shelf. We do receive a small commission for usi...

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Results Summary for our 2023 30-for-30 Sunscreen Challenge

In celebration of summer, we decided to test 30 different sunscreens over 30 days to see how these applied, how they held up over time, and even how they wash off. Please head to our TikTok and Instagram channel if you want to see the visuals. Otherwise here’s the running list of sunscreens we’ve tried, our rating, and why: *To help readers learn more about products showcased in this challenge, we built out and organized these results in Shop My Shelf. We do receive a small commission for usi...

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Which Vitamin C Derivative is the Best For My Skin?

We have talked about the science behind vitamin C skincare, we have even tested a bunch of CE Ferulic dupes - yet there’s still more for us to cover in the vitamin C serum landscape. Vitamin C is actually a whole family of related molecules that all behave slightly differently. The OG vitamin C with the glitzy skin benefits that you often hear of is L-ascorbic acid. But since ascorbic acid is notoriously unstable in the presence of light, water, and air, many have turned to derivative compoun...

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The Chemists' Guide to Home Peels

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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5 Skinceuticals Vitamin C Dupes Put to the Test!

If you’re unfamiliar with the term “Vitamin C Dupe”, it’s a category of ascorbic acid serums that sprouted from the painful price point of the original ascorbic acid serum, Skinceuticals CE Ferulic. As a result, a whole new category of ascorbic acid serums popped up on the market and these products come in all sorts of packaging, price points, and ascorbic acid percentages. For a while, we were holding out on looking at this category because it felt messy. Let’s just say, we knew how much of ...

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What's the deal with CBD serums & oils? - The 2023 edition

Back in fall 2019, we wrote a blog post on CBD in skincare when it was all the rage. During the early days of Covid lockdowns, it really felt like there was a new CBD miracle serum or oil every other week. Even now in spring of 2023, there are still a lot of questions and mystique around this ingredient. So it’s time to revisit CBD and see just what CBD does in skincare, if there are any new clinical studies that have come out on topical CBD, just who might benefit from CBD skincare, and how ...

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2022 Community Poll Compilation *Updated 5/11/2022

Here we'll update all the results of our #lazypolls we've ran in 2021. All of these are general snapshots and products are in no particular order. We highly recommend browsing the poll comments to get personal takes and use experiences. The #lazypoll has been running for the past 3 years and we've enjoyed the evolution of this series. You'll find users helping lost souls, sharing all sorts of detailed experiences, and discovering all sorts of new products. *To help readers learn more about pr...

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What's a PHA in Skincare & How to Use

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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Hyperpigmentation Pt 2: routine guide and shopping tips

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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2021 Lazy Poll Community Results

Here we'll update all the results of our #lazypolls we've ran in 2021. All of these are general snapshots and products are in no particular order. We highly recommend browsing the poll comments to get personal takes and use experiences. The #lazypoll has been running for the past 3 years and we've enjoyed the evolution of this series. You'll find users helping lost souls, sharing all sorts of detailed experiences, and discovering all sorts of new products. *To help readers learn more about pr...

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