First, I apologize for the cost of this product. It’s $188. I know. But bear with me, because what you get for $188 are all the results of a peel in a dermatologist’s office, except more quickly, at home and with no downtime. Having previously thought that at-home peels were a bad idea—way too powerful to carry out inexpertly by yourself in front of the bathroom mirror—this is the product that changed my mind.
I thought what the U Beauty Resurfacing Flash Peel promised sounded too good to be true, that the product would either be slightly weedy or much too strong, leaving me either thinking “what a swindle” or looking red and peely.
But it was just right: powerful, certainly, but entirely untraumatizing for the skin. So I was impressed, and even more impressed to find that it gave me as close to new skin as I’m going to get at my age in, literally, five minutes. I don’t know what this would be like on extremely sensitive skin, but mine isn’t unsensitive and I had no irritation at all.
It’s packed with stuff: fruit AHAs, BHAs and glycolic acid to get rid of dead cells and debris (which in itself is supposed to stimulate the production of collagen); retinyl palmitate (retinol) to make the skin more taut; the beloved vitamins C and E to make it bright and luminous; plus panthenol, hyaluronic acid, aloe vera and avenanthramides (anti-inflammatories) to hydrate and strengthen the moisture barrier, which would otherwise get traumatized with the drastic sloughing effects of the first few ingredients.
This is why I’ve always objected to at-home peels: you’re doing something pretty serious as if it were nothing, but actually your skin’s barrier is in shock for months afterwards. What this peel does is take away all the crap with one hand and then replenish lavishly with the other. It doesn’t only strip, in other words.
It tingles when you put it on, but not unpleasantly. I leave it on for five minutes, though technically you could work your way up to longer—if you’re going to do that, I’d advise you to go in tiny increments. I haven’t bothered leaving it on for longer: five minutes gives amazing results. One, my pores looked smaller. I never say this because you can’t shrink pores, but the fact remains that the grain of my skin looked tighter and finer and, more to the point, continues to do so. Two, my skin looked absolutely lovely, if I say so myself—healthy, plump and luminous.
Three, it looked tighter, like I’d been doing face yoga all my life. It also looked as if it had gone to live in a really good spa for three months. All of this in, genuinely, five minutes. I should add that my skin looked and felt entirely happy immediately afterward—no dryness, no feeling of it having been brutally stripped and certainly no sense of “yeow, but I suppose it’ll look better tomorrow.” Also, it was not crying out for the cocooning, comforting embrace of serums and moisturizers. It was just its best self.
I’ve been using this once a week for about six weeks now, and it’s the thing that has made the most difference to my skin in the past 12 months. Amazing product: I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t tried it. I am also testing the neck treatment, which I’ll report back on at a later date, but I think it’s actually doing something, which is practically unheard of when it comes to necks beyond a certain stage of decrepitude.
P.S.: If $188 is too much—it’s a huge amount of money—I also recommend the U Beauty Resurfacing Compound (from $88), which is a variant on the same theme that you use twice a day. But if you want results now, or rather in five minutes’ time, then the Flash Peel is worth the expense.
India Knight is a U.K.-based journalist and the author of India Knight’s Beauty Edit: What Works When You’re Older
