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.