50% TCA Spot Treatment for Acne Scars and Fine Lines

After only a day and a half, the spot treatments with 50% TCA are peeling. The fine lines that I treated are more noticeable than the acne scars, which were small dots of applied TCA solution.

How I applied the 50% TCA spot treatments.

The (temporary) upside to this spot treatment is that the swelling fills out the lines and acne scars, so they actually appear less noticeable than before, as long as I have applied concealer. Without the concealer on those spots and lines, they looked a bit darker, but it definitely was NOT noticeable with the concealer.

In this picture of the area above my lip that I applied 50% TCA to a couple of fine lines, I don't have concealer on them, and you can see they're starting to peel. You can also see the brown color, which is normal for this high a strength.

TCA Spot Treatment for Acne Scars and Fine Lines

After reading a fellow peeler's email and pondering it, I decided to try a new technique, or at least new to my face (I've done spot treatments on my hands). Using 50% TCA and a thin plastic applicator, I applied the TCA solution only in a few fine lines and small scars. I did only a few because this is new and I don't know how this will look in a couple of days (and I have work Monday) or how my face will react to such a high percentage, albeit very small application points.

I couldn't find anything plastic that was small enough, so I cut a thin strip off the edge of an old credit card I never used and peeled it apart. Perfect. I dipped the applicator into the solution and made sure there were no large droplets on it before I applied. I also had to use 15X makeup mirror to apply it because it's hard for me to see some of those scars (eyes are getting old).

I didn't use alcohol on any of the areas since the TCA % was so high. The tiny dots and thin lines frosted immediately, and I didn't wash them off or put anything on them afterward. I think this is a great way for me to address some of my issues (such as acne scars and fine lines) without downtime.

I'm sure I'll have a few tiny brown spots and thin lines, but they'll be so small no one will notice. And I think it's a technique that I can use more frequently since it's not a large area...the tiny areas will heal much faster, and I can treat those problem areas more frequently and more aggressively (fingers crossed).

After the frosting went away, I could barely see a few pink dots and lines: nothing a little concealer can't handle! I'm excited to see how this could change the schedule that I have had to keep to deal with the downtime.

Facial Age Spot - Finally gone!

I've had this age spot on my temple for several years, and I've used lower-strength TCA on it many times, but to no avail, so I finally used 50% TCA to remove it.

Here are some before to current pictures of the age spots on my temple.  Age spots last year before any treatment. I found this picture in my Sept 2010 folder:

Age spots before treatment (there are two or three really small ones in addition to the larger one)

This peel is about a year after the picture above, so there's more sun damage since that picture was taken. Here's the picture after this year's 1st TCA chemical peel:

Age spots after 1st 18% TCA chemical peel

After 2nd TCA chemical peel:

Age spots after 2nd 18% TCA chemical peel

After 3rd TCA chemical peel:

Age spots after 3rd 18% TCA chemical peel

Day 2 after 50% TCA application

The picture above is two days after the 50% TCA peel application.  It stayed red for another day then turned brown. I accidentally peeled it off when I was in the shower, so the spot stayed red for a couple of weeks after the scab fell off:

After 50% TCA peel

I still have a few very small age spots in the area, but I'm going to attack those soon! I also wonder if this was a mole; although it was flat, it took so many TCA applications to remove that I'm still not sure...