This is education, not advice
The information here is written for the general reader and does not replace a personal medical consultation. It cannot tell you whether a chemical peel is appropriate for your skin, your health or your circumstances.
No outcome is promised
No treatment can be guaranteed. How much the skin improves, how the pigment behaves and how quickly the surface heals vary between individuals, and no clinician can promise a particular result. The honest judgement of a peel is made in months rather than in the first week.
The flaking and the risks are real
The surface of the skin flakes for several days after a peel, stays pink afterwards, and the treatment carries genuine risks including pigment change in both directions, cold-sore reactivation, infection and scarring. Post-inflammatory darkening is more common and more stubborn in skin that darkens after injury, and pigment that is lost may not return.
Results are not permanent
A peel improves the surface of the skin but does not stop ageing, does not lift tissue that has descended and does not remove a raised lesion. The improvement fades gradually, and how quickly depends far more on sun exposure afterwards than on which peel was used.