LA's best kept secret for acne-prone skin
A facial with top-tier extractions and a chemical peel
Sculpting, plumping, and lifting facials are a real treat, but if I were to describe my ideal facial, it would be a treatment that focuses on brightening hyperpigmentation, calming inflammation, and keeping my zits at bay. As someone with dry, sensitive, and acne-prone skin, I find the ability to pull off gentle yet effective extractions to be the mark of an incredible esthetician—the dream is to get a facial that removes any congestion while ensuring my skin looks calm and glowy when I leave, allowing me to confidently stroll down the street afterwards without feeling the need to hide.
When I’m searching for new treatments to try out, I almost always get first hand referrals rather than searching in magazines or looking up lists online. I’m not really concerned with whether a professional is a celebrity favorite or most well-known, what’s important to me is hearing a person totally gushing about how incredible they are. When someone (and I mean anyone, they definitely don’t have to work in beauty) says, “Oh my god, you have to see so-and-so, they changed my life,” that’s when I’m most intrigued—it’s through these passionate world-of-mouth exchanges that I’ve found some of my beauty north stars, like Emaly Baum and Sofie Pavitt.
So when I shared on Instagram that I was overdue for a facial and an old friend replied with a paragraph raving about how this particular esthetician (and her incredible peel) transformed her skin for the reasonable price of $275, I immediately booked an appointment.
The facial experience
Nicolette Skin Studio is located in the heart of the ultra-fancy Beverly Hills neighborhood, only one block away from Rodeo Drive. But her studio is nothing like the opulent, vapid, and personality-less spas I’d been to in that area before—her space is cozy, comforting, and immediately welcoming.
My friend described Nikki as a kind of acne-whisperer, so as she examined my skin under a bright light, I vented to her about my breakout problems. I explained that my skin just hadn’t really been the same since I stopped birth control—it’s not that I’d been dealing with particularly aggressive cystic acne (as I have historically), but I was more so trying to control consistent, unrelenting congestion and closed comedones. I felt like my skin hadn’t been breakout-free in a while, and I had the post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation to show for it.
After cleansing and steaming my skin, we arrived at the extraction portion of the facial. Nikki is so kind, charming, and funny, chatting with her made the extraction process totally bearable. I actually didn’t find this bit painful at all—as someone whose done a lot of beauty treatments in my life, I can handle even the most grueling extractions—but she is meticulous and takes her time, so be prepared for that if extractions make you squeamish.
After that, she did some microdermabrasion and applied gentle papaya enzymes, and then we moved onto the best part: the BioRePeel, which is Nikki’s specialty. I’d read about this peel and it’s acne-fighting, hyperpigmentation-fading benefits on Reddit before, so I was super stoked when I saw that she offered it at her studio. In simple terms, the BioRePeel works by applying a special chemical solution to the skin, which promotes exfoliation and stimulates the skin's renewal process. It’s basically like a chemical exfoliant on steroids that penetrates deeper into the skin. The BioRePeel is especially good for acne-prone skin because it helps unclog pores, reduce excess sebum, and remove dead skin cells that contribute to hyperpigmentation left behind from breakouts.
After she evenly distributed the BioRePeel’s bright green liquid from a syringe across my face and massaged it into the skin, it started to feel a little spicy. Based on other intensive treatments I’d done before, I was expecting serious discomfort, but my skin was just really tingly, itchy, and a bit stingy. Nikki gives you a stress ball to squeeze and fan to help cool everything down, both of which help a lot. So in the end, I’d probably rate the pain about 6/10.
After removing the peel, she soothed my skin with some ice globes (which felt soooooo good), sat my skin under red LED light for five minutes to promote healing, and finished off the facial with a calming sheet mask and moisturizer. I walked out with glowing skin and only a bit of redness, which after a good extraction session and hardcore peel, I was really impressed by.
Pro tip: I always like to book my facials for the evening. That way, afterwards I can just brush my teeth, put on pajamas, and immediately get in bed.
The treatment downtime
If you’ve done a chemical peel before, you know the downtime can be a real pain. I’ve done peels in the past that have made me literally shed like a snake for a week straight—massive pieces of skin falling off of my face—which was actually sort of terrifying and panic-inducing. But the greatest thing about the BioRePeel, Nikki explained, is that the downtime is minimal.
Having said that, some flaking is to be expected, and the peel has an estimate of seven full days for the minimum-to-moderate flaking to totally subside. You should also skip wearing makeup for as many of those days as possible in order to avoid clogging the pores on your freshly and intensely exfoliated skin.
Morning After
The morning after my facial, my skin felt super tight and dry. The second I applied my moisturizer, my skin immediately soaked it up and went back to being completely parched. Despite this dehydration, my skin actually looked really radiant and soft, especially my forehead which looked so dramatically smooth it appeared almost Facetuned—my sister immediately complimented my glow when I walked into the kitchen for my morning coffee. The redness from the extractions was pretty faint, but since I wasn’t allowed to wear makeup, I was glad to be loafing around at home with nowhere important to be as it was the holidays.
Day Three
This is when the flaking started to kick in. I first noticed little balls of dead skin rolling off my face as a cleansed my skin in the morning and when I came home from running errands, I noticed patches of dryness around my mouth. Nothing extreme, but it was definitely not the best my skin’s ever looked.
Day Five
This is when the real peeling started to happen, but compared to other peels, this wasn’t nearly as serpent-like. In fact, I’d actually say the level of peeling was most comparable to when I my skin first adjusted to my .05% tretinoin (which by the way, you have to stop a week before you get this peel). I noticed lots of little flakey bits everywhere on my face, with new flakies forming everytime I smiled or moved my face, which was pretty crazy to watch happen in the mirror. If you were to try and apply makeup, it would have been totally impossible, that’s how much peeling was going on. I wasn’t terrifying looking, but I was definitely not sprinting to leave the house, that’s for sure.
Day Eight
There was still some lingering flakies on day seven (though I comfortably went to a bar and hung out with some old friends without being self-conscious), but by day eight, I woke up and it was like the peeling never happened. My skin felt insanely smooth, without any bumps or texture, which was incredible. While my hyperpigmentation wasn’t completely gone, a particularly stubborn area was looking a lot less visible—it looked like it had been a month healed, despite the fact that the pimple that caused the mark was only two weeks old.
Final Thoughts
According to Nikki, BioRePeel’s most transformative results (especially when it comes to fading hyperpigmentation), are usually seen after 3-6 sessions. But with only one treatment, I really felt like I saw a difference in my skin. For starters, I feel like my skin’s general texture is a whole lot softer. I also haven’t had a new breakout in two weeks, which is pretty remarkable considering it was just my time of the month, which is typically when my breakouts are at their worst. But perhaps most importantly, there’s a brightness to my skin that’s made me feel totally comfortable leaving the house without makeup, or only using tiny little dots of concealer when I do, which hadn’t been the case for me in a while.
If texture, breakouts, and/or hyperpigmentation are your biggest skin concerns, I would 10/10 recommend booking an appointment with Nikki next time you’re in Los Angeles. Even if you can’t afford the BioRePeel add-on, Nikki’s gentle yet effective extractions, ultra bespoke facial (which she walks you through, step-by-step), and intuitive skincare advice is something everyone’s skin could really benefit from.
And if you’re wondering just how much I loved my facial, I’ve already booked an appointment with her the for next time I’m in town.
Book An Appointment With Nikki
A custom facial with the BioRePeel add on is $275, which is certainly nothing to sneeze at, but it’s definitely far more reasonably priced than a lot of facials I’d looked at in Los Angeles. Click here to make an appointment with Niki and follow her on Instagram @nicolette.skin.