Out of all the products included in the Sephora Sun Safety Kit 2018, the one that perplexed me the most was Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare Alpha Beta Glow Pads. These self-tanning towelettes contain glycolic acid and lactic acid, two alpha-hydroxy acids (AHA), which increase your skin’s sensitivity to UV radiation. That sounds like the opposite of safety to me. I guess maybe Sephora assumes that you’ll use this product in conjunction with one of the other sunscreens included in the kit?…

Recently, I stumbled upon a product that was quite similar to The Ordinary Mandelic Acid 10% + HA 2%: Stratia Soft Touch AHA. Both products are formulated with 10 percent mandelic acid, and include hyaluronic acid. I asked my dad to compare and contrast the two ingredient lists to see if he thought they were comparable, or if one was superior to the other. Spoiler alert: He strongly preferred one of them for people with sensitive skin!

One of the products that was recommended to me during my Sephora mini-facial was Dr. Dennis Gross Alpha Beta Universal Daily Peel. My skin felt slightly irritated, but my mini facialist assured me that it was a great way to smooth out my acne scars. Of course, when I got home, I looked up the price of this product and was pretty shocked—$88 for 35 treatments? No thanks. However, the price isn’t actually that bad, since you don’t have to use it every day (my mini-facialist recommended…