Nurse performed TCA peels across four depths and six named protocols, with pricing published up front and a protocol built specifically for melanin rich skin.
Most clinics sell you a peel. We assign you a depth. The acid is the same molecule at every strength. What changes is how far into your skin it is allowed to travel, and that decision belongs to a clinician who has looked at your skin, not to a price list.
The belief we want to break first: that a stronger peel is a better peel.
It isn't. Depth is the variable people fixate on and the one that causes nearly every bad outcome. Repetition is the variable that produces results. Three well spaced medium peels will out perform one aggressive peel almost every time, and the person who talked you into the aggressive one is usually the person who won't be there in week two.
A medical peel is a controlled chemical injury. We apply a precise concentration of trichloroacetic acid, it coagulates protein in the upper layers of the skin, and those layers lift away over the following days. What matters is what happens underneath while that's going on: the wound healing response lays down new collagen, redistributes pigment and resets the pace of cell turnover.
That is why the result keeps improving for weeks after the flaking stops. You are not seeing the effect of skin coming off. You are seeing the effect of skin rebuilding.
It's also why the endpoint we watch for during treatment isn't how much it stung. It's a specific whitening of the skin called frosting, which tells the clinician exactly how deep the acid has travelled. Frosting is the reason this is a clinical procedure and not a facial.
These are the indications a peel genuinely treats. If your concern isn't here, a peel is the wrong tool, and we'd rather tell you that at consult than sell you six of them.
Symmetrical brown patches across the cheeks, forehead and upper lip. Peels are one part of a management plan here. Never a cure, and never aggressive.
Levels 1 and 2The flat brown or red patches that linger for months after a breakout has cleared. Among the most responsive indications there is.
Levels 2 and 3Ice pick, boxcar and rolling scars. These need focal high concentration work applied scar by scar, not a full face peel.
Level 4, focalScattered brown spots and mottled tone across the cheeks, chest and hands from accumulated UV exposure.
Levels 2 and 3Blackheads, closed comedones and inflammatory breakouts. Peels clear the follicle and reduce the oil load between visits.
Levels 1 and 2Etched surface lines and thin, papery texture, particularly around the mouth and under the eyes where skin is thinnest.
Level 1 targetedSkin that has stopped reflecting light. Turnover has slowed and the surface stays uneven no matter how much you exfoliate at home.
Levels 2 and 3Peels clear and tighten the pore lining so pores read smaller. Pore diameter is structural, so expect refinement, not erasure.
Levels 2 and 3Your skin tone, your concern and your calendar choose it, and you earn the next rung by proving you tolerated the last. Nobody's first peel at Mirror is a Level 3.
Low concentration, the gentlest depth we apply
Targeted zones: around the mouth, around the eyes, and anywhere skin is thin or reactive. Also the mandatory starting point for melanin rich skin, and for anyone whose life can't absorb visible peeling.
$185 targeted zone · $225 full face
The standard full face starting depth
Where most skin should begin, and where most of it should stay for a while. Deep enough to shift tone, marks and texture. Shallow enough that an unexpected reaction is recoverable.
$265 full face
Medium depth, the clinical working range
Reserved for skin that has already tolerated Level 2. This is where stubborn pigment and real textural change happen. It needs a week you can protect and a clinician who has seen how you heal.
$335 full face
High concentration, focal application only
Applied point by point into individual indented scars, never across the face. It reaches a depth no whole face peel can safely go, while the skin beside each scar stays untouched.
$295 focal · $150 as an add on
A single session is a sample. The result you actually came for is built across a course, spaced so your skin finishes healing before we go again. So we price the course, not the appointment, and we name each one after the problem it solves rather than the acid it uses.
Crepiness, etched fine lines and the dull, shadowed look that concealer settles into. For the thinnest skin on your face, treated at the gentlest depth, repeatedly.
The vertical lines above the lip and the crepey texture around the mouth. This skin moves constantly, so it gets its own strength and its own application, not a diluted full face peel.
Marks left behind by acne, congestion, and the rough texture that no amount of home exfoliation shifts. The most common course we prescribe.
Melasma, sun damage and stubborn discolouration. Built around priming rather than strength, which is why it is also the course we run for Fitzpatrick IV to VI skin.
Ice pick and boxcar scarring, treated point by point at high concentration. Expect softening and shallowing across the course, not erasure. Anyone promising erasure is selling.
Most people who notice one notice the other. Running both zones in the same appointment costs you no extra downtime, so it is the obvious combination.
Every protocol is booked as a course, paid up front or split across the first two visits. Courses are held on file for 12 months. Unused sessions are transferable to another treatment, never forfeited.
Four questions. Your skin tone, your concern and your calendar decide the strength, not a menu. This is the same logic Yara uses in the room.
Choose everything that applies.
The single most important answer here. It decides your starting strength, and whether you need priming first.
Be honest. The most common reason a peel goes wrong is a strength that didn't fit the calendar.
A peel series takes months, not days. We build the plan backwards from your date.
Sent. Check your inbox. And if a peel isn't the right tool for your skin, we'll tell you that too.
This tool is a starting point, not a prescription. Your final strength is confirmed in person by a Registered Practical Nurse after a skin assessment. Consultation is $100, credited to any treatment booked within 30 days.
Search this treatment across the GTA and you'll find clinics that call it "fair skin only," clinics that warn deeper skin is "higher risk," and most often, clinics that say nothing at all. In Milton, of all places. That silence isn't caution. It's an admission.
The physiology is not complicated. Melanin rich skin has the same number of pigment producing cells as fair skin. Those cells are simply more reactive. Injure them, with acid, with heat, with a spot you picked, and they answer by making pigment. That's post inflammatory hyperpigmentation, and it is the only complication here that genuinely matters.
PIH is not caused by the peel. It's caused by the peel that skipped the preparation.
So we don't avoid the treatment. We change the sequence around it.
A tyrosinase inhibiting regimen before any acid touches you, so the pigment pathway is already suppressed when the injury arrives. Not optional, and not an upsell. It's the treatment working.
Fitzpatrick V and VI begin at Level 1 regardless of concern. Not because deeper skin can't handle more, but because nobody can predict how your skin answers until it has answered once.
We look at how you healed at week two and step the concentration up from there. Strength is earned across sessions. Most melanin rich skin reaches Level 2 comfortably. It just doesn't start there.
Daily broad spectrum sunscreen, no picking, no heat, no actives until we clear you. Aftercare is where deeper skin tones win or lose this treatment, and where most clinics stop paying attention.
If a clinic has never mentioned priming to you, they aren't being conservative about your skin. They've simply never had to think about it.
Downtime anxiety is the real reason people put this off, and vague reassurance is why they get blindsided. Here is the whole arc, including the ugly middle. Timings describe a Level 2 or 3 peel. Level 1 is a much quieter version of the same curve.
Cleanse, degrease, then the acid in layers. Stinging builds over 30 to 60 seconds and settles. The skin frosts white where the acid has reached depth, the endpoint we're watching for. About 30 minutes in the room. You leave flushed, like mild windburn.
The skin darkens to a bronze or leathery cast and feels tight, like a mask a size too small. Almost no peeling yet. This is the stage people mistake for "it isn't working." It is working. The shedding hasn't started.
Cracking starts around the nose and mouth and spreads outward. This is the worst of it visually. Do not pull anything. Skin lifted before it's ready is the single most common cause of a mark that outlasts the treatment.
Peeling comes away in sheets rather than flakes. Barrier balm and hats. Most people work from home through this window or schedule it over a weekend. Makeup goes back on once the surface is intact, usually day 6 or 7.
Peeling is finished. What's underneath is bright, smooth and pink, and it is genuinely new, which is exactly why it burns in ten minutes of sun. Sunscreen every morning, no exceptions.
Colour normalises, tone reads more even. This is usually the point where someone asks whether you've been away.
Collagen remodelling continues long after the surface settles. The result at week two is not the result. Skin keeps firming and evening out for months, which is why we space sessions rather than stack them.
We don't bundle a generic kit into the price, because the right aftercare depends on your skin and most kits sell you things you already own. Instead we prescribe from the ZO Skin Health line we stock, and you buy only what you actually need.
The non negotiable one. New skin burns in a fraction of the time old skin does, and UV exposure during healing is the fastest route to the uneven pigment you came in to fix. If you buy one thing, buy this.
Days 0 onward, foreverApplied generously through the peeling window. Occluded skin sheds more evenly, looks dramatically less alarming, and itches less, which is what stops people picking on day four.
Days 1 to 7Lukewarm water and fingertips only. No washcloth, no brush, no scrub. Your usual cleanser goes back in once peeling has finished.
Days 0 to 10For melasma, sun damage and melanin rich skin, the tyrosinase inhibiting regimen we start before the first peel continues between sessions. This is the part that decides your result, and it is quoted separately at consult.
OngoingNothing is added to your bill without a conversation. We will tell you what your skin needs, what it does not, and what you already own that will do the job.
At Mirror, a targeted Level 1 peel is $185 and a full face Level 1 is $225. Level 2 full face is $265, Level 3 is $335, and focal scar work is $295 per session or $150 added to a peel. Courses are priced below singles: The Under Eye Protocol and The Perioral Protocol are $625 for four sessions, both delicate zones together is $895 for six, The Clarity Protocol is $695 for three, The Even Tone Protocol is $875 for four, and The Scar Protocol is $995 for four. Across the GTA, medical peels generally run $150 to $220 at esthetician led spas and $400 to $900 at dermatology and surgical clinics.
Yes, and the course is priced below the singles because a single peel is a sample, not a plan. The Under Eye Protocol is four Level 1 sessions around the eyes for $625, The Perioral Protocol is the same around the mouth for $625, and both zones together is six sessions for $895. The Clarity Protocol is three Level 2 full face sessions for $695. The Even Tone Protocol is priming plus four escalating sessions for $875. The Scar Protocol is four focal sessions for $995. Aftercare is prescribed rather than bundled, a broad spectrum SPF and a barrier balm from the ZO Skin Health line we stock, quoted separately so you only buy what your skin needs. Courses are held on file for 12 months, and unused sessions are transferable rather than forfeited.
Yes, with preparation. Melanin rich skin responds to injury by producing pigment, so the risk is post inflammatory hyperpigmentation rather than the acid itself. We prime the skin for two to four weeks with a pigment suppressing regimen, start at Level 1 regardless of concern, and step the strength up only after seeing how you healed. Fitzpatrick IV to VI is a substantial part of our Milton practice.
Peeling typically begins on day 3 and finishes by day 7. Days 1 and 2 are tight and bronze with almost no shedding. Days 3 and 4 are the heaviest visually. By days 7 to 10 you have new pink skin. A Level 1 peel produces fine flaking most people can hide entirely.
There is a sharp stinging that builds over the first 30 to 60 seconds of each layer and settles quickly, usually managed with a cool air fan. Most people describe Level 2 as very tolerable. Level 3 is more intense but brief, since the application itself takes only a few minutes.
No, and anyone promising that is overselling. Focal high concentration treatment reliably softens and shallows indented scars over a series. Most people see meaningful improvement, not erasure. Flat brown or red marks left by acne, which are pigment rather than scar tissue, respond far more completely.
You can, but the aftercare is stricter and autumn through early spring is better. Newly peeled skin burns in minutes and UV exposure during healing is the fastest route to uneven pigment. If you are going somewhere sunny, we would rather peel you after.
Yes. Stop retinoids, acids and any exfoliating tools five to seven days before your appointment, and do not restart until we clear you, usually two weeks after. Bring your full routine to the consult and we will go through it product by product.
Start three to six months out. That gives room for a proper series with the final session landing at least two to three weeks before the day, so any pinkness has fully settled. Under four weeks we will not peel you. We would do something hydrating with no downtime instead and start the real plan afterwards.
Yes. Medical peels at this depth are performed by regulated health professionals, and every peel at Mirror is assessed and performed by a Registered Practical Nurse. Depth selection, frosting endpoints and complication management are clinical judgements, which is precisely why this treatment should not be delegated.
Yes, with sequencing. We separate a peel from neuromodulator or filler appointments by about two weeks in either direction so we are never assessing swelling and healing at the same time.
Both create a controlled injury to trigger remodelling. Peels are chemical, cost significantly less per session, treat large areas like the chest and hands economically, and are often the more predictable choice on melanin rich skin where heat based devices carry their own pigment risk. Lasers offer more depth control for deep scarring.
A day by day account of what a TCA peel actually looks like while it is healing, and where peels sit alongside the rest of the skin menu.
All new clients begin with a comprehensive one to one consultation.
$100, applied toward treatment booked within 30 daysMirror by Nurse Yara Grand Re-Opening · Sat Aug 22, 3–7PM. Reserve your spot — limited capacity.
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