Heya, yes extractions!
I've seen a few products, but they are generally something with a higher pH (generally with a sodium bicarbonate or sodium hydroxide) to make the skin swell and soften. Some people make baking soda mixes, but these are messy, more time consuming and very runny. Sadly, the ready-made desincrustation products leave a lot to be desired and are pretty meh in my experience. A lot of people used to RAVE about the Dermalogica scaling gel, but I don't have access to this as I'm not a stockist.
Generally if I have a client who is on the drier side and more sensitive, I tend to avoid desincrustation as it's quite drying and a little irritating. For these clients I usually double cleanse (sometimes with steam) and remove with warm mitts, examine the skin to assess if extractions are needed, apply a gentle enzyme peel and let them steam with that on (again the steam is dependent on their skin type and sensitivity). And then do manual extractions.
I find this is sufficient for the most part, however my younger clients or those simply with little oil output who have quite closed pores can prove challenging due to the pore opening being so small.
For this I usually take notes and inform them that we can try some ultrasonic skin cleansing with the desincrustation gel (sans galvanic) next time. Generally, this never all go in one go and I try to curve expectations with discussing this during the session.
For my more oily and combination and acneic clients, I do the same cleanse, examine, an chose an enzyme with SA for the t-zone generally to further dissolve these plugs. Depending on the degree of comedones, I will do use the desincrustation gel and ultrasonic cleansing device with galvanism for 3 minutes.
Again, even with all of the prep work this isn't always a silver bullet and have still had issues working on my younger clients for the reason states earlier.
As far as galvanic devices, I chose one from Bio-Therapeutic, but they are not in the UK and couldn't claim my VAT on the purchase so I wouldn't recommend them. Eve Taylor does a ultrasonic device which was a second choice. I know they do the desincrustation gels as well.
Hope that helps!
