Does AHAs thin the skin?
It could be thought that One AHAs thin the skin because they increase skin exfoliation or dead cell sloughing, but this is only a very superficial effect, and to the contrary. The actual effect is that AHAs increase skin epidermal/dermal thickness due to the increase in Hyaluronic Acid deposition in the skin associated with AHA use (see Q. 2). An increase in HA in the skin leads to a dramatic increase in the moisture retention properties of the skin so that the skin actually plumps the skin making it thicker through increased moisturization.
