Chemical facelifts are probably a misnomer. There are chemical peels that treat the skin and the face. Essentially those procedures burn the skin of the face and hope that the new skin that comes in is less wrinkled and younger appearing.
Facelifts improve the contour of the neck and the jowl area.
They do not improve the quality of the skin in general. In order to improve the quality of the skin, you need to do a laser peel or some type of chemical peel. Dermabrasion can also be done to improve acne scars. The recovery time for facelifts as in any other surgical procedure is related to multiple factors. The younger the patient is, the less the recovery time in general.