Fractional Laser and Photo Facials: A Review by Sunny Shum
Sunny Shum is the Fashion & Lifestyle Blogger for Shut Up I Love This. This article was originally posted on Shut Up I Love This on January 7, 2014.
Back in September I wrote about skincare and how I’ve been going in for regular microdermabrasion to maintain a healthy skin regime with the help and careful guidance of aesthetician Rita Moldovanos at the Pure Light Laser Skin and Body Clinic. I’ve been seeing Rita for the past few months as I went to her for help in regards to my problematic skin. In addition to dealing with dark sunspots and uneven skin tone, I was experiencing a hormonal shift and I was breaking out with cystic acne. I couldn’t believe that in my late 30s I was yet again dealing with acne. After a consultation with Rita, she recommended a few things that would help which involved a couple of treatments, changing up my cleansing routine and all my make up as well as looking at possibly seeing a Chinese Herbal doctor to help with whatever was happening internally. No matter what anyone tells you, dealing with skin complications is never a quick fix and it does take time.
The first treatment we did was a Fractional Laser. The Lux 1540 Fractional™ is a breakthrough, non-ablative skin resurfacing treatment that works by penetrating deep into the dermis and allowing the body’s natural healing process to create new, healthy tissue. Not only does it help get deep into the pores and help clean them out, it is the best treatment for getting rid of scars and wrinkles. Because I had some small acne pock marks, sun damage and age spots across my cheeks, this was the perfect treatment for these types of problems. During my consultation with Rita we determined I’d probably need about 3 sessions to achieve what I was aiming for and to date we’ve done 2. The entire session took about 20-30 minutes and it kind of feels like a small elastic band snapping on the skin (multiple times). When deciding to go ahead with the Fractional Laser treatment, you need to make sure you schedule in some down time. Everybody is different but I had some swelling and redness in my face for about 7 days as well as some dryness.
One month later I went back to Rita for a Photo Facial treatment. IPL (Intense Pulsed Light) Photo Facial is an advanced light therapy to help improve the tone and texture of the skin and clear sun spots and acne marks. Before starting with the IPL, a “numbing” cream was spread all over the areas to be treated and was left on for about 20 minutes. Like the Fractional Laser, it feels like several elastic band snaps grazing along my skin. It’s not super painful, just a little uncomfortable and it makes my hands sweat a little during the treatment. The numbing on the skin helps with the “pain” during the treatment. In a nutshell, IPL lures pigmentation to the surface, so once the treatment is done, expect all your dark spots to look much much darker. For myself, I had a lot of dark pigmentation so my cheeks were riddled with very dark spots after the treatment. You can not pick at the skin, you need to let the “spots/skin” shed off naturally on their own. After just one session, I saw immediate results on my skin. A good percentage of the dark spots on my face really lightened up. I still have 2 darker spot on my cheeks that need some more work, but this may only require one more IPL treatment.
Over all, after 2 Fractionals and 1 Photo Facial, I’ve seen a great improvement on my skin. I don’t have any before and after photos yet, I’ll be posting another post in about one to two months time so that we can compare the full results. If you have any other questions or would like to book a consultation, you can contact Rita directly!
Love & Light,
Sunny
Photo Credit: Paul Melo
This article was written by Pure Light Laser