Before the treatment with Dr. Winnie!
Let me first start by addressing the elephant in the room. Yes, I had ‘clear skin’ to begin with. I am fortunate to have not suffered any bad bouts of acne or severe hyper pigmentation. However, that doesn’t mean there aren’t issues lurking under the surface. And that my friends was my reasoning for trying this treatment.
But, let’s backtrack. Having grown up in Florida I spent a lot of time in the sun. Alot. I did not wear sunscreen/sunblock growing up for a few reasons. First, my parents weren’t really that well versed on the dangers of sun exposure. Secondly, as my skin never burnt my parents weren’t concerned. Third, sunblock was expensive at the time and my parents were strapped for cash. So, yea. I never wore sunblock as a child, and then it never occurred to me that I even needed it. Unfortunately, I didn’t use sunscreen until college. And let’s not even think back to those beach days when all my friends would be slathering on tanning accelerator. My one saving grace is that I always found tanning beds to be down right disgusting and never partook in that activity.
So, with all that said, yes my skin is clear, but now you can see why I was quite paranoid about sunspots that could be lurking under the surface ready to show their ugly faces any day. 2018 is the year that I’m putting my health first, and part of that is caring for my skin. So, enter Parfaire’s Clear Skin treatment!
Now, lets get to the nitty gritty on the treatment itself.
What issues can this treatment target? Melasma, photo damaged skin, sun spots, rosacea, visible blood vessels, etc.
What technology is used? The Clear Skin treatment uses Lumecca, which is intense pulsed light, aka IPL. You can read about Lumecca’s technology here.
How does it work? The Intense Pulsed Light heats the dermis and pulls pigment (brown spots) to the skin’s surface. The spots will darken and appear like tiny pepper grains. These ‘pepper grain’ pigments either flake off or are re-absorbed into the body. Pretty neat, right?
Does it hurt? My face was numbed and on a scale of 1-10 I would rate the highest pain as a 4 or 5 on that was two spots on either cheek. Definitely tolerable. Dr. Winnie checks in with you to ask about the pain level, so I felt confident that there would be no issue. To be fair, I was most bothered by the light that comes from the laser. I was wearing protective goggles, but as I am very sensitive to light I would jump sometimes when it flashed. Funny that the light was more bothersome than the laser treatment itself.
How long does the treatment take? This depends on the area being treated, but my face took less than 30 minutes start to finish.
How long is the down time / recovery? I definitely over-estimated this. I had visions of massive marks on my face and needing to hide from the public. The reality is that I had zero downtime. My face didn’t hurt at all afterwards and the only thing visible on my face were all sorts of freckles that had been hiding under the surface. To be fair I thought the freckles were dead cute and was not mad at seeing them. Individual results will vary, of course.
What I did experience was itchiness on my face while sleeping. No idea why my face decided to itch only while I was sleeping, but such is life. **Don’t scratch!
What kind of results can I expect? This depends on the individual. Personally, I saw those little under surface freckles come to the surface then disappear. Dr. Winnie told me during the treatment that I did not have much damage coming up – which was pretty shocking to me- and she was right. Mine was minimal, so my results are not starkly different from my beginning point. However, to reiterate, I do believe that previously unseen sun damage was treated. The full results can be seen weeks after treatment.
Any tips? As it is a laser– and likely your face you are having treated– my top recommendation is to go to a trusted physician for this service. I had a small panic the morning of the treatment because it was the first time I was doing anything to my face/skin that could ‘go wrong’. Fortunately, I had visited Dr. Winnie at Parfaire before (see here) and was able to easily remind myself that I fully trusted her expertise and everything would be fine. For me, having that peace of mind is huge. If you’re in the Los Angeles area looking for IPL or Lumecca treatment I highly suggest visiting Parfaire. The practice is beautiful and relaxing, the staff are so friendly and knowledgeable and Dr. Winnie is as friendly as she is talented.
