You Sure About PicoSure Laser? Read This First.
Also known as PicoPlus Laser or Pico Second Laser, it's said to be the latest laser trend in the industry. They say it'll help with rejuvenation, toning, and many more.
Before I go on, this write up is based on my experience and opinion. I'm not hating or trying to defame any party. I wouldn't say that I had a bad experience but I think it's more about managing expectations. I wasn't sure if I was going to write about this but I thought it would be good to share my experience so those who are interested will be more prepared before going for the treatment.
I was invited by Revival Clinic in Kota Kemuning for a review of their new pride Pico Laser device. Through the text (as below), I was given a brief info about the treatment. Of course, all the good stuff.
I asked for links so I can read more about PicoSure, that little research was quite assuring as I was constantly reading about almost no pain and minimal to no downtime that allows you to immediately return to your daily activities because these were my main concerns about machine treatments and also so I can properly schedule my appointment.
Parking at the area was fairly easy to get one, plus it's awesome that I don't have to pay parking. I was also being welcomed warmly, filled in my form, met with a wonderful female doctor for a consultation. She told me a few things to expect, prickling sensation, bumps and little bit of redness but will go away within a day. Then I was sent into a studio to take a before picture of my bare face.
Then I was ushered into another room where I got a simple facial, basically prepping for the treatment. There was no extraction, just the most basic cleaning, light mask, and then applies a numbing cream on my entire face. Then I was asked to go to the treatment room and introduced me to their pico laser machine (image as below).
The doctor explained to me again of roughly what to expect, the sound and the prickling sensation. For most parts, yeah, I guess you can define it as prickling sensation but there were parts sting more than others. I felt the most sting around my sensitive areas such as my upper lip and inner cheeks. I could also smell something burning as the laser run through anywhere below my nose. I wasn't prepared for the burning smell cause I was not told about it but I kept reminding myself that it's possible because it is a form of laser after all.
Then, I mentioned earlier about my milia to the doctor and she said she'll blast it off. Thus, she changed the tool to something more precise and targets directly on to my milia under my left eye. This made a louder sound which scared the heck of me but I was immediately comforted by the doctor, calming me down. I highly appreciated the soothing words at that moment. Picture below was how my face looked right after the laser treatment.
At this point, after seeing my face, I wasn't quite worried because they told me that it is normal and the redness should go away pretty quickly. Then they applied a soothing mask on my face and let me rest for a few minutes before proceeding with the usual skin care routine. Overall, I would rate the treatment as 4/10 pain wise. Thanks to the numbing cream, it does help a lot.
Once done, they gave me 2 creams that they call EZ cream which suppose to help with healing and renewal, and the other is a cream to help reduce itchy-ness on certain areas if needed. Image as below. As you can see, it's pretty much like what you'll get in regular clinics. In white containers, without any ingredients labelled or info other than those few alphabets written on it. They said to only use these two creams for the first few days and nothing else.
Also, they provided me a few skincare of their own which I was pretty excited to try but I was told to hold ofd for a few days before using their skincare products. I'll talk about their skincare products in another post with my video review.
I left the place, met up with a friend for dinner with exactly how my face is as below. A few hours passed and some redness reduced but there were patches on my face that were honestly quite concerning as they don't seem to be going away. I forced myself to sleep in hoping that rest will help to ride all the red patches.
The next day, I was fully worried as there were pimples growing around my mouth area. I was afraid that I might be the few that got some kind of negative reaction from the treatment. Plus, I had a major presentation for Korea Tourism in 2 days time. I tried covering with makeup, helps a bit but wasn't a solution as my face still looks bumpy.
Me being me, I usually like to google what I'm using on my face. I tried googling EZ cream, nothing much came up. Then I google EZ face cream, again nothing scientific/clinical came up. You can try googling yourself. I hate not knowing what I'm using on my face but at that point I was desperate get my clear skin back, I'll just listen to them.
By day 3, a day before my presentation, I texted them about my concern and they told me to keep using the cream and give it a week to heal. In my head, I was like "A week? I thought this was suppose to be a minimal to no downtime sort of treatment. At most I thought was 3 days and I should get my clear skin back". At that point, I was rather frustrated and disappointed cause there was nothing much I or them could do other than just wait for time to pass.
Day 3 of after treatment
Thankfully, the night before my presentation, I remembered my Father-in-law swears by rose tea to help with inflammation. So I quickly brewed a cup of rose tea and chuck them down a few times. The next day, the redness reduced by a lot and my face was much better than it was day 1. I applied makeup, still wasn't looking my best but life goes on, so I went for my presentation still with bumps on my face.
It took more than a week to finally have an almost clear skin back, without redness or spots. However, my skin was absolutely sensitive and dry. It's normal because it's pretty much like a new skin is growing. Some parts were peeling slightly and I still can't really use any of my old skincare that I loved cause it stings my skin a little. I was advised to continue the EZ cream, and so I did.
Fast forward, a month had passed. I went for my follow up. Greeted warmly by them and got my 'after' picture taken. By then, my skin was very much cleared but still a little sensitive (picture as below). I was already incorporating some of their skincare into my daily routine.
After a month
*Today I dug deeper in the web by typing EZ topical cream and an Artho-ez anti-inflammation cream came up. I don't know if this is it but I tried to search for the ingredient list, yet again, I can't find any. Oh well. I give up.
The doctor listened to one-month healing journey and was happy with my progress as well as explained maybe why my skin reacted differently cause I'm fairer and they use a stronger intensity so I can see result after one try. Personally, at that point I don't care much about the explanations because what's done is done, no one can undo that healing week of distress that I had to go through. My expectation of "minimal to no downtime" was not met.
She also gave me a few recommendations to care for my skin as well as recommending me what treatment I should do next. I told her that I'm not interested in any other treatments because my skin still feels a little sensitive than usual. I want to wait for my skin to completely heal before trying anything else. She understood and did not push any further.
However, they sales/pr person ushered me into another room to see my before and after pictures. Continued talking about what issues I have on my face such as:
- My dark circles is due to my sunken cheek bone and they can rectify that by injecting natural fillers just above my cheekbones and my temples to give that area a boost so it doesn't look so dark.
- I also have crow feet around my eyes when I smile, they can help with that.
- If I'm interested with a second round of pico laser because it can help with healing.
- Since I mentioned earlier I was interested in silkpeel cause I've tried before and I like it, do I want to do it with them since it promotes healing too (after i said I didn't want to do second round laser).
I don't blame them for pointing out all my flaws because it's their job as a beautician. Imagine going to the doctors and they can't tell what is wrong with you, how can they help to prescribe the right medicine. Similarly, we choose to go to a Medical Aesthetic so they can help improve our skin condition or even appearance. If they can't be honest with us, they might as well close shop. In my opinion, if you can't handle it, don't step into such places.
I told the lady again that I'm not ready to do anymore treatments even though she kept mentioning that "it will help with increasing the speed of healing". I kept refusing till she finally gave up.
Left: Before, Right: After
Service wise, it's not perfect but it's not too bad either. I've experienced worst. Overall, they have a reasonable team as well as a wonderful and trustworthy doctors that does the main treatments. I appreciate the way they assured me that it will be okay and how quick they reply when I text them. This makes me feel like that they somewhat actually do care about their patients. So if you are thinking about visiting a Medical Aesthetic Clinic, I would recommend Revival Clinic (Kota Kemuning branch).
As for whether I recommend doing Pico Laser, I would say only do it if you really want to and be really prepared for it, physically and mentally. Prepare for the worst because I wasn't prepared for the downtime and that messed me up mentally for the entire week, worrying if my face will ever heal. So you should at least give it a week or two of resting time before any major events, the longer the better because you don't know how this laser would react on your skin. They can tell you how great it is and to not worry about downtime all they want, better just be prepared and expect healing period.
Also, only do it if you really have major issues such as scaring and obvious pigmentation, otherwise, with an already clear skin, you could easily achieve skin renewal, rejuvenation and glow through other much less abrasive treatment such as silkpeel, it just focuses on the surface layer of the skin. The last I tried elsewhere, it has no downtime at all and gave similar results.
Revival Clinic (Kota Kemuning Branch)
33G Jalan Anggerik Vanilla BF31/BF
Kota Kemuning,
40460 Shah Alam
Selangor, Malaysia
016-2115237
xo,
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