I don’t think my skin’s looked any better than before now that I’m in my 30s. My 20s skin was breaking out every single month, with painful, enormous pimples sprouting on my nose and forehead during that time of the month, every month. Now that I’m in my 30s, it’s like my skin has finally calmed down. Settled down, even. Facials weren’t necessary anymore, other than to relax and be pampered.

Geez, I hope I didn’t jinx it by starting off with that paragraph. Gulp.

Still, being an Asian who’s obsessed with having fair and radiant skin, I’m ready to try anything that would give me that healthy, radiant glow on the skin. For that, I started venturing into treatments.

A month ago, I had the opportunity to try out the Clear+Brilliant laser treatment, courtesy of Erase Aesthetic Services Clinic in Malvern. It’s a relatively new laser aesthetic treatment from Solta Medical, the makers of Thermage and Fraxel. It targets younger consumers who are searching for treatments to defy the signs of aging.

It utilises a safe and unique technology that corrects skin tone and promotes radiant, healthy, younger looking skin. I would say that it lies somewhere in between over-the-counter medication and more aggresive laser treatments like Fraxel.

I had a consultation with the Medical Director of Erase, Dr Ian Carlisle prior to the treatment (incidentally, he’s a plastic surgeon at Cabrini Hospital, where I had my breast lump removal surgery). I was armed with questions regarding the treatment, especially on the side effects. He said that there will be mild redness and swelling on the skin with initial hyper pigmentation. Other than that, there’s no downtime, and gives immediate results, even after the first treatment.

Dr Carlisle was originally requested to trial the laser machine with a few patients. In the end, the patients liked the results so much that he purchased the machine for the clinic.

Prior to the consultation, I was to fill up the new customer form, where I also had to write down my skincare regime, and the products that I use. It was *ahem* quite a long list, and when Dr Carlisle looked at what I use on a daily basis, he chuckled. He commented that I have good skin (woohoo!), and I don’t actually need to use all of those prodz. Oh. Ahem. Didn’t know that.

He advised that the best cleansers have glycolic acid, and the best moisturisers peptides.

For acne scars, he would still recommend Fraxel because that’s what it does best, which is to combat acne scars. Clear+Brilliant is for people who already have relatively good skin, but want to give it that extra boost of radiance. It’s different from microdermabrasion because it’s lighter. Dr Carlisle forsees that Clear+Brilliant will overtake and replace microdermabrasion in the future.

Makeup-free face, 1 hour prior to treatment

My treatment was then carried out by beauty therapist, Terry. She applied topical anaesthetic on my skin, and left it on for 20 minutes for it to work. For the first 10 minutes, the anaesthetic cream stung. After that, it just felt really weird. I couldn’t feel my skin moving. It’s like that feeling you get after you’ve gotten a shot of Novocaine before you get your teeth extracted.

Terry then spent the next 20 minutes rolling a knob thingy on my skin. It felt quite hot, and I’m not going to lie to you, the procedure does hurt a little. There were no needles involved but the laser knob thingy does sting the skin, especially the hairline. My face was numb, swollen and red when the treatment was over. Terry assured me that my face is one of the least red she’s encountered, given that a lot of women do come out of it with redder skin than mine.

I left the clinic still slightly unable to feel my skin as the anaesthetic hasn’t worn off yet. Hmm I wonder if that’s what Botox feels like 😛

One hour post-treatment – red, tingly, swollen skin

RESULTS:

Post-treatment – the stinging lasted a couple more hours. Skin remained slightly swollen, tingly and very sensitive throughout the evening.

Day 1 – skin sensitivity has reduced significantly. It still stings slightly when washing my face with hot water in the morning. Skin remains reddish, mainly on the cheeks. Looks like I had ruddy cheeks all day. Swelling has subsided.

Day 2 – skin feels very slighly flaky, but not visible. There is no redness on the skin throughout the day, only after a hot shower.

Day 3 to 7 – redness on the skin has subsided, cheeks were no longer that sensitive.

Day 8 onwards – skin is visibly brighter, more radiant and definitely smoother. I wouldn’t say that there’s a dramatic change in my skin, but I could definitely see and feel the difference after just a week.

Dr Carlisle mentioned that this treatment is perfect for women who are about to get married, for those who has an important function to attend, or just want to have smooth and radiant skin. I can definitely see where he’s going with this, because if my skin looked that good when I had my wedding, I wouldn’t have paid for all that ampoules nonsense (Malaysians would know what I mean) and go for this instead.

I’m definitely glad I had the opportunity to try this new technology out. It’s not something I’d need to do regularly because it IS expensive (somewhere between AU$250-AU$350 per session). But for big events and functions when I want to look my absolute best, I think it’s a worthy investment.

Many thanks to Erase Aesthetic Services Clinic for the complimentary experience.

Have you tried this laser treatment (or any other laser treatments) before? Would you be game on giving it a go?