V-Beam Pulsed Dye Laser Review for Getting Rid of Skin Redness

Wednesday 18 March 2015

V-Beam Pulsed Dye Laser Review for Getting Rid of Skin Redness

Today I would like to talk about the V-Beam pulsed dye laser session that I had approximately six weeks ago.

I have a very red nose. It's not constantly red, but the redness comes back every time I get cold, every time I have some alcohol, do some exercise or certain other activities. To make matters worse, the skin on my nose has a very waxy appearance, i.e., when I apply some foundation or concealer, it simply doesn't stay on for very long. Well, try to apply some concealer on a candle and see how easy it will be! Not easy, I tell you. So, I mustered my courage and decided to get this redness problem removed from my life.
IPL VBeam Pulsed Dye Laser review
A demarkation line visible after the IPL VBeam treatment.
My face doesn't look too bad in the pic, but the swelling
only got worse as the day progressed

The Medical Practice, Price and the Number of Treatments required

I went to Karidis, a medical practice for beauty treatments in St John's Wood, London. The practice was nice and the lady who I spoke to was lovely, so I booked myself in for a V-Beam session.

According to the practitioner V-Beam is the most effective therapy for treatment of skin redness, rosacea and so on. I require a minimum of three sessions, but it can be as many as six to see a difference. I guess for my nose I will need at least six to make a change. I also decided to get rid of redness on my cheeks which was never too bad, but it seemed to make sense to do this too, given that I had my nose treated, anyway.

The V-Beam therapy cost me £120 per session, i.e., for the top of my cheeks and the nose area. You are not supposed to have any active sunbathing for a month before and after the pulsed dye laser treatment, also, no fake bake for a week before and after the therapy time. Sun cream is a must of at least SPF30 for a month after the VBeam and, ideally, before.

The V-Beam Pulsed Dye Laser Procedure

The V-Beam session only took approximately 10-15 minutes. My make-up was removed, face properly cleansed and safely goggles placed on my eyes. The goggles were very dark, they almost blacked everything out. They were very tight and I could hardly blink, so I just kept my eyes closed. The session started.

Imagine that the lightening lands on your face, you see bright light and you get an electric shock - that's how I can best describe the feeling of having my face lasered with the mentioned device. Luckily, the laser is not continuous, it pulses, so you get breaks to recover from the electric shock, plus the whole process only takes 10 or so minutes. It's bearable.

Alter the V-Beam Pulsed Dye Laser Procedure

After laser the therapist applied some cooling gel and SPF50 on my skin. She said that I might feel  a burning sensation for a few hours or even days, but, luckily, I felt nothing. I had no discomfort whatsoever, other than my swollen appearance.

I put on dark wide sunglasses to hide my face from strangers and set off home. You certainly would not want to go back to work after this, not because you wouldn't be able to work, but because you would look so ugly that you simply wouldn't want anyone to see you.

VBeam is a non ablative laser, so the skin surface remains unaffected, i.e., you don't get weeping skin nor there is any risk of infection unless your skin had already been infected before the treatment, but then you should not have the procedure done in the first place. The only thing that happened to me was a badly swollen skin and some temporary redness.

After the therapy my skin looked like a 3D map. You could clearly see the line of demarkation with sections being raised were the laser device glided on my skin. On the next day the demarkation line disappeared and my skin simply looked very swollen. I avoided going anywhere where I knew I could not get away without taking off my sunnies. I went to the shop though. I know I looked silly with the sunglasses in the middle of the winter and in the dark, but still not as silly as I would have looked like with my two normally quite big eyes looking like two peas planted in a pile of snow.

All right, I am a little bit exaggerating. It wasn't quite as bad, but I tell you, don't plan any events for at least two to three days after the treatment as you may end up looking like someone who has been beaten up. The swelling went away to a reasonable level on the third day after the treatment, i.e., on Monday (the VBeam pulsed dye laser treatment was performed on me on a Friday before). Even then I was still swollen, but I dared to get out of the house without my usual sunnies. Tuesday was the first day when my appearance seemed to be normal.

The Result

Review of IPL pulsed dye laser Vbeam, personal experience
The red patch that appeared on my skin 2-3 weeks after
the treatment
My cheeks look noticeably less red. To be honest, they hardly have any redness now at all, so it's an achievement. My nose is still as red as it was before. I mean it went badly red when I was skiing. I looked like a Santa Clause, which is usual for me during rigorous exercise, so no result. I am supposed to have three to six sessions, so I will definitely need them all at least. The question is: Will all those sessions help my redness go away? We will see. I will update you in the future.

Side Effects

Two to three weeks after the V-Beam pulsed dye laser treatment some red patches appeared on my skin. They are clearly laser related. Luckily, I managed to get rid of the redness with OZ Naturals 20% vitamin C serum. I can still see that my skin is not exactly its usual self, but at least it doesn't look too bad now and it's not red anymore. I believe the skin will even out after a while, otherwise, I will have to employ my favourite anti-ageing tool called a derma roller to even out the texture of the skin.

Just a couple of days ago another two red patches appeared on my skin, which I find quite odd as it's been nearly six weeks since I had the VBeam laser therapy. I certainly didn't expect any side effects to appear so much later. I will see what happens and let you know in the future.

Final Word

Have you used any laser treatments? Did it help you? Would you use an IPL, any other non ablative or ablative laser? What skin problems do you have?

YouTube Video

If you fancy to watch me chat about the VBeam treatment for skin redness, you are welcome to watch my YouTube video. There is no new information there, but you can see what my face looks like now.



Update on 27 March 2015

Today I have been on my second session of VBeam at Karidis. The therapist used a slightly stronger setting on my nose to get better results, so we will see what happens next, but my nose already looks less red. Is it possible that this is working straight away? I don't know, but it looks like it might be.

I would like to update you on my red patches that had appeared on my skin previously. Thankfully they are now fully gone and my skin looks absolutely flawless.

Increased collagen is the added benefit of V-Beam, which I can totally notice. My cheeks look fuller and more rounded, which I love.

Smaller skin pores is another plus that V-Beam provides and I can observe the difference on my face. So, I am happy with the results of my first session in terms of what my skin looks like. Now I am waiting for the results from the second session as I want to see the redness from my nose fading, which was the original intent of my visit. I'll keep you posted.

One more important thing about swelling. My skin swell badly the first time round, but I hadn't used anything to cool it. I assumed that cooling was suggested to keep pain at bay, which I didn't have. However, I have been told that cooling is necessary to control swelling, which, obviously, makes sense looking back. I will keep my cheeks cool as much as it is practical to do so and I will let you know if I still get the same degree of swelling as before or less.

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