What is IPL?
It stands for Intense Pulsed Light and is a beauty therapy treatment designed to help rejuvenate the skin, treat deeper issues at the source like Acne, Pigmentation and more. IPL is also used to direct heat to hair follicles under the skin and reduce hair growth, much like laser hair removal.
What makes IPL so good?
The best thing, and biggest difference to other comparable treatments is that it doesn’t damage the outer layer of your skin. Instead the light penetrates deeper allowing less down time. Usually, your skin is looking fine again within a few hours. Unlike Laser which has more down time and risk of burning, IPL is gentler while delivering superb results.
What it does:
The light penetration target different concerns depending on the type of treatment you are getting. For example, A photo rejuvenation treatment will trigger your skin to create more collagen (skin structure and support), Elastin (that bouncy feeling) and glycosaminoglycans (hydration and plump). This is great for people wanting a boost in their skin and to minimise the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. Mean while if you are treating Acne, the IPL machine can target the bacteria at the source deeper in the skin and cut off the bacteria cycle while boosting elastin, healing collagen and balancing oil and moisture.
Do you have broken capillaries, we can treat them too! And pigmentation can be minimised and eliminated by breaking down the melanin from sun damage. Your skin will then pull the pigment to the surface and you’re able to exfoliate it off without leaving scars or lighter patches.
What we are treating
All IPL facial treatments
- Photo rejuvenation
- Pigmentation (not melasma, only sun damage/freckles/age spots)
- Acne
- Vascular – Broken capillaries, Cherry angiomas, Rosacea.
Before your facial
We only perform these treatments if we have completed a consultation and patch test at least 48 hours beforehand? Why? Because this lets us know how far we can push your treatment to get you the results you need. For example, one client might be able to handle the highest level of IPL treatment and get results super quick, however if we don’t do a consult and patch test, we would have to start on the lowest settings and it could take three times as long to see results. So its best to come on in and have.
What’s in the treatment?
It’s a 60 minute treatment that includes:
Welcome massage, double cleanse, exfoliation, face mask, hand and arm massage, Customised IPL treatment and finishing products.
How many treatments do you need?
This is something that will vary person to person and concern to concern. The reason for this is that IPL treats environmental and external damage and one person’s damage will be completely different depending on things like ethnicity, age, degree of exposure and severity of damage, also when it occurred and how long ago it healed.
Because of this, we have to take each client individually and really look at all of the factors that will either interfere or compliment the treatment. This is also why we have a consult for every client coming in for IPL, as there are so many variable factors, we want to ensure you are treated the best possible way to get the best possible results.
To give you a bench mark, clients will start to see longer lasting results around 3 treatments in, but most will require 5-6 sessions. However if we can treat you faster by increasing the strength of your treatment determined at your consultation, we will see those results quicker.
Where can I get IPL done?
Traditionally we have seen IPL used on the face and neck to treat clients concerns however we can treat almost the whole body. What we see is clients with concerns like age spots on hands, broken capillaries and uneven skin tone on the chest and shoulders or even broken capillaries on the legs. That’s the great thing about IPL, we can really tailor a treatment to suit ALL of your needs rather than leaving your with a perfect face and no help from the chest down.
IPL hair removal:
IPL for hair removal works very similarly to laser hair removal, except that we are able to treat a wider variety of skin tones and hair colours. The reason for this is the way that the light penetrates the skin.
Laser is like a single red beam of light that will hit the skin in a single spot. IPL is more like a torch. The light spreads further in multiple colour streams to be able to treat wider areas faster with multiple beams of light to target almost all hair colours.
Before your appointment, like any other IPL treatments we patch test and consult a minimum of 48 hours prior. Again this is so we know exactly what your skin can handle and so that you can do the appropriate preparation for best results.
What’s the process?
See diagram below:
