IPL photo facial in Korea. How much does IPL cost in Korea? Lets explore some of that! Keep in mind I am not an expert, I am just a gal who has had her face zapped and wants nice skin after years of abusing it!!
First off, Laser treatments + SPF + whitening = Beautiful skin here.
WTF is IPLl? IPL is a laser skin treatment for pigmentation issues and stands for Intense Pulsed Light and can be called IPL, Photo Facial, photo rejuvenation, among others~ its all the same thing. You can get this done at a dermatologist, doctors office, or cosmetic clinic by a Nurse or the Doctor himself. You can get burned or develop dark brown patches if you have the wrong skin tone for this or its done incorrectly, so make sure you are going to someone who knows what they are doing. This treatment claims to work on Skin rejuvenation , Pigmentation treatment , Vascular treatment, among other things~ I’m my exp it has only helped with pigmentation issues from freckles plus reduced a bit of the redness around the side of my nose. I don’t have amazing skin texture like a baby after this, just reduced freckles which is what I want and what it is for. Read more about what it is HERE if you are curious
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IPL lasers look generally like this. Got your machine next to the bed with the zappy zapper guns~ Not that scary looking, huh? I have had this done 4 times, two at two different places in California back in 2009, and twice so far here in Korea during Jan 2012. How many treatments you need depends on your skin and also how intense they are zapping you… some places do it so weak that almost nothing “comes up”. My 2nd treatment got so much removed that It was enough to hold me over for over a year till I moved here and wanted to remove more + zap new freckles… freckle maintenance lol.
(PHOTOS OF CLINIC FLYERS HERE XXXXXXXX)
In the USA I have paid $500 and $150 per treatment... the cheaper one was actually the better treatment, so you never know and the prices can vary a LOT depending on the office. The same is true in Korea, I have shopped around several places and it can cost around $200, $300, to $500 per treatment (200,000-500,000 won) the cheapest I have ever read about IPL costing in Korea was about XXXXXX per treatment. SO many places do laser skin treatments here,Seoul has become a cosmetic beauty hub for Asia and every street seems to have several clinics advertising IPL (among other treatments )so you can shop around for the best place. Honestly, considering how many clinics are here I am shocked they are not cheaper overall (I thought maybe I could score them for under $100 a visit) but they seem to have the same general middle to lower price range as the USA.
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so here is my scary face before I had any treatments!! I grew up in Florida on the school swim team for years plus was SUPER tan, so needless to say my skin got its fair share of abuse by the time I was 18. I never sunburn, but I get lots of freckles~ so when I started wearing SPF daily 10 years ago my TAN TAN skin lightened and made the spots really apparent to the point they would peek through makeup. It had been almost 2 years since my last treatment when we moved to Korea so I was WAY past due for a maintenance zap~ Lucky me, one of Nara’s Uncle’s actually has a hospital outside Seoul that provides this service and was zapping the whole family pretty, so when I was offered free treatments I jumped on it! YES!
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Nothing like a nice layer of freezing cold goop for the laser.
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Two passes on my whole face took about meh, 15 min maybe! very fast! Pain is just a snap sensation that ends as soon as you feel it, the flash the machine makes actually makes you jump vs the sensation.
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So here I am maybe 5-10 minute AFTER the treatment. They gave me some tinted BB cream with SPF to cover my face up and instructed me to avoid the sunlight and keep my face dunked in SPF for the next week or two since it will be sensitive. No redness after and just a slight sunburn feeling on some areas like my cheeks. Right after you MAY see some dark spots right away, but this visit I did not. Usually they can take about a week to come to the surface.
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and here is the result about 5 days later! Darker areas of pigment under my skin have risen to the surface and it looks like I got flicked with dirt or something~ Super cute! hur hur. At this point its just a matter of waiting till they easily flake away in the next few days like a scab or dead skin.
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The 5 days leading up to this my skin felt and looked dry + my freckles overall looked way darker~ you don’t look awful or anything, but you dont look your best lol.
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After it came to the surface and had a few days to finish rising I took a nice long visit to the 찜질방 (Jjimjilbang) Korean bathouse/sauna where I soaked, steamed, and then gave my face a proper scrubbing with Clinique Men’s facial scrub… seriously its the best face scrub EVER!! The soaking and sauna really helped remove all that dead funk. I finished off my visit with a final session in the sauna + face pack + dunk in the cold pool to close up my pores~ when I left my face was glowing and SO clear! I didn’t need ANY makeup!
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Sorry its a bit fuzzy, but here are the results after two treatments (3 weeks apart!) no makeup.
Lighter and slightly reduced PLUS the very dark ones before the treatment are gone! MUCH better and very easy to cover with makeup! I’m really glad I got IPL here in Korea. Apparently I need a few more visits to get rid of the rest, dont let the photos fool you too much~ I still have lots of spots left, but whats left has been greatly reduced and/or lightened. I may just go one more time… its improved so much already, I dont need to be 100% spot-free, the reduction the 2 visits so far this year have already helped a lot.
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As for comparing the two places (Getting IPL in Korea VS USA) I would have to say its generally the same.. no secret magic here. I found the treatment here to be a lot more cautious due the the high risk of spotting Asian skin apparently has though. My skin does not do that, so I think I could have been zapped a lot stronger honestly… back home my treatment was a lot more painful and as a result a lot more spots lifted off. Here the intensity has been very gradually increased each treatment so pain was REALLY minimal, but the lifting of spots has been a lot more gradual as a result. In the end I am getting this treatment for free though, so I don’t mind it being a slower process~ but for people paying out of pocket or with limited free time it can get tedious and pricy. I would recommend doing IPL in Korea if you find a GREAT deal and/or a Doc you know will be able to efficiently handle your skin!