Laser light therapy: a guide

Each week, Stephanie Darling roadtests a different make-up or skincare trend to find out whether it’s worth your time, as well as a curated list of beauty and wellness products to add to your cart.

Road Test

I leap out of lockdown and onto the treatment table for some facial rejuvenation, aka laser zapping.

The lowdown One of my first post-lockdown treatments is BroadBand Light (BBL), an intense pulsed-light therapy designed to treat my dull skin and broken capillaries. BBL targets haemoglobin in capillaries, causing the blood to coagulate and the broken vessel to eventually collapse and disappear. It’s also good for fine lines and improves skin texture.

Nurse Ella goes in hard with the laser wand – I wish I had taken a couple of Panadol an hour before! She works over my gelled-up face, particularly my chin and nose, while I grip the bed tightly.

Pain factor As they say, “no pain, no gain”. I have goggles on, but the flashing light combined with the sharpness of the laser is intense.

Downtime Thirty minutes, including the post-treatment icing time. My face is quite red, there are little bruises, and for the next three days I am very puffy.

Results By day five, the bruising has all but gone, as have the red capillaries, and my skin looks radiant. Remember to be super strict with SPF50+ protection.

Where to get it Sydney: Platinum Dermatology; platinumdermatology.com.au. Cost: $695. Melbourne: ODE Dermatology; odedermatology.com.au. Cost: $695.