Professional treatments

Nine professional treatments, explained in plain terms: what each one is, who performs it, what the skin goes through and how recovery works. Each page ends with questions to ask your practitioner and with ordinary skincare for the point at which the skin is intact again.

The protocol is the treating professional's clinical decision.

Resurfacing

Treatments that remove or disrupt the outer layers of the skin in a controlled way, followed by a period of shedding and recovery.

• Chemical peels. Superficial and medium-depth peels: acid solutions applied for a controlled time, then removed or neutralized.
• Laser resurfacing. Ablative and non-ablative lasers, including fractional treatments, and why their recoveries differ so much.

Energy-based

Treatments that use light, heat, electrical or sound energy, usually without removing the surface.

• IPL photofacial. Filtered broad-spectrum light used for the look of sun spots and visible redness.
• Radiofrequency and RF microneedling. Heat generated in the skin by radiofrequency energy, with or without needles.
• Needle-free infusion. Electroporation and ultrasound devices, what they are and how they work at the skin surface.

Needling

• Microneedling. Fine, controlled punctures made with a device, the recovery that follows, and the question of what topical is used during the procedure.

Surface treatments

Treatments that lift loose surface cells with little or no recovery time.

• Dermaplaning. A blade drawn across the skin to lift surface cells and fine facial hair.
• Microdermabrasion and hydradermabrasion. Mechanical exfoliation with suction, dry or water-based.

Injectables

• Skincare around injectables. Neuromodulators and dermal fillers, the injector's aftercare, and what a skincare routine should leave alone.

How these pages treat Vegalab products

Products appear on these pages in one place only: the section headed "Caring for skin once it is intact". For the timing question in full, read Can you apply a serum after microneedling?

For professionals

The professional hub holds the treatment-room protocols, written for licensed skin professionals. The at-home maintenance protocol covers the week between a professional treatment and the return to a standing routine.

Start from the concern instead

If you know what you want to change but not which treatment fits it, start with skin concerns, or build a routine for everyday use with the Routine Finder. Everything else in Beauty Science starts from the Beauty Science overview.