Information Skin: IPL Experience

At the end of 2012, I had given up with treating and living with Rosacea using just skincare, and doctors appointments. I took things into my own hands. Doctors didn't think my condition was bad enough to warrant a referral to a dermatologist, and makeup is only a temporary fix. When you have rosacea it's not just about the redness, the boil type spots and 'how bad things can look'.

Similarly to suffering with Acne, you become incredibly self conscious and as sufferers will know, psychologically living with Rosacea it can be incredibly difficult to live with, not only when you are in the later stages of life (as is most common) but also when you're in your teens / early twenties surrounded by friends and magazines showing you a definition of the flawless face. Frustration after frustration, and the thousands of pounds spent on makeup, skincare and antibiotics etc over the years, 2013 brought me IPL.

From February to September of 2013 I was undergoing Intense Pulsed Light therapy to help treat my rosacea. I was excited that something would actually show me results and I was finally talking to people who knew what this skin complaint was, and understood how to get rid of it. In early 2013 I had paid £600 for 6 sessions of IPL and it was time to take some serious action.

I tried my best throughout the process to document stage by stage, and even got round to writing a couple of posts related to each session here. If you do want more information on IPL, you can find that in those posts. Here I really want to summarise in photos and text my experience as a whole.

The pictures aren't pretty, so please accept my apologies! Please take a look further down the post, to see in photos the changes in my skin. This is one of the reasons I started blogging to share this experience and am so glad if I can help anyone, who maybe in a similar situation or interested in these treatments.

Firstly, I have only used 5 of the 6 IPL sessions. The results for me were not really what I expected - my skin just didn't react enough, and the pain that IPL began to cause my skin was just not comfortable or pleasant and I remember during one session being close to tears, as I began to feel like  rosacea was just taking over my life - pretty much feeling bad for myself.

 The more inflamed your face is the more painful it will be when that ping of light targets that vein or area, I thought it would get better but it just didn't and the results were, compared to what I was told would happen, quite disappointing. In my case of targeting rosacea with IPL, it didn't work and isn't for my skin.

The experience is kind of like an elastic band being ping'd on your face, 15 times over depending on your complaint.  Sometimes they even felt like tiny injections. For me, for now I am trying to avoid the million and one things that can trigger rosacea flareups and manage the condition with great skincare. You can see my current morning skincare routine here.  Whilst I do think my skin has improved slightly from Sept to now, I would not say the IPL was solely responsible for that, which I thought it would be from the start.

As this is my review, and just a summary of my experience I really recommend before considering IPL you have a skin patch test and a full consultation with a skin specialist. It can be used to treat many different skin conditions.

New Year, New Resolutions; Happy New Year

In this post I will be sharing those obligatory resolutions for the coming year. Let me know yours in the comments below! Some of these I am pretty sure are the same if not similar as the resolutions made in last years post here. 

• Drink More Water - It's simple in theory, but in method so hard to do. I intend to be carrying an Evian bottle around with me at all times, for the purposes of keeping me hydrated & to see if the amount of water I consume affects the headaches I keep getting! 

• Save, Save, Save - this year it is happening, I am going to put my spare monies away & this year it's going somewhere I can not delve into and spend it from (stupid bank accounts!).

• Use products up, before taking to the shops to buy more! - I have draws full of body products, skincare products and nail polishes never before used. I find happiness in knowing i have a lot of products & I will be ok if ever caught in some kind apocalypse (is this hoarding?). But in reality 2014 will be a year of using up, and making space for new products.  So watch out for lots of reviews along the way!

• Keep NLMORGAN.com alive! I love blogging, and am slowly becoming more involved in the blogging community, working full time as most of you will know creates difficulty in keeping the posting momentum going, but every comment and page view pushes me on and I really appreciate any help I can get in getting my blog out there. I am aware that the beauty blogging industry is just saturated and bigger than ever. Now recognised in all different media forms - as valuable sources of information and opinion, bloggers are more recognised now than ever before. When you are starting out us newer bloggers find it tough to get recognised. This year I want to work with you, the other beauty bloggers reading this to get our readership recognised. 

Thanks for reading, I think this small but ambitious collection of resolutions is achievable and will get 2014 going to a great start...

... now where's that bottle of water?

IPL Rosacea Diary #2

Back in March, four weeks after my 1st IPL treatment I went back to the Skin Clinic for my 2nd IPL treatment, out of the six I had brought at the beginning of the year.

Four weeks break for any Rosacea sufferer's skin is essential when going through deeply penetrative light therapy like this. Your skin needs to go through what I was introduced to as a 'Cycle' in order to allow the treatment to work & the repair process to take place on my skin.

I have always tried to take photos of my skin in a good light, before each appointment, not just for you - but for myself. Although I didn't know what to expect in terms of results from my first experience - It definitely felt by the second treatment, not a lot had changed. Perhaps I hadn't given it enough time.

The treatment takes around 20 - 30 minutes depending on how many pulses of light you have. The more inflammation you have on the area you are treating the more pulses will be needed, and unfortunately the more pain you will feel - as this area if much more sensitive than a non-inflamed area.

At the beginning I was told I would need around 30 pulses of light for each treatment, what I actually got I think was around 15 every four weeks. Covering all areas of my face. The painful areas for me were definitely the chin, nose & forehead.

By this point I have been using the clinic's recommended skin care brand 'IMAGE' which is full of vitamins, and all important anti-oxidants which my skin needs to rehydrate and heal itself. Did you know Rosacea skin is very likely to be a dehydrated skin? Having brought the cream cleanser (which I used in combination with Emma Hardie's Amazing Face cleansing balm at night) the IMAGE night cream, & serum from the Vital C range, as well as the Daily Defense SPF moisturiser. This truly was totting up to be an indulgence, at over £250 for them all (excl. Emma Hardie)

I will follow up with a review, as having at the time of writing been using them nearly 6 months - they last well and smell great.

Here are some images before my 2nd Treatment of IPL;
PS. Sorry for the awful face.

I will be back soon with my next treatment with more photos!

PS. Sorry for the awful face.

IPL Rosacea Diary #1

As mentioned in one of my previous posts, Information Skin: Rosacea - I introduced my skin to IPL therapy at the beginning of 2013 in a bid to calm down my Rosacea & finally get some results.

I wanted to document the results, and am doing so here in what I am calling my IPL Diary.

What is IPL? 

Intense Pulsed Light is therapy used for both medical & cosmeceutical purposes. You may have heard of it being used in a Dermatologist's practice to remove unwanted hair, or treat age spots. One thing IPL therapy isn't, is cheap - however I believe that paying into the high hundreds for Rosacea relief is something that is important for me & my confidence (at least I justified it like this!). In a nut shell, IPL sessions provided by a Dermatologist deliver an extremely powerful pulse of light to the affected areas, in my case I am targeting my whole face, to take down redness.

The red thread veins which cause the Rosacea absorb the highly powerful rays of light, essentially damaging these veins - and forcing the body to heal this area, and reabsorb these veins, which leads to a less flushed complexion. The light therapy also works to promote new collagen in the skin, which promotes healing and can reduce the chances of any more red thread veins appearing.

Like a ping of elastic on your face for each pulse of light delivered, and worse on those areas where there is more inflammation - IPL is not as painless as I thought it would be. The higher intensity of light your face can handle, and pain you can tolerate really - the chances of reductions in redness soar. Of course with any treatment which interferes with your appearance and uses complex machinery on anyone - you always need to do your research, and as a result sign all of the paperwork and be sure to know how to care for your skin during and after each treatment. There is no point in using awful skincare that irritates your Rosacea if you are spending big money on these treatments.

 I will be having one treatment to my face using IPL each month, for the next five months.

My first treatment was in early February, when to be fair my skin wasn't in the worst shape I have seen it, and during this time I had been using a line from Image Skincare for Rosacea recommended by my consultant.

My face felt warm after the first IPL sessions, but really I didn't know what to expect - this is the kind of treatment that affects each person differently. It is for this reason I really try not to look up the IPL horror stories, and the people with Rosacea who have been left unhappy. I can only stay positive that this will work.

I took one photo of my whole face before the treatment in Feb, with some close up shots on the right.

I am hoping that I begin to see some progress as these diary entries go on!

At the moment, my skin is bumpy, and permanently red. The redness can be covered, and I am glad for that, however it is the bumpy-ness which is horrible to see, and live with. These almost cystic bumps, are like acne, that never form or never go away - my Dermatologist didn't really say that the IPL would target this, it is mainly for redness relief, however she recommended I go back on Antibiotic Oxytetracycline. I am always a bit reluctant to go on tabs & things for skin complaints. As soon as I no longer take the medication, I know my Rosacea will come back ten times worse. Who wants to take pills for the rest of their life, and create an immunity to antibiotics for when you actually might need them? In addition to this my skin gets itchy, and isn't really oily but suffers from dehydration.

I'll be back after the next treatment to let you know how I got on, & reveal how far my skin has come!

If you suffer from Rosacea, have tried IPL or have questions about any of the above, comment below!