I handed my whole face over to Laser Clinics Kotara for a few months and basically let them do whatever they wanted with it, which is either very brave or very lazy of me depending on how you look at it. They had already set me up with a skincare routine built around a set of carefully chosen Skinstitut products, and once that was ticking along nicely they wanted to add a treatment on top to really push the progress further. That treatment was Kleresca.
This is a 2019 time-capsule, written as a sponsored treatment series with Laser Clinics Kotara. I promised a final-results follow-up that I never actually got around to posting, and the discount code that was in the original has long expired, so I have taken it out. Keeping the rest up for the archive.
what is kleresca
Kleresca used to be a dermatologist-only thing, and the short version is that it uses fluorescent light energy to heal your skin at a cellular level. It is non-invasive, it is actually documented science rather than a phrase a brand made up, and it comes with little to no downtime, which is the part that sold me. The light energy nudges along your skin's own repair processes instead of forcing anything, so your face is basically doing the work, just with a bit of encouragement.
the treatments on offer
There are three Kleresca treatments at Laser Clinics Kotara, and they each go after a different thing.
The Acne Treatment is the multitasker. It kills the bacteria responsible for acne, calms down inflammation, and promotes collagen to target scarring, all at once, which is more than most acne options bother to do.
The Rosacea Treatment is for that inflammatory skin disorder people usually wave off as just being a bit red. Rosacea tends to get worse over time if you leave it alone, and it can bring irritation, tingling or burning, persistent redness and swelling, and those more prominent vascular lines.
The Rejuvenation Treatment is the one that improves your complexion and skin texture without causing any trauma to the skin. Instead of fussing over the surface, it works at a cellular level to boost collagen production by up to 400 percent, shrink pore size, soften fine lines, and generally make your skin look like it got a decent night's sleep.
After my initial consult, my skin therapist decided the Rejuvenation Treatment was the right pick for me. It has a recommended course of at least four sessions, so I signed up for the long haul.
the before photos
Before we started, my therapist took some proper before photos so we could look back later and compare. I was incredibly awkward about it, standing there being photographed at my most unfiltered, but that is the deal you sign up for. For context, I tend to get spotty and break out through Winter, so the before shots were not exactly my skin's finest hour.
what the process actually involves
Every session runs more or less the same. You lie back in the chair, your hair gets pushed out of the way and tucked under a little cap, and the therapist takes off all your makeup for you. I never wore any to my appointments to save everyone the trouble, which is what I would recommend. Then they double cleanse your skin to get it ready.
Little eyepatches go over your eyes, which sounds more alarming written down than it is in person, and then the Kleresca gel goes on all over your face, just like icing on a cake. The gel is illuminated for nine minutes under the multi-LED Kleresca lamp, and the two of them together create the fluorescent light energy doing all the work.
The lamp does sit fairly close to your face, close enough that I can see it feeling claustrophobic for some people. The eyepatches actually helped me there, because you never really get to see how close it is, but everyone is different on that one.
Honestly the nine minutes went fast, and even faster on the days my therapist stayed in the room for a chat. It did not hurt at all. It is mostly a warm feeling with a light tingle, and if I had any dry patches going on they would tingle a touch more, but never in a way I would call uncomfortable. Once the time is up the light switches off, the gel comes off, and your skin gets cleansed and moisturised to finish.
straight after
Straight after a session my skin looked pretty red, alarmingly so the first time, but after about ten minutes it had almost completely settled down. So if you ever see someone walk out of a Kleresca appointment looking like a tomato, give it a minute.
the results
Results vary depending on which treatment you are having and what your skin was doing to begin with. Mine was not a straight line. My acne flared up here and there across the weeks, and I am also guilty of picking at my skin, which I cannot recommend enough that you do not do, because it only ever makes things worse. I know, I know.
I am guilty of picking at my skin, which only ever makes things worse.
Generally, people treated with the Acne Treatment should notice their skin improving over the last weeks of the course, and because Kleresca activates the deeper layers of the skin, that repairing keeps going for months after the treatment stops. The Rosacea Treatment works the same way, with improvement showing through the final weeks and carrying on well afterwards.
For the Rejuvenation treatment that I had, some people see a difference after a single session, though it really does come down to the individual. Because of the way it boosts collagen production, the improvements keep building even after the full course of four is done, which is a nice thing to have quietly happening in the background.
where I landed overall
I have a check-in coming up in November, roughly twelve weeks out from my last Kleresca treatment. Right now I still have a bit of hormonal acne hanging around my cheeks, which I definitely need to stop touching, and I never had many lines to begin with, more fine lines than anything deep-set, seeing as I am only 26.
But I can honestly see the difference in the fine lines under my eyes and the ones that sat in the nasolabial crease around my mouth. The Rejuvenation treatment is not aimed at acne, and yet it still had a positive effect on my breakouts. It can make your skin purge and bring more to the surface before it heals everything up, so it looks like it gets a little worse on the way to getting better.
Kleresca also keeps working after the fact, because it reaches so far into your skin that the results reveal themselves over time rather than all at once. So this is the point where past-me promised to come back with the final glow-up photos and then, in true form, never did. Picture very slightly better skin and a person who really should have stopped touching her face.
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