Skin Care Review: Microdermabrasion

Rating
Good

Benefits
clearer T-Zone, fewer blackheads, better skin tone, pleasant procedure

Drawbacks
extreme dryness on cheeks, marks don't fade away, treatment should be repeated frequently

Details
After 2 years of "on & off" microdermabrasion on my fair, combination skin, I have mixed feelings about it.

The pros: Oiliness on T-zone is kept under control, blackheads almost vanish, skin looks smoother and brighter.

The cons: Cheeks and temples become extremely dry, some faint red spots from old acne marks have become more prominent (instead of fade away).

As a consequence, I'm now having it done only on the centre part of my face, where I have noticed the following:

- For the first couple of days following a treatment, skin seems to be "plumped up", has a nice rosey glow, looks younger and healthier but, in the long run, treatment has no noticeable effect on fine lines.

- Enlarged pores (the main reason I got into microdermabrasion in the first place) become clearer and slightly smoother but by no means smaller. As a matter of fact, right after a session they appear to be bigger... Ironically, they seem to "tighten up" around 3 weeks after each treatment, which is pretty much the time when I have to go for my next appointment.

- Skin tone and brightness seem to have improved. Nevertheless, following an initial period of 5-6 weekly treatments, the procedure has to be repeated every 2-4 weeks for any sort of effect to be maintained... otherwise skin goes back to the way it was before and all effort & cost was for nothing (...not only expensive but also problematic for someone who travels a lot).

All and all, I have come to think of microdermabrasion as a nice "pick me up" treatment for the skin - more effective than all scrubs/exfoliators I have ever tried but nowhere near to fullfilling its various promises. Also, reading other people's reviews, I have realised that it is much more expensive in the States, which makes a cost/effect assessment even more problematic...

Conclusions
OK for pampering, possibly beneficial for oily/combination skins, still over-hyped...

Price (paid by reviewer)

Where to find it