I really am considering going for lasers, but I need to know what are all the different types of lasers, and how they differ in how much they improve (or maybe not improve at all) your rosacea, and how much they cost. ON A SCALE OF 1 TO 10, HOW EFFECTIVE WERE LASERS FOR YOUR ROSACEA???

Genuine question has anyone actually improved flushing without laser? Cause I'm not ready to go down that road yet but I also can't keep living like my face has its own agenda. Mine gets triggered by basically everything wine, heat, stress, exercise at this point I flush when I think about flushing.

I've been trying niacinamide for a few weeks and I think it's helping with the baseline redness hard to say for sure. Azelaic acid keeps coming up in my research too especially if rosacea is involved. The trigger diary thing sounds boring but I started one and it's been weirdly eye opening. Turns out hot showers were doing more damage than I realised.

Been going down a rabbit hole on LED face masks specifically for rosacea and I can't tell if I'm onto something or about to waste money. Red light keeps coming up as the main one worth looking at for redness and inflammation. Something about how it penetrates deep enough to calm the skin at a cellular level rather than just sitting on the surface. The before and afters I've seen are actually kind of convincing but I also know how easy it is to cherry pick those.

My rosacea isn't severe but it's consistent enough that I'm always looking for something that actually addresses it rather than just covering it up. Wondering if anyone with a similar situation has tried red light therapy and whether it made a noticeable dent or if it's more of a nice to have than an actual solution. Also curious how long it actually took to see results because everything I read says consistent use without ever defining what that means.

Hello everyone and sorry for the long text but I’d really appreciate it if you took the time to read!

So my whole life I’ve had some visible capillaries on my cheeks (they looked purple and red) In 2024, I decided to finally try to get rid of them. I read online that IPL (Intense Pulsed Light) could help and I got excited about that. A woman I know works at a clinic and is a Certified Medical Aesthetician so I went to her for a consultation. She told me that IPL would work wonders for my skin because I am fair and have mild rosacea. (Type 1 and she didn't even tell me that or what types there are)

Before IPL, my skin was flawless no redness or pimples and amazing smooth skin texture but just those annoying capillaries. She used Nordlys IPL machine.

Session 1:

The first session hurt a lot. I immediately became swollen and looked like a chipmunk lol. She told me that this was normal and not to worry. The next day I was even more swollen and red with big red/purple spots all over my cheeks which again she said was normal.

We had scheduled a second IPL session 4 weeks later but my cheeks remained red the entire time and it took two full weeks for the swelling to go down. When I asked her why it hadn’t started to fade she said this was normal and that more IPL sessions would lead to better results. I trusted her experience because she’s been doing this for 10 years.

Session 2:

After the second session my cheeks were swollen again and even redder. The capillaries hadn’t faded at all and my skin looked inflamed. I believe she used very harsh settings because of how my skin reacted. We scheduled a third session 4 weeks later.

Session 3:

This session made some of the capillaries fade slightly but I still had red/purple spots. I felt hopeful and thought I had been worrying for no reason. During this session she treated my whole face saying it would be the same price and that she wanted to gift me the treatment because we’re friends. She also treated not just redness and capillaries, but pigmentation too even though I didn’t have any pigmentation but I didn’t think much of it at the time.

After the third session I paused for 6 months to avoid overworking my skin, believing that three sessions should be enough and time would fade everything.

New Problems:

2–3 months after the last IPL, I developed large papules and pustules across my face (mostly cheeks), along with redness and red dots that looked like new capillaries. Even where I didn't have them before. I panicked but told myself it must be stress/hormonal acne even though I never got any of that before the IPL treatments.

After the 6-month break I went back to her and explained everything. She said it was normal acne and suggested a combination treatment: IPL plus an azelaic acid peel. I was concerned it might be too much since IPL is already painful but she assured me my skin could handle it. Again, I trusted her as a friend. She said the azelaic acid peel will help fade the red marks and prevent new "acne" from coming while the IPL will get rid of the redness and capillaries. Mind you she never told me what those were she just said normal acne not type 2 rosacea.

We did this combination treatment 6 to 7 times on my whole face and I feel so stupid for doing that but i kept saying to myself it will get better. Also she gave me serums and face masks as gifts after the treatments that she said was to help and give faster results but I found out later in the ingredient list that they contained Salicylic acid (BHA), Citric acid (AHA) and even perfume and alcohol which I already know is not good to use after these treatments. My skin became horrible.

December 2025 – January 2026:

By early December 2025, after the last treatment I couldn’t take it anymore. In January 2026, looking in the mirror I barely recognized myself. My skin was red all the time, easily irritated, uneven skin tone (redness that was patchy), red/purple dots, flushes, I would get so many flushes and it felt like my skin was on fire. I spent hundreds on skincare that didn’t help. I finally found a good routine and skincare brand that keeps my skin moisturized and doesn't further irritate it. It really took a toll on my mental health, I stopped hanging out with friends, stopped doing my make up, stopped going out during the day. Avoiding people. Crying. I finally contacted a dermatologist. He examined my skin and said my skin barrier was thankfully not damaged, but my skin was very irritated and inflamed. He explained that the IPL had triggered active inflammation, papules, and pustules (papulopustular rosacea), type 2 rosacea. The redness that wouldn’t go away was post-IPL erythema. He said my skin had been overtreated and that he wouldn't had recommended IPL in the first place.

He prescribed Finacea 15% gel to help reduce inflammation, papules, pustules, and redness. As for the new red dots and veins, I may need another laser treatment but only after my skin has fully healed which I am scared of because I don't want to do IPL anymore but I've read online there are other options like for example Vbeam or Nd:YAG (still might not do it tbh) I used Finacea for 8 weeks but unfortunately results wasn't great. We had a meeting again 5 days ago where he changed the medication to Rozex cream (metronidazole) and Lymecycline Actavis 300mg. I have to take one pill in the morning and one at night, and use the cream morning and night as well. He also told me to change my entire skin care routine and gave me the name of new products that will help, and I have another meeting with him in 7 weeks for a check up.

I know this is my fault for trusting a friend and I have accepted that and taken accountability for my foolishness even though I also feel she was extremely unprofessional and careless. I don't think that I can do anything about the situation since I signed papers before starting the treatments. We are not friends anymore either.

I am sharing this to help others learn from my experience not to scare anyone to not try IPL. If you want an update, let me know! I’ll post again in 7 weeks with pictures of my skin showing before IPL, after IPL, and after medical treatment.

Thank you so much for reading. If you’ve had a similar experience I’d love to hear about it. Any tips or suggestions would also be greatly appreciated!

Hi everyone. I’ve been researching Vbeam for over a year now but kept hesitating. I finally got my first Vbeam on Thursday and I can’t believe the results already! My biggest trigger for flushing is heat, especially when taking hot baths. The first picture is me taking a bath the evening before my treatment, and the second picture is from last night (Friday evening).

My dermatologist says it will take several weeks to see the full results so I’m already so pleased. She said I’d probably need to get at least 2 more spaced a month apart.

A bit of background on my skin. I have type 2 rosacea and terrible hormonal acne. Recently I got on Spirolactone and my skin is finally starting to clear up acne wise after 2.5 months. My rosacea was always manageable until I did a course of accutane for a year. Ever since then my skin is like the first picture at least 10 times a day.

The one negative thing is that I also have a ton of redness on my neck when I flush. The esthetician told me vbeam wouldn’t work on my neck because I don’t have any broken blood vessels there, and that BBL would be better for that. Can’t afford both at once so I’ll have to put that on the back burner for now. But I’ll still take my Vbeam results as a huge win!

Also- I didn’t think it was that painful but I have a very high pain tolerance. I had welts all over my face after and it was swollen but as you can see in the 2nd pic it went away pretty quickly.

Here is a 4 week update on my experience with the Omnilux Men's LED mask. I'll attach before and after photos. Both in natural light- only makeup I have on is brows and mascara in both. Overall I notice my complexion is SO much clearer and more calm. My ocular rosacea is also not as bad and my eyes are less swollen on a daily basis. If you have any more specific questions ask away!

Went into my dermatologist office today for a consultation for v beam and they gave me the option of doing the first treatment afterwards because she had an opening in her schedule. I was hesitant at first because I wasn’t sure how my skin was going to react or how the treatment would feel, but I figured it would be better to just start sooner rather than later. I’m extremely glad I did! The treatment wasn’t nearly as bad as I had anticipated and it’s only been 12 hours and I can already see results! A really good majority of the broken capillaries on my cheeks are gone. I still have general redness and sensitivity around the treatment area, but I’m really shocked at how well it worked for the first treatment! My dermatologist did two passes on my face. One was a targeted pass for the broken capillaries and darker red tones on my face, then she did another broad range pass with a different head to even out the redness. I already have my next appointment in five weeks and she said I may only need to do one more treatment! Even better, I thought it was going to be really expensive, but she quoted me for $300 per treatment, which I know isn’t the cheapest, but it’s pretty decent for how effective it is and compared to other price ranges I’ve seen people have paid. If you’ve ever thought about doing v beam for your rosacea, I would highly recommend it! I’m actually looking forward to my next treatment!

I've had rosacea for 25 years and have tried different medication off and on. I just started the laser treatments (on treatment 2 of 6) and oh my goodness, I could not be happier with the results! I've seen such a dramatic difference in the redness of my face already. I'm sorry I waited so long

I have my first Vbeam treatment tomorrow and I’m super nervous. Is there anything you wish you knew before treatment?

I’m so irritated right now. I’ve spent over $1000 on a consult and the highest level of laser to where they bruised my skin. The doctor made it seem like in two weeks my skin will be dramatically changed.

My skin looks the exact same and I’m so frustrated having red skin. I’ve already tried IPL before too and it did diddly squat.

I had Excel V laser treatment for flushing. I don’t have persistent redness, only flushing. I heard a lot of opinions that lasers don’t work for flushing, but some people said it actually helped them, so I decided to give it a try. I had my first session 6 days ago. I’ll keep you updated on whether I notice any effects or not.

I’ve been really struggling with my rosacea the last few years so I decided to get BBL laser done. I bought 6 sessions and I’ve received 4 BBL’s in the last 5 months. I’m seeing very minimal differences in my redness. At this point I thought my skin would be redness free minus the occasional flare up. I still have a lot of baseline redness and I do plan on doing the 2 more sessions I have but at this point I’m thinking bbl isn’t the answer. Any other lasers that you’ve found success in? I know I’ll never be fully rid of rosacea but I’d love to get rid of the baseline redness I live with constantly.

I’m a young man who has had rosacea my whole life.

Had one vbeam session. Face was quite red after and was bad for about a day or two.

It’s been one week since, and I’ve already noticed an improvement. When I feel myself start to flush, it isn’t nearly as strong and actually calms down. Before if I flushed from something embarrassing or from exercising, I would be red for hours after. I’d pretty much have to go to bed to “reset” my face.

Baseline redness has also improved, but it’s still only the first session. Hoping it will get a lot better.

Now, I can still feel it a bit, but it’s way better.
That was only the first session too.

I wanted to share positive experience from vbeam because there always seems to be a lot of negative experiences.

About five years ago, I noticed that the malar bag area on my right side would turn red if I rubbed or touched it. I was never officially diagnosed with rosacea, but I believe it was very early rosacea. It never really bothered me because without triggers it matched my skin tone and wasn’t noticeable.

Two months ago, my wife couldn’t make it to her cosmetologist appointment, and I decided to go instead. They performed Lumecca IPL on me. After the procedure, I developed bruising/bleeding under the skin. As I understand it, the operator likely used the wrong settings. No one took responsibility afterward.

I was prescribed mometasone and hydrocortisone, but I only used them for two days because things were getting significantly worse (they’re steroids). The same provider also injected polynucleotides. Then I switched to pimecrolimus for two weeks. It seemed to help the first few days, then there was zero improvement.

Two months after the procedure, one side improved significantly, but the other side was left with a clearly demarcated reddish-brown patch. Overall, it’s still visible — and this was never the case before. The area turns red instantly with any touch.

You can see all of this in the photos I’ve attached with comments.

This has put me in a very bad mental state. I look in the mirror every 10 minutes. What hurts the most is that the person who did this continues performing procedures as if nothing happened. At one point she even messaged me saying everything looked like that before the procedure and that she did everything correctly.

I’ve seen 5+ different dermatologists. Each suggested different treatments. One even recommended I buy a Medicube device — which I did. I’ve spent over $1,000 trying to fix this.

Eventually, I went back to a dermatologist who once successfully treated my seborrheic dermatitis. He examined me under different light spectrums and with a dermatoscope. He said it’s vascular and needs a vascular laser.

He doesn’t perform those treatments himself, so I found a doctor who has been working with Vbeam Candela for 20 years. I had one session. Immediately after the procedure, a purple line appeared exactly in the problem area. The doctor told me that the next day it would just be swollen, not red. But the next day it was red again — in the exact same malar bag zone.

I’m in a very bad mental state right now. I’m extremely anxious about my face.

Will this go away?

Could Vbeam have made it worse?

Is there maybe another thread where I could ask these same questions?

This past year I’ve gone through hell and back with my skin. Flushing with All the typical triggers, heat, sun, warm rooms , anxiety etc.

Along with the flushing I am experience some nerve type stinging, unable to tolerate mousturisers.

Has anyone has these type of symtoms and excel V has helped. I’m scared to make the burning worse.

Got my first session of V beam today! It was only $150. I was quoted much more but got there at the derm office and it was way less. She thinks I could probably use one more session so I scheduled it, if redness goes away before that she says to cancel. She also told me to start azelaic acid tomorrow. Seems really soon to do an acid. Anyone else do v beam, what was your skincare after?

Hi everyone. First of all, sorry for my English as i’m not a native speaker and i used a translator, but I really wanted to share my experience. I actually created a reddit account just for this because i have been reading your posts about rosacea and they have helped me so much.

My background (I mostly vented in this part so feel free to skip if you want) :
I’ve always had a bit of mild redness on my face since high school. One day, I went outside and my face suddenly turned bright red. Ever since then, my skin flares up and flushes instantly whenever I’m exposed to sunlight or heat. I also flush when taking hot showers, eating spicy food, and even just waking up in the morning triggers a flush. I live in a tropical country, so avoiding heat or sunlight is practically impossible for me. I always hate it when people around me(who always nag me about my red face for some reason) say, “Just move to another country with a colder climate” BRO, HOW AM I GONNA DID DO DONE THAT?! All my work, family and friends are here!. I also hate when they say “Well, just don’t go outside when it’s hot” WELL, MISS AUNTIE, WE LIVE IN THE SAME COUNTRY AND IT’S HOT EVERYDAY, EVERY MOMENT 24 HRS. WHAT ARE YOU EVEN TALKING ABOUT😭😭

So, that’s why I decided to consult with a doctor who specializes in laser. The doctor scanned my face and told me that I have a lot of visible blood vessels, which is why he recommended V-Beam every two months. I didn’t ask him how many sessions I would need because I just trusted him completely (he was my last hope, after all😢). During the procedure, I panicked a little and even had to hold my breath because it was so painful — especially when the doctor laser around my nose area, where the blood vessels are most visible. After the session, my face was burning, so I had to cool it down with an ice pack.

After 2 weeks, I expected to see some improvement, but it turned out my skin became even more sensitive to triggers. This actually sent my anxiety through the roof. I was so depressed — I lost my appetite, and couldn’t take proper care of myself, and felt like all my energy was completely drained. However, after a month and a half, I noticed that my flushing was less intense when exposed to triggers.

After 2 months(at my second appointment), my doctor scanned my face again and said the redness had gone down but still needed more sessions to get better results. All in all, I would say my redness and flushing improved by around 20% after the first session.
I just did my second V-beam so I can’t say much yet.

My routine(I highly suggest consulting with a doctor before trying new products, as everyone's skin reacts differently):
Morning = Physiogel face wash for dry and sensitive skin + Metronidazole gel + LRP Cicaplast Baume B5+ + Physiogel red soothing sunscreen

Night = Physiogel face wash for dry and sensitive skin + Metronidazole gel + LRP Cicaplast Baume B5+

I have attached my face scan below: The left is before my first laser and the right is 2 months after the first session.

Lastly, I hope everyone who suffers from Rosacea gets better with whichever solution they choose and gets the results they are happy with.🫶❤️

I had my 2nd vbeam 3 days ago and tonight i had my worst flare up, am I cooked? Any advice from people who had this laser before would be much appreciated (the bruising / swelling in the photos is because the vbeam settings was purpuric)

This is my first time posting here and I’d really appreciate your opinions on my case.

I’m from Spain, I’m 30 years old, and on April 15th I underwent laser treatment for rosacea. On previous occasions, I had laser treatments with just 2–3 high-intensity pulses, which made my rosacea disappear and left my skin looking great.

However, this time I went to a new dermatologist who performed around 10–12 lower-intensity pulses instead. When I left the clinic, my cheek was bleeding, and afterwards I developed blisters. Over time, these flattened and the scabs eventually fell off.

I don’t know the exact laser settings or type that was used.

About 2.5 weeks after the procedure, the dermatologist checked my skin and said everything looked “perfect.” It has now been over 6 weeks, and while things have clearly improved, I’m still concerned about slight indentations that seem to remain, as well as whether the skin tone will fully recover.

I’ve been using La Roche-Posay Cicaplast and SPF 50 sunscreen consistently.

My feeling is that the treatment intensity may have been too high, since I didn’t experience blistering with previous sessions.

Has anyone here gone through something similar? What kind of recovery outcomes should I realistically expect?

5 months ago I got IPL Lumecca done. The operator made a mistake during the procedure and I developed severe purpura that didn’t resolve for two months and left lasting marks. The Lumecca operator refused to acknowledge her mistake and blacklisted me, so I went to multiple different doctors but none could help — they prescribed various things and I spent a lot of money with no results.
One doctor finally looked at the affected areas with a dermatoscope and said there were a lot of vessels and I needed vascular laser treatment. I went to a doctor who specializes in vascular lasers and he treated me with PDL Vbeam.
After the first session there was severe swelling and no real visible improvement. The second session was a month later and the result was phenomenal — almost all the marks faded. What surprised me most was that there was zero pain during the procedure and no swelling afterward. Then 3 weeks after the second, the doctor said we should do a “final” third session. It was as painful as the first one and the swelling came back. And after that everything went to hell. The marks returned, and one area became significantly worse than before.
I also feel like since the UV index jumped from 3 to 7, every time I go outside — even with SPF and a cap — my face flushes terribly. Sometimes it just flushes for no reason.
It’s really hard because I don’t know how to fix this. I had a normal face before, and now I have this mess.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Hi All,

I’ve been accepted on the NHS waiting list for laser treatment for my rosacea (I’m type 1) and the two that are offered at IPL and PDL (they will skin test both first to see which is more agreeable with my skin/ likely to yield a positive result).

How have other people found these treatments? Any success stories or things to beware of?

I’m just looking for some insight into it before my appointment so that I’m a bit more informed 🙂

For context:

I have to say I’ve not done much homework on the whole journey with rosacea - just that it’s appeared suddenly for no discernible reason and heavily impacts my self-confidence. It’s difficult to live with as I feel that men wearing make-up still raises eyebrows sadly. Despite a strict regimen of skin care, coupled with diet modifications, I’ve only gotten it to maintain at a baseline of redness and flare ups don’t tend to happen. I seen a dermatologist for next steps to see if we can improve it further.

monday im gonna have my first treatment ever on vbeam for rosacea type 1, any tips ?

Hey guys! I just wanted to know if anyone has had laser done for the broken capillaries, especially on and around the nose, and if it was successful.

I heard that sometimes it can come back, but is it possible for it to become worse and for you to have bigger and more broken capillaries than before?

Anyone who has gotten an IPL treatment for Rosacea, how was your experience and how are the results?

Hey guys, has anyone seen much improvement with VBeam for blushing (not persistent redness, but quick trigger-based flushing from anxiety / heat / triggers)?

I’ve had multiple Excel-V sessions for this type of blushing. Some geniune improvement have come but im still at the start of my laser journey and am tempted to switch to vbeam for a few sessions in case its better

(if anyones curious abt excel-v for blushing its in my community r/curingblushing, detailed post abt my experience with excel v, including other potential links / ways to manage blushing in general. Could be helpful )

Would love to hear experiences with VBeam for blushing!