Usually three, about four weeks apart, in our practice, with a review three months after the last. The manufacturer's range is one to five sessions every three to four weeks; the rosacea study used three, a 2010 IPL sun-damage study four, and a 2022 review of IPL studies found an average of just over four. In our experience, light, scattered sun damage can clear in one or two sessions; rosacea redness and heavier pigment take the full course. At Lumecca Clinic, 130 Harley Street, the clinician sets the number for your skin at a free consultation and writes it down.
What one session does
Each flash of light is absorbed by the brown pigment in a spot or the red of a vessel, which heats and breaks down while the cooled window protects the skin around it. A spot goes darker over a few days and flakes away within one to two weeks; a vessel fades over the following weeks. One session treats the pigment and vessels the light reaches at that energy; in our practice the next session, at a slightly higher energy where the skin allows, reaches what is left. That is why the course is spaced three to four weeks apart: the skin settles, the result shows, and the clinician adjusts.
Why three
In the 2026 rosacea study, three sessions 21 days apart cut the clinician's redness score by about 60%, and the energy rose from the first session to the third. In the 2010 IPL sun-damage study, four sessions three to four weeks apart took the score from 3.02 to 1.22. In our experience three sessions a month apart is where most faces reach the result they came for.
Areas and visits
The face takes 20 to 30 minutes; the face with the neck and chest longer. The hands, the arms, the shoulders, the back and the legs are treated as areas in the same way. Two areas are treated in the same visit, and each is priced as an area in the written quote. Where the course is planned for both the face and the chest, in our practice the clinician may run the chest at a lower energy because the skin there is thinner.
After the course
A review at three months with your photographs, taken before the course with your consent. Cleared spots seldom return; new sun exposure makes new ones, so some people choose a single top-up once a year or after a summer. The results page explains.
Book a free consultation
Call Lumecca Clinic on 0207 043 8149 or use the form below. The clinician looks at your skin, names the number of sessions and gives you the course price in writing.
