Hi guys, welcome back to my blog! Today I'll be sharing all about my DEKA Laser Treatment experience with Sliq Clinic.
Sliq Clinic is a laser, aesthetics & cool sculpting clinic here in KL that is KKM (Kementerian Kesihatan Malaysia) compliant and is registered under the Ministry of Health. They were previously only located in Oasis Village Mall in Ara Damansara, but they opened another branch in KL Eco City Mall last year.
Address:
L1-13 Kompleks Perniagaan, No. 3, Jalan Bangsar, 59200 KL ECO CITY, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur
Opening Hours:
Open Daily: 10am to 8pm
Phone:
Phone:
+603-2201 7727 / +6012 772 7134
Website:
The new branch is quite accessible now as KLEC Mall is now connected to both the Abdullah Hukum LRT, KTM and The Gardens Mall (which connects to Mid Valley Megamall as well). I quite like how accessible it is to public transport because I work in Bangar, which means it's only 1 LRT station away from me and takes less than 10 minutes in total to reach.
Sliq Clinic offers quite a variety of aesthetic treatments for the face body and even hair. Some of their signature treatments include PRP treatment, laser scar removal, tattoo removal, double eyelid stitching and even fat freezing.
To read about my consultation and first visit experience with Sliq Clinic, click here.
As I mentioned in my first post, I dropped by one day in December for the consultation. I was met with Dr Steve Chia, Sliq Clinic's medical director. He's a licensed Aesthetic LCP holder who was in the Sarawak General Hospital from 2007-2009, Miri General Hospital from 2009-2012 and the American Academy of Aesthetic Medicine in the USA from 2012 to 2013.
Dr Steve was quite easy to talk to and was very accommodating with all of my inquiries. After a while of discussing options and listening to Dr Steve's recommendation, we settled on CO2 laser treatment.
First off, what is Fractional CO2 Laser?
Fractional CO2 Laser is a laser scar removal treatment that helps remove acne scars on the face and body, as well as stretch marks. How it works is it precisely makes a controlled injury/trauma the skin, prompting it to heal itself and to produce collagen.
Our skin contains a very high-water percentage, making fractional CO2 laser ideal for making precise, safe ablations to damaged or scarred skin (lil' info, ablations means to scar or destroy tissue) to create new collagen. Fractional CO2 laser can be used to remove moles, skin tags and oilseed as well. Here are some before and after pics of Sliq's previous customers who have undergone this treatment:
Generally, laser treatments are preferred over chemical peels as it has better results and can treat multiple indications in the same session. Fractional CO2 laser is generally safer for many skin types compared to other laser treatments, and this specific laser treatment has lower downtime + promises to give excellent results.
Also, I found out that at Sliq Clinic, the fractional CO2 laser they do is FDA approved and safe without compromising on its result. With its wavelength in the at 10,600 nm, the CO2 laser energy is well absorbed in water. Also, they use a DEKA laser for their treatments. DEKA is a top brand from Italy, and I've heard that it's regarded as one of the most top-of-the-line laser brands out there.
Similar to the the silk peel treatment I did before, we started off this treatment with a double cleanse. After that, numbing cream was applied on my face for 30 mins:
After that, my face could truly feel nothing. I even tried to slap my cheeks a bit and felt no pain at all hahaha.
I was then led to another treatment room where the laser was placed:
I met Dr Semantha Chia who would be performing the laser treatment on me.
Here's what the laser looked like:
Dr Semantha would first work at a certain part of my face, adjust the intensity based on what she thought that area needed and then used the laser. To make things more comfortable, there was a tube blowing cool air on my skin at all times as well:
The process was actually not painful at all and moved on quite fast. Since the tube with cool air was there, I was expecting it to be very hot. On the contrary, I hardly felt any heat at all. All I could sense was that my skin smelled a bit like Korean BBQ hahaha.
Immediately after being run through with the laser, here's what my skin looked like:
As you can see, the area that underwent laser is much more red/irritated compared to my neck. It also left some marks on my face, and those marks are the "holes"/ablations that will trigger collagen production.
Dr Semantha did my entire face and focused/increased the intensity on a few areas which needed it (like those with darker pigmentation). At the end of the treatment, here's what my skin looked like:
To help soothe the skin, cryotherapy was done. It was cold and super soothing on the skin, and we did it for around 10-15 minutes (if I remember correctly).
Since my skin would have downtime, Sliq actually had an aftercare cream that I bought to help soothe my skin & help with the recovery process.
Here's some of Sliq's products available for sale:
This is what the special recovery cream I bought looks like:
On top of that, I was given a list that acted as a guideline on things that I cannot do/eat as well as ingredients in products I should avoid.
Downtime may vary from as little as 4 days to as much as a week, depending on your skin. According to Dr. Steve, people with oily skin usually experience 5 days, which was pretty much on the spot for me.
Immediately after I left the clinic after the laser, my skin started stinging a bit. It would have been ok if I were just in my room, but I had to walk back to the LRT station. This meant sweating! Since my holes/ablations were still open, my skin was quite irritated because of the sweat. On the train (under the aircon) it was great, then it stung again as I walked from the LRT to my place.
At night when I cleansed my face, my face also stung because of the water. I used my basic, non-irritating and holy grail Kiehl's Calendula cleanser and to my surprise, it didn't sting me at all (whereas just plan water hurt lol). After screening through my products, I used the Klairs Unscented Supple Preparation Toner + Sliq's special recovery cream.
Although the cream really did help, my skin was still fairly red. Here's what it looked like after using the cream for the first time:
The next day when I woke up, I did my super basic skincare routine again and made the mistake of using my sunblock (which contained vitamin C) and it stung a lot lol. After I calmed down, I saw that scabs were already starting to form. By the second day, my face was already fully scabbed/the holes already closed!
By the 3rd day some of the scabs were already dropping off (especially when I used a cotton pad and wiped toner on my face). It unveiled pretty smooth/non-hole-y skin underneath, though my skin was still patchy-ly red in some places. It was slightly itchy, but at this point it was no longer stinging/painful.
According to their website, the skin generally will look better in day 7, with scars appearing shallower by then. Around day 5 all the scars and scabs were fully gone from my face and my skin was back to normal. On day 5 itself, I actually went to a Coach event so I had to put on some makeup. It was ok, and my face was smooth/there was no texture visible anymore.
If you're curious about the price of the CO2 laser, it costs around RM1k-1.5k for the face, depending on the person/state of your scars. If you only want to do laser on a certain part of your face, you can also do it in sections (which will decrease the price of course). You can also get packages if you book a few treatments together.
I got 3 sessions, and after this first session, I did notice that my skin had improved. Here's me one month later before my 2nd laser appointment:
As you can see, still some marks but lighter!
Here's me after my 2nd session:
One thing that the nurses at Sliq told me was that my skin reacted quite well to the laser. Although I still did turn red, they said that it wasn't as bad as most patients (it differs). Personally, I found it alright. My top tip would be to avoid hot places! Sweat really was what made it the most uncomfortable on the first 2 days. After that, once the perforations have started closing, it gets better.
On round three, my skin was looking better and better.
However, due to some ingrown hair, my upper lip area had gotten a bit worse. My upper lip area was actually one of my most difficult areas as I keep on getting new scars there due to facial hair.
I decided to do hair removal there, but I'll blog about that in another post.
Focus instead on my forehead and cheeks! Here, Dr. Steve is focusing on my stubborn forehead marks:
Finally, here I am in May 2020! As you can see, my forehead has cleared up:
Here are my cheeks:
The texture has actually improved by a lot, and my base makeup looks flawless on top if it!
This is the clearest my skin has been in years! It may not seem like that because of my camera's super HD-ness (haha) but to the naked eye, I'm looking so good right now.
Here's a before and after comparison:
Before, my forehead, cheeks, chin and upper lip scars were super prominent:
Now, all that's left is my problematic upper lip area!
Overall I'm really happy with the results. In hindsight, I should have gone for hair removal first before laser so that my upper lip area would get better too. Anyways, I'll update you guys on my progress with that soon. The laser lightened it significantly, but if I don't remove the hair, the cycle will just keep on repeating.
Aside from that, the other areas of my face that do not have any facial hair are all doing great. I highly recommend trying this laser out if you have any stubborn acne scars like me and you want to lighten them out!
And that's it for this post! I hope you guys found it helpful and informative.
See y'all in my next post!
See y'all in my next post!
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