There was one thing we could not treat properly. So we went and found the device that could.
For a long time there was a specific gap in what we could offer. We could treat pigment at the surface. We could rebuild collagen underneath. What we could not properly reach was the vascular layer. The fine red vessels around the nose. The background flush of rosacea. The pink marks acne leaves behind that no cream, no acid and no amount of patience clears, because they are dilated capillaries rather than pigment.
Patients would do everything right, follow the plan carefully, and still look flushed. We knew precisely what was causing it and we could not treat it.
So we researched properly, and we chose the Lumenis Stellar M22 with XPL.
Lumenis invented IPL, and they have set the benchmark in this technology ever since. Their IPL with Optimal Pulse Technology is widely regarded across the field as the gold standard for photorejuvenation, with efficacy supported by more than eighty peer-reviewed papers.
For the specific concerns we needed to treat, meaning vascular, pigment, rosacea and acne, the brand has long been considered the leading platform available. When practitioners compare light-based devices, this is generally the one the others are compared against.
The M22 is their flagship. More than 150 clinical studies support it and over 30,000 systems are installed worldwide, which makes it among the most extensively documented devices in aesthetic medicine. The Stellar M22 with XPL is the current generation, and we are among the first clinics in Australia to have it.
That pedigree is the reason it was on the list. It is not the reason we chose it. We chose it for the filter set.
IPL is only ever as good as its ability to match the light precisely to the target. A platform carrying two filters treats two things adequately and everything else approximately. We hold all eight expert filters, and the full range of lightguides and crystal sizes.
That means we can select not only the wavelength band but the treatment area, from a small precision spot for discrete vessels around the nostrils through to a large lightguide for covering a chest or a back efficiently. Matching the crystal to the anatomy is as much a part of the result as matching the filter to the target.
Included in that filter set are dedicated filters for acne and for vascular concerns, and two separate rosacea filters calibrated individually for lighter and for deeper skin types. That last detail is the one we care about most, and we explain why below.
It closed the gap we bought it to close. It also turned out to do considerably more than that.
IPL is not a laser. A laser emits a single wavelength. IPL emits a broad spectrum of light which is then filtered so that only the wavelengths you actually want reach the skin. That distinction is the entire reason it is versatile.
The principle is selective photothermolysis. Different structures in your skin absorb light at different wavelengths. Melanin absorbs strongly at shorter wavelengths. Oxyhaemoglobin, the pigment inside red blood cells, has absorption peaks at several points across the visible spectrum. The porphyrins produced by acne bacteria absorb in the blue range.
By selecting the wavelength band, energy is delivered that is absorbed preferentially by your target and largely ignored by everything around it. The target heats, is damaged, and the body clears it. The surrounding skin is left intact.
Which is why the filter selection is the treatment. The device makes it possible. The clinical decision about which filter, which crystal, and which parameters is what produces your result.
We use the XPL handpiece, meaning Expert Pulsed Light, which is the latest generation of Lumenis pulsed light technology.
What that generation adds:
This is the part that determines your result, and it is the part most clinics never explain.
Selecting between these is a clinical decision made after assessment, not a setting chosen from a menu. It is the single biggest determinant of whether your treatment works.
Light is absorbed by melanin, which heats and fragments. Over the following one to two weeks the treated pigment darkens, rises to the surface, takes on a characteristic coffee-ground appearance, and flakes away.
Best for: solar lentigines, sun spots, age spots, freckling where someone wants it reduced, and diffuse photodamage across the face, décolletage, hands and forearms.
Not for melasma in most cases, and this matters enough that we say it plainly. Heat drives melasma, and light-based treatment can make it significantly and lastingly worse. We assess this carefully before treating any pigmentation, and if what you have is melasma we will tell you and treat it differently.
Light is absorbed by the haemoglobin inside dilated vessels. The vessel wall is damaged, the vessel collapses, and the body clears it. The skin above is untouched.
Best for: fine red thread veins around the nose and cheeks, diffuse background redness, cherry angiomas, and the mottled redness and pigment of poikiloderma on the neck and chest, where the same device addresses both components.
Treated vessels are cleared permanently. New ones can form, particularly with continued sun exposure or untreated rosacea, which is why most people move to maintenance.
Rosacea is where the dedicated filters and the skin-type calibration genuinely earn their place.
IPL addresses the vascular component of rosacea, which is the part nothing topical can reach. No cream closes a dilated capillary. Patients who have spent years on a careful, well-chosen routine and still look flushed are usually treating everything except the thing making them red.
It works on visible vessels, on diffuse background erythema, and for many people on how easily and how often they flush.
Evidence for durability is reasonable. A randomised controlled trial in patients with late-stage rosacea followed participants for two years after a course of IPL and reported recurrence in around eight percent of the treated group against roughly forty-eight percent of untreated controls.
We would still be honest. IPL is not a cure, rosacea is chronic, and it does not treat inflammatory papules directly, although reducing the vascular and inflammatory load often improves them.
The dedicated acne filter targets porphyrins produced by acne bacteria while the longer waveband reduces the inflammatory vascular response feeding a breakout. It calms without the disruption of a stronger treatment, which makes it usable on skin that will not tolerate much.
Published work on IPL in acne is encouraging. One study reported that a month after treatment, seventy-five percent of participants showed excellent or good results, with a marked reduction in inflammatory lesions.
It is part of an acne plan rather than the whole of one. It does not replace home care and it does not replace medical treatment where that is warranted.
It also treats what acne leaves behind. Post-inflammatory erythema, those flat pink marks that linger for months after the acne itself has gone, is vascular rather than pigment or scar tissue. This is the treatment that clears it, and it is very often the missing piece for someone whose skin has cleared but who still looks like they are breaking out.
The broadest application, and the one people book when nothing is specifically wrong.
Photorejuvenation treats the accumulated effect of sun exposure rather than one discrete fault: mottled tone, background redness, fine vessels, dullness, uneven pigment and general loss of clarity.
There is also a collagen benefit. Light-based treatment stimulates dermal collagen deposition, which improves the structural support around vessels and follicles. Treating the visible damage also, modestly, treats some of what caused it.
This deserves its own section, because it is a genuinely different treatment to standard IPL and the experience is not comparable.
Standard IPL is delivered in stamps. The handpiece is placed, a pulse is delivered, the handpiece is moved to the adjacent area. That approach is precise, and it is what you want when targeting discrete lesions.
Glide Mode is delivered in motion. The handpiece moves continuously across the treatment area while delivering repeated lower-energy pulses, building heat gradually across multiple passes rather than depositing it in single higher-energy stamps.
If you have come across laser toning treatments such as Laser Genesis, this is the same clinical idea. Gentle, cumulative bulk heating of the upper dermis across multiple passes, rather than aggressive targeting of individual lesions.
To be accurate about the difference, Laser Genesis is a single-wavelength Nd:YAG laser while Glide Mode is filtered broadband light, so the physics are not identical. The clinical intent, the patient experience and the type of concern each addresses are closely comparable.
What it is good for: Diffuse redness across large areas rather than discrete vessels. Overall tone and clarity. Texture and pore appearance. General rejuvenation and glow. Larger areas including the full face, neck, décolletage, and the arms and hands.
What it feels like: warm, and considerably more comfortable than stamped IPL. Most people describe it as a building heat rather than a series of snaps.
Downtime: minimal. Some flushing for a few hours.
Where it fits: we frequently use Glide Mode alongside stamped treatment in the same session, which brings us to the part of this page we think matters most.
This is where an experienced clinician and a fully equipped platform produce something that a single default setting cannot.
The clinical reality is that almost nobody has one thing.
A typical face carries brown pigment from decades of sun, a few discrete vessels around the nostrils, a background of diffuse redness, some post-inflammatory marking, and a general loss of clarity. Those are five different targets at five different depths, absorbing light differently.
Treating that with one filter on one setting addresses one of them and ignores the rest.
Treatment stacking means combining multiple approaches within the device across a single session, selected and sequenced for what your skin actually carries.
In practice that can involve:
Why this requires experience rather than a protocol. Every one of those decisions is a judgement about your skin, your Fitzpatrick type, your tolerance, what has already responded and what has not. Our dermal clinicians hold a Bachelor of Dermal Science and mentor students in that degree, and this is precisely the kind of clinical reasoning they teach.
A device with 850 built-in protocols will produce a consistent result. A clinician who knows when to depart from them produces a better one.
Before. A patch test is required, along with a full consultation. No sun exposure or fake tan for the period we specify beforehand. Tell us about any medications, particularly anything photosensitising.
During. Protective eyewear, cool gel where applicable, and the handpiece applied to the skin. Most people describe a brief snap of heat with each pulse, or a building warmth in Glide Mode. Sapphire contact cooling makes a considerable difference to comfort.
Immediately after. Redness and warmth for a few hours to a day. Treated pigment often looks darker straight away, which is expected and is the treatment working. Occasionally a small raised weal appears over a treated vessel and settles within hours.
Days three to fourteen. Treated pigment darkens further, takes on a coffee-ground appearance, and flakes away. Do not pick it. Vessels may appear to darken briefly before clearing.
Aftercare. Sun protection absolutely, gentle cleansing, barrier support, and no actives until we tell you. No heat, no sauna, no vigorous exercise for the period we specify.
Typically three to four sessions spaced three to four weeks apart for most concerns.
More for diffuse redness, rosacea and chest or neck work, where the skin is thinner and settings are necessarily more conservative.
Then maintenance, usually once or twice a year, because sun exposure continues and rosacea does not resolve. Before an event, the last session should be no closer than six weeks, because pigment needs time to clear fully and there is a period where it looks worse before it looks better.
Skin type matters, and it is assessed properly. IPL carries higher risk in deeper skin tones because melanin competes with the intended target for the light energy. That does not rule treatment out, and the dedicated rosacea filters for skin types IV to V exist precisely for this reason. It does mean more conservative settings, longer filters, careful patch testing and honest conversation.
We will not treat you with a recent tan or sun exposure, during pregnancy, with active infection in the area, with a photosensitising medication or condition, with recent isotretinoin use inside the relevant window, or where we suspect melasma is the actual diagnosis.
Tell us about all medications, any history of cold sores, any recent treatment elsewhere, and any planned sun exposure or holidays.
The Stellar M22 platform is supported by more than 150 clinical studies, which places it among the better-documented devices in the field.
On rosacea and telangiectasia, light-based treatment is well studied. A systematic review of IPL in rosacea concluded it is safe and effective while noting honestly that many included trials had methodological limitations. A two-year randomised controlled trial found substantially lower recurrence in treated patients than untreated controls.
On comparison with vascular laser, a 2024 meta-analysis pooling four studies and 141 participants found no statistically significant difference between IPL and pulsed dye laser in achieving greater than fifty percent clearance, although some individual trials have favoured laser for larger isolated vessels.
On acne, published work reports meaningful reduction in inflammatory lesions, with one study finding seventy-five percent of participants achieving excellent or good results a month after treatment.
On the newest generation, Lumenis presented data at the 2025 American Society for Dermatologic Surgery meeting reporting single-session clearance rates of up to one hundred percent for vascular and pigmented lesions, and at least seventy percent improvement in a single XPL session. Those are manufacturer-presented figures rather than independent trial data, and we would rather characterise them accurately than quote them as our own.
Our position is that IPL is genuinely effective, that device and operator both matter enormously, and that we would rather show you realistic expectations at consultation than a headline percentage.
Pricing depends on the area treated, the concern, and whether treatment stacking is involved, since stacked sessions take longer and use more of the platform's capability.
We recommend a course rather than a single session, and packages are built during your consultation around your skin and your plan rather than chosen from a menu beforehand. You will receive an itemised plan covering the full sequence so you can see the total before committing.
Cosmetic and dermal treatments do not attract a Medicare rebate.
No. A laser emits a single wavelength. IPL emits broadband light which is then filtered to the range you want. That filtering is what makes IPL versatile across several concerns, while a laser is more targeted at one. Neither is better in the abstract. They are different tools and the right one depends on what you have.
Most people describe a brief snap of heat with each pulse, comparable to a light flick of an elastic band. Glide Mode is a building warmth and considerably gentler. The sapphire contact cooling makes a real difference.
Usually three to four, three to four weeks apart, then maintenance. Diffuse redness, rosacea and chest work generally need more.
No. This is not negotiable. Light cannot distinguish a tan from your target, and treating tanned skin risks burns and pigmentary change. This includes fake tan.
Probably not, and it may make it worse. This is the single most important thing on this page. Heat drives melasma and light-based treatment frequently causes it to return darker. We assess this carefully, and if what you have is melasma we will tell you and treat it differently.
Combining multiple filters, parameters and delivery modes within one session to address more than one concern at once, selected for your particular skin. Most people have several things happening simultaneously, and stacking treats the picture rather than one part of it.
Clinically similar in intent and experience, and different in physics. Both deliver gentle cumulative heating across multiple in-motion passes for diffuse redness, tone and texture rather than targeting discrete lesions. Laser Genesis is a single-wavelength laser, Glide Mode is filtered broadband light. If you have had and liked one, you will recognise the other.
It requires careful assessment and more conservative parameters, and the platform includes filters calibrated specifically for deeper skin types. It is not automatically ruled out and it is not automatically appropriate. We will be honest with you at consultation.
Yes, with the last session no closer than six weeks. Pigment darkens before it clears and you do not want that happening in the final fortnight.
Which filter, which parameters, whether stacking is appropriate, and whether IPL is even the right treatment for what you have are all decisions made with your skin in front of us and a patch test completed.
There is no cost and no obligation.
Book online, or call or text us on 0478 844 048
Plump Aesthetic Clinic
525 Chapel Street, South Yarra
Reviewed by the clinical team at Plump Aesthetic Clinic
Caitlin King, Registered Nurse, Founder and Clinical Director.
Belinda, Senior Dermal Clinician. Bachelor of Dermal Science.
Sammi, Senior Dermal Clinician. Bachelor of Dermal Science.
Important information: All treatments require an individual consultation and patch test with a qualified practitioner to determine suitability. Results vary between individuals and depend on skin type, concern, the number of treatments completed and ongoing sun exposure. No result is guaranteed. IPL carries risks including redness, swelling, blistering, burns, and pigmentary change including both lightening and darkening of the skin, all of which will be explained to you in full before you proceed. IPL is not suitable for tanned skin, during pregnancy, or with photosensitising medications or conditions. This information is general in nature and is not a substitute for individual medical advice.
