In the last year, I’ve noticed the increase in freckles and sun spots on my face. Three have been on my face for probably the last three years, but they have not only gotten bigger, but darker. Some people look at these like they are beauty marks; I just see them on my face as flaws that I hate. Every time I’d see my mom when I’d go home, she’d take my face in her hands and scrutinize my face to see what new spots had appeared or what had gotten bigger, and I’d get really annoyed; there really was no escaping her criticism whether it was around things I was doing or what was growing on my FACE. I still remember back in March 2016 when my makeup artist was airbrushing my face for my wedding, and the sun spot on my right cheek was quite faint, but definitely there. She airbrushed over it so that it was completely invisible. And I looked at myself and thought, wow! This looks good!!

So when I made a casual comment about being obsessive about wearing a hat in the sun now because I hate my sun spots, a friend took notice and suggested I get them removed. She had already had a lot removed all over her body at a specific medical spa in Manhattan that she highly recommended. She also said she had a referral discount to offer, and that the spa did package discounts when you did four or more treatments. Since she’d had personal experience, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to do a free consult. I did this back in June right before we left for South America. The esthetician gave me some suggestions on treatments, and since I wanted to think it over given it would be a small fortune, one that I’d never, ever thought I’d spend on something cosmetic for myself, as it just seemed too indulgent, I had a custom facial instead, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

After noodling it over, I finally decided to try one laser (Excel V+) treatment. I had it done yesterday, and it was an interesting experience. On target spots, it felt like very tiny pricks on the specific areas. And on the entire face and neck area, it felt like a very hot beam of light being blown lightly all over the general area. My esthetician gave me calming and cooling treatments, finished off my face with SPF 45, gave me information on what to expect the next few days, and sent me home with a post-procedure skincare kit to rejuvenate my skin and protect my moisture barrier.

As expected and as the esthetician had discussed, my face and neck were quite red after, and the target spots were starting to darken within just a few hours. They’re all supposed to darken even more for the next 2-3 days until they crust over and fall off. Then, the spots are supposed to get lighter, and some may even fully disappear in the next week or so. It typically takes more than one treatment to completely eliminate these spots, especially since they took ages to grow and accumulate (that’s Asian melanin for you). Of course, I was hoping I’d only have to do one treatment to see significant or total change. But we’ll see in about a week or so how lucky I am… or not.

This is, by far, the most indulgent thing I’ve ever spent money on myself for. I hesitated on it for a long time before committing to a single appointment. But I figured – I’m in my 39th year of life. I’m only getting older and will get more wrinkles, white hair, and health issues. I might as well give myself this small indulgence now while I’m still semi-young and enjoy how I look while it lasts! Plus, my peers are spending tons of money on their regular gel and acrylic manicures, constant hair treatments, and $200-400 monthly facials, so…. why not do this for me?