Extra LSR: Skin Resurfacing with MOXI Laser.

I got a MOXI laser treatment this spring and I’m spilling all the details.

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Ah yes, time for another skincare treatment round! This time I’m covering my experience with MOXI laser, which is a resurfacing laser that addresses fine lines, wrinkles, uneven skin tone, and sun damage. If you want all the details (including before and after shots plus what it costs), you’ve come to the right place.

After a microneedling treatment in the fall (another form of resurfacing), I knew I wanted to try MOXI laser after speaking with Meredith (my nurse practitioner at AesthetiCare medspa here in KC). She recommended it as a great way to refresh and rejuvenate the skin in a gentle way with very little downtime. (Downtime = healing time until your skin looks “normal” again after the procedure.)

Let’s get into it!

What is MOXI laser?

MOXI laser is a non-ablative laser resurfacing treatment that does controlled microdamage to the skin, zapping damaged cells and triggering the skin’s natural healing process. Microdamage = microinjury, which the body responds to by boosting collagen and elastin to the treated areas. As we age, we lose collagen and elastin, so it’s a way to force the body to regenerate. (Yes! We love aging backward.)

MOXI Laser Benefits

• Smoothes fine lines. An increase in collagen and elastin results in filling in those wrinkles. It’s the main point of skin resurfacing! 
• Blasts hyperpigmentation. MOXI laser pulls out pigmentation in the cells of the treated areas, which the body replaces with fresh cells as it heals. The result is a more even, youthful skin tone.
• Easy recovery regime. No complicated routines here; all you have to do is gently cleanse, apply moisturizer, and make sure you stay out of the sun.
• Very little downtime. MOXI laser is non-ablative and gentle compared to traditional ablative lasers that take weeks of healing. After 3-5 days, you are fully healed and glowing! Because it doesn’t leave the top layer of skin raw, you can also wear makeup 24 hours after MOXI.

What to Expect During + After Your MOXI Laser Treatment

About 5 days before MOXI, you should discontinue use of any retinol and also avoid sun exposure. You also want to be sure your skin is free and clear of any sort of tan (either natural or faux) in order to ensure the laser is blasting real sun damage vs. a layer of self-tan you applied to fake a beach glow.

Here’s a shot of me just before I left for my MOXI laser appointment: fresh-faced and moisturized.

For this round, we treated my face, neck, and chest. Blast it all, baby! The aesthetician applied lidocaine cream to those areas and then I sat for about an hour and 20 minutes to ensure I was properly numb for maximum comfort during the treatment.

Once the lidocaine had done its thing, we did a quick pass over my face with a BBL laser. I’ve had Forever Young BBL in the past; they are one of my favorite treatments! Talk about battling sun damage. You can see my results and read all about BBL here.

Then we jumped into the MOXI laser, which I found super tolerable. BBL isn’t bad, but there’s a rubber band snap-type feel to those laser pulses that takes some getting used to. With MOXI, I barely felt anything! Of course, the numbing certainly helped. But it was a pretty easy procedure to sit through. Start to finish, it took a little over an hour to do my face, neck, and chest.

Right After MOXI Laser

I was still numb, but my face felt warm. Obviously– look how red it was! I also felt like my eyes were swollen, which this picture doesn’t really show. The skin around the eyes is really sensitive, so lasers will often cause some edema (swelling) in this area.

Meredith sent me home with some Avene thermal spring water (which I spritzed on my face a few times on the drive home to cool it down), a gentle cleanser, some CeraVe moisturizer, and sunscreen. Direct sun is a big fat no-no immediately after any laser, which includes MOXI.

A Few Hours After MOXI Laser

After a few hours, the all-over redness subsided and you could see the pigmentation at the surface. I was still pretty pink (as you can see in the difference between my treated and untreated skin), but nothing too major. I was even able to sit outside (in the evening, away from the sun) and looked relatively normal. You can see my skin looks a little rough and the lines in my neck more pronounced.

My skin felt sunburnt that night, and Meredith advised me to sleep propped up to prevent swelling. Swelling is most apparent the next morning after MOXI.

The Morning After MOXI Laser

HELLO, SWELLING! I woke up and could feel how swollen my face was. I took one look in the mirror and started laughing. It looked like I was having an allergic reaction! However, this is a totally normal, totally expected response.  And the swelling wasn’t painful at all, which is a plus. This is why I chose to have my MOXI laser done on a Friday afternoon, so I would have the weekend to recover.

Later on that afternoon, the major swelling had gone down. I was pretty pink and I could start to send the MENDs popping up. MENDs is short for microscopic epidermal necrotic debris, which basically means small dots of dead tissue.

Now, this is a good thing! It shows that the laser was effective and that your body is working to heal. It’s out with the old (skin cells) and in with the new! MENDs are tiny coffee ground-like dots and feel rough, like sandpaper. They also make the skin feel a little tight and dry. This is where that thermal water and frequent moisturizer application come in handy.

Technically, I could’ve started wearing makeup on this day, but I didn’t. It was the weekend and I wasn’t going anywhere, so I kept my face bare as it healed.

Two Days After MOXI Laser

Two days after my MOXI laser treatment, I was still a little swollen. I noticed I would wake up with some swelling, but then it would subside as the day wore on. You can really see my MENDs here on my chin and around my mouth. It’s very important not to pick or aggressively rub at the MENDs; you want them to flake off naturally, which they’ll do when the skin is healed underneath. Picking can cause hyperpigmentation– which is the very thing you just paid to erase!

My skin still felt super dry, so more thermal water, more moisturizer.

Three Days After MOXI Laser

Looking (closer to) normal! I woke up with little to no swelling and noticed that most of my MENDs had flaked off after my morning cleanse. I was still a little pink in some areas, like my chin and that spot on my chest that completely flaked off (you’ll see more of that below, it’s wild!), but noticeably brighter and more even.

About a Week After MOXI Laser

I snapped this pic about a week after my MOXI laser treatment. The glow is real, guys! My skin tone was more even, several areas of pigmentation had been blasted away, and my fine lines were much, much softer. (To be fair, I don’t have many fine lines to begin with because I’m only 37 and I’ve also been doing clinical-grade procedures like BBL, Halo, and microneedling for years, but still.)

Note here: I’m just wearing a little mascara, liner, and undereye color corrector. No foundation, guys! Which is totally wild– just look how even, bright, and glowing my skin is!

My MOXI Laser Results

I had this very visible sunspot (aka age spots, both synonyms for sun damage) on my chest, and I was so excited to see how MOXI would zap it. And zap it, it did! It turned dark and then flaked off by the third day. The redness lasted about a week (the farther away a treated area is from your face, the longer it takes to heal) and now it’s all fresh and even!

What does MOXI laser cost?

Exact cost will depend on the medspa, but here’s what I paid for my MOXI laser treatment:

• Face: $499
• Neck: $399
• Chest: $499
• BBL on specific areas with damage before MOXI: $299

What I love about AesthethiCare is that if you treat 3 or more areas in a single session (which I did here), you get a 15% discount on all services. So my treatment retailed for $1696, I paid $1442.

Yes, this is very expensive. We have to acknowledge this. (I also paid my own money for this treatment; this is not a sponsored post.) Ways to mitigate cost:

• Only treat one or two areas at a time.
• Forgo the BBL before; this is just a way to get even more out of the MOXI laser.
• If you’re in the KC area, wait until AesthetiCare hosts their summer-end party in September and get 20% off; more on how this event works here.
• If you purchase from AesthetiCare, mention you found them via me and you’ll get $100 off your treatment.

I plan on doing a MOXI laser session on my face, neck, and chest once every year or two until I get older and wrinkles become more apparent. But honestly, treatments like these really keep your skin in such good condition, deep wrinkle formation is a long way off. (I make sure to stay out of the sun and follow a good skincare routine, of course.)

Quick-Hit Questions About MOXI Laser

Linking up with Elegantly Dressed and Stylish, The Fashion Canvas, I Do DeClaire, Style Splash, Straight A Style, Jersey Girl Texan Heart, Is This Mutton, Effortlessly Sophisticated, Curly Crafty Mom + Doused in Pink, Mummabstylish, Nancy’s Fashion Style, Confessions of a Montreal Styling Diva, Shelbee on the Edge, The Grey Brunette, My Random Musings, Glass of Glam, My Bijou Life, and Away from the Blue.