Couperose treated
Those thin red or purple lines on your cheeks or beside your nose are called couperose. An even red haze is something else and asks for a different approach, even though the two often sit together. The skin therapist assesses under magnification which of the two you have.
We treat couperose with the Nordlys IPL and with laser. Our skin therapists work with these daily and set the device to your skin type and to the vessels that are there. How many sessions that takes you hear at the intake.
Vessels or redness
To the naked eye couperose and rosacea run into one another, and they ask for different approaches. This is how the skin therapist establishes what you are dealing with.
Under magnification
The skin therapist looks at the red patch magnified. Separate, branching lines look very different from an even haze, and to the naked eye the two are easily confused.
With light pressure
A brief press on the spot shows whether the red fades or whether a line stays put. That difference decides whether it is vessels or redness in the skin itself.
Recorded in images
The photo is taken under fixed lighting, so that we can compare at a following appointment. Redness varies by the day, so without fixed light you are mostly measuring the weather.
Did you see both? That is the most common outcome, and not some in-between form you have to sort out yourself. Below is what each of the two asks for.
Which picture
do you recognise?
What the skin therapist sees decides which picture you end up with. With one of them it starts with light, with another it does not, and that difference is the whole point of this page.
Separate red lines
telangiectasia- Under light pressure
- The line stays visible while you press. The blood will not be pushed out of it.
- What it means
- A blood vessel that has been permanently stretched. Such a vessel no longer closes by itself, and it sits beneath the epidermis, where skincare products do not reach.
- What we do first
- Here light gives the most. We first record how much is visible, so that after a few sessions you can see the difference rather than having to estimate it.
Many people call this a burst vein. Nothing has burst: the vessel has been stretched and stands open. That sounds like a detail, but it changes what can be done about it.
Couperose or rosacea?
They often go together and are therefore mixed up, by our profession too. Four differences you can check yourself before you book anything.
- Under light pressure
- If a line stays put, it is couperose. If everything fades, it is a flush.
- Flare-ups
- With rosacea it comes and goes in attacks. Separate vessels are there the same every day.
- A burning feeling
- This can fit rosacea; a widened vessel is usually not something you feel.
- Bumps
- Red bumps without blackheads point to rosacea, and a doctor belongs with that.
Then this is not your page, and we would rather say so now.
Flare-ups after heat or wine, a burning feeling, bumps without blackheads: that points to rosacea. A different conversation belongs with that, and sometimes a doctor.
What helps and what we advise against
With couperose the list is shorter than with most skin concerns, and that is not modesty. There is one thing that works on a vessel that is already visible, and there is a lot that does nothing to it.
This works
- Recording beforehand how many vessels are visible, under fixed light, so that you can compare later
- Targeted light on the vessels that stay put under pressure, spread over several sessions
- Sun protection every day. UV stretches vessel walls further and is the main reason new ones appear
- Working out what brings the flush on, because as long as it keeps coming back new vessels keep forming
- Saying beforehand when one session is probably enough and when you should count on a series
We advise against this
- Scrubbing or brushing hard. It makes your skin redder while the vessels stay where they are
- A hot shower or the sauna right after a vessel treatment, because heat can bring the redness back up
- Presenting camouflage as treatment. Green concealer makes redness less visible and leaves the vessels as they are
- A cream that promises to make vessels disappear. A stretched vessel lies beneath the epidermis, out of reach of anything you rub on top
- Starting on tanned skin
Vessels can be counted.
That sounds small, but it is why with this concern you do not have to believe that it worked. The EVE-M records the vessel structure under fixed light, before the first session.
After the series we put the two images side by side. If you see no difference yourself, that is the answer and we do not carry on just because a package still had sessions left in it.
More about the skin analysisWhat we measure here
- Vessel structure
- How many visible lines there are and how they run
- Redness
- The base colour of the skin, apart from the separate vessels
- Sensitivity
- How quickly your skin reacts, because that decides the setting
Every axis is measured again at each check-up, under the same lighting. That way a difference later is something you see rather than something you have to take on faith.
What we use for this
Nordlys IPL for redness and vessels
€ 75Light on visible vessels, rosacea and lasting redness. The vessel darkens and then fades.
LED therapy
€ 30Light that calms the skin. In several wavelengths, without needles or acids.
Frequently asked questions
Do those vessels come back after the treatment?
A vessel that has been closed stays closed. What does happen is that new ones can appear over time, because your predisposition and the things that set your skin off are not changed by a treatment. So we pay as much attention to what brings the redness on as to what is visible now.
Is couperose the same as rosacea?
They often go together, but they are not the same. Couperose is the visible, permanently stretched vessels. Rosacea is an inflammatory picture with flare-ups, sometimes bumps and a burning feeling. You can have the vessels without rosacea, and rosacea without visible vessels. If you recognise more than the lines alone, read on at the rosacea page.
Do I get this from alcohol?
Alcohol opens the vessels wide and can trigger a flare-up, but it does not explain the predisposition. That stubborn association mainly makes people ashamed of something they could do little about.
Can I keep wearing make-up?
Yes, between sessions too. We only ask you to leave your skin clean on the day of the treatment itself.
What does a treatment cost?
A vessel treatment with the Nordlys starts at 75 euros for a small area. What it comes to for you depends on how large the area is and how many sessions are needed; you hear that after the first appointment. All rates are on the price page.
First we count how much is visible
The skin consultation records what is visible now. After that you know how many sessions are needed, and so do we.
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