Saying Goodbye to My Freckles with BroadBand Light Treatments (BBL)–and My Makeup Free Selfies

I’ve had freckles for as long as I can remember, and even though a lot of people don’t like their freckle-face, I’ve always loved mine. It started as a small smattering across my nose and on my cheeks. But after years of worshiping the sun, slathering my skin in baby oil (ugh, I cringe just writing that), and making weekly trips to the tanning bed in my early 20s, that small smattering turned into freckles that covered my entire face, arms, and chest. Still, I thought my freckles, now too many to count, were adorable and a feature that I would seem odd without.

However, in the last few years, my freckles seem to be mixing with all the other lovely side effects of not being in my early 20s: fine lines, red spots, and age spots. After I fell madly in love with my HydraFacial from Nova Plastic Surgery, I wanted to see what other services they offered that could help my skin look and feel younger.

The staff at NOVA Plastic Surgery were so kind and so helpful and were willing to answer my one million questions.  Michelle, the Physician Assistant that administered my HydraFacial, suggested a Broad Band Light Facial (BBL) would help me with the freckles, age spots, red spots, and the fine lines and wrinkles.

So what does BBL do you ask? Don’t worry, I had to ask too. Using targeted bursts of filtered light, the BBL, also known as IPL, can penetrate beneath the surface of the skin and help to erase, repair or even eliminate all of those unwanted red and brown spots, evens out your skin tone, reduces the size of lines and wrinkles, and cues the skin to produce more collagen. YES to all of this! All of it!

BBL puts controlled amounts of heat into the areas in need of repair. This gentle heat is recognized by the skin cells as a form of mild damage, and this activates the repair processes that improve and enhance the skin. How cool is that?

Since I’m also a big baby, I was afraid it would hurt, but there was only a mild stinging.  Michelle also gave me a wand that I could control that blasts cold air to help distract me from the stinging. The whole procedure took around 15-20 minutes so it was really quick.

Here’s the crazy part, after the treatments any brown spots or patches will become darker and then start to “pepper.” Then they just fall off within 1-2 weeks! It’s really insane how they spots literally fall off. So this is a treatment that will take a few weeks to see the full effect. However, during that time, you can cover any of the spots that are “peppering” with makeup.

Now I don’t want to scare you, but I’m going to show you my results after just on BBL facial.  It’s going to be a true makeup free selfie–not the kind celebrities say they are taking but a real one. So be prepared.

Here’s a true makeup free selfie right after I had the BBL. Don’t be scared, everyone.

And here I am a few weeks later. Again no makeup. Where did all that hyper-pigmentation go?

The results are crazy right? I’m thinking of having one more round done and possible adding my chest next time, but I am really happy with the results.

So for all my MD, DC, and VA friends, swing over the NOVA Plastic Surgery site and find them on Facebook to get all the details and learn about their specials.

For this post I’ve partnered with NOVA Plastic Surgery to tell you all about my new found love for HydraFacials. All opinions are my own