It stings rather than hurts. Each flash is a bright light with a snap like an elastic band and a brief heat, and the cooled sapphire window on the skin takes the edge off. Most people have it without numbing cream in our practice. A full face takes 20 to 30 minutes, and the skin feels like mild sunburn for a few hours afterwards. At Lumecca Clinic, 130 Harley Street, the plan is in writing at a free consultation.
What happens in the session
The skin is cleaned and make-up and sunscreen come off. A cool gel goes on, and you and the operator wear protective eyewear, which is not optional; for the eye area, opaque shields sit over the eyes. The cooled window, 10 by 30 millimetres, is placed on the skin flash by flash. A full face takes 20 to 30 minutes, hands about ten, the forehead ten, the neck fifteen and the chest twenty.
What the flash feels like
A bright light even through the eyewear, a snap like an elastic band, and a moment of heat. In the FDA summaries the window is cooled to 15 or 22 degrees Celsius, which cools the skin during the pulse. Spots and vessels absorb more of the light than the skin around them, which is how the flash treats them. The clinician sets the energy to your skin type, lower for darker skin, as the published Lumecca series did.
The pain scores in the studies
No study measures pain for Lumecca itself. For intense pulsed light as a class, a split-face comparison of ten patients scored IPL 3.1 against 5.8 for the pulsed dye laser. Pooled analyses point the other way: a 2024 review of four studies in 141 participants found pain lower with the dye laser, and two further split-face trials agreed. So against the dye laser, IPL scored lower for pain in one small trial and higher in the pooled analyses.
Numbing cream
Most people have it without, in our practice. In our experience the cooling does most of the work. If you would rather have numbing cream, say so at the consultation and it is planned in.
The hours after
The skin is pink and warm, like mild sunburn, for a few hours. Pigment spots darken and look like coffee grounds for several days, then flake away over one to two weeks. You go back to work the same day. In our practice: cool compresses the first evening, no picking, no hot baths or hard exercise for 24 to 48 hours, SPF 30 daily, and a hat and shade for four weeks around each session. Mild swelling around the eyes and chest and a bruised look over treated vessels are expected too; less common are blisters and superficial burns. Post-inflammatory darkening is the main risk in darker or tanned skin and the reason for the patch test; the dark skin page covers it.
Who should not have it
A current tan, pregnancy or breastfeeding, a history of skin cancer, lupus or epilepsy, light-sensitising medicines, isotretinoin in the last six months, an active skin condition or keloid in the area, or a tattoo in the field. A changing lesion goes to a dermatologist first. Lumecca is FDA-cleared in the US. The full guide covers the course, usually three sessions about four weeks apart.
Book a free consultation
Call Lumecca Clinic on 0207 043 8149 or use the form below. The clinician grades your skin type, says what the flash will feel like on it, and plans a patch test where one is needed. Our patients review the clinic on review.clinic, where it scores 4.8 out of 5 from 53 reviews in October 2026.
