Last updated on April 25th, 2021 at 10:14 pm

What is microdermabrasion? It’s a minimally invasive procedure to help improve your overall skin tone and texture. It can help with wrinkles, fine lines, acne scarring, and lots of other skin issues. During the procedure, the specialist is essentially exfoliating your face to remove the top layer of skin to reveal a healthy and younger-looking complexion.

As you may have seen, we both take our skin care very seriously and individually wrote about our skin care routines. Jen wrote about her “Easy Go-To Skincare Routine” and Dianne talked about her “Skin Care Routine for Mature Skin”. If you’ve read them both, you know that we both agree on these two things: Always take your makeup off at night and microdermabrasion. It’s how we approach microdermabrasion that differs. So continue reading to see what those differences are!

Dianne – Professional Microdermabrasion

If you were an avid “Sex and the City” watcher, then you might remember the episode where Samantha has a chemical peel done it looks like her face was, well, peeled off. That image was burned in my mind whenever I thought about having professional skin treatments done and was wary of them. But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized that’s just a TV show and you can have great treatments with amazing results – especially when it’s with someone you trust.

Enter Peau Claire Medi Spa in Birmingham, Michigan and my esthetician, Chelsey. I’ve been going to my dermatologist, Dr. David Spurlin, for years and really trust him. So, when he added a “medi-spa” to his practice, I finally felt comfortable with looking into professional treatments. I started getting both chemical peels and and microdermabrasion about two years ago – and I wish I had done it sooner. I really see a difference, not just in how my skin looks, but also how it feels. It is a little bit costly, but many spas offer packages or specials that make it very affordable.

As far as the actual microdermabrasion goes, it’s painless and only takes about 30 minutes in the office. I would describe it as a “mini vacuum cleaner” on you face. It actually feels like it’s working if that makes sense. If you’ve been wary, don’t be. For me, it doesn’t hurt at all. My face is always a little red afterwards, but it goes away in a short period of time and the results are worth it.

But, instead of even attempting to explain more about microdermabrasion to you, I asked my esthetician, Chelsey to be a guest blogger on this post (thank you Chelsey!) and posed questions to her that I thought were best answered by a professional. Here they are:

Who is a good candidate for microdermabrasion?  Is it something that is good to “start young” or wait until you’re a little older?
Microdermabrasion is a wonderful treatment to start young, especially if the candidate is struggling with active acne scarring. The sooner you start with Microdermabrasion the better and easier to achieve the result of healthier glowing skin. The wonderful thing about microdermabrasion is you can treat the skin more aggressively or less aggressive depending on what the client needs.

What type of results can people typically expect (and in how many sessions)? What is the minimum number of sessions you would recommend to get results?
With Microdermabrasion treatment you can achieve healthy beautiful glowing skin with a minimum of 6 sessions spaced 2-4 weeks apart. The treatment is wonderful to improve the texture of the skin, ex. active acne scarring, fine lines, wrinkles and skin rejuvenation. Another wonderful thing about microdermabrasion is this treatment has no limits, this is a treatment you can do consistently throughout your entire life to maintain beautiful skin.

Do you use the diamond or the crystals method?
We at Peau Claire Medi Spa use the diamond method. Why use diamond method rather than the crystal method? The diamond method is much more controlled, The coarseness of the diamonds can be customized for the clients needs. Crystals can be highly abrasive and cause more inflammation in the skin.

What is the difference between microdermabrasion by a licensed esthetician versus the at-home kits? How are the results different?
I have personally never tried to use the at home Microdermabrasion kits, but reasons to have microdermabrasion done by a licensed professional are:
– Treatment is done in a sterile controlled manner
– Knowing the treatment will be performed properly with no risk of doing permanent damage to your skin.

What is the recovery like? How long is the recovery period?
With Microdermabrasion there really isn’t much down time. After treatment you may experience some redness, tingling, and sensitivity for 1-2 days. If you say have this treatment on a Friday afternoon and have a party to go to that evening you can absolutely apply makeup as normal and go about your evening

Do you have some overall skin care tips?
The best tip I would give to everyone is to wear your daily SPF 30 or higher. SPF is the #1 anti aging cream you can use! Lots of people think that they only need their SPF when they are by the pool or at their kids baseball game, false! In order to protect your skin from sun damage you need to wear SPF daily. There are endless SPF daily moisturizers out there, Find one that works with your skin and wear it every day

For me, professional microdermabrasion is the way to go and I will continue to have it done (by Chelsey of course).
But you may feel differently about professional treatments – being able to get away from the house or work for a while or have a different budget. So, that’s why we want to share Jen’s experience with an at-home kit. It’s a lower cost, save time option – that might just be perfect for you!

Jen – At Home Microdermabrasion

While I haven’t had professional microdermabrasion done in an office, I did buy the PMD Personal Microderm Pro during an Ulta sale. It was on sale for $99, and after reading the reviews and doing some research I decided to go ahead and get it.

The description on Ulta.com for the PMD Personal Microderm Pro says : a revolutionary at-home device providing the same brilliant results as professional, in-office microdermabrasion treatments. Combines Patented Spinning Disc technology with Perfectly Calibrated Vacuum Suction to leave skin looking fresh and radiant. Weekly treatments reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, blemishes and enlarged pores. Personal Microderm Pro features Smooth Glide Caps, Dual Speed Settings and a full range of exfoliation discs to customize your treatment.

I was so pumped for this to show up and to try it out! And I’ll be honest, this does have a learning curve to it. It takes a couple tries to figure out how to pull your skin taught, and use the right amount of pressure with the suction. PMD says to use the device in an upward motion, which takes getting used to. But shhh, I’ll occasionally work in a downward motion. 

Because you are removing a layer of dead skin from your face, it’s important to wait at least 6-7 days in between treatments. 

It does come with body discs and a cap, so you can get some practice on your body and exfoliate at the same time! PMD recommends using the white disc (the most sensitive), and practice on your arm before moving to your face. 

One con (and it’s not that big of a deal), is that it has to be plugged in to use it. I like to get RIGHT up in the mirror when I do treatments like this, and because of my current setup I’m not able to. Again, really not a big deal but thought it was worth mentioning. 

Because you can only do a treatment once every 6-7 days, and only one pass over each area of your face, you’re not going to get a lot of practice on how to use the device. 

The device comes with different color discs that offer a full range of exfoliation from very sensitive to moderate. Above that, there are coarse and very coarse discs available. Each disc lasts about four uses, and I’ve been working my way through them. After my second treatment using the very sensitive white disc I moved to gray. Used it four times, and now I’m on the blue disc. I still have a green disc which is the next level up and highest in this package. All of the discs are available for purchase separately. 

The device also has two speeds, which is another learning curve too. Did I get a little excited for one treatment and decide to give the higher speed a try? Yes. Did I end up accidentally giving myself a couple face hickeys? Also yes. They go away pretty quickly though, so no biggie. 

I’m hoping with some more practice I’ll land on my preferred disc coarseness level. And perfect my technique with both speeds. 

I’ve been using my own at-home microdermabrasion since the end of January. ButI still have a lot of learning to do. The device page on Ulta.com says to give it about 8-12 weeks to see results, so I’m in the window to be seeing some changes. 

After using the PMD weekly since the end of January, I do feel like I’m seeing changes in my skin. Whether they’re directly attributed to microdermabrasion I don’t know. 

My skin seems brighter, and some of the stubborn acne scars are starting to fade away. My skin holds onto melanin like there’s no tomorrow, so seeing them start to go away is amazing! 

What about you? Have you done microdermabrasion? Or would you try it at home or would you prefer to have it done professionally? Tell us what you think below!