Procedure

Clear + Brilliant

A low-energy fractional laser aimed at dullness, early fine lines, and rough texture. It is the gentlest treatment in this family, with about a day of downtime and a correspondingly small change per session.
Dr. Schwarz, MD · Board-certified dermatologistLast reviewed September 8, 2026
16:9 hero for Clear + Brilliant. Never cropped: the tone strip and the corner logo depend on the full frame.

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Clear + Brilliant is pleasant, low risk, and skin genuinely looks fresher afterward.

What I find myself repeating: one session gives a glow that lasts a few weeks, which is a reasonable thing to buy before an event and a disappointment if you are hoping to treat acne scars or established lines.

It is a series treatment — four to six sessions, then something every few months, is where people see a difference in photographs. Sold as a single lunchtime appointment it underdelivers; sold as maintenance for someone already using a retinoid and sunscreen, it does what it says.

— Dr. Schwarz, Board Certified Dermatologist

Key Facts

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Also calledBaby Fraxel, low-energy fractional laser, Clear + Brilliant Original, Clear + Brilliant Permea
TreatsDullness, uneven tone, rough texture, early fine lines, pores that look enlarged, mild sun spots
DowntimeUsually less than a day of redness, then 2 to 4 days of a fine sandpaper feel and light flaking
SessionsUsually 4 to 6, spaced 2 to 4 weeks apart, then maintenance every 1 to 3 months
Typical costRoughly $300 to $600 per session in the US. Varies by city and by whether it is sold in a package
Results timelineA brighter, smoother look within about a week of each session. Cumulative change over a course
PainNumbing cream for 30 to 60 minutes, then a warm prickling for 15 to 20 minutes
Skin tone safetyOne of the safer resurfacing options across skin tones because the energy is low, but dark patches are still possible

What It Is

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Clear + Brilliant is a fractional laser from the makers of Fraxel, run at much lower power. Fractional means the laser treats skin in a grid of tiny columns and leaves the skin between them untouched. Low energy means each column is shallower and gentler than a Fraxel column. There are two handpieces. The 1440 nm targets texture, tone and early fine lines. The 1927 nm Permea sits closer to the surface and targets pigment and brightness; it also helps topicals absorb, which is why some clinics apply a serum at the end. The nickname "baby Fraxel" is accurate. Same idea, turned down — that is the appeal and the limitation.

How It Works

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The device fires rapid low-energy pulses as a roller moves across the skin. Each pulse heats a narrow column of tissue, and because the energy is low, the columns are shallow with a lot of untreated skin between them.

The outer layer pushes those cells, and the pigment they carry, up and out over the next two to four days. That is the fine gritty texture you feel afterward, and why tone looks more even.

Some heat reaches the layer below and triggers a small amount of new collagen. Real, but modest — shallower and gentler means less collagen, and that trade-off is deliberate.

The barrier is never broken and the injury is small, so skin recovers in days rather than a week and lasting pigment change or scarring is unlikely. It also means each session changes little, which is why the treatment is built to be repeated.

Skin is about two millimetres thick on the face. How deep a treatment reaches decides what it can change, and whether it treats all of the skin or scattered columns of it decides how long you take to heal.

How it works
Compare
Skin basics
EPIDERMISDERMISFAT0.05 mm — pigment0.5 mm — texture + pores1.0 mm — collagen1.5 mm — deep dermisPEELNEEDLINGABLATIVE LASERREACHES THE UPPER DERMIS

This reaches just past the epidermis into the top of the dermis, around half a millimetre down. That is where fine texture, pores and the shallowest scarring sit. Deep enough to remodel a little, shallow enough that healing is measured in days. The light passes through the surface and heats a column underneath it. The surface stays whole, so you leave red rather than raw — and it takes a course of sessions rather than one.

A peel or a scrub takes the skin off evenly from the surface down. Everything above the line goes and nothing below it is touched, which is why peels suit surface pigment and rough texture, and why the whole face flakes for a few days after.

Needles make hundreds of separate channels and leave the skin between them untouched. That untouched skin is what heals the rest, so recovery is quick — but a needle only injures the skin to start repair. It removes nothing.

The laser removes columns of skin outright: the white gaps here are tissue that is gone, and new skin grows in from the sides. The strongest of the four, and the longest to heal.

The outer layer, and the only one anything in a jar reaches. It renews itself constantly: a cell made at the bottom takes about a month to reach the surface and flake off. Most of what a skincare product does, it does here.

The living layer underneath, holding the blood vessels, the nerves and the collagen. It is where lasting change happens and it is hard to reach: most of what is sold for the skin never gets this far.

What It Treats

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No strong evidence for any condition.

Not the Best For

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Wrinkles and Fine Lines
Wrinkles and Fine Lines
Limited evidence
A gentle fractional laser, sometimes called a baby Fraxel, with a day or two of redness. It gives a real but small improvement in fine lines and glow and needs a series to show anything. It is a maintenance treatment rather than a way to change established wrinkles.
Scars, Sagging, Deep Wrinkles and Melasma
Doesn't work
Indented acne scars, sagging, deep wrinkles and stubborn melasma do not respond. If one of these is your main concern, a stronger treatment is a better fit.

Pros and Cons

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Pros
  • Genuinely low downtime Redness settles the same day, makeup the next morning.
  • Low risk Burns, scarring and pigment change are uncommon at this energy.
  • Comfortable With numbing cream, warm and prickly, not painful.
  • Reasonable as maintenance A session every few months keeps good skin even.
  • Usable across skin tones Forgiving, not risk-free.
Cons
  • The result per session is small A short-lived glow, not a change in a photo.
  • It is a course Four to six sessions plus maintenance. Thousands, not hundreds.
  • It does not treat acne scars Indented scars need something deeper.
  • It does little for established lines Etched lines and folds barely respond.
  • The evidence base is thin Far less research than on stronger fractional lasers.
  • It fades Back to baseline in a couple of months without repeats.

How to Prepare

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2 weeks before1 week beforeOn the day
Sun and tanning
2 weeks before
No tanning, self-tanner or sunburn. Tanned skin risks blotchy pigment and usually gets the treatment postponed.
Actives and hair removal
1 week before
No waxing, threading or hair removal creams on the area. Stop retinoids, retinol and exfoliating acids about 3 days before. Book a week ahead of an event — flaking lands on days two to four.
Clean face
On the day
Clean face, no makeup. Allow 30 to 60 minutes with numbing cream first.

What Happens

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ArrivingThe treatmentLeaving
Arriving
Skin is cleaned, and the provider checks what you have stopped using and whether you have had sun. The handpiece is chosen for texture or pigment. Numbing cream sits for 30 to 60 minutes. Cold air may be used during treatment. Your provider will ask about these things.
The treatment
The cream comes off and a roller handpiece moves over the face in overlapping passes, usually four to eight per area. It feels warm and prickly and builds with each pass. It takes 15 to 20 minutes. Most people call it a strong tingle, much milder than Fraxel.
Leaving
Pink, hot, sometimes slightly swollen, like a mild sunburn. It usually looks normal by evening, and bland moisturizer and cool water are all you need. Some clinics apply a serum or sheet mask. Most people drive themselves home.

Recovery

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Days 1 to 4Days 5 to 7Week 2 onward
Days 1 to 4
Skin feels dry, tight and faintly like fine sandpaper, and often looks duller before it looks better. Makeup from the day after. Light flaking starts around day 2 to 4 — do not scrub it off; moisturizer makes it less noticeable.
Days 5 to 7
The rough layer is gone and skin looks brighter and smoother. This is what you booked for, and why the day before an event does not work.
Week 2 onward
The fresh look softens over the next few weeks unless another session follows. Normal, not failure.

Aftercare

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24 hours3 to 5 days2 weeks
Makeup and exercise
24 hours
Makeup the next day, once skin is no longer hot and pink. No exercise for 24 hours — heat and sweat sting and prolong the redness.
Actives
3 to 5 days
No retinoids, vitamin C or exfoliating acids until flaking finishes.
Sun
2 weeks
Daily SPF 30 or higher, no direct sun. Sun on healing skin is the main cause of dark patches.
Washing
Gentle cleanser, cool water, no scrubbing while skin feels rough. Moisturize more than usual for the first few days.

Risks

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Serious problems are uncommon at this energy. Redness, a few days of dryness and fine flaking, and a rough feel are expected, not complications.

Dark patches
New brown patches in the weeks afterward. Uncommon at these settings, but the most likely pigment problem, and more likely on deeper skin tones, after sun, or with melasma. Treated early, it clears.
Redness that keeps increasing
Redness should settle within a day or two. Worse on day three is worth a call.
A cold sore outbreak
Even gentle laser can set one off. Antiviral medicine works best started at the first tingle.
A breakout or small white bumps
Common after any resurfacing and usually settle, but they can be treated rather than waited out.

In Deeper Skin Tones

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Low energy and shallow depth make Clear + Brilliant one of the more forgiving light-based treatments across skin tones. It is not risk-free.

The risk that matters is post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation — dark patches left after the skin has been inflamed. Skin with more pigment answers heat and injury by making more pigment, less often here than with a stronger laser, but it happens.

Practical steps lower the risk further: no recent tan, conservative settings and fewer passes on the first session, longer gaps between sessions, daily sunscreen afterward, and sometimes a pigment-lowering cream for a few weeks beforehand. A provider who does none of this on deeper skin is cutting corners even on a gentle device.

The 1927 nm Permea handpiece targets pigment, and that is where the risk of making pigment worse is concentrated. On deeper skin tones, and in anyone with melasma, it should be a deliberate discussion rather than a default add-on.

Heat worsens melasma at any skin tone, and melasma is more common in people with deeper skin tones. Some providers use low-energy fractional treatment in a melasma plan, but the evidence is mixed and relapse is common. That plan should come from someone who treats melasma regularly.

If You Stop

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There is nothing to taper and no rebound. Stopping means no more sessions, and skin does not end up worse than it started.

The effect fades. This works largely by refreshing the surface and adding a little collagen, and the surface turns over continuously, so brightness and smoothness soften over one to three months.

Whatever comes from the home routine stays. Someone using a retinoid and daily sunscreen holds a better baseline than someone relying on the laser alone — the argument for treating this as an addition to a routine, not a replacement.

Reassess after three or four sessions. If side-by-side photographs in the same lighting show nothing, more of the same will not change that.

Combining Treatments

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Same day
Retinoid and sunscreen
Both continue at home and do most of the long-term work.
Same day
Permea handpiece
Only products your provider supplies go on freshly treated skin.
Not needed
Stronger laser
Usually unnecessary rather than harmful.
Pause a few days
Pigment creams
These, vitamin C and azelaic acid continue, paused around each session.
Wait 1–2 weeks
Botox and filler
Separate visits, a week or two apart.
Wait 2 weeks
Peels, needling, waxing
Wait about 2 weeks either side, or after another energy device.
Wait 6 months
Isotretinoin
Traditional advice was 6 months; newer guidance is more permissive, so ask.

Insurance Coverage

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Insurance does not cover this. It is cosmetic, with no medical indication.

Ask Your Doctor

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If you are pregnant or breastfeeding
Ask the doctor managing your pregnancy or breastfeeding first. Most providers postpone elective laser.
If you get cold sores
Say so even if it has been years. An antiviral tablet beforehand is standard.
If you have melasma
Heat can worsen melasma, and the pigment-targeting handpiece is where the risk sits. Needs a specific discussion.
If you have a deeper skin tone
Ask about settings, passes, spacing between sessions, and the plan if dark patches appear.
If you have been in the sun recently
Self-tanner counts. Expect to be rescheduled — tanned skin risks blotchy pigment.
If you have taken isotretinoin recently
Say when you finished. It may change the timing.
If you take a sun-sensitizing medicine
Some antibiotics and diuretics make skin more reactive. List what you take.
If you have a skin infection or flare
In the treated area — cold sores, impetigo and inflamed eczema must clear first.
If your main concern is acne scars
Or deep lines and sagging. Wrong treatment, and better to know before buying a package.
If you have had a keloid scar
Or thickened scars. Raise it, even for a gentle device.

At-Home Versions

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A prescription retinoid, or over-the-counter retinol
Good alternative
The closest thing at home to what this treatment does, working on texture, tone, and fine lines over months. Cheaper over a year than one session, and it holds whatever the laser achieves. This is the sensible default.
Daily broad-spectrum sunscreen
Good alternative
Sun causes most of the uneven tone and surface aging this treatment is aimed at. Without it, a course is being undone as it goes.
Leave-on exfoliating acids, such as glycolic or lactic acid
Good alternative
Used one to three times a week, they refresh the surface and even out tone. This is a slower, far cheaper version of the brightening effect, and it is the closest home equivalent.
Six vitamin C products on white, including La Roche-Posay, L'Oréal Revitalift, CeraVe, Vanicream, bliss and Olay
Vitamin C, azelaic acid, or niacinamide
Okay alternative
Useful for brightness and mild pigment, and safe to continue between sessions.
Home fractional laser handsets
Okay alternative
A small number of low-powered devices are cleared for wrinkles around the eyes. They deliver a small fraction of the energy of an office device, and the results match that.
At-home microneedling rollers
Bad alternative
Needles long enough to do anything are long enough to injure and to introduce infection, and home devices are not properly sterilized. Not a home version of this.

How It Compares

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Fraxel, a stronger versionDiagram: how Fraxel works in the skin
Fraxel, a stronger version
Better
Fraxel and other stronger nonablative fractional lasers are the same idea at much higher energy. They do considerably more per session for scars, texture, and lines, at the cost of about a week of downtime, more money per session, and more pigment risk.
MicroneedlingDiagram: how Microneedling works in the skin
Microneedling
Better
Reaches deeper than this treatment for texture and indented scars, with no light or heat, so pigment risk is low. Generally cheaper, and less pleasant during the procedure.
Superficial chemical peel
The same
For surface pigment and clogged pores. Much cheaper and available almost anywhere. Similar order of result on brightness and tone, with a similar few days of flaking, and no benefit for fine lines beyond the surface.
Hydrafacial and other facials
Worse
Cleans and hydrates the surface for a short-lived glow, with no flaking and no heat. Cheaper, and does not produce even the small amount of collagen change a course of this treatment does.
Topical tretinoin
Different job
Improves texture, tone, and fine lines over months of daily use, for far less money. Slower, causes weeks of irritation at the start, and is the thing that holds any in-office result.
Broadband light or IPL
Different job
For brown spots and facial redness specifically. A better match if the main complaint is sun spots or visible vessels, and a poor match for texture. It is not suitable for deeper skin tones, which this treatment can be used on.

Finding a Provider

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Laser rules vary widely by US state, and a low-energy device is often delegated further down the chain. Some states require a physician, physician assistant, or nurse practitioner. Others allow a nurse or a supervised esthetician, with minimal supervision.

Because the device is gentle, the risk is being sold the wrong thing rather than being injured. A good consultation says plainly that one session gives a short-lived glow, and points you elsewhere if your concern is scars, deep lines, or sagging.

Useful questions: which handpiece and why, how many passes, what they would change for your skin tone, and how many sessions before you see a difference in a photograph.

Red flags: a promise that it treats acne scars, before-and-after photos under obviously different lighting, pressure to buy a large package on the first visit, and a consultation that never asks about your skin tone, recent sun, or melasma.

Myths

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  • "It is a lunchtime laser with no downtime." Half true. Redness settles the same day, but days two to four bring dryness and fine flaking, and the fresh look arrives day five to seven. Booking it the day before an event is the common mistake.
  • "It is basically Fraxel." Same idea at a fraction of the energy. That is the point of the device, and why each session does much less. Not interchangeable for scars or established lines.
  • "It treats acne scars." It does not reach deep enough. Indented scars need microneedling, a stronger fractional laser, subcision, or filler.
  • "A few sessions will erase my wrinkles." Fine surface lines can soften over a course. Etched lines and folds do not respond, and this does not tighten loose skin.
  • "It is completely safe on any skin tone because it is gentle." Gentler, not exempt. Dark patches are still possible, settings still need adjusting, and the pigment-targeting handpiece carries the most risk.
  • "The glow means new collagen." Mostly the surface has been refreshed. A course builds some collagen, but the brightness after one session is a surface effect and fades like one.

Questions Patients Ask

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Is Clear + Brilliant worth it?

Depends what you are buying. For generally good skin already on a retinoid and sunscreen, it is reasonable maintenance. For acne scars, established wrinkles or sagging, it is not, and the money goes further elsewhere. One session buys a glow lasting a few weeks.

How is it different from Fraxel?

Same manufacturer, same principle, far less energy. Clear + Brilliant is shallower and gentler, about a day of downtime and much less change per session. Fraxel goes deeper, does more for scars and lines, and costs about a week of downtime.

Is it really a lunchtime treatment?

Redness settles within hours, which is where the phrase comes from. But days two to four bring dryness and fine flaking, and skin looks best five to seven days later. Book a week before an event.

How many sessions do I need?

Four to six, two to four weeks apart, then maintenance every one to three months to hold it. One session gives temporary brightening.

Does it help acne scars or large pores?

Not indented scars — they sit deeper than this reaches. Pores can look smaller because the surface is smoother, but the pore does not change size and the effect fades.

Is it safe on deeper skin tones?

One of the gentler light-based options, used across skin tones, but not risk-free. Dark patches can still happen, settings should be adjusted, and the Permea handpiece carries more risk of worsening pigment.

References

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