Liquid Microneedling: My Favorite New Skin Care Treatment

The Korean treatment uses thousands of microspears (aka spicules) to promote collagen production

I’ve tried both professional and at-home microneedling before and have always loved the results. So I was intrigued when I heard about liquid microneedling. When I found out that my aesthetician buddy Varuni Palacios was offering it as a treatment, I hopped on it right away and learned a lot from her about how it works. “I am obsessed with this treatment,” Varuni tells me.

What is liquid microneedling?

“Liquid microneedling uses microspears coated with biomimetic growth factors, amino acids and potent botanical extracts to treat a myriad of skin concerns all at once, including dry/dull/lackluster skin, active acne and acne scars, skin texture, tone and pigment, and fine lines and wrinkles,” says Varuni.

The spiky little microspears (made from sea sponges!) provide a similar effect to regular microneedling—both create tiny punctures in your skin to induce collagen production.

If you follow K-beauty at all, you may have heard the term spicules coming up a lot (I actually talked about spicules to Vogue recently) and they’re popping up in at-home consumer products. Microspears = spicules.

Varuni dots the spicule cream on in an even pattern.

There’s a big difference in the clinical treatment (made by Cellstory), which has 50,000 spicules (!!) compared to 1,000 to 10,000 spicules in the at-home version. “Consider it a reflection of treatment intensity and potency,” says Varuni.

Dear reader, it hurts

Listen, I’m not going to sugarcoat this. It hurts. I didn’t know what to expect. I thought maybe the cream would go on and somehow the spicules would burrow themselves in. But, nope, these little suckers get manually manipulated into your skin.

READ: This 7-Step Korean Skin Care Routine REALLY Hydrates

I pride myself on having a pretty high pain tolerance. In fact, I turned down numbing cream (stupidly) when I got pro microneedling the first time. But not gonna lie, the rubbing part got my eyes watering. This part doesn’t last long, like less than five minutes. Varuni tells me that some of her clients ask to take breaks.

Don’t be fooled by my calm expression. I’m in pain.

And you’ll have to just grin and bear it. “Numbing cream isn’t possible, because we don’t want to apply anything that could occlude the pores where the spicules need to get in and work,” she says. “For anyone with less pain tolerance where a fan wouldn’t cut it, we would pair the treatment with facial cryotherapy to counteract the feeling.”

My skin was feeling quite tender, so thankfully Varuni’s next steps were to soothe that sensitive skin.

Ahhhhhhh….

Bless you, Mixsoon molding mask. So soothing.

This treatment is like nothing I’ve ever tried before. Unlike a grainy physical exfoliator, you can’t see the microspears but ooh, you do feel them. And you don’t wash them off per se so they stay on your skin until your skin cells start to turn over and shed so you feel them poking your face a little when you wash or moisturize your face for the next few days.

If you’re able to stand a few minutes of pain, the results are worth it. For anyone who’s been hesitant to do laser (because of risk of hyperpigmentation, etc), liquid microneedling could be a strong alternative. “Treatment requires no numbing, needles or downtime in order to achieve the same or better results as traditional microneedling,” says Varuni. “There's some micro shedding / micro flaking to be expected with any treatment that triggers cellular turnover but it’s minimal and you can wear makeup the next day.”

Red and hot immediately after. Glowy and plumped the next day.

The recovery process felt very similar to regular microneedling. My skin started out red and hot, then got a little itchy and tight the next day, then started to lightly peel. Even when I was peeling, my skin looked plump and glowy.

I’m four days out and can see a noticeable difference after just one treatment. For maximum results, the recommended protocol is four treatments spaced out every 7 to 10 days, and then as a monthly or quarterly maintenance treatment.

What do you think? Any questions? Have any of you tried it yet?

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