I Tried It: Clear + Brilliant Laser Facial

It's important to use gentle, emollient, non-active ingredients in the days that follow your Clear + Brilliant treatment. That means pressing pause on retinol, AHAs, and BHAs, and instead dousing yourself in products that are highly moisturizing and improve your skin's barrier. My go-to products were Then I Met You The Cleansing Duo, $68, Missha Meditanical Rose Toner, $24.50, SkinMedica TNS Essential Serum, $281, and Naturopathica Gotu Kola Intense Repair Balm, $58.

I also used Supergoop! Superscreen Daily Moisturizer, $38 every day. On day four when I still had flakes but my skin was calm, I used Wander Beauty's BRB Multipolish, $36, a super gentle physical exfoliant that really helped slough old skin off.

In my experience, slight redness lasted for about 36 hours (remember, though, I'm very fair). However, a little Erborian CC Red Correct, $44 meant I didn't have to cancel my coffee date with a friend the next morning.

Pictured: My skin 24 hours later with red-correcting CC cream.

Image courtesy Wendy Gould