Skin conditions
Melasma, sun spots, post-acne marks and deeper pigment conditions look similar and behave very differently. Naming the right one is where treatment starts.
Physician led. Burnaby and Richmond. Every skin tone since 1996.
Book a complimentary consultationA physician assesses your pigment, explains what it is, and builds your plan before you decide anything.
Understanding the condition
Hyperpigmentation is an overproduction or uneven placement of melanin that leaves patches of skin darker than the skin around them.
Where the pigment sits matters as much as how dark it looks. Surface pigment responds to creams and gentle lasers. Pigment trapped in the deeper dermis needs different wavelengths, and no cream reaches it. These are the conditions we separate at consultation.
Symmetrical brown or grey-brown patches driven by light, heat and hormones. Managed over time, not cured.
Flat brown marks from years of sun. Stable, well defined, usually cleared in 1 to 3 laser sessions.
Genetically determined spots that darken with sun. They respond to the same pigment-selective lasers.
Dark marks left after inflammation, more common in deeper skin tones. Gentle settings are what matter.
Blue-grey cheekbone pigment common in East Asian women, often mistaken for melasma. It needs different treatment.
A dermal pigment condition treated with deep-reaching pigment lasers over several sessions.
The BioPlus difference
Every skin tone has roughly the same number of melanocytes. In Fitzpatrick IV to VI they make more pigment and react more strongly to irritation, so the wrong treatment creates new pigment instead of clearing old pigment. Treating pigment across every skin tone is what we have done since 1996. It simply follows different rules.
1064 nm passes through surface melanin with the widest safety margin in deep skin tones, and reaches dermal pigment.
Lower energy, fewer passes, longer gaps, and a test spot before a full face. Endpoints are read on your skin.
Reactive pigment is settled before device work, so we treat calm skin, not provoked skin.
IPL is a broad flash of many wavelengths, and melanin absorbs it across the whole band, so melasma-prone skin often lightens briefly and then returns darker, with the risk climbing as skin tone deepens. We still value IPL for redness and sun damage on lighter skin. For melasma, and for deeper skin tones, we choose tools with a wider margin.
That choice is thirty years of pigment experience talking.
How your visit works
Pigment treatment fails most often at the diagnosis step, not the device step. So we do the slow work first.
A physician examines your pigment under magnification, with a Wood's lamp and dermoscopy to read its depth.
We separate melasma from Hori's nevus, PIH and sun spots, and build a plan for your diagnosis and skin tone.
Protection, topicals and staged device work, sequenced so your skin is never provoked into new pigment.
We photograph progress at each stage and plan maintenance, because melasma is managed, not finished.
How care is built
No two pigment plans are the same, because the plan follows the diagnosis, the depth of the pigment and your skin tone.
Daily broad-spectrum sunscreen, tinted with iron oxide for melasma and deeper skin tones, plus real sun behaviour. Without this layer, every other layer leaks.
Medical-grade skin care slows pigment production while devices clear existing pigment. Your physician maps what suits your skin, including prescription options where appropriate.
Three picosecond platforms, two thulium resurfacing systems and radiofrequency microneedling, matched to your diagnosis rather than to whatever one machine a clinic owns.
Treatments we may use
In the order the evidence supports. Which appear in your plan depends on your diagnosis, pigment depth and skin tone. IPL is deliberately not on this list.
1064 nm picosecond laser
Shatters pigment with a pressure wave rather than heat. The best-evidenced picosecond wavelength for melasma, with the widest margin in deep skin tones.
Why this oneWidest safety margin in deep skin tones, and a workhorse for Hori's nevus.
Learn more →1927 nm thulium laser
A water-targeted resurfacing laser that renews the pigmented surface. Key studies ran in Asian cohorts, and channels absorb topicals better.
Why this oneTreats diffuse uneven tone in any skin type with a gentle margin.
Learn more →1927 nm thulium resurfacing
A thulium platform from WONTECH, a staple of pigment and brightening work in East Asian practice, run at low density with unhurried spacing.
Why this oneA gentle brightening route for dull, unevenly pigmented skin.
Learn more →Radiofrequency microneedling
Targets the damaged dermal environment under stubborn melasma, using no light, so skin tone never competes with the treatment.
Why this oneRelapse control, with a randomised trial behind it.
Learn more →755 nm picosecond laser
Precise for discrete pigment: sun spots, freckles and Hori's nevus. Handled conservatively by skin tone, with 1064 nm favoured in the deepest tones.
Why this oneExcellent for sun spots, freckles and Hori's nevus.
Learn more →Picosecond, current generation
The same 755 nm physics with more energy, refreshed optics and gentler protocols, plus a 1064 nm option for deeper tones on some units.
Why this oneComfortable, efficient spot and freckle clearance.
Learn more →Dual-wavelength facial protocol
A four-step facial protocol. Its role on pigment is narrow: a light Er:YAG micro-peel polishes surface tone. We do not use it to treat melasma, because heat is a trigger.
Why this oneFor dull, sun-tired skin with firmness goals.
Learn more →Long-pulsed 1064 nm protocol
A BioPlus signature protocol on the Elite iQ. Not pigment-selective, so it supports tone and texture rather than treating melasma or defined spots directly.
Why this oneA tone and firmness option that runs safely across skin tones.
Learn more →BioPlus by the numbers
What to expect
Sun spots clear over a week or two per session. Melasma shows change between month 2 and 4, with a realistic window of 3 to 12 months.
Most plans run 3 to 6 device sessions, 4 to 6 weeks apart, with gentler melasma protocols at lower energy.
Picosecond spots flake over 5 to 7 days. Thulium resurfacing is 2 to 7 days of redness. Microneedling, hours to a day.
Gentle cleansing, no picking, no exfoliants for about a week after resurfacing, and sunscreen every morning.
Here is the part many clinics soften, and we will not. Melasma comes back with summer sun, heat and hormonal shifts. Clearing it once is not the finish line, keeping it controlled is. A realistic plan includes daily iron oxide sunscreen for life, a topical routine you keep, and maintenance sessions, often 1 to 2 a year. In the research, maintained patients held their improvement at six months while nearly two thirds of untreated sides relapsed.
Your skin tone is not a complication. It is the starting point of the plan.
The BioPlus approach to pigment
Questions patients ask
No. Melasma is a long-term condition, and no treatment makes it disappear for good. What treatment does, reliably, is fade the pigment you have and give you the tools to keep it controlled: daily tinted sunscreen, a topical routine, and maintenance sessions when it stirs.
Usually for one of three reasons: the pigment was melasma, which relapses by nature; sun exposure restarted it; or the diagnosis was wrong to begin with. Some returning patches were never melasma at all, but Hori's nevus, which does not respond to melasma treatment. A re-assessment answers which happened to you.
Yes, when the wavelength and settings are chosen for your skin tone, and BioPlus has done it since 1996. For Fitzpatrick IV to VI we work with 1064 nm picosecond laser, thulium resurfacing and radiofrequency microneedling, at conservative settings with test spots.
There is no single best treatment, and a plan built around one machine is a warning sign. The strongest results combine daily light protection, pigment-slowing topicals and carefully chosen device work. Among devices, 1064 nm picosecond laser holds the strongest trial evidence.
Melasma is an ongoing condition that produces symmetrical patches driven by light, heat and hormones, and it returns when triggers return. Sun spots are stable, individual marks from past sun. Sun spots usually clear in 1 to 3 sessions and stay away, while melasma needs a managed plan.
Hori's nevus is pigment deep in the dermis, appearing as blue-grey spots over both cheekbones, most often in East Asian women. Creams and gentle resurfacing help melasma and do nothing for Hori's nevus, which needs deep-reaching pigment lasers. Separating them at consultation decides whether treatment works.
Because the research shows IPL carries a real risk of rebound darkening in melasma, and that risk climbs as skin tone deepens. We still value IPL for redness and sun damage on lighter skin, but for melasma and deeper tones we choose tools with a wider margin.
Most pigment plans run 3 to 6 device sessions, 4 to 6 weeks apart, and single sun spots often clear in 1 to 3. Melasma works differently: a treatment phase over several months, then planned maintenance, often 1 to 2 sessions a year.
Sun spots respond within about 2 weeks of a session. Melasma improves gradually, usually between month 2 and month 4 of a full plan, with a realistic window of 3 to 12 months.
Cost depends on the diagnosis, the device and the number of sessions, so honest pricing starts after assessment. Your consultation at BioPlus is complimentary, and you leave with a written plan and exact pricing. Treatment is a private esthetic service and is not covered by MSP.
Related concerns
Post-acne marks
The dark marks acne leaves behind are pigment. Clearing them without provoking more is its own skill.
Sun damage
Mottled pigment, fine lines and texture usually share a plan.
Brown and red
Some faces carry both. Treating them in the right order matters.
Texture
Pigment often overlays texture change, and the resurfacing tools here serve both.
Complimentary consultation
Pigment rewards patience and punishes guesswork. Bring yours to a team that has treated every skin tone since 1996. A physician assesses your skin, names what they see, and builds your plan before you decide anything.
Book a complimentary consultationExplore treatmentsOur services are private esthetic services and are not covered by MSP.