Skin conditions
Rosacea is a long-term condition that keeps the central face flushed, red or broken by fine visible vessels. It cannot be cured, and it can be controlled well.
Physician led. Burnaby and Richmond. Every skin tone since 1996.
Book a complimentary consultationA physician assesses your skin, explains what is driving the redness and builds your plan before you decide anything.
Understanding the condition
Rosacea is a chronic inflammatory skin condition that produces flushing, lasting redness and visible blood vessels across the central face, and it runs a relapsing and remitting course.
It usually starts between the ages of 30 and 60 and affects around 5 percent of adults. The cause is not a single thing. Rosacea skin has an overactive immune response, blood vessels that dilate too easily and a skin barrier that leaks, and ultraviolet light is the single strongest trigger, which is why sun protection sits at the base of every plan.
Because the drivers stay present, rosacea is managed over time rather than finished. Treatment calms the inflammation, clears the vessels and reduces flares, and maintenance holds the result.
The kinds of facial redness
Naming which kind you have is where treatment starts, and most faces carry a mix.
The face goes hot and red with a trigger, then settles. It is driven by vessels opening, and it responds to trigger control and, in stubborn cases, physician-directed medication rather than to laser.
The background redness that stays after a flush fades. It comes from chronic inflammation and dilated surface vessels, and it responds well to vascular light and laser over a series.
The individual fine vessels you can trace with your eye, often across the cheeks and around the nose. These are fixed structures, cleared directly with vascular light or laser, sometimes in only 1 to 3 sessions.
The flat pink to red mark left after a spot heals. It is dilated vessels, not brown pigment, so it responds to the same vascular tools, and it is covered in more depth on the acne page.
The BioPlus difference
Rosacea skin is reactive by nature, with a barrier that leaks and vessels that fire easily, so it punishes the wrong treatment. Rosacea is also several patterns at once. The redness and visible vessels respond to light and laser, the inflammatory bumps respond to medication, and skin thickening belongs in the medical system.
Reading which patterns you have, and choosing tools gentle enough for reactive skin and safe for your skin tone, is the difference between calming rosacea and provoking it. Treating redness across every skin tone is what we have done since 1996.
Persistent redness, easy flushing and visible vessels. This is the pattern that light and laser treat, and it is the core of this page.
The papulopustular pattern looks like acne but carries no blackheads. It is calmed with physician-directed medical therapy, not with light.
Skin thickening and eye involvement need medical care. We name them, and we route them to the right pathway before any cosmetic treatment is discussed.
The tools that clear redness send light into the skin to heat the blood vessels, and the pigment at the surface absorbs some of that light too. In fair to medium skin there is little competition, so intense pulsed light is an excellent, well-evidenced choice. In deeper skin tones, Fitzpatrick IV to VI, the pigmented surface competes for every pulse, and broadband IPL carries a real risk of burns, blistering and new pigment. For those tones we reach for a 1064 nm Nd:YAG laser or radiofrequency microneedling, which treat the vessels while sparing the surface. Rosacea is also under-recognised in deeper skin, where the redness reads as warmth, burning or a dusky discolouration rather than obvious red.
That choice is thirty years of treating redness across every skin tone talking.
How your visit works
Rosacea is diagnosed by looking and listening, not by a machine, so we do the careful work first.
A physician examines your skin under magnification to map its features, records your Fitzpatrick skin type, and in deeper tones reads the signs that do not show as red.
We map your triggers, separate the redness and vessels from the bumps and thickening, and build a plan for your phenotype and skin tone. Baseline photos are taken so progress is measured.
Skincare and sun protection first, then vascular light or laser chosen for your skin tone, sequenced gently so reactive skin is calmed rather than provoked.
We photograph progress at each stage and plan maintenance, because rosacea is managed over time rather than finished.
How care is built
No two rosacea plans are the same, because the plan follows your phenotype, your triggers and your skin tone.
Daily broad-spectrum sunscreen, ideally a mineral formula, because ultraviolet light is the strongest rosacea trigger there is. Gentle, fragrance-free cleansing and moisturising repair the leaky barrier. Without this layer, every other layer leaks.
The inflammatory bumps and the flushing are calmed with medication, not with light. Your physician explains what suits you, and where rosacea needs care in the medical system, including advanced thickening or any eye involvement, we help you get there.
Background redness, flushing-prone skin and visible vessels respond to vascular light and laser over a series, with the device and settings chosen for your skin tone. This is the layer the rest of this page describes.
Treatments we may use
In the order the evidence supports. Which appear in your plan depends on your phenotype, your vessels and your skin tone.
High peak power intense pulsed light
A broad flash of filtered light that the haemoglobin in your vessels absorbs and turns to heat, so dilated vessels collapse and background redness fades. In a randomised trial, three IPL sessions cleared facial vessels in most treated patients, and at two years only 8 percent had relapsed against 48 percent of untreated controls.
Why this oneThe strongest device evidence on this page for redness and vessels in fair to medium skin.
Learn more →IPL and 1064 nm Nd:YAG platform
One platform with two vascular tools. Its IPL clears background redness and superficial vessels, and its long-pulsed 1064 nm Nd:YAG module reaches the deeper vessels around the nose that IPL cannot, while extending safe vascular treatment into darker skin tones.
Why this oneTreats surface redness and deep vessels on one platform, and reaches darker skin safely.
Learn more →Radiofrequency microneedling
Treats redness without using light at all, so skin tone does not compete with the treatment. Its ultra-short pulses target the leaky network of small vessels that keeps rosacea skin inflamed and flushed, which makes it a natural fit for pigment-prone and darker skin.
Why this oneThe vascular option for reactive, pigment-prone skin where IPL is not the right tool.
Learn more →Long-pulsed 1064 nm protocol
A BioPlus signature protocol on the Cynosure Elite iQ. Its role on redness is supportive: the 1064 nm wavelength treats deeper vessels and gentle settings can calm background redness, and because surface pigment barely absorbs it, deeper-skinned patients can use it while dedicated vascular work runs alongside.
Why this oneA gentle, skin-tone-safe way to support redness care and ease reactive skin into laser.
Learn more →BioPlus by the numbers
What to expect
Individual visible vessels respond fastest, often fading within a session or two. Background redness and flushing improve more gradually, with meaningful change usually building over the weeks after the second and third sessions.
Most vascular light plans run about 3 sessions spaced 4 weeks apart, and deeper vessel work sometimes needs only 1 to 3. Your number depends on your phenotype, your vessels and your skin tone.
IPL and 1064 nm laser bring flushing for a few hours to a day, and treated vessels may darken briefly before clearing. Radiofrequency microneedling is mild redness for a few hours to a day. Most people return to normal activity the same day.
Gentle cleansing and moisturising, no heat or vigorous exercise and no harsh actives for a day or two, and sunscreen every single morning. Sun exposure in the days after treatment is the fastest way to undo it.
Here is the part many clinics soften, and we will not. Rosacea is controlled, not cured. The inflammation and the tendency to flush stay in the skin, so redness and vessels can return with sun, heat and the same triggers as before. A realistic plan includes daily sun protection for good, a gentle routine you actually keep, and maintenance sessions, often once or twice a year. The research backs the effort. Two years after treatment in the IPL trial, only 8 percent of treated patients had relapsed, against 48 percent of those left untreated. Results vary from person to person, and your physician will tell you what is realistic for your skin.
Rosacea does not have a cure. It has a plan, and a plan is something you can keep.
The BioPlus approach to redness
Questions patients ask
No. Rosacea is a chronic condition, and there is no cure. What treatment does, reliably, is control it: calm the inflammation, clear the visible vessels, reduce how often you flush, and hold the redness down with maintenance. Most people who treat their rosacea and protect their skin from the sun hold a result they are happy with for years. The tendency stays in the skin, so the goal is control.
Yes. Intense pulsed light is one of the best-evidenced treatments for the redness and visible vessels of rosacea in fair to medium skin. In a randomised trial, three IPL sessions cleared facial vessels in most treated patients, and two years later only 8 percent had relapsed, against 48 percent of untreated patients. IPL works by heating the blood in dilated vessels so they collapse and fade. It suits lighter skin tones best, and on deeper skin we use other tools.
Yes, when the device and the settings are chosen for your skin. Vascular light and laser are standard, well-studied rosacea care. The important detail is skin tone. Broadband IPL is an excellent choice in fair to medium skin, and in darker skin tones we use a 1064 nm Nd:YAG laser or radiofrequency microneedling instead, because these treat the vessels without the surface burn and pigment risk that broadband light carries on deeper skin.
Yes. Rosacea occurs in every skin tone, and in darker skin it is frequently missed because the redness is harder to see. It is diagnosed in only about 2 percent of Black patients and 2.3 percent of Asian patients, while true prevalence in skin of colour may be as high as 10 percent, which means many people go untreated. When redness does not read as red, the signs to watch are a persistently warm face, burning or stinging with skincare, a dusky or brown discolouration, and bumps that do not respond to acne treatment.
Sun exposure is the single biggest trigger, followed by heat, hot drinks, spicy food, alcohol, exercise, temperature swings, stress and some skincare products. Triggers are personal, so the most useful first step is a trigger diary that records what your face reacts to. Avoiding your own triggers does not cure rosacea, and it meaningfully reduces how often and how hard you flare, which makes every other part of the plan work better.
Yes. Rosacea and acne can occur together, and one form of rosacea, the papulopustular pattern, looks so much like acne that it is regularly mistaken for it. The difference is that acne has blackheads and whiteheads, while rosacea does not, and rosacea sits on a background of flushing and redness. They are treated differently, so getting the diagnosis right matters. If acne treatment is not working and your face stays red and warm, rosacea is worth ruling in or out.
Yes. The fine visible vessels people call broken capillaries or facial spider veins are telangiectasia, and they respond well to vascular light and laser. Finer surface vessels are cleared with IPL, and deeper or larger vessels, often around the nose, are better treated with a 1064 nm Nd:YAG laser. Many people see individual vessels fade in only 1 to 3 sessions. New vessels can form over time, especially with ongoing sun exposure, so occasional maintenance keeps the result.
Most rosacea redness plans run about 3 vascular light sessions spaced 4 weeks apart, and individual vessels sometimes clear in only 1 to 3. Visible change usually builds over the weeks after your second and third sessions, with background redness settling gradually and individual vessels fading faster. Your exact number depends on your phenotype, your vessels and your skin tone, and your physician gives you a specific plan at your consultation.
It can, because rosacea is controlled rather than cured, and the tendency to flush and redden stays in the skin. Sun, heat and your personal triggers can bring redness and new vessels back over time. This is why a plan pairs treatment with ongoing maintenance and daily sun protection. The research is encouraging. Two years after IPL, most treated patients had not relapsed, against nearly half of untreated patients.
Cost depends on your phenotype, the devices used and the number of sessions, so honest pricing starts after assessment rather than before it. Your consultation at BioPlus is complimentary, and you leave it with a written plan and exact pricing, so the decision is yours to make at home. Rosacea treatment is a private esthetic service and is not covered by MSP.
Related concerns
Brown and red
Some faces carry brown and red at once, and they need different tools in the right order. Broadband light that suits redness can worsen melasma.
Sun damage
Redness, sun damage and early lines usually share a face and a plan, and the vascular and collagen tools often run in the same series.
Post-acne marks
The red marks acne leaves behind are dilated vessels rather than brown pigment, and they respond to the same vascular tools as rosacea redness.
Texture
Redness often sits over texture change, and treating both in the right sequence gives the calmer, smoother result.
Complimentary consultation
Facial redness has more than one cause, and naming yours is where good treatment starts. Bring it to a team that has treated redness across every skin tone since 1996. A physician assesses your skin, explains what is driving the redness and builds your plan before you decide anything.
Book a complimentary consultationExplore treatmentsOur services are private esthetic services and are not covered by MSP.