What Is a Visia Skin Analysis?
Visia is a digital imaging system that evaluates skin not just on the surface, but on sub-surface levels. Think of it like a high-tech photo booth that provides you with an easy-to-understand, objective analysis of your skin and its issues in eight categories:
• Brown spots
• Pore size
• Red areas
• Bacteria & oils
• Surface spots
• Texture
• Wrinkles
• UV spots

When you receive the printed report about your skin, you can see how yours ranks against the skin of people of the same age, gender and skin type. You’ll also see pictures of your skin and the trouble spots in each of the categories.

Estimated Skin Age
One of the most eye-opening results Visia provides is the percentile score and rank of your estimated skin age. This result is based on the amount of sun damage and change in your skin compared to others who are the same age, gender and skin type. You may think you have a young-looking complexion, but hiding below the surface can be years of damage from lying in the sun.

If not addressed, this underlying damage will make its way to the surface eventually. We can match the right treatment to the needs unique to your skin and its estimated age. This is one of the most eye-opening facets of this skin analysis system.

Aging Simulation
Depending on which you choose, we can do a basic or advanced aging simulation. Our basic aging simulation can show you how your skin looked five to seven years ago so you can see how it’s changed or it can project five to seven years to show you how your spots and/or wrinkles will progress. From there, we can tailor a treatment to address those issues.

Our advanced aging simulator can show you, based on your current age, your skin’s progression from ages 18-80. We can only capture this from a front-facing position, but it is immensely eye-opening, as it shows our clients how their current state will play out in the future. We’ll then customize a plan to minimize the areas contributing most to a negative outcome down the road.

The Eight Categories
Each category of the complexion analysis we measure helps us decide which treatment will best suit you because we can easily see what your biggest area of concern should be. It’s often surprising how our clients’ priorities shift after seeing their results.

Brown Spots
We classify brown spots as including freckles, moles and age spots. These spots are caused by an increase in melanin production. Melanin is produced by special cells and is what gives our skin, hair and eyes their pigment. The more melanin there is, the darker the pigment. Spots are causing by melanin clumping together.

By pinpointing how large these spots are and their location, we can recommend pinpointed treatment to break these cells apart and reduce the visibility of spots.

Pore Size
Pores are the openings for oil ducts and can easily become clogged with dirt and an overproduction of oil, leading to breakouts. When pores are enlarged, it can indicate they’re clogged or are more susceptible to becoming clogged. This system distinguishes between spots and pores, seeing where clusters may indicate oily, breakout-prone areas.

Red Areas
These areas can be caused by broken capillaries, acne or rosacea, and the Visia analysis shows us exactly where these spots are located. This kind of accuracy makes treating the exact location of these imperfections easier.

Bacteria & Oils
Also call porphyrins, these bacterial excretions block pores and can lead to breakouts. When areas where porphyrins are detected early, we can accurately recommend spot treatments to stop breakouts before they start. This report also helps us recommend the right ongoing skincare routine for your skin type.

Surface Spots
These skin irregularities can be brown or red lesions like freckles, acne scars, hyperpigmentation or vascular lesions. Our system pinpoints their location, size and color so we can determine the type and recommend the right treatment to address them.

Texture
You may not always feel the small irregularities in skin texture that indicate your skin needs special treatment, so this is actually one of the more sophisticated reports of this system. The device evaluates the overall texture of your skin and provides a detailed report so we know where to recommend the right kind of exfoliation.

Raised areas, like dead skin cells and blemishes, are indicated on the report in yellow. The indentations caused by open pores and fine lines are indicated in blue. The differentiation allows us to recommend the right treatment for the right area of texture irregularity.

UV Damage
If there’s one thing skincare professionals everywhere can agree on, it’s that sunscreen is the single best investment you can make in your skin. The damage from the sun’s harsh UV rays is the biggest contributor to premature aging and collagen damage.

Our skin produces excess melanin to protect itself against these rays, leaving our skin with sunspots. Most of these spots are often undetectable because the melanin clumps below the surface of the skin. This mapping allows us to see and treat the areas with the greatest amount of sun damage.

Wrinkles
We offer a variety of skincare solutions dedicated to treating wrinkles. While you can see most of the wrinkles on your skin, you can always tell the depth of those lines and wrinkles. Why does this matter? It matters because your treatment plan can be devised around the depth and size of your wrinkles.

Deep folds will require a different treatment than superficial fine lines. The reports we get differentiate between deep and shallow lines. Fine lines show up as light green while deep creases appear dark green, and the lines on your unique face may run the gamut in between.

How Does Visia Work?
This system was originally developed as a research tool and now helps us develop the perfect treatment plan for you, your skin and its areas of need. The machine is computer-controlled and uses multispectral imaging to scan the skin and capture key points of information. The system has built-in positioning aids and standardized lighting and offers a magnification tool so we can take a closer look at certain areas.

We’ll wash all the makeup, products and surface oils from your face and place you in front of the machine. The module rotates around your face, capturing images from every angle. It’s completely painless, non-invasive and comes with no negative side effects. The photo imaging takes about ten minutes and then we’ll be able to analyze your results.

Solutions
We like to begin our relationship with you by performing this skin analysis and then do it again every three to four months so we can track the difference our solutions are making on your areas of concern. Once we get your results, we’re able to recommend the right solutions from our comprehensive MedSpa menu.