Tria Eye Wrinkle Correcting Laser Review – Part 1

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This post is sponsored by PRIMP and Tria Beauty. The opinions here are miiiiiine, all mine. 

A few weeks ago I posted about a little skincare experiment I’m doing – trying out out the Tria Beauty Age-Defying Eye Wrinkle Correcting Laser to see if it’s really like a tiny laser-powered time machine. Now I’m halfway through the 8-week treatment, so it’s time for an update! In case you missed it, my first impressions – and the look on my face the first time I used it – are on video here.

How it works

The Tria device uses a fractionated laser, the same technology that dermatologists use for in-office laser treatments. The tiny laser beams (pew-pew! sorry, couldn’t resist) cause small areas of damage to the skin, which triggers the healing process. As the skin heals itself, it produces collagen and elastin, which over time will help fade fine lines and wrinkles.

The idea of zapping your skin with lasers to get rid of wrinkles may sound a little iffy, and fair enough. It’s not exactly a painless, side-effect-free process but Tria thought of pretty much everything to make it as safe as possible. The laser won’t come on unless the tip is in full contact with your skin, and it has a built-in timer that automatically shuts it off when the treatment time is up. The main side effects I’ve noticed are redness and dryness, but those are nothing compared to in-office fraxel lasering; when I was looking into doing that for acne scarring, my dermatologist told me to plan on at least a week of ‘downtime’ before my skin looked normal again (one of the main reasons I haven’t done it). The Tria’s lower intensity lets you spread that out over time.

What it’s like

It’s recommended to do the laser treatment at night so any redness will have time to go down before the next day. Makes sense to me, so that’s how I do it! My current order of operations:

• Remove makeup with micellar water
• Cleanse with Paula’s Choice Moisture Boost Cleanser & Clarisonic Mia FIT (which I reviewed here)
• Treat my eye area with the Tria laser (more on that below)
• Apply the Tria eye cream
• Moisturize with Paula’s Choice Clinical Ultra-Rich moisturizer and EltaMD Intense

I was a little worried that using the laser every night would be a big chore (because I’m kind of lazy sometimes), but it turned out not to be such a big deal. It only takes a minute of moving it in little circles around each eye, so even when I’m ready to just pass out into bed I still manage to do it. I even kept up with it last week while I was on vacation! I’m pretty proud of myself for that because my skincare routine usually goes right out the window when I’m traveling.

If you watched my first impressions video, then you saw that it made my skin pret-ty red at first. Obviously most of that is from the laser itself, but I think I was being a little too gung-ho pressing it into my skin to be sure it was making contact. Pro tip: you don’t really need to do that, it’ll just make the tip of the laser drag against your skin and cause even more redness. After a few tries I realized I don’t need to press down; as long as the tip of the device is flat against my skin it will stay turned on.

As far as side effects go – by now the redness I had is more like ‘pinkness’, and it goes away after an hour or so. I barely feel the laser at all while I’m using it, but still have a small sunburned feeling afterward. Dry skin is the biggest side effect at this point, hence the layering of moisturizers.

Results

According to all the product info, most people start to see some results after about 2-4 weeks. I must be a late bloomer (or maybe it’s just that my lines weren’t super-terrible to begin with) because I’m just now starting to see slight improvements after four weeks. Two weeks in I was a little worried, because the area around my eyes was really dry (one of the possible side effects, and I’ve had it in spades) so some of my fine lines actually got more visible. The dryness is starting to improve a little bit now, so that’s getting a bit better. I’ve also noticed that the deeper fold right at the outer corner of my eye is less noticeable than it was before I started.

As far as I can see, the biggest difference is when I smile – that’s when my lines show up the most. Which, duh, because having facial expressions is one of the biggest things to cause wrinkles. But compared to a month ago, I don’t have quite as many folds in my skin, and the ones that are there aren’t quite as deep.

As of right now I’m not sure there’s a big enough difference for anyone else to notice – and tbh, I’m not sure I would notice if I hadn’t been taking photos along the way – but I’m only halfway through treatment. The progress I’ve seen is encouraging enough that I definitely plan to stick with it the whole eight weeks. And of course I’ll be doing another post then to show off the results of all that ‘hard work’.

In Short: The device is really easy to use and doesn’t add much time at all to my nighttime skincare routine. The results aren’t magical and immediate, but then again, I wouldn’t trust it if they claimed to be.

The Tria Age-Defying Eye Wrinkle Correcting Laser Kit ($267) is available at triabeauty.com. I still have some coupons left for you guys to get 15% off – just use the code AF15Y at checkout. It’s good through May 31st, 2016 or until all 20 have been used up (I’ll update when that happens).  

If you want to see how the Tria laser works for people of different ages & skin types, be sure to check out the other Power Primpers’ final results! For reviews on all things beauty, join us over on Pretty in My Pocket.

Disclosure: I received the Tria Age-Defying Eye Wrinkle Laser for review and have been compensated for my participation in this project. All the opinions in this post are mine, and the results shown reflect my personal experience. Everyone’s skin is unique, so results may vary. Use as directed and consult a medical professional if you have any concerns as to whether laser treatment is appropriate for you. Allow 8-10 weeks to see results. In between consecutive treatments of daily use for 8 weeks, take a 4 week break in order for the skin cells to heal and regenerate completely. 

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