Even tone, earned back.
Sun spots, dark marks, and uneven tone all look like the same problem in the mirror and behave completely differently under a laser. Our protocol identifies which pigment you have before it treats a single spot.
Three different problems that all look like a brown spot.
Sun damage, post-inflammatory pigment, and melasma sit in different layers, respond to different energy, and carry different risks. Treating them as one category is why so many pigment results disappoint.
Sun spots are discrete, well-defined marks from years of accumulated UV exposure — they sit fairly superficially and respond quickly and dramatically to targeted treatment. Post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation is the brown shadow left behind after a breakout, a bug bite, a burn, or a cosmetic procedure; it fades on its own eventually, but treatment can cut that timeline substantially. Melasma is the outlier: hormonally driven, heat-sensitive, and prone to rebounding worse if it's treated like the other two. Most Denver patients walk in with a combination, which is exactly why our first move is diagnosis rather than a laser. Get that right and pigment is one of the most satisfying things we treat. Get it wrong and you spend a year undoing it.
Identify it. Lift it. Keep it off.
Every pigment plan we build runs through the same three phases over about six months. The first one costs nothing and changes everything about the other two.
Diagnose, and begin topicals
We separate sun damage from post-inflammatory marks from melasma, then start prescription-strength topicals immediately. No in-office treatment yet. Suppressing pigment production before we clear anything is what stops the pigment from simply reforming behind the treatment.
Clear what's there
In-office treatments lift the existing pigment. Your Fitzpatrick type determines which lasers we use and how aggressive we can be with them — that judgment is the single most important call in a pigment plan — combined with chemical peels chosen to match.
Protect the investment
Pigment returns when the trigger returns, and in Colorado the trigger is outside every day. We set you up with daily mineral SPF, a realistic maintenance routine, and a strategy for not accruing new pigment in the first place.
Which brown spot is yours?
The type, depth, and cause of your pigment decide the plan — which is the first thing we sort out at your consult.
Sun Spots & Age Spots
Discrete brown marks on the face, chest, and hands from accumulated exposure. The fastest, most dramatic pigment wins.
Post-Inflammatory Marks
The brown shadows left by acne, bug bites, burns, or procedures — common and very treatable.
Melasma
Symmetrical, heat-sensitive patches that need a different, gentler protocol. We have a dedicated plan for it.
Overall Uneven Tone
No single spot to point at, just a dullness and unevenness that makes skin read older than it is.
Chest, Hands & Arms
The areas that give age away first, and the ones sunscreen habits most often skip.
Sun Damage With Texture
When UV damage has cost you collagen as well as tone, resurfacing and pigment work run together.
That's the consult.
Sun damage and melasma can look nearly identical and respond in opposite directions to the same device. This is the single highest-value thing we do before treating pigment.
Start with a free consultThe treatment shouldn't cause the next dark mark.
In richer complexions, pigment cells respond to injury by producing more pigment — which means an overly aggressive pigment treatment can create exactly the problem it was booked to fix.
So we treat richer skin differently, not less. In Fitzpatrick IV-VI we rely on very specific topical agents to suppress pigment production before and throughout the protocol, on the Aerolase Neo laser, whose extremely short pulse delivers energy without the bulk heating that provokes post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation, and on specialized chemical peel formulations chosen to lift pigment safely rather than to work fast. The result is that deeper skin tones clear thoroughly and evenly. What we do not do is run the same settings we would use on fair skin and hope, which is the mechanism behind most of the pigment damage we end up correcting for people who were treated elsewhere.
Even tone, without paying for it later.
What's actually in the protocol.
Which of these you get, and how hard we run them, depends entirely on what your pigment turned out to be and on your Fitzpatrick type.
Lasers: Neo & IPL
We use both the Aerolase Neo and Lumecca IPL, and which one you get depends on your skin tone and the depth of your pigment. IPL clears true sun damage impressively in lighter skin types; the Neo delivers energy without the bulk heat that risks rebound, so it carries richer complexions safely.
Chemical Peels
VI Peel and targeted formulations lift surface pigment and accelerate turnover, layered with the laser work and chosen for depth according to your skin type rather than run at one standard strength.
Topicals & Daily Mineral SPF
Prescription-strength actives suppress new pigment production between visits, plus daily mineral-based SPF and a practical strategy for not accruing new pigment — the half of the plan that decides whether any of the rest of it lasts.
We choose between these based on your diagnosis and your Fitzpatrick type, not on what we happen to own. If your pigment is melasma, we will steer you away from the higher-heat options entirely, even though they photograph better at two weeks.
A protocol versus a spot treatment.
Pigment is the concern where the wrong device does visible, lasting harm. Here's the structural difference.
The uncomfortable truth about pigment: clearing it is the easy half. Keeping it clear in a city with 300 sunny days at 5,280 feet is where plans succeed or quietly fail.
What six months looks like.
Consult and diagnosis
We identify your pigment type and depth, establish your Fitzpatrick type, review your sun history and any medications that photosensitize, and map the protocol — devices, session count, cost, and what maintenance will look like.
Skin prep, no treatment yet
At-home topicals only. We suppress pigment production first so that what we clear in the next phase does not simply reform behind it. Many patients see tone soften in this month alone, which tells us the plan is calibrated correctly.
In-office treatments
Lasers and peels, spaced across the months. Discrete sun spots typically clear fastest and most dramatically; diffuse unevenness improves progressively across the whole series. Topicals keep running underneath throughout.
Protect and maintain
We photograph against baseline, simplify your routine to what you will actually keep doing, and set a seasonal check-in ahead of Colorado's highest-UV months. Daily mineral SPF is what holds the result.
Before & after, in our chair.
Real Skin! patients on real pigment protocols. Individual results vary — pigment type drives most of the difference in speed.
I stopped needing — full coverage.
“I spent about fifteen years skiing without being serious about sunscreen, and my cheeks and my chest showed every bit of it. I had convinced myself it was just what my skin looked like now.
The part I did not expect was that the first month was all skincare and no treatments. It was explained to me that if we cleared the spots without turning down the production first, they would just come back, and that turned out to be exactly right.
By the fourth month my chest looked like it belonged to someone ten years younger, and I stopped wearing full coverage foundation for the first time since my thirties. I wear tinted mineral sunscreen every single day now, which is apparently the whole trick.”
The short list of big reasons.
Diagnosed before treated
Three pigment types, three different plans.
Safe on every skin tone
Device chosen for Fitzpatrick IV-VI safety.
Fast wins where they exist
True sun spots can clear remarkably quickly.
Melasma screened for
So we never treat it like sun damage.
Built for altitude
Denver's UV load is planned for, not ignored.
Maintenance you'll keep
A short routine beats a perfect abandoned one.
Pricing, made personal.
Pigment protocols vary by type, how widespread it is, your Fitzpatrick type, and how many sessions your skin needs.
Because the right pigment plan depends entirely on the diagnosis and on your Fitzpatrick type, we quote a full one-year plan at your consultation rather than posting a single price that might apply to the wrong condition. You can pay for the plan up front or pay as you go, visit by visit.
Members save 10% on treatments and topicals. Pigment work runs on prescription skincare year round in a city this sunny, so that discount adds up fast.
Your virtual consult is completely free — including the part where we tell you the popular laser is the wrong one for your skin.
Book a Free Virtual ConsultEverything you're wondering.
Sun spots are discrete, well-defined marks from cumulative UV exposure and they respond quickly to targeted treatment. Post-inflammatory dark marks are the brown shadows left behind by acne, injury, or a procedure, and they fade with time but much faster with help. Melasma is symmetrical, hormonally influenced, and heat-sensitive, and it can rebound worse if treated the way the other two are. They can look almost identical in a mirror, which is why we diagnose before we treat.
Six months, and we would not shorten it. Month one is skin prep with at-home topicals and no in-office treatment at all, which is what suppresses pigment production so the spots we clear do not simply reform behind the treatment. Months two through six are the in-office lasers and peels. From six months on you are in protect and maintain. Most patients see 80 percent or better improvement across a completed protocol.
Because clearing pigment without first turning down production is the reason so many pigment results fade within a season. The topical phase suppresses the cells making the pigment, so when we lift what is already there in month two, there is far less coming up behind it. Many patients also see their overall tone soften during that first month on topicals alone, which is a useful signal that the plan is calibrated correctly for their skin.
It depends on your Fitzpatrick type and on how deep your pigment sits. We use both the Aerolase Neo and Lumecca IPL. IPL clears true sun damage impressively in lighter skin types, often with dramatic change in a short series. The Neo delivers its energy in an extremely short pulse without significant bulk heating, which is what makes it safe in richer complexions where IPL would risk provoking more pigment. Many plans use both across the protocol.
Yes, treated correctly. In Fitzpatrick IV-VI we rely on very specific topical agents to suppress pigment production before and throughout the plan, on the Aerolase Neo rather than higher-heat devices, and on specialized chemical peel formulations chosen to lift pigment safely rather than quickly. What causes damage in richer skin is running fair-skin settings and hoping, and correcting that is a meaningful share of the pigment work we do.
The ones we clear are gone, but the process that created them is still running, and in Denver it runs hard. At 5,280 feet UV intensity is higher than at sea level and we average around 300 sunny days a year. Daily mineral-based SPF plus a practical strategy for not accruing new pigment is what holds the result. Without it, new pigment forms. With it, most patients maintain with a light touch-up rhythm rather than starting over.
For laser and IPL on sun spots, treated marks typically darken over the following day, look like coffee grounds for several days, then flake away over about a week. There is usually mild redness and warmth for a few hours. Most patients go back to normal activity immediately, though we ask you to be strict about sun exposure while the skin is clearing.
We quote a one-year plan at your consultation rather than a per-session rate, since the protocol combines in-office lasers and peels with prescription topicals running throughout. You can pay for the plan up front or pay as you go, visit by visit. Your virtual consult at Skin! Medical Aesthetics is free, and members save 10 percent on treatments and topicals.
Let's even it out.
Book a free virtual consult at Skin! Medical Aesthetics in Denver. Send a few photos in natural light, tell us what you've already tried, and we'll come back with a real pigment plan — diagnosis, timeline, and cost.