The next time your dermatologist, plastic surgeon, or aesthetician tells you that your makeup has to come off before they perform a laser treatment or facial on you, tell them, “Well, Kim Kardashian West didn’t have to.” They may not buy it as an excuse to let you stay made-up, but it’s true: She did wear a full face of makeup during a laser treatment, and she documented the whole thing.
Kardashian West visited Skin Thesis, a medspa staffed with board-certified nurse practitioners in West Hollywood, where she kept the front-facing camera focused on herself during her appointment with the clinic’s director and co-founder, Melissa Haloossim.
“OK, guys, I am getting a Laser Facial. I have to wash all this makeup off,” Kardashian West says to viewers, at which point Haloossim starts removing the foundation, concealer, and bronzer Kim K. may have been wearing. However, she leaves on her smoky pink eye shadow, eyeliner, and dramatic lashes, as well as her pale matte lipstick and scrupulously shaped brows, intact. Yes, the Snapchat flower-crown filter the media mogul is sporting the entire time is known for adding a little glam, but there’s no denying that she’s still wearing a whole lotta actual makeup.
“We’re doing a Laser Facial, so we’re gonna plump up the skin, stimulate the collagen, work on pores, tightening everything up,” Haloossim explains, telling viewers about the $375 treatment. Skin Thesis’s online menu doesn’t indicate exactly which kind of laser is used during its Laser Facial, but its website says the laser is “gentle and non-invasive,” with no downtime.
So, is it OK that Kim K. kept her eye and lip makeup on during a laser treatment? We asked Joshua Zeichner, the director of cosmetic and clinical research in dermatology at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, for the scoop. “You do not necessarily need to fully remove eye makeup and lipstick if you are not treating the skin in those areas,” he explains.
However, it’s a damn good thing that Haloossim removed everything else. “Makeup must be fully removed from the area of skin being treated with a laser because it can interfere with the laser penetrating into the skin,” explains Zeichner. But it’s not just efficacy that’s a concern. “The makeup can also potentially enter the skin through an open wound created by laser, leading to inflammation and infection.” Yikes.
Following the laser, Haloossim starts their $225 Oxygen Facial, “which I love,” Kardashian West says, lips and eyes still fully beat. The Skin Thesis menu says it “uses pressurized oxygen to infuse a serum of low molecular weight hyaluronic acid, antioxidants, and peptides into the dermis to instantly hydrate and rejuvenate the skin.”
Although Kim K. didn’t give followers an unfiltered look at the end result, we’re guessing it wasn’t long before she reapplied her KKW Creme Contour and Highlight Sticks once she was done.
[“Source-allure”]