After almost 2 years and a lot of deliberation, consideration, and reflection, I am writing a review about my experience at Volta Vitality.
When I first reached out to Alicia, I asked to treat the back of my neck and inner elbows that had a thinner layer of skin from an overuse of topical steroids years ago due to chronic eczema. I was not interested in treating any areas with active eczema. However, after meeting, she convinced me to do cold jet plasma on my face as well as under my eyes which had active eczema. She mentioned that it treats inflammation and redness, and that there is no downtime and safe since it is "cold plasma".
I paid 500 dollars for three 1-hour sessions a week apart. The third session is when the damage to the texture of my undereye skin occurred.
I'm not sure whether she was in a hurry, or wanted to experiment, but it occurred after the fact that something went wrong during my treatment. I had a little inflammation under my eyes and with the inflammation comes crepiness. Mind you, in my healed, inactive state, the skin was not crepey whatsoever. In fact, I never had insecurities about the quality of skin on my face, other than eczema. But when she passed the wand under my eyes, I felt warmth there that I did not feel during the first two sessions. I didn't mention anything at the time because I thought nothing could go wrong since it was a "non-invasive" procedure.
Initially, the treatment seemed to help with the redness. However, as time passed, I noticed some residual red spots that did not heal and were not typical for me. I reached out to advise her that there were spots that did not smoothen out and appeared like burns, and that when the burns finally healed, there were very visible new wrinkles that appeared from the scaring/burns. She replied that she noticed my concern and that the area under the eyes is "super sensitive". She went on to further say, "there was a chance that they were still irritated due to the treatment but that there was no way that any scarring would occur because the device doesn't use heat and has no way to induce any tissue damage." She also tried to do damage control by saying it looked better than before and tried to show me pre-op photos marking the inflamed areas and minimal crepiness. Yes, it was minimally crepey but it was crepey due to the inflammation.
This left me feeling completely invalidated. It felt like I was being gaslit to believe that there was no way the treatment could cause the damage and that not only was it in my imagination, but that it was pre-existing, which was not the case AT ALL. I know what my skin looks like, active eczema and non-active and I did NOT have crepey undereyes when my skin was stable. It had even texture and skin tone when inflammation was gone. Upon reflection, I find it insulting and disrespectful to gaslight a client, making them feel like they don't know their OWN skin. I only met her a few times, she's not a dermatologist and didn't have a comprehensive history on the condition of my skin.
She didn't extend an invitation for me to come back into the studio to have a second look or offer a refund. In my mind, it seemed she did not want to address my post op concern. No follow up on how it was doing, just advice such as applying moisturizing serums and peptides (which looking back and after doing research, was wrong advice as well). It needed skin barrier repair products, not actives.
I did my own research, and although it is a cold jet plasma device, it indeed can induce tissue damage if an area is over treated or intensity is too high, as it does produce heat. Furthermore, it is not supposed to be used on active eczema.
Looking back, I felt desperate to find a solution for my thinning skin and I felt completely taken advantage of by Alicia. I believe she saw an opportunity to treat active eczema, and convinced me to try it, even though clearing it was NOT my chief concern. It was my first cosmetic procedure ever, and I learned the hard way that I must do my own research and advocate for myself more aggressively. I left her studio feeling gaslit and insecurity about a new area that I never had before, now hyper fixating on my undereyes and trying to come up with solutions on how to get it closer to the state it was in before cold jet plasma. I have been working on and spending a lot of money trying to repair the damage since 5/24, but the texture is still not the same and there are demarcated spots where the burns were. It May not be noticeable to anyone, but it is noticeable to Me, and that is valid. AND I will NOT accept gaslighting, or manipulative tactics as a response to my review. Overall, I believe I was a victim of unethical practices by Alicia and for that, cannot recommend this service to anyone. read more