Melasma gets worse in summer because ultraviolet light, visible light and heat all switch melanocytes back on faster than any treatment can switch them off — which is why the same patches that looked almost gone in April are suddenly back across your cheeks in July. That single fact reshapes everything about how pigment should be treated between June and September in Montréal and Laval. It doesn’t mean you have to wait until October to do anything; it means the plan has to be gentler, more layered, and far more disciplined about sun protection than the “one laser, three sessions, done” approach most people arrive expecting. Our full hyperpigmentation and melasma treatment in Montreal program is built around exactly that reality.

“Summer doesn’t mean stopping melasma treatment — it means treating smarter, with less heat and more discipline.”The IPL Lab pigment philosophy

What this article covers

Why does melasma get worse in summer?

Melasma is a disorder of melanocyte behaviour, not just a stain sitting in the skin. In melasma-prone skin those pigment cells are hyper-responsive: they overproduce melanin at a provocation level that wouldn’t bother anyone else. Summer supplies four provocations at once.

Layer hormonal factors on top — pregnancy, oral contraceptives, hormone therapy — and you have a condition that is chronic and relapsing by nature. The American Academy of Dermatology is explicit that melasma is managed rather than cured, and that sun protection is the foundation everything else sits on. Any clinic promising permanent removal in one summer is selling you something that doesn’t exist.

Melasma, sun spots or post-acne marks — how do you tell them apart?

This matters more than almost anything else in this article, because the three conditions look similar to the naked eye and respond to completely different treatments. Getting the diagnosis wrong is the single most common reason people spend money on pigment treatment and see nothing improve — or watch it get worse.

Feature	Melasma	Sun spots (solar lentigines)	Post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation
Shape	Diffuse, symmetrical patches with soft edges	Discrete round spots with defined edges	Follows the exact footprint of a past pimple, cut or burn
Where	Cheeks, forehead, upper lip, jawline — both sides	Face, hands, chest, shoulders — asymmetric	Anywhere the skin was inflamed
Depth	Often mixed epidermal and dermal	Usually epidermal	Epidermal or dermal depending on how deep the injury went
Responds to aggressive lasers	Poorly — high rebound risk	Very well	Moderately; gentleness still matters
Realistic goal	Long-term control and lightening	Clearance	Faster fading than the 6–18 months it takes alone

A Wood’s lamp assessment at your consultation tells us whether the pigment is sitting shallow, deep, or both — and that determines energy settings, session spacing and how conservative we need to be. Deeper dermal pigment always takes longer and responds less completely, and you deserve to know that before you start rather than after session three.

Is IPL good for melasma?

Honestly: for true melasma, IPL is usually the wrong tool — and this is the question we’re asked most often, so it deserves a direct answer rather than a hedge. Intense pulsed light delivers broadband light that heats a wide range of targets at once. On sun spots and freckles in lighter skin that broad heating works beautifully, which is why IPL/BBL photofacials remain excellent for solar damage and redness. But melasma’s defining trait is that its melanocytes are provoked by heat itself.

What typically happens with IPL on melasma is a genuinely encouraging result at two weeks, followed by a rebound at six to twelve weeks that can leave the patches darker and broader than before. In deeper Fitzpatrick skin types the risk climbs further. Some experienced practitioners do use very low-fluence IPL for melasma in winter with careful pre-treatment — but in a Québec July, with UV index regularly at 7 or 8, that’s a bet we don’t think is worth taking. The same reasoning applies to BBL.

If your pigment turns out to be sun spots rather than melasma, the conversation changes entirely and IPL may well be the most efficient option available to you. That distinction is exactly what the consultation is for.

What about carbon peels for melasma?

Carbon peels — often marketed as the Hollywood laser peel — are not a reliable melasma treatment, and in some patients they make it worse. The treatment works by painting a carbon suspension onto the skin and passing a Q-switched laser over it, generating a bright, satisfying exfoliation with real benefits for pore appearance, oiliness and overall glow. What it also generates is diffuse heat across the entire face, which is precisely the stimulus melasma responds badly to.

We still offer and genuinely like the Hollywood laser peel — for congested, dull or oily skin it’s one of the fastest ways to look refreshed before an event. We simply don’t recommend it as a melasma protocol, and we’ll tell you so rather than sell you the package.

How does PICO laser treat pigment differently?

PICO laser is the centrepiece of our summer pigment work because it separates the two things older lasers bundled together: mechanical pigment destruction and thermal damage. A picosecond pulse lasts roughly a trillionth of a second — short enough that the energy shatters a melanin cluster through a photoacoustic shockwave before meaningful heat can spread into surrounding tissue. Nanosecond and millisecond devices, by contrast, deliver much of their effect thermally.

For melasma specifically that distinction is the whole ballgame. We use low-fluence PICO settings across multiple passes — the goal is to gently fragment pigment into particles small enough for your lymphatic system to clear, not to blast a patch away in one session. It’s a slower, less dramatic approach than social media suggests, and it’s the one that holds up over a season. Sessions are typically spaced three to four weeks apart, take about twenty minutes for a full face, and feel like a light elastic snap without numbing cream.

Realistic expectation: most people see visible lightening after two to three sessions, with the fullest result somewhere between six and ten. Deeper dermal melasma improves more slowly and less completely than epidermal pigment. Maintenance sessions two or three times a year are normal, not a sign that the treatment failed.

What is a V-Bianco brightening facial?

V-Bianco is a professional brightening protocol that works on the biochemistry of pigment production rather than on pigment already deposited — which makes it the natural partner to PICO rather than a competitor. Where the laser clears what’s already there, V-Bianco reduces how much new melanin gets made in the weeks that follow.

The protocol combines tyrosinase-inhibiting actives with a controlled surface exfoliation and an occlusive mask phase that improves penetration. In practice it produces a noticeably brighter, more even complexion within a few days, with cumulative tone correction over a course. It’s also comfortable — no downtime beyond mild flushing for an hour or two — which matters when you’re treating through summer and can’t hide for a week. We usually schedule it in the gap between laser sessions so the skin is being worked on continuously without ever being overloaded.

V-Bianco is available on its own or bundled into the Imperfections Deluxe packages described below, and it pairs naturally with the rest of our facial treatments in Montreal.

Where do polypeptides and exosomes fit in?

Polypeptides and exosomes don’t remove pigment — they address the reason pigment keeps coming back. Melasma-affected skin consistently shows a compromised barrier and a disrupted basement membrane, the layer that normally keeps melanin where it belongs. When that membrane is damaged, pigment drops into the dermis, where it is far harder to clear. Repairing barrier function is therefore not a luxury add-on; it’s the part of the plan that determines whether your results last past September.

Microneedling with polypeptides uses controlled micro-channels to deliver signalling peptides that support collagen and barrier proteins. Microneedling with exosomes adds a concentrated dose of extracellular vesicles carrying growth factors and signalling molecules, with a strong anti-inflammatory profile that is particularly useful in inflammation-driven pigment.

Two things we want to be clear about. First, at IPL Lab exosomes are applied topically during microneedling — never injected. No exosome product is approved for injection in Canada or the United States, and the serious adverse events reported internationally have overwhelmingly involved injected exosomes from unregulated providers. The FDA’s consumer alert on regenerative medicine products is worth reading before you consider exosomes anywhere. Second, the evidence base is still early — preclinical work and small case series, with systematic reviews calling for larger trials. We position exosomes as an enhancer to a proven protocol, not as a treatment that stands on its own. The needling itself is what builds collagen; the boosters improve comfort, recovery and skin quality.

What does a complete summer protocol look like?

Here is the sequence we most often build for someone starting melasma treatment in July or August. It runs roughly twelve weeks and deliberately front-loads the calming work before any laser energy touches the skin.

That layered structure is exactly what the Imperfections and Imperfections Deluxe packages exist for: rather than buying single treatments and hoping they combine well, you get an all-inclusive course that draws on multiple modalities as your skin dictates.

What do these treatments cost this summer?

Current package pricing from our Imperfections treatment category, confirmed at the time of writing. Promotional pricing changes, so your final figures are confirmed at your free consultation.

The Imperfections Treatments Package is the better value if your pigment is straightforward and you want a combined course without committing to premium add-ons. Imperfections Deluxe Glass-Skin is the one we suggest for stubborn or mixed-depth melasma, because it folds V-Bianco and booster protocols into the same course rather than charging for them separately. Both are available in our online store, and a membership reduces per-session cost further if you’re planning to maintain results year-round.

Who isn’t a candidate?

We’d rather turn you away than take money for something that won’t work or could set you back. Postpone or reconsider pigment treatment if any of the following apply.

You have an active tan

Recent sun exposure means the whole face is loaded with melanin, and treating over it raises the risk of burns and patchy results. We ask for roughly four weeks without deliberate sun.

You’re pregnant or breastfeeding

Hormonal melasma often improves on its own after delivery, and several of the topicals involved aren’t appropriate during pregnancy.

You’re taking isotretinoin or another photosensitising medication

We generally wait six months after finishing the medication before starting pigment treatment.

You can’t commit to daily SPF

This isn’t a lecture; it’s arithmetic. Without daily sun protection, results reverse faster than we can build them.

You have an active skin infection, open lesion, or a history of keloid scarring

Any of these in the treatment area means we postpone until the skin is fully healed and assessed.

You want a permanent cure

Melasma is chronic. We can lighten it substantially and keep it controlled, and we’ll be straight with you about that from the first appointment.

What makes a pigment treatment at IPL Lab different?

Pigment is the area where a clinic’s honesty shows fastest, because the wrong device produces a visible setback rather than simply no result. Our approach is to diagnose before we treat, start conservatively, and combine modalities instead of relying on a single machine to do everything.

Both our Montréal Plateau and Laval locations run the full pigment toolkit — PICO, V-Bianco, microneedling with polypeptides and topical exosomes, and IPL where IPL is genuinely the right answer. Consultations are free, include a Wood’s lamp assessment and a Skin analysis, and come with an honest answer about what your skin will and won’t do this summer. If the answer is “wait until October and here’s what to do in the meantime,” that’s what you’ll hear.

Sources: American Academy of Dermatology — Melasma: diagnosis and treatment · FDA — Consumer alert on regenerative medicine products including exosomes · Skin Cancer Foundation — Photoaging

Medical disclaimer: This article is for general information and does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Melasma and hyperpigmentation can resemble other skin conditions, including some that require dermatological assessment. Individual results vary. Please consult a qualified healthcare professional about your specific situation, and inform us of any medications or medical conditions before treatment.