The Laser Chronicles

First let me say, I find it strange and ironic that I’m the first person to do unbiased, side by side comparisons, of tattoo removal lasers. You would think that some other person/company would have done this already, but if they did, they didn’t make their results readily available. Either way here is the scoop.

I tested my Palomar QYAG5 against the Candela Q switch Alexandrite. I thought I would be demoing the AlexTriVantage laser, but the hand pieces for the laser are still not ready. I’m glad I got to play with Alexandrite, but it really wasn’t what I expected…oh well.

Here are the results:

There are of course lots of pros and cons

Power – The Candela is a 220V machine, where mine is a 110V. 220 means more power, however it also means more electricity and heat, boy the room got hot quick.

Energy – Theoretically, the Candela can deliver more energy into the skin. However, being that the wavelength is different, the energy output did not not truly correlate between the two lasers.

Ergonomic – The Candela uses a fiber optic cable, where the Palomar lasing unit is a large heavy hand piece. The Candela wins hands down here, but I do like the fact that I can control some features directly on the Palomar hand piece

Wave Blending – The Palomar wins here, it’s the only unit on the market to allow for blending of wavelengths. The Candela only has one wavelenth.

Function – The Candela is designed to do all the work for you. You tell it what color you are targeting (your choices are black, green or blue only) and it does everything else, except adjust power. The Palomar has no “color” setting. The technician adjusts the wavelength and power settings manually.

Speed – The Palomar wins hands down here. It’s twice as fast as the Candela. When it comes right down to it, there are really only two things the customer cares about speed and results.

Results – I worked on two clients and the result are yet to be seen, give me a week or two. I can tell you from first glance, the Palomar seems to have more of an initial reaction. However, results take 7-10 days to see the real difference. Then fading will continue for 6 weeks.

Pain – Seems to be about a draw here. Both clients gave similar reviews to how it felt. Maybe a little difference here and there, but nothing substantial.

In final review, technologically speaking, my machine, the Palomar QYAG5 should be the best for removing darker colors, which is the way to go for people that want to lighten tattoos for coverups. The Candela Alexandrite, might work as a complimentary machine for targeting certain colors, but it’s really not a replacement unit, maybe when the company produces the new machine I might give it another look. The real question here is green ink. Which machine did the better job? Well, I will know in a week or two.

Now, if I can get another company to setup an appointment with me, I will be reviewing another laser very soon.