Your own platelets, driven into the skin
Microneedling with PRP combines a microneedling pen with platelet-rich plasma from a small blood draw, spun in a centrifuge and applied into the needle channels. Plan on three to six sessions, four weeks apart, with 24 to 48 hours of pinkness after each. At Skinovatio Lincoln Park, it’s the treatment we book most for acne scars and sun-related melasma.
$499
to start
At a glance
Microneedling with PRP- Appointment
- 60 to 75 minutes including the draw and numbing
- Downtime
- Pink for 24 to 48 hours, light flaking by day 3 to 5
- First results
- Brightness in a week, texture in a few weeks
- Full results
- 3 months after the last session
- Sessions
- 3 to 6, spaced 4 weeks apart
- Cost
- From $499. About $125 per payment across 4 with Afterpay or Klarna.
What to expect
What the appointment is like
Plan on about 60 to 75 minutes in the chair. We do the draw first, so the PRP spins while the numbing cream works. With check-in and aftercare, plan on about 90 minutes in total, and you won’t need anyone to drive you home.
Consult
We look at your scars or pigment in daylight, talk through your history with retinoids and acne medication, and decide together: PRP, plain microneedling, or Morpheus8. You leave with a written plan, and a small non-refundable deposit comes off your treatment.
Draw and numbing
A few tubes from your arm go into the centrifuge. Numbing cream goes on for 20 to 30 minutes while it spins.
Treatment
The pen glides over each area with the PRP as the medium, 20 to 30 minutes for a full face. Expect vibration and scratching, not pain. Any pinpoint bleeding stops in the room.
Before you leave
The remaining PRP stays on your skin. No makeup for 24 hours. We’ll send you off with SPF, written aftercare, and your next date four weeks out.
Your results
A predictable timeline
You’ll see brightness within a week, and pores and texture in a few weeks. Scars and lines take longer. Per patient reports on RealSelf, those changes “likely won’t appear until you’ve had at least three treatments.” We assess your full result three months after the last session, once collagen has matured. Melasma studies measure at 12 weeks.
Day 0
Red, warm, and tight. The PRP stays on.
Day 1
Pink with mild swelling. No makeup yet.
Day 2
Even pink. Tinted SPF and makeup are fine.
Days 3 to 5
Light flaking. Your skin looks normal to anyone else.
Week 4
Next session. Brighter and smoother, though scars may look unchanged so far, which is normal.
Month 3 after the last session
Time to look at your scars and pigment together, now that collagen has matured.
Every 6 to 12 months
One maintenance session, plus daily SPF for melasma.
What it costs
Clear pricing, planned by the visit
A few things shape your cost: the number of sessions (a series of three to six versus one), face only versus face and neck or chest, the PRP itself (the draw, the kit, the spin), and whether PRP is injected into scars as well as applied. Your consult sets the plan, and the deposit comes off the total. For the full breakdown, including what plain microneedling and Morpheus8 cost relative to this, see how much microneedling costs in Chicago.
- A series versus a single visit
- Face only versus face, neck, or a body area
- The PRP add-on: the draw, kit, and spin
- Whether PRP is injected into deeper scars
At Skinovatio Lincoln Park
Microneedling with PRP
$499
to start
- Microneedling with PRP
- $499 per session
- Consultation
- $50
- With Afterpay or Klarna
- About $125 × 4 payments
For acne scars, adding PRP improves results over plain microneedling. Many people do three sessions, and we’ll recommend a plan at your consult.
Book your Microneedling with PRP appointmentSimilar purpose, different options
Microneedling with PRP or something else?
Plain microneedling and microneedling with PRP use the same pen. The difference is what goes into the channels, and whether you need the radiofrequency heat of Morpheus8.
| Microneedling with HA | Microneedling with PRP | Morpheus8 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What goes in the channels | Hyaluronic acid serum | Your own platelets | Radiofrequency heat |
| Best for | Hydration, glow, first-timers, pores | Acne scars, melasma, texture, darker skin | Laxity, jawline, neck, deep scars |
| Downtime | 1 to 2 days pink | 1 to 2 days pink | 2 to 5 days red with grid marks |
| Sessions | 1 for glow, 3 to 6 for lines | 3 to 6 | 1 to 3 |
| Cost tier | Lowest | Middle | Highest |
What goes in the channels
- Microneedling with HA
- Hyaluronic acid serum
- Microneedling with PRP
- Your own platelets
- Morpheus8
- Radiofrequency heat
Best for
- Microneedling with HA
- Hydration, glow, first-timers, pores
- Microneedling with PRP
- Acne scars, melasma, texture, darker skin
- Morpheus8
- Laxity, jawline, neck, deep scars
Downtime
- Microneedling with HA
- 1 to 2 days pink
- Microneedling with PRP
- 1 to 2 days pink
- Morpheus8
- 2 to 5 days red with grid marks
Sessions
- Microneedling with HA
- 1 for glow, 3 to 6 for lines
- Microneedling with PRP
- 3 to 6
- Morpheus8
- 1 to 3
Cost tier
- Microneedling with HA
- Lowest
- Microneedling with PRP
- Middle
- Morpheus8
- Highest
Microneedling with hyaluronic acid is the natural entry point. It uses the same pen, with no draw and a lower cost, and the HA has hydration evidence rather than scar evidence. If this is your first time and texture is your main concern, that’s a good place to start.
Morpheus8 adds radiofrequency heat for tightening and reaches deeper scars, at the price of more downtime and higher cost. RF microneedling vs microneedling covers it in more detail. And if it’s the under-eye hollow you’d like treated rather than the cheek, that’s PRF, not PRP, and PRF vs PRP under the eyes explains the difference.
Is it right for me?
Who it’s for, and who it isn’t
It’s a good fit for adults with acne scars, melasma, or texture that hasn’t improved with a good skincare routine. All skin types are welcome. There’s no heat, so there’s no pigment-targeting and no burn risk, which makes it the safest option on our menu for Fitzpatrick IV to VI. Microneedling ranked most tolerable for pain among acne-scar treatments in a network meta-analysis of 68 trials, per Wu and colleagues.
A good fit for
- Rolling and boxcar acne scars
- Rough texture, large pores, and uneven tone
- All skin types, including Fitzpatrick IV to VI
- Most people under 35 wanting skin quality, not tightening
Not recommended
- Jowls or a loose neck (no heat means no tightening)
- Hollow cheeks or deep folds (filler fits better)
- Active cystic acne, an infection, or a cold sore
- Blood thinners that can’t be paused, or during pregnancy
Because the PRP is your own blood, an allergy to it isn’t expected. Only sterile, needle-safe products belong on freshly needled skin, ordinary skincare pushed into open channels has caused granulomas.
In detail
What it treats
The evidence is strongest for scars. That includes rolling and boxcar acne scars, chickenpox scars, and small surgical scars. Adding PRP to microneedling roughly tripled the odds of a better-than-50-percent improvement on the Goodman scar scale versus needling alone, across 14 controlled studies and 472 patients, per Kang and Lu in Frontiers in Medicine. Deep ice-pick scars are the exception: they improve less and usually need more than one series.
Next, pigment: melasma, sun spots, and the dark marks acne leaves behind. Microneedling added to topical treatment improved melasma severity with a large effect at 12 weeks in a 12-study meta-analysis, per Bailey and colleagues in JAAD. Melasma needs maintenance and daily SPF, or it comes back.
It also treats texture and pores: rough cheeks, enlarged pores on the nose and inner cheeks, and uneven texture where makeup settles.
It can also improve early lines around the eyes and mouth, and thin or crepey skin on the neck and chest. These improve gradually over a series.
How it works
There are two parts. First, a motorized microneedling pen makes thousands of controlled micro-injuries in the dermis, which triggers collagen production through the wound-healing cascade while the surface stays mostly intact, per Alster and Graham in Dermatologic Surgery. The FDA has cleared microneedling pens for facial acne scars, facial wrinkles, and abdominal scars in adults 22 and older, and requires single-use cartridges, per its microneedling page.
Then comes the PRP. A few tubes of your blood go into a centrifuge, the platelet-rich layer is drawn off, and it’s applied to the skin during and after needling. Platelets carry growth factors, and pressing them into fresh channels is the rationale for the combination, per Davies and Miron.
PRP is not a drug, and there’s no FDA-approved PRP product. The centrifuge kits are FDA-cleared to prepare platelet concentrate from your blood, and using that concentrate on your face is off-label. If you see “FDA-approved PRP” advertised, that isn’t accurate.
Afterwards
Downtime and aftercare
Here’s what the first week typically looks like.
Day 0: your skin will be red, warm like a sunburn, and tight. Any pinpoint bleeding stops before you leave. Your provider will tell you how long to leave the PRP on before you wash.
Day 1: pink, mildly swollen, and dry. Patient reports on RealSelf put the red-and-inflamed window at about 24 to 48 hours, longer with aggressive settings. Hold off on makeup until 24 hours have passed.
Day 2: an even pink, with no swelling. Tinted SPF evens out the color, and most people are comfortable returning to work.
Days 3 to 5: light flaking and some dryness. Otherwise, your skin looks normal.
A few aftercare basics: pause retinoids, acids, and vitamin C for 3 to 5 days. Wear SPF every day, which is especially important for melasma. Avoid sweating, hot yoga, pools, and saunas for 24 to 48 hours. Use a clean pillowcase and clean hands, and keep anything off your skin that isn’t sterile and needle-safe, since products pushed into open channels have caused granulomas, per Alster and Graham.
Why here
Why Lincoln Park
You’ll find us on the ground floor on Lincoln Avenue just north of Wrightwood, a block up from the Apollo. Take the Brown Line to Diversey and head south on Lincoln, or the Red, Brown, or Purple to Fullerton and head north. The 11 Lincoln bus runs right past our door. There are meters on Lincoln, free spots on the side streets west of Clark if you check the cleaning signs, and the Lincoln Common garage a few blocks south.
Sun exposure is a common melasma trigger, and the pigment pattern it leaves across the cheeks often won’t clear with serums alone. We schedule pigment series from October through April, when sun exposure is lower, and save summer for maintenance. For a wedding, a three-session series should finish six weeks before the date, so the first session is about five months out. For a June wedding, we’d start in January. Every session at Skinovatio Lincoln Park is done by our medical esthetician.
Questions
Common questions, answered
A topical numbing cream, usually a lidocaine blend, for 20 to 30 minutes. Then the skin is cleaned and the treatment medium goes on: your own PRP for this treatment, or a sterile hyaluronic acid serum for plain microneedling. We keep everything else off freshly needled skin, because non-sterile products pushed into open channels have caused granulomas.
Brightness shows within a week and texture within a few weeks. Acne scars and lines take at least three sessions before the change is visible, and we look at the full result three months after the final session, when collagen has matured. Melasma studies measure improvement at 12 weeks.
Yes, as part of a plan. Microneedling added to topical melasma treatment improved severity with a large effect at 12 weeks across 12 studies and 459 patients, with no serious side effects. Maintenance matters: melasma returns with sun exposure, so daily SPF afterward is what keeps the result.
Yes. There’s no heat and no light, so nothing targets pigment, which makes it one of the safer options for Fitzpatrick IV to VI. Post-inflammatory dark marks are still possible with aggressive settings, so we use a conservative depth on darker skin, and SPF afterward is a must.
A few small tubes from a vein in your arm, about the same as a routine lab draw. It’s spun in a centrifuge for several minutes while your numbing cream works, and the platelet-rich layer is what goes back onto your skin. It helps to eat something beforehand.
Not yet. The same afternoon you’ll be red, and the PRP is still on your skin. By the next morning you’re pink, and by day two you’re an even pink that tinted SPF covers. Hold off on makeup for 24 hours.
It helps crepey texture and fine lines on the outer under-eye and cheek. For the hollow and dark circle directly under the eye, injected PRF is the better tool, because it adds a small amount of volume and the release is slower. We explain the difference on the PRF under eyes page.
We’d usually start with PRP for rolling and boxcar scars, texture, and any scarring on darker or melasma-prone skin. It has the stronger controlled-trial evidence for acne scars, less downtime, and no burn risk. Morpheus8 is the better choice when the scars are deep and tethered, or when you’d also like tightening.
Pause retinoids, exfoliating acids, and vitamin C for 3 to 5 days before and after. Please tell us about blood thinners and supplements, and skip aspirin, ibuprofen, fish oil, and alcohol for a few days before if your doctor agrees. But never stop a prescribed anticoagulant on your own.
We’d hold off. The last session in a series should be six weeks before the date so your skin is fully settled and any flaking is long gone. For the week of, a HydraFacial or dermaplaning is a better pick. For a June wedding, the PRP series starts in January.
There’s nothing to reverse, since the treatment uses your own blood and your skin’s natural healing. If you’d like more improvement, we’ll adjust your plan.
Keep exploring
Related treatments
Related priorities
Microneedling
From $347A first step for pores, fine lines, and texture, using hyaluronic acid serum
Learn more
Skin tightening (Morpheus8)
From $1,200RF microneedling for jawline laxity, neck skin, and acne scars
Learn more
Under-eye hollows (PRF)
From $249Your own PRF for under-eye hollows, dark circles, and crepey lids
Learn more
Start with a consult
Tell us what you’d like to work on. We’ll assess your skin and goals, walk you through your Microneedling with PRP options, and give you a clear plan and price before anything begins.
Afterpay and Klarna are available at checkout for eligible treatments.