Skin Botox in Korea, From Session Day to Month Four

Prices below come from the listed clinics' own price lists, before VAT. 10% VAT is added at payment.

After about half an hour of numbing cream, the doctor places many small injections a short distance apart, usually over the forehead, nose and central cheeks. Each one lifts a tiny bump of fluid under the surface, so the treated zone looks briefly like a pattern of mosquito bites.

These bumps normally flatten within a few hours as the fluid spreads. Pinpoint bruises can stay for several days, and mild pinkness may last until the next morning. Washing gently and patting on sunscreen the same evening is usually allowed; firm rubbing, saunas and face-down massage are better left for a few days.

Toxin does not act at once. It has to bind to nerve endings near the oil glands and the fine muscle fibers around each follicle before the signal they carry is dampened, and that takes days. Most people see little change during the first week and some worry that the session failed.

Keep skincare steady meanwhile. Starting a strong new exfoliant now makes it hard to tell what caused any later change, so cosmetics bought in Myeongdong can wait for the second month.

Sungtrakankul and colleagues pooled trials, split-face studies, cohorts and mechanistic reports from 2000 to 2025 in a 2026 narrative review in the Journal of Pakistan Association of Dermatologists, and reported that intradermal toxin cut measured sebum by approximately 30 to 75% and improved visible pore size, typically within one to two weeks.

In daily life the change usually shows as later midday shine on the nose and forehead, and makeup that sits more evenly through the afternoon. Texture improvement and patient satisfaction were also reported in the reviewed studies, though how much any one person notices varies.

The same review found that the effect generally lasted two to four months. The fade is gradual: shine returns first in the zones that were oiliest before, often the nose, while the cheeks hold longer. It does not mean the treatment stopped working, only that nerve signaling has recovered.

A sensible plan is to note the week shine came back and book the next round around that point, not on a fixed date. Bring a note of the product and zones from the first session so the second can be compared.

The authors stressed that the studies differed in dose, dilution, injection technique and how outcomes were measured, so no standard protocol exists yet and larger randomized studies with longer follow-up are still needed. Those same settings shape what a single session will do.

Because the main action is on oil output, people with dry or normal skin, or with pores stretched mainly by loss of firmness, often see a smaller difference. Side effects in the review were mild and short-lived, such as redness, swelling and bruising, with rare temporary facial weakness. The session is usually postponed during pregnancy or breastfeeding, with a nerve or muscle condition, with a known reaction to the product, or with broken or irritated skin on the area that day.