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Dear Clinic · Procedure Information · Pigment
Session-Based Toning Program

Dual Laser Toning

A course of gentle, low-fluence toning sessions paired with in-clinic skincare, planned against your pigment map and spaced so the skin is never pushed harder than the pigment can take.

Low-fluence 1064 nm Nd:YAG toning ₩200,000 (≈ $145) per session Open 365 days
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About

What is laser toning?

Laser toning is a programme of repeated low-fluence 1064 nm Nd:YAG passes delivered at gentle energy rather than one aggressive shot. At Dear Clinic each visit is a dual-wavelength session combined with in-clinic skincare, so tone irregularity, dullness and diffuse pigment are approached gradually over a course of visits instead of being forced in one sitting.

The logic is deliberately unglamorous. High-energy pigment work can clear a discrete spot quickly, but diffuse and hormone-linked pigment often sits deeper, reacts to heat, and returns worse when it is over-treated. Low-fluence toning trades speed for restraint: small amounts of energy, spread across the treated field, repeated at intervals your director sets after reading your skin.

Pigment also has more than one address. Some sits shallow in the epidermis, some deeper, and some of what looks like pigment is old inflammation still fading. A good many faces carry two or three of those at once, in different zones, at different depths. A scan separates them; a glance across a consultation desk does not.

The skincare half of the session matters as much as the laser half. Every toning visit at Dear includes in-clinic skincare in the same appointment — cleansing, calming and barrier support — because a skin barrier that is dry, stripped or inflamed will hold on to pigment no matter how carefully the laser is set.

Laser toning system on castors with its articulated delivery arm and handpiece at Dear Clinic
A toning pass is delivered from an articulated arm at low fluence, zone by zone, against the map drawn at your diagnosis.
Treatment Areas

Where a course is planned

Pigment is not one problem. Your session plan is drawn zone by zone from the 3D scan, because each zone answers differently.

01

Malar cheeks

The classic patch zone across the cheekbones, where heat sensitivity is highest and energy is kept most conservative.

02

Forehead and upper hairline

Broad, flat surfaces that tolerate an even pass — often where uneven tone reads first in photographs.

03

Upper lip & jaw margin

Narrow bands that need slower, smaller-field work; a spot the width of a fingertip is treated on its own terms.

04

Nose & central T zone

Where dullness, congestion and pigment overlap, and where the skincare half of the session does much of the work.

Powder room at Dear Clinic with twin basins and a backlit mirror carrying the DEAR mark
Powder room at Dear Clinic with twin basins and a backlit mirror carrying the DEAR mark
Waiting nook and coffee bar along the treatment corridor at Dear Clinic Cheongdam
Waiting nook and coffee bar along the treatment corridor at Dear Clinic Cheongdam
Dual & Triple

What the programme actually contains

Two tiers, both session-based, both including in-clinic skincare. Which one you are offered depends on your diagnosis — not on which is priced higher.

TIER 01

Dual laser toning

A dual-wavelength session: the low-fluence 1064 nm toning pass together with a second laser step matched to your pigment pattern. Available as a single visit or as a ten-session course.

TIER 02

Triple laser toning

The same session with one further laser step layered in for skin that reads more complex on the scan. Which steps, in which order, and at what settings is decided at diagnosis.

ALWAYS INCLUDED

In-clinic skincare

Every dual and triple session is priced with the skincare inside it; there is nothing to add at the counter afterwards. Barrier care belongs to the pigment plan itself.

Toning is a management tool for gradual, cumulative change. It does not erase pigment in one visit, and no course is offered here as a cure for anything. Your director will say plainly at diagnosis whether your pattern is likely to respond, to respond partially, or to answer better on a different route — and where the answer is the last of those, we say no to the course and prescribe the route instead.

Treatment corridor at Dear Clinic Cheongdam, with the clinic logo reflected in a full-height mirror
Treatment corridor at Dear Clinic Cheongdam, with the clinic logo reflected in a full-height mirror
Your Visit

What one toning visit actually looks like

Roughly an hour in the building. Most of that hour goes on preparation and recovery; the laser passes take the smallest share of it.

STEP 01

Re-read, then decide

Even on a repeat visit the skin is looked at again. Barrier condition, residual warmth from the previous session and any new sun exposure all change what today's settings should be — or whether today should be a session at all.

STEP 02

Cleanse and prepare

Makeup and sunscreen come off completely, the skin is cooled and calmed, and the treatment field is marked out zone by zone against the plan drawn at your diagnosis.

STEP 03

The laser passes

The low-fluence passes are worked evenly across each planned zone. This is the shortest part of the appointment and, by design, the least dramatic: gentle energy, repeated many times over.

STEP 04

In-clinic skincare

The skincare half of the session follows immediately: calming, hydration and barrier support, finishing with sun protection before you leave. Your next interval is booked before you walk out.

Pigment work goes wrong when it is rushed — when energy is raised so a single visit feels productive, or when appointments are stacked to fit the length of a holiday. The interval between your sessions is prescribed with the same care as the energy setting, and moving it forward to suit a flight is a clinical decision your director has to agree to.

EVE Muse AI analysis screen showing multi-angle facial capture
EVE Muse AI analysis screen showing multi-angle facial capture
Private recovery room with its own washbasin at Dear Clinic Cheongdam
Private recovery room with its own washbasin at Dear Clinic Cheongdam
Dear, Knowhow

Why have a course done at Dear

01 — THE FULL ARSENAL

Vascular redness is sent to the 532 nm route

Toning shares the corridor with vascular lasers, resurfacing and RF microneedling. Redness that turns out to be vessels goes to Excel V. Texture and scarring go to Potenza. A ten-session block is prescribed only when the map asks for one.

02 — DIAGNOSIS FIRST

Pigment depth read before the first pass is planned

Pigment depth, the redness sitting underneath it and the state of your barrier are read from the EVE Muse 3D scan with five-light-source analysis before any pass is planned, which is how the subclinical pigment that a mirror cannot show you ends up in the plan at all.

03 — DIRECTOR-PERFORMED

Energy dialled down, or the visit skipped

Sessions are director-performed, and the discipline is knowing when to stop. Intervals are stretched, energy is dialled down, or a session is skipped outright when the skin says so.

A course is bought in advance, which is exactly what makes it easy to run on autopilot. So the remaining sessions are counted out loud at every visit. If your skin has stopped responding at session six, the course stops at six; the sessions left in a prepaid block and what happens to their cost are put to you in writing at that review. A course can also be paused, stretched, or switched to another route half-way through.

In the clinic

The devices and hands behind this treatment

Glass-walled consultation rooms at Dear Clinic where the doctor reviews the treatment plan before any procedure
Glass-walled consultation rooms at Dear Clinic where the doctor reviews the treatment plan before any procedure
Laser treatment room at Dear Clinic Cheongdam with several laser platforms and a powered treatment chair
Laser treatment room at Dear Clinic Cheongdam with several laser platforms and a powered treatment chair
Pricing

How much does laser toning
cost in Seoul?

At Dear Clinic in Cheongdam, a dual laser toning session with skincare is ₩200,000 (≈ $145), and a ten-session dual course is ₩1,500,000 (≈ $1,070). The triple programme is ₩300,000 (≈ $215) per session or ₩2,500,000 (≈ $1,785) for ten. One published rate applies to local and international patients alike.
ProgrammeIncludesPrice
Dual toning · 1 sessionDual-wavelength toning session with in-clinic skincare₩200,000 (≈ $145)
Dual toning · 10 sessionsTen-session course, scheduled at intervals set by your director₩1,500,000 (≈ $1,070)
Triple toning · 1 sessionTriple programme session with in-clinic skincare₩300,000 (≈ $215)
Triple toning · 10 sessionsTen-session triple course, paced to your response₩2,500,000 (≈ $1,785)
Every planEVE Muse 3D + AI diagnosis · doctor consultation · aftercare guidanceincluded

Published rates as of September 2026, shown in KRW with a USD reference figure. A ten-session block is sold because the diagnosis supports one; if two or three sessions show the pigment is not answering, we say so and stop, instead of running down something you have already paid for. The routes toning is weighed against have their own pages: Excel V for vessels and defined spots, Potenza for texture and scarring, and the price list for every published figure.

Dear 9 Selection September event — Ultherapy Prime, Thermage FLX, XERF and Total Face Care packages with prices
Dear 9 Selection · September lifting event — tap to book
 Dear 9 Selection September event — skin revital care, defined volume care and directors' picks with prices
Dear 9 Selection · September skin revital & volume — tap to book
Caution

What we tell you before you start

Toning is a low-drama treatment with real limits. Those limits are easier to accept before the first session than after the sixth, so they are set out here.

Sessions must not be stacked too close together. Published case reports describe mottled hypopigmentation — patchy loss of colour — in skin treated with low-fluence toning too frequently or for too long, and that pattern is difficult to reverse. Your interval is set for you and we would rather delay a session than crowd it.
Long-term effectiveness for melasma-type pigment is debated in the literature, and relapse after a course is common. We plan on managing pigment, not on ending it.
Mild warmth or flushing may follow a session; it usually settles the same day. Report anything that does not.
Sun exposure between sessions undoes the work faster than the laser adds to it, so daily protection is prescribed as part of the programme.
Pause harsh actives, scrubs, saunas and alcohol around each visit, and tell us about any pigment-relevant medication, pregnancy or recent tanning before we treat.
Progress on a toning course is best judged in photographs taken in the same light — a bathroom mirror on a good morning is not evidence. We record yours at review so the decision to continue, pause or change route rests on something steadier than an impression.
If pigment is being driven by something else — hormones, a medication, friction, ongoing inflammation — treating the surface alone will disappoint. That conversation belongs at diagnosis, and it sometimes ends in a referral instead of a course.
Medical Team

Five doctors, one standard

Director-performed treatment is a Dear promise — your procedure is planned and performed by the doctors below.

Dr. Jemin Kim — Medical Director and Founder, Dear Clinic
Dr. Jemin Kim
Yonsei University College of Medicine
Medical Director · Founder
Dr. Sanghyun Lee — Director, Dear Clinic
Dr. Sanghyun Lee
Seoul National University College of Medicine
Director
Board-certified · Family Medicine
Dr. Seonhaeng Lee — Director of Aesthetic Medicine, Dear Clinic
Dr. Seonhaeng Lee
Chosun University College of Medicine · Residency, Samsung Medical Center
Director, Aesthetic Medicine
Dr. Daeun Jung — Director, Dear Clinic
Dr. Daeun Jung
Ajou University College of Medicine
Director
Board-certified · Family Medicine
Dr. Woojae Jung — Director of Aesthetic Medicine, Dear Clinic
Dr. Woojae Jung
Seoul National University — B.S. in Medicine
Director, Aesthetic Medicine
Patient Reviews

What our patients say

Real verified reviews from our Google Business Profile.

4.9★★★★★ 293 Google Reviews
★★★★★

The clinic was very professional from start to finish. Doctor Jung was excellent and gentle with the treatment. I felt well looked after and everyone was outstanding. Happy with my service!

Jen — Google review
Jen4 months ago
★★★★★

I've visited clinic for LDM procedure. I don't speak Korean, so there was an interpreter who assisted me while consulting. The staff was very attentive, they asked me every time before applying products/covering my face during the procedure and it went smoothly. Planning to visit the clini…

★★★★★

Had a great experience here as a foreigner! The doctors and staff were knowledgeable, friendly, and not pushy. They made recommendations in my consultation and were happy to work within my budget.

★★★★★

I did a hydrofacial, white/black head removal, and 1 day lasers. Really kind staff and reasonable prices. The only thing I would advise is that your first consultation is with a salesperson and you don’t see the doctor until after you decide what you want and after you pay.

★★★★★

Wonderful experience — friendly, professional staff, clear consultation with a thorough skin analysis, and visible results after my treatment; the clinic is clean and communicates aftercare clearly, highly recommended

Read all 293 reviews on Google →
FAQ

Laser toning, answered

Is laser toning worth it?
It is worth it when your concern is diffuse, low-contrast unevenness and you accept a paced course. It is not worth it if you want one visit to clear a defined spot, or if the scan reads your unevenness as vascular redness and not pigment at all. The diagnosis decides. Where it decides against toning, we say no to the block and put the matching route in front of you instead.
What is the difference between dual and triple toning?
Dual is a dual-wavelength session: the low-fluence 1064 nm toning pass plus a second laser step chosen for your pattern. Triple layers one further step into the same visit for skin that reads more complex on the scan. Both include in-clinic skincare. Which tier is right is a clinical call made at diagnosis; it is not a menu upgrade picked at reception.
How much does laser toning cost in Seoul?
A dual session with skincare is ₩200,000 (≈ $145), or ₩1,500,000 (≈ $1,070) for a ten-session course. Triple is ₩300,000 (≈ $215) per session and ₩2,500,000 (≈ $1,785) for ten. Diagnosis, doctor consultation and aftercare guidance are inside those figures.
How many sessions will I need?
We do not publish a number, because an honest one does not exist before we have seen your skin. Toning is cumulative, which is why ten-session courses exist, but your director sets the count and the spacing after the scan and adjusts both as your skin responds. Anyone quoting you a fixed number by message before a diagnosis is guessing.
How often can sessions be repeated?
Intervals are set at consultation and deliberately not compressed. Case reports in the peer-reviewed literature link over-frequent low-fluence toning with mottled hypopigmentation, a patchy loss of pigment that is hard to correct. That risk is the reason we will move your appointment back before we squeeze an extra session into a short trip.
Does it hurt?
Most people describe a light, warm tingling; low fluence means each pass is deliberately gentle. Sensation still varies by zone, and the upper lip and nose usually read stronger than the cheeks. Say so during the session and the settings are adjusted on the spot.
Is there downtime? Can I wear makeup afterwards?
There is usually no visible recovery time. Mild warmth or a light flush can appear and generally settles within hours. Most patients return to their day straight from the clinic and apply makeup the next morning, or the same evening if the skin is calm. Sun protection is required either way.
Will toning cure melasma?
No. We do not present toning as a cure for melasma, and the published long-term evidence on low-fluence toning for melasma is genuinely mixed, with relapse frequently reported. What a course can reasonably aim for is management — reducing how loudly the pigment reads — alongside sun discipline and whatever else your director prescribes.
Is this a skin-whitening treatment?
No, and we do not offer it as one. Toning targets uneven, congested-looking tone. It is not a way to make skin lighter than its own colour, and a laser cannot deliver that whatever is promised for it. Evenness is the goal we work toward. A different complexion is not on the list.
What should I do between sessions?
Protect daily, avoid deliberate tanning entirely, keep the barrier well moisturised, and hold off on aggressive acids or scrubs near appointment dates. Between-visit behaviour genuinely changes the result of a course — a summer of unprotected sun can outpace everything the sessions contributed.
Can I have a session the same day as my consultation?
Usually yes. The scan and consultation take around thirty minutes, and the first low-fluence session can follow the same afternoon once your director has confirmed the plan. What a same-day start cannot do is compress the rest: session two is spaced by the interval your skin is given, whatever your flight home says. Weekend and holiday slots are genuinely available, since the clinic treats 365 days a year.
How do I book a toning course from abroad, and does it cost more?
It costs exactly what it costs a Seoul resident: ₩200,000 (≈ $145) for a dual session, ₩300,000 (≈ $215) for triple, with the ten-session blocks listed above. KRW is the currency you settle in; the USD line is a reference. Send the form below with your travel dates and, if you have them, photographs in natural daylight without makeup. We reply in English within one business day and say up front whether your dates fit a course at all — for many visitors a single session plus a written home plan is the sensible answer, and a ten-session block would sit unused.
Consultation

Ask about laser toning

Your questions, answered in English within one business day.

Scientific Evidence

Science behind low-fluence toning — peer-reviewed references

Low-fluence 1064 nm Nd:YAG toning has been studied for well over a decade, and the literature is not uniformly flattering. We list it as published rather than curated: efficacy studies sit here beside case reports of adverse pigment change, because both inform how your director sets energy and, above all, intervals.

The safety report below describes mottled hypopigmentation following low-fluence toning, and the long-term study asks openly whether the approach holds up over time — together, the specific reason a course here is paced and never compressed to fit a trip. All references carry verifiable DOIs from indexed journals.

  1. Jang YH et al. Changes in Melanin and Melanocytes in Mottled Hypopigmentation after Low-Fluence 1,064-nm Q-Switched Nd:YAG Laser Treatment for Melasma. Annals of Dermatology. 2015. doi:10.5021/ad.2015.27.3.340
  2. Gokalp H et al. Long‐term results in low‐fluence 1064‐nm Q‐Switched Nd:YAG laser for melasma: Is it effective? Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology. 2016. doi:10.1111/jocd.12253
  3. Vachiramon V et al. Low‐fluence Q‐switched Nd: YAG 1064‐nm laser and intense pulsed light for the treatment of melasma. Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology. 2014. doi:10.1111/jdv.12854

References are provided for information — outcomes vary by individual and are assessed at your diagnosis.

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