Melasma Treatment in Makati: Prices, What Works | ICONIQUE
Melasma Treatment in Makati: What Controls It and What Makes It Worse
Melasma is a chronic condition that we manage. Anyone who offers to cure it in a package of six is either using the word loosely or has not treated much of it.
It shows as symmetrical brown or grey-brown patches, usually across the cheekbones, the upper lip, the forehead and the bridge of the nose. It runs in families, it flares in pregnancy and on hormonal contraception, and it is far more common in Filipino skin than in the skin most laser protocols were written for.
The reason it defeats so many courses is that the two things that drive it, sunlight and heat, are outside every clinic in this city. You leave the treatment room and walk into both.
What a session is like
The consultation looks at the pattern, asks when it started, and asks about pregnancy, contraception and how much sun and heat your day involves. Those answers change the plan more than the machine does.
Sixty minutes. Cleanse, cool, a series of light passes, then a calming serum and sunscreen before you leave. Faint pinkness for an hour and no time off work.
Between sessions the work is sunscreen with iron oxide reapplied through the day, your topical, and staying out of avoidable heat. Sessions are spaced three to four weeks apart and the change is gradual on purpose.
When this is the wrong treatment
Pregnancy and the months after
Melasma that arrives with pregnancy often fades on its own once hormones settle. Treating through it means fighting the trigger while it is still running. We wait.
Anyone who will not use sunscreen
Said plainly because it decides the outcome. Without daily tinted sunscreen the course buys a few months and then hands the money back as a relapse.
Recent sunburn or a fresh strong peel
Skin that is already inflamed is skin that will make more pigment. We reschedule.
A wedding in three weeks
Melasma is a months-long project. For a date that close, makeup is the honest answer and we will say so.
How it actually works
It is not a stain sitting on the surface
The pigment cells themselves are overactive, and in most cases the pigment sits at more than one depth. That is why a single strong pass can clear the surface and leave the deeper layer untouched, which then rises back over the following months and reads as the treatment failing.
Heat feeds it
Melasma responds badly to thermal injury. An aggressive laser, an unwise peel or a hot day over a stove all provoke the same cells. This is the single most misunderstood point in the market, and it is why a clinic that treats melasma with the same settings it uses for freckles will make you darker.
Visible light counts, not just UV
Melasma reacts to visible light as well as ultraviolet, so a clear sunscreen that blocks UV alone leaves part of the trigger in place. A tinted sunscreen carrying iron oxide covers the visible range. In Manila this is not a detail: it is most of the treatment.
Why picosecond pulses suit it
Very short pulses break pigment mechanically and put far less accumulated heat into the skin than older nanosecond systems. On Fitzpatrick III to V, that difference decides whether you fade or rebound. The passes are also deliberately gentle and repeated rather than strong and few.
The machines on this market, including the ones we do not run
Picosecond lasers
PicoSure, PicoWay, Discovery Pico and the Korean and Chinese systems. Used at low fluence, spaced out, across a course. The 1064nm wavelength is the workhorse on darker skin because it is the most forgiving.
Q-switched lasers
Nanosecond pulses, cheaper per session, more heat delivered. They can treat melasma in careful hands and they punish careless ones. Ask which the clinic is using before you book, not after.
Topicals and oral medication
Hydroquinone, azelaic acid, tranexamic acid and retinoids do real work here, and the oral options are a doctor's prescription rather than ours. A clinic-only plan with nothing to take home is half a plan.
What it costs in Makati, 2026
Our list price for the melasma protocol is ₱14,950 for a sixty-minute session, and introductory rates run for most of the year. Ask for today's rate.
Clinics around Metro Manila advertise melasma sessions from about ₱2,000. Compare the number of sessions in the plan, the machine, and whether anyone mentioned sunscreen and hormones at the consultation. Those three separate a course that holds from one that rebounds.
Five questions to ask any clinic, including us
Is this melasma or is it sun damage?
They are treated differently and mistaken for each other constantly. Sun spots are scattered and irregular. Melasma is symmetrical and patchy, and it usually appeared in a particular year of your life for a particular reason. Ask what the clinic thinks yours is and why.
What settings, and what happens if my skin rebounds?
Gentle and repeated beats strong and few on this condition. Ask what the clinic does if you darken after session two, because the answer reveals whether they have treated melasma before or only pigment.
What am I taking home?
Sunscreen with iron oxide, reapplied through the day, plus whatever topical suits your skin. A plan that ends at the door of the treatment room will not hold in this climate.
What does success look like?
Lighter, more even, and holding with maintenance. Not gone forever. Any clinic promising permanent clearance is describing a different condition.
These are the list prices. We run promotions through most of the year, so call or message for today's rate and for course pricing. The consultation is free either way.
How far it is from where you are
Distances measured from the door, not estimated.
Ayala Avenue and the CBD
Four minutes on foot. A melasma course runs over months, so the clinic you can reach on a lunch break is the one you finish.
Salcedo and Legazpi Village
Eight and thirteen minutes on foot.
Greenbelt, Glorietta and One Ayala
Eight to eleven minutes.
Rockwell, Poblacion and Century City
Twelve to eighteen minutes. Century City has its own ICONIQUE branch, though the melasma protocol runs here.
Where to find us in Makati
The lobby at Peninsula Manila, Makati Ave, Makati City, 1226 Metro Manila.
The entrance is on the hotel lobby level, beside the staircase.
Open daily, 10:00 AM - 8:00 PM.
Call or message +63 917 634 5259. The consultation is free, and it is where we say whether this is the right treatment for your skin or whether it is not.
Our list price is ₱14,950 for a sixty-minute session, with introductory rates through most of the year. Clinics around Metro Manila advertise from about ₱2,000, and the difference usually shows up in the number of sessions and the machine.
Can melasma be cured permanently?
No. It is a chronic condition that we control. A good course lightens it and maintenance holds it, and pregnancy or a season of heavy sun can bring it back.
Can laser make melasma worse?
Yes, and this is the most common way melasma is mishandled here. Too much heat provokes the same cells you are trying to calm. Gentle repeated passes on a picosecond system are the safer route on Filipino skin.
Why does mine get darker every summer?
Sunlight and heat are both triggers, and visible light counts alongside ultraviolet. A tinted sunscreen with iron oxide, reapplied, covers more of that than a clear one does.
Is melasma the same as sun spots?
No. Sun spots are scattered and irregular and answer quickly to laser. Melasma is symmetrical, hormonally driven and slow. Treating one as the other is where most courses go wrong.
Where exactly is the clinic?
Inside The Peninsula Manila, corner of Ayala Avenue and Makati Avenue, on the lobby level.
