I Spent 1.5 Million Won on Potenza and Juvelook. My Pores Look the Same.

I finished all three sessions of Potenza and Juvelook. The thing I wanted most, smaller pores, barely changed.

Right after each session I told myself it was too early to judge. Collagen takes time to build, so I waited. It has now been about three months since the last session. I think I can call it.

What I got

• Treatment: Potenza with Juvelook
• Tip: pore tip
• Sessions: 3
• Goal: pores and skin texture
• Interval: about one month, except the last one at two months
• Price: about 1.5 million won for a package of three, roughly US$1,100
• Performed by: a board-certified dermatologist

I had my third and final session on May 22, at a clinic in Apgujeong. The plan was one session a month. I got busy, so the last one slipped to about two months.

Why the two get combined

Potenza is an RF microneedling treatment. Fine needles enter the skin and deliver radiofrequency energy through them. People get it for pores, scars, and texture.

Juvelook is a collagen booster made with PDLLA. It works by prompting the skin to produce its own collagen over time.

The combination makes sense on paper. Potenza opens microchannels in the skin, and Juvelook goes in through them. That is why clinics often sell them together.

I had also read a lot of Korean forum posts saying Potenza plus Juvelook was the answer for pores. My doctor recommended it as well. So I started.

I was having other treatments at the same time

Some of my Ultherapy and XERF sessions overlapped with this period.

So I can’t tell you that the firmness or the change in my jawline came from Potenza and Juvelook. It might not have. For this post I’m writing only about what I could compare by looking: pores, texture, and tone.

I wrote about the Ultherapy and XERF separately. → I Spent 3.5 Million Won on Ultherapy and XERF in Seoul

It hurt more than anything else I’ve had

Of every treatment I’ve had in Seoul, this was one of the most painful.

The first session hurt far more than I expected. I assumed I would be used to it by the third. I wasn’t. Every session hurt, and every session I was just waiting for it to be over.

Pain is personal. But this is not a treatment I would describe as a little stingy.

The redness lasted one to two weeks

My face was red right after each session, and it took one to two weeks to settle completely.

Light makeup covered most of it. Still, people at work asked what I’d had done. It wasn’t swelling exactly. My whole face just looked flushed.

If you have something important coming up, or photos, leave yourself two weeks.

Two weeks in, my skin did look better

It wasn’t nothing.

About two weeks after each session, my skin texture looked smoother and my face had a soft glow. My tone looked a little clearer.

But it didn’t hold. The texture and the tone faded over the following weeks. And the pores, the reason I paid for this, didn’t visibly change.

Some reviews describe a moment where the old surface sheds and the result appears underneath. I passed that point three times. My pores looked the same.

Three months after the last session

Before my third session, my doctor and I compared before-and-after photos together.

She told me plainly that pores are hard to improve. She did not suggest I buy more sessions.

Three months on, I’ve looked again, and I land in the same place.

• Texture: better for a while
• Tone: slightly clearer for a while
• Pores: no visible change
• How long it lasted: not long

The photos don’t show pores that are meaningfully smaller. Neither does the mirror.

Would I pay the 1.5 million again?

For pores alone, no.

The smoother texture and the temporary glow were real. But against 1.5 million won, three rounds of that pain, and one to two weeks of downtime each time, it didn’t add up for me.

Skin responds differently in different people. Plenty of people say Potenza and Juvelook worked for them. On my face, the pores didn’t move.

I still think it’s worth putting money into your skin as you age, and I don’t regret trying this. I know more about what my skin responds to than I did before, and the only way to learn that was to pay for it.

I’ve since tried a titanium laser as well. Every treatment seems to help something slightly different. Pores are the one thing that never gives.

Three sessions, 1.5 million won, three months of waiting. Potenza and Juvelook did something for my skin texture, briefly. For my pores, they did nothing I can see.

Pores might just be a lifelong project.