TL;DR — the verdict
Fraxel and Clear + Brilliant are made by the same company and work the same basic way — Clear + Brilliant is essentially a low-power Fraxel. Choose Fraxel when you have something to fix: acne scars, etched-in lines, real sun damage. Choose Clear + Brilliant when you're maintaining or preventing: early texture changes, dullness, mild pigment — and you can't afford a week of flaky skin.
Side by side
The context
If you've looked into laser resurfacing, you've probably seen Clear + Brilliant called the "baby Fraxel." That's marketing shorthand, but it's roughly accurate. Both are non-ablative fractional lasers from Solta Medical: they heat thousands of microscopic columns in the skin without removing the surface, and your body replaces the treated columns with fresh collagen and new skin cells.
The real difference is energy and depth. Fraxel Dual runs two wavelengths — 1550 nm for texture problems (scars, wrinkles) and 1927 nm for pigment (sun spots, uneven tone) — at settings strong enough to remodel deeper skin. Clear + Brilliant uses lower-energy wavelengths (1440 nm; the Permea/Touch version adds 1927 nm) that reach only the upper skin layers. Less energy means less downtime, but also less correction per treatment. Neither one is "better" — they're built for different jobs, and paying for the wrong one wastes money in both directions.
Which one should you choose?
The honest way to choose is to name your problem first.
Pick Fraxel when there's something structural to fix. Rolling acne scars, etched lines around the eyes or mouth, years of accumulated sun damage — these live deeper in the skin, and the 1550 nm wavelength is the one with the track record for remodeling them. The 1927 nm side clears sun spots and rough, sun-damaged patches (it's FDA-cleared for actinic keratoses). Expect your skin to look sunburned and swollen for a couple of days, then flake like sandpaper for most of a week. One to three sessions usually produce visible change.
Pick Clear + Brilliant when your skin mostly looks fine and you want it to stay that way, or you're chasing subtler goals: dullness, early fine lines, slightly uneven tone, "glow before an event." Each session is mild — most people are presentable the next morning — but the trade-off is that you need a series of four to six, and results build slowly and fade without maintenance.
Do the math before deciding. A full Clear + Brilliant series at $500 per session costs $2,000–$3,000 — the price of one or two Fraxel treatments. If you have actual scarring or significant sun damage, a C+B series will cost Fraxel money and deliver a fraction of the correction. Flip side: if your concern is mild, Fraxel is more downtime, cost, and risk than the problem deserves.
Two cautions. First, deeper skin tones: the heat from stronger fractional lasers can trigger post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation (new dark patches after healing). Studies show the risk drops with lower energy and density, which is exactly why gentler settings — or Clear + Brilliant — are usually preferred for Fitzpatrick IV–VI skin. Second, melasma: laser heat can make melasma worse, not better. Neither device is a first-line melasma treatment, no matter what a med-spa menu says. Start with sunscreen, topicals, and possibly tranexamic acid — and treat any laser as a cautious add-on, not the plan.
Can you use both?
Yes — and this is a common real-world strategy: use Fraxel to correct, then Clear + Brilliant to maintain. One to three Fraxel sessions to remodel scars or clear sun damage, then a Clear + Brilliant session every few months to keep skin turnover up without repeating the downtime. There's no interaction problem since they work the same way at different intensities — just space them out (wait until skin is fully healed, at least 4 weeks) and keep up daily sunscreen, which does more to protect your investment than any follow-up laser.
The evidence, in plain English
These two devices are not equally studied, and that matters.
Fraxel's 1550 nm wavelength is one of the best-studied resurfacing lasers in dermatology — controlled trials and nearly two decades of use support it for atrophic acne scars and photoaging, and the 1927 nm thulium wavelength has solid data for sun spots and actinic keratoses. Reviews consistently report improvement with an acceptable safety profile, with post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation in darker skin as the main recurring risk.
Clear + Brilliant's published record is thinner and weaker in quality. The most-cited data is a nine-center case series of the Permea handpiece: 78% of patients reported noticeable improvement after one session and 86% were satisfied after six. But that's patient-reported, with no control group, in a manufacturer-linked publication. A recent review of the 1440/1927 nm diode system supports safety and tolerability more than it proves a specific amount of improvement.
Bottom line: strong evidence Fraxel fixes scars and sun damage; fair-but-limited evidence that Clear + Brilliant produces mild, real improvements — and honest uncertainty about how much and how long.
Frequently asked questions
Q: Is Clear + Brilliant just a weaker Fraxel?
A: Essentially, yes. Same manufacturer, same fractional approach, much lower energy. That's not a knock — lower energy is the point. It trades correction for near-zero downtime.
Q: Which is better for melasma?
A: Be careful with both. Laser heat can worsen melasma or push pigment deeper. Melasma is usually treated first with sunscreen, topical lighteners, and sometimes tranexamic acid. Some dermatologists cautiously add low-energy 1927 nm treatments, but lasers are an adjunct here, not a cure.
Q: How long do results last?
A: Fraxel improvements in scars are structural and largely permanent, though skin keeps aging and new sun damage accumulates. Clear + Brilliant results fade over months without maintenance sessions.
Q: Do these treatments hurt?
A: Both use numbing cream first. Clear + Brilliant feels like warm prickling; Fraxel runs hotter and feels more intense, with a sunburn sensation for a few hours afterward.
Q: Is either safe for darker skin tones?
A: Clear + Brilliant is generally considered safe across skin tones. Fraxel can be used in deeper skin tones but carries a real risk of post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation, so it requires conservative settings and an experienced operator.
Q: Is a Clear + Brilliant series worth it compared to one Fraxel?
A: Depends on the problem. For scars or significant sun damage, one Fraxel beats six Clear + Brilliants. For maintenance and mild concerns, the series wins because you never lose a week of skin.