You have been told lasers are not for your skin. UltraClear at Cannelle in Oxford is designed for all six Fitzpatrick types, and Dr Mattia patch-tests deeper tones before your first full session.
You have been told, more than once, that lasers are not for your skin. Perhaps a clinic looked at your tone, hesitated, and offered you a gentle facial instead of the resurfacing you came in to ask about. UltraClear at Cannelle Skin Clinic in Oxford was built for exactly the skin those conversations turned away.
The reason sits in where the energy goes. UltraClear is a 2910 nanometre cold fibre laser, and about 95 percent of each pulse lifts away damaged tissue. Only about 5 percent is left as warmth, and it stays inside its own microscopic channel. Heat spreading into skin rich in melanin is what made the older lasers a risk. This one barely lets it travel.
The doctor holding the laser is Dr Mattia Parducci (GMC 7635663), and he performs every UltraClear session in Oxford himself. He comes to it having done more than 100 of these laser treatments at our sister clinic in London, Dr Joney De Souza Skin & Laser. His profile page sets out the training behind that.
Skin is graded on the Fitzpatrick scale, six types running from the palest, which burns and never tans, through to the deepest. Most lasers were historically considered safe only for types I to III. That single line of caution is why so many people have spent years being offered creams, peels and facials while resurfacing stayed out of reach.
The caution was not unreasonable, because the physics behind it is real. Melanin absorbs heat, and a laser that warms the skin around each channel can leave a dark mark. Published reviews put heat-based devices at higher risk of exactly that in darker skin. The answer was never a different kind of skin. It was always going to be a different kind of laser.
The cost of that caution has been personal rather than technical. A Black Skin Directory survey found that 92 percent of the people asked had struggled to find a professional who could treat their skin. Hear no once in a consultation room and you tend to stop asking, which is how a treatment quietly leaves your list.
Oxford makes the gap plain. The 2021 census recorded 29 percent of residents as Black or from a minority ethnic group, up from 22 percent ten years earlier, against 19 percent across England. Asian residents alone account for 15.4 percent of the city. Nearly a third of the people walking down the Cowley Road have been quietly outside this conversation.
UltraClear is ablative and fractional, which is a precise way of saying it does two things at once. Ablative means it truly lifts away the damaged surface rather than only warming it. Fractional means it works through thousands of microscopic channels, leaving untouched skin between them to knit the new surface together.
The ratio is the part worth pausing on. With about 95 percent of the energy removing tissue and about 5 percent left as heat, the warmth has nowhere to travel. It fades inside its channel, and the skin around it is spared. Shorter healing follows from that, and so does a much wider range of skin tones that can safely be treated.
UltraClear is designed to work across all six Fitzpatrick types, which is exactly what a laser for dark skin has to do. That design has been recognised beyond the clinic. It took a 2026 NewBeauty Beauty Award in the category Best Laser Treatment for All Skin Tones.
Dr Mattia adds the step that matters most in the room. He treats a small, discreet patch at the settings he would use on you, then waits at least 24 hours before your first full session. That pause turns a reassuring sentence into evidence on your own skin. It is also why a no from years ago is worth reopening.
UltraClear is one laser with three treatments, and what you want changed decides which of them Dr Mattia uses. Different targets need different depths, and each depth brings its own healing with it. The plan starts with what you see in the mirror rather than with a menu.
3DMIRACL is the lightest pass, for dull tone, early sun damage and the brightness a facial gives you for a fortnight before quietly taking it back. It takes ten to fifteen minutes and needs no topical numbing. You feel a warmth like mild sunburn that settles within hours, with a faint pink at most by the evening and no formal downtime to plan around.
The UltraClear depth reaches the mid dermis, where fine lines, uneven texture, deeper sun damage, open pores and mild scarring all live. Expect three to seven days of flushing and flaking while the new surface comes through. Two or three sessions, three to four months apart, is the usual plan.
Laser Coring is the deepest, for established acne scarring and long-standing texture, and it was presented at the American Academy of Dermatology annual meeting in March 2026. Under topical numbing it removes micro-columns of tissue outright rather than heating them. There is pinpoint bleeding on the day, sometimes noticeable across scars, then seven to fourteen days of healing.
After 3DMIRACL the brightness arrives within days. Skin reads clearer and better rested, and people notice that long before they can name what has changed. After the deeper treatments nothing announces itself until healing is complete, and the change then keeps building.
Texture, tone and firmness go on improving for three to six months, because the collagen beneath the new surface is still reorganising. Dr Mattia asks you to judge your skin at three months rather than at three weeks. The fine lines that once caught and held your make-up soften steadily across that time.
Sun damage lifts as the surface renews, and tone looks more even for it. Where pigmentation itself is the main concern, Dr Mattia may plan PicoSure alongside or instead, since a picosecond laser shatters pigment by pressure rather than heat. Published reviews place picosecond lasers among the devices shown to be safe for darker skin. Our pigmentation page explains how the two are told apart.
Aftercare is written down for you before you leave. After 3DMIRACL it is sunscreen daily, a gentle moisturiser and nothing active for 48 hours. After the deeper treatments you take home barrier cream and a gentle cleansing routine. Heat, exercise and swimming all wait until your skin has healed. Daily sunscreen then protects the evenness you have just gained.
Everything begins with a consultation, and what happens in it shapes the rest. Dr Mattia studies your skin under clinic lighting and then under VISIA imaging, which shows the sun damage and texture sitting below what a mirror reveals. You talk through your tone, your history with other treatments, and what you want changed.
A patch test comes first for deeper skin tones, with at least 24 hours before your first full session. Nothing about your plan is a default setting. If Dr Mattia thinks another treatment would serve you better, he says so and describes what he would do instead.
Expect a few direct questions as well, because they protect the result. Whether you have taken isotretinoin recently, whether you have caught the sun in the past month, whether you get cold sores, whether you are pregnant or breastfeeding, and whether your skin has ever scarred thickly. On deeper skin tones the last one matters most, and it is why the patch test comes first.
On average 3DMIRACL runs monthly, the UltraClear depth takes two or three sessions, and Laser Coring one to three. Your own number comes out of the consultation rather than out of an average. You leave knowing what is being treated and when you can judge the result.
Ours is the only UltraClear in Oxford in the hands of a doctor with a hundred treatments already behind him, and it sits in Summertown, welcoming patients from across Oxfordshire. Patients travel in from Headington and Marston for an answer they had stopped expecting to hear. If a clinic has ever looked at your skin and said no, this is the appointment that answers it. Have a look at the UltraClear treatment page and its before and after gallery, then get in touch to book your consultation.
The doctor who performs every UltraClear session at Cannelle, filmed treating with the same laser at our sister clinic in London, Dr Joney De Souza Skin & Laser. Watch how the handpiece moves, how calm the skin stays, and how little fuss the whole thing involves.
If you have been told a laser was not for your skin, come and hear a proper answer from the doctor who performs it. Book a consultation with Dr Mattia at our Summertown clinic, message us on WhatsApp or call 01865 537885, and we will book you in with him.
These are the questions we hear most often from people who have been turned away by a laser clinic before. Anything not covered here is worth putting to Dr Mattia directly at your consultation.
Yes, when the laser leaves very little heat behind. UltraClear puts about 95 percent of its energy into lifting away damaged tissue and only about 5 percent into warmth, which stays inside each microscopic channel. It is designed for all six Fitzpatrick types. Dr Mattia patch-tests deeper tones on a small, discreet area and waits at least 24 hours before your first full session.
It grades skin in six types by how it behaves in sunlight, from the palest, which burns and never tans, to the deepest, which rarely burns. Lasers were historically considered safe only for types I to III, because heat and melanin together raise the risk of a dark mark. UltraClear is designed to work across all six, and Dr Mattia sets your settings himself.
The risk of a dark mark comes from heat spreading into the skin around each channel, and that is the part a cold fibre laser changes. Only about 5 percent of each pulse is left as warmth, and it fades inside the channel rather than travelling outwards. Dr Mattia patch-tests deeper tones first, chooses your settings from what he sees, and writes you a sun protection routine.
For deeper skin tones, yes, and it is a useful appointment rather than a hurdle. Dr Mattia treats a small, discreet area at the settings he would use on you, then leaves at least 24 hours before your first full session. Watching how your skin actually responds beats predicting it, and your first proper session then starts with your skin already understood.
Dr Mattia Parducci (GMC 7635663), our Lead Aesthetic Doctor, performs every session from start to finish. More than 100 of those treatments were performed at our sister clinic in London, Dr Joney De Souza Skin & Laser, where he still treats. He also sets your plan at the consultation, with VISIA skin imaging, before anything is switched on.
All three do, and the concern decides which you have. Dull tone and early sun damage call for 3DMIRACL, the lightest pass. Fine lines, texture and open pores call for the UltraClear depth. Established acne scarring calls for Laser Coring, the deepest treatment. Dr Mattia matches the treatment to what he sees and confirms the settings with your patch test.
Resurfacing lifts away sun damage and evens out tone, so skin looks clearer and brighter as the new surface comes through. Where pigmentation itself is the main concern, Dr Mattia may plan PicoSure instead or alongside, because a picosecond laser shatters pigment by pressure rather than heat. Our pigmentation page covers how the two concerns are told apart.
The concern decides the treatment, and each treatment carries its own healing. 3DMIRACL leaves a warmth like mild sunburn that settles within hours, with no formal downtime at all. The UltraClear depth brings three to seven days of flushing and flaking while the new surface arrives. Laser Coring, the deepest, bleeds in pinpoints on the day and heals over seven to fourteen days.
3DMIRACL works as a monthly rhythm rather than a course, and the glow builds visit by visit. The UltraClear depth is usually two or three sessions, three to four months apart. Laser Coring is often one to three sessions, four to six months apart. Those figures are averages, and Dr Mattia settles yours once he has read your skin properly.
It took a 2026 NewBeauty Beauty Award in the category Best Laser Treatment for All Skin Tones. The recognition follows the physics rather than the marketing, since a laser that leaves so little heat behind can be calibrated for skin that older devices had to refuse. Dr Mattia performs every session in Oxford himself, and the patch test always comes first for deeper tones.
Our clinic is located in Summertown, Oxford, just north of the city centre in one of Oxford’s most sought-after neighbourhoods. Discreet and easy to reach, we offer a premium setting for bespoke skin, aesthetic and wellness care.
We welcome patients from across Oxford city and Oxfordshire, including Summertown, Headington, Kidlington, Abingdon, Bicester, Witney and the surrounding towns and villages. Whether you’re coming for routine skin-health treatments or specialist aesthetic consultations, our location is well connected and simple to access.
Our clinic, Cannelle Skin Clinic, is just minutes from Oxford city centre and easily reached by car, bus or rail. Oxford’s mainline stations Oxford Station and Oxford Parkway are a short taxi or bus ride away, and regular services link to London, Reading, Didcot, Banbury and beyond.
By car, we’re conveniently accessed via key local routes with nearby parking options; by public transport, frequent bus routes along Banbury Road drop you within a short stroll of the clinic.
Whether you’re travelling from within Oxfordshire, further afield in the UK or internationally, our clinic offers a calm, personalised and professional environment for your visit.
