The Science of Micro-Infusion: Evidence, Instructions and Aftercare for the Restore System

The Restore Micro-Infusion System is a cosmetic, at-home 0.5 mm system designed to improve the appearance of skin and hair. It is not a medical treatment and does not diagnose, treat or cure any condition. If you have a medical skin or hair concern, please speak with your GP or dermatologist. Every numbered reference in this guide links to a peer-reviewed journal article published within the last five years.

Find your kit

• Restore Micro-Infusion Hair Density: how to use · aftercare · the science
• Restore Micro-Infusion Scars & Dark Spots: how to use · aftercare · the science
• Restore Micro-Infusion Lines & Firmness: how to use · aftercare · the science

Quick start

• Restore Micro-Infusion Hair Density: treat once a week, at night, on a clean dry scalp.
• Restore Micro-Infusion Scars & Dark Spots and Restore Micro-Infusion Lines & Firmness: treat once every two weeks, at night, on clean dry skin.
• Every treatment uses one sterile single-use applicator and one sterile single-use serum ampoule. Attach the ampoule, let the serum soak through for 1 to 2 minutes, stamp gently, leave the serum on overnight, then discard the applicator.
• Take your before photos before your very first treatment. You will thank yourself at week 12.
• The optional add-ons (the 30 ml leave-in hair serum and the recovery sheet masks) are used on day 5 after a treatment, never on freshly stamped skin.

Before you start: do not use if

Micro-infusion is designed for intact, healthy skin. Do not treat over:

• active breakouts, cold sores or open blemishes;
• broken, irritated, sunburnt or inflamed skin;
• any area with a skin infection, rash, eczema or rosacea flare, or a wound that has not fully healed.

Wait until the area has fully settled, or simply stamp around it. Also hold off if you have used retinoids or exfoliating acids in the last 48 hours, or had a laser treatment, chemical peel or injectable in the last two weeks. If you are pregnant or breastfeeding, have a history of keloid scarring or a metal allergy, or you are currently under the care of a dermatologist or using prescription skin or hair treatments, please seek professional advice before starting. You can book a free virtual skin consultation with us and we will help you decide whether now is the right time.

How to use the Restore Micro-Infusion System

Every kit contains one sterile single-use applicator and one sterile single-use serum ampoule per treatment. The serums are preservative-free, fragrance-free and pH-balanced (5 to 7), made specifically for infusion. Never substitute an ordinary serum, and never reuse an applicator, even on yourself.

Skin kits: Restore Micro-Infusion Scars & Dark Spots and Restore Micro-Infusion Lines & Firmness

Treat at night, once every two weeks. Set aside ten unhurried minutes for your first treatment; after that it takes about five.

1. Prep. Cleanse thoroughly to remove every trace of makeup, sunscreen and moisturiser, then let your skin dry completely. Serum belongs on bare, dry skin.
2. Assemble. Open a new sterile applicator and keep the needle cap on. Twist the cap off one serum ampoule and screw the ampoule onto the applicator.
3. Saturate. Hold the applicator needle-side down for 1 to 2 minutes so the serum soaks through to the needles. If serum stops flowing mid-treatment, tilt the applicator upright for a moment and it will feed again.
4. Stamp, zone by zone. Remove the cap and stamp with light pressure: forehead, then cheeks, nose, chin and jawline, working from the centre of the face outward. Give each zone 2 to 3 gentle passes and overlap each stamp roughly halfway over the last, so every area is covered at least twice. Under the eyes, stay on the orbital bone and never stamp the eyelid. Stamp, do not drag; the needles are designed to do the work, and pressing hard does not improve results.
5. Finish. Pat any remaining serum into the skin and leave it on overnight. No rinsing, no other products on top.
6. Dispose. Recap the applicator and throw it away. It is single use, every time, even on yourself.
7. Day 5: if you use the recovery sheet mask (available as an add-on), apply it on day 5 after each treatment, once the micro-channels have long closed. Never apply a preserved leave-on product to freshly stamped skin.

Hair kit: Restore Micro-Infusion Hair Density

The hair routine is deliberately simple: once a week, at night, a few minutes from start to finish. Most people describe the feeling as a light tapping, like drumming a fingernail on the skin.

1. Start with a clean, dry scalp. Part the hair to expose the area you want to treat, such as the part line, temples or crown.
2. Prepare the applicator. Open a new sterile applicator, screw on one serum ampoule, and hold it needle-side down for 1 to 2 minutes so the serum soaks through.
3. Stamp the thinning areas with light pressure, moving the part as you go so the serum is spread evenly across the scalp. Overlap each stamp roughly halfway over the last, and tilt the applicator upright for a moment if the serum stops feeding. The whole scalp pass takes only a minute or two.
4. Leave the serum in overnight, dispose of the applicator, and wash your hair as normal in the morning. Consistency is what moves the needle here: same night, every week.
5. Day 5: if you use the 30 ml leave-in hair serum (available as an add-on), apply it on day 5 after each treatment as your between-treatment step.

Set yourself up for optimal results

• Take your before photos first. Same lighting, same angle, before your very first treatment. Skin and hair change gradually, and photos are the only honest way to see it.
• Track on the right clock. Skin studies typically assess results around the 12-week mark[3][5]; hair works on a slower cycle, with studies commonly running 12 weeks to 6 months[9][10]. Review skin photos fortnightly and hair photos monthly.
• Consistency beats intensity. Weekly for hair, fortnightly for skin. Doubling up does not speed up collagen remodelling or the hair cycle; the biology sets the pace.

Aftercare

For all three kits: treat at night and avoid direct sunlight on the treated area in the days after each treatment. Skip makeup for 24 hours after a facial treatment, and keep strong actives (retinoids, exfoliating acids and vitamin C products) out of your routine for 48 to 72 hours after each treatment before easing them back in. Never share applicators, and never apply anything to freshly stamped skin other than the serum that was infused.

Restore Micro-Infusion Scars & Dark Spots and Restore Micro-Infusion Lines & Firmness: wear SPF 50+ on the face every morning for the duration of your course, and a hat when you are outdoors. This matters doubly when your goal is a more even-looking tone: unprotected sun exposure works directly against you, and the research on pigmentation consistently pairs any tone-evening approach with strict photoprotection[5][18].

Restore Micro-Infusion Hair Density: the scalp along a fresh part line is easily caught by the sun, and sunscreen is impractical to apply there, so wear a hat when outdoors in the days following each treatment. Wash your hair as normal from the morning after treatment, using a gentle shampoo.

The science: what is micro-infusion?

Micro-infusion combines two ideas that dermatology research has studied for decades: micro-needling and topical delivery. A micro-infusion stamp carries very fine, hollow needles. Ours are 24K gold-plated stainless steel, 22 needles per applicator, each 0.25 mm wide with an ultra-fine tip, set at exactly 0.5 mm, the studied at-home depth. When the stamp is pressed gently onto clean skin, it does two things at once:

• It creates controlled micro-channels. These tiny, temporary channels are the trigger for the skin's own renewal response, which researchers call collagen induction (more on this below)[1][2].
• It delivers the serum through the needle itself. Because the needles are hollow, the sterile ampoule serum travels through them into the micro-channels rather than sitting on top of the skin. Micro-channels transiently increase the skin's permeability, which is why what you infuse matters as much as the needling itself[1].

Each Restore applicator is single use: it is ethylene oxide sterilised, sealed in its own pouch, used for one treatment and then discarded. Needles blunt with use, and a fresh sterile tip every time is what keeps an at-home routine hygienic and comfortable.

The mechanism: collagen induction therapy (CIT)

Collagen induction therapy is the formal name for what micro-needling does, and it is the science behind Restore Micro-Infusion Scars & Dark Spots and Restore Micro-Infusion Lines & Firmness. The controlled micro-injuries created by the needles activate the skin's wound-healing cascade without removing or damaging the surface. In response, the skin increases fibroblast activity and growth-factor signalling (studies report upregulation of markers such as TGF-β1 and Ki67), which drives the synthesis of new collagen and elastin, a process called neocollagenesis, followed by gradual remodelling of the treated area[1]. A 2024 review of percutaneous collagen induction describes the same sequence for facial and neck rejuvenation: micro-injury, collagen induction, then progressive remodelling over the following weeks[2].

This is why results from needling-based routines build slowly and reward consistency. Collagen remodelling is measured in weeks and months, not days.

The evidence for skin: scars, dark spots, lines and firmness

Micro-needling is one of the better-studied cosmetic techniques of the last decade, and the recent peer-reviewed evidence is substantial:

• Atrophic acne scarring. A 2022 systematic review and meta-analysis of 12 randomised controlled trials (414 participants) found that micro-needling monotherapy produced significant objective improvement in acne scars, with no secondary scarring or infection reported across the included trials and a favourable pigmentation safety profile[3]. An earlier systematic review of randomised trials reached the same conclusion: micro-needling improved atrophic scars as monotherapy or in combination, with no serious adverse effects across studies[4].
• Dark spots and uneven tone. The lead active in the Restore Micro-Infusion Scars & Dark Spots serum is tranexamic acid (TXA) at a low cosmetic level of 2 to 3%. A 2023 systematic review and meta-analysis of 16 trials found micro-needling combined with topical TXA significantly outperformed comparator treatments for pigmentation scores, with the advantage growing over 12 and 20 weeks of follow-up[5]. A 2024 four-arm, assessor-blinded randomised trial similarly found that micro-needled topical TXA added measurable benefit and durability when combined with standard approaches[6]. These were clinical studies of medical pigmentation conditions; for our cosmetic kit the honest translation is that TXA delivered via micro-channels has strong supporting evidence for improving the look of dark marks and uneven tone.
• Lines and firmness. The Restore Micro-Infusion Lines & Firmness serum is built on peptides: copper tripeptide-1 (GHK-Cu) and Matrixyl-type palmitoyl peptides, with niacinamide. A 2025 review of tripeptides in skin regeneration details how GHK-Cu supports collagen and elastin synthesis in dermal fibroblasts and assists the skin's repair processes at remarkably low concentrations[19]. A 2026 systematic review and meta-analysis of 19 randomised controlled trials (1,341 participants) found peptide interventions produced a statistically significant reduction in wrinkle measures overall[20]. Niacinamide, included in all three serums, carries its own body of clinical evidence for barrier support, skin ageing and pigment appearance[18].

Restore Micro-Infusion Hair Density: the science of hair

Hair types, and why density is the real story

Hair fibre comes in patterns from straight through wavy and curly to tightly coiled, and each pattern behaves differently: curlier fibre tends to be drier and more fragile at the bends, while straight fibre shows oil from the scalp faster. But two things matter more than curl pattern when hair starts to look thinner. The first is density, how many active follicles occupy each square centimetre of scalp. The second is fibre calibre, whether follicles are producing strong terminal hairs or fine, short vellus-like hairs. Thinning that shows along the part line or at the ponytail is usually a density and calibre story, not a curl-pattern one, which is why hair research measures hairs per square centimetre and hair shaft diameter[9][21]. Whatever your hair type, the scalp side of the equation works the same way.

The hair cycle and the pilosebaceous unit

Each hair grows from a follicle that is part of a mini-organ called the pilosebaceous unit: the follicle itself, its sebaceous (oil) gland, and the tiny arrector pili muscle. The sebaceous gland lubricates the fibre and helps maintain the scalp barrier; the follicle does the growing[13].

Every follicle cycles independently through four phases: anagen, the active growth phase that can last several years and determines how long hair can grow; catagen, a brief transition where the follicle regresses; telogen, a resting phase of a few months; and exogen, when the old fibre is released and shed[12][13]. On a healthy scalp, around 85 to 90% of follicles are in anagen at any time, and shedding 50 to 100 hairs a day is normal exogen at work. Hair looks thinner when the balance shifts: more follicles resting, fewer growing, and follicles progressively producing finer fibre. The anagen-to-telogen ratio is exactly what researchers track when they test whether an intervention supports the look of denser hair[12][13].

Growth factors and stem cells: the follicle's engine room

What tells a resting follicle to start growing again? Two structures do most of the deciding. The bulge, a niche partway up the follicle, houses hair follicle stem cells that remain quiet until called upon. The dermal papilla, at the base of the follicle, acts as the signalling hub: it exchanges growth-factor signals with the stem cells above it. When signalling pathways such as Wnt/β-catenin tip toward activation, bulge stem cells wake, divide and rebuild the growing follicle; when inhibitory signals such as BMP dominate, the follicle stays in rest[14]. Much of the most exciting current hair research, from follicle neogenesis to growth-factor-based therapies, is an attempt to influence exactly this conversation between the dermal papilla and the stem-cell niche[15]. It is also why scalp care is increasingly treated as skin care: the follicle is a living structure embedded in scalp skin, and the environment around it matters.

Why micro-needle the scalp?

Micro-needling the scalp has moved from curiosity to a genuinely well-studied technique. A 2024 systematic review and meta-analysis of 13 randomised controlled trials (696 patients) found that adding micro-needling to hair-loss regimens significantly improved both hair density (a mean of around 13 additional hairs per square centimetre versus controls) and hair shaft diameter, with no increase in adverse events[9]. A 2024 randomised trial reported that a needling-plus-topical group gained 95.6 hairs/cm² over 12 weeks versus 52.4 in the topical-only group[10], and a 2025 network meta-analysis ranked micro-needling combinations among the most effective approaches studied, particularly in women[11]. Again, these are clinical studies, mostly in diagnosed hair-loss conditions and often alongside medicines; the Restore Micro-Infusion Hair Density kit is a cosmetic system for the appearance of fuller, denser-looking hair. But the direction of the peer-reviewed evidence on scalp needling itself is consistent and encouraging.

The Restore Hair Density serum carries scalp actives with their own published support, including biotinoyl tripeptide-1 (Procapil) studied at 3% with caffeine in a 2023 clinical assessment[16], and caffeine itself, whose mechanisms in the follicle, from phosphodiesterase inhibition to support for the anagen phase, were reviewed in depth in 2025[17].

Why the serum matters as much as the needle

Because micro-channels let ingredients partially bypass the skin barrier, the safety bar for an infused serum is far higher than for an ordinary one. This is not theoretical: a 2024 systematic review documented granulomatous skin reactions after micro-needling, with topical vitamin C products, formulas never designed for intradermal delivery, implicated in the majority of cases[7]. A systematic safety review of micro-needling found the technique itself is well tolerated, with transient redness the most common effect, and that problems cluster around unsuitable topicals rather than the needling[8].

That is why every Restore ampoule is sterile, preservative-free and single use, formulated at pH 5 to 7, and why we deliberately leave out vitamin C, essential oils, fragrance, retinoids and strong acids. What is not in the ampoule is as much a part of the design as what is.

Questions about your skin or hair? Talk to us, free

Every routine works better with a professional eye on it. If you have a question about your skin or hair, want help choosing a kit, or would like to review your progress photos with us during your course, book a free virtual skin consultation. It costs nothing, and it is the same consultation we give our clinic clients.

Book a free virtual skin consultation

References

1. Tehrani et al. (2025). Physiological Mechanisms and Therapeutic Applications of Microneedling: A Narrative Review. Cureus. doi.org/10.7759/cureus.80510
2. Carver et al. (2024). Microneedling versus microcoring: A review of percutaneous collagen induction for the face and neck. Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology. doi.org/10.1111/jocd.16175
3. Shen et al. (2022). Microneedling Monotherapy for Acne Scar: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials. Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. doi.org/10.1007/s00266-022-02845-3
4. Sitohang et al. (2021). Microneedling in the treatment of atrophic scars: A systematic review of randomised controlled trials. International Wound Journal. doi.org/10.1111/iwj.13559
5. Feng et al. (2023). The efficacy and safety of microneedling with topical tranexamic acid for melasma treatment: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology. doi.org/10.1111/jocd.15965
6. Aghdam et al. (2024). Efficacy, safety, tolerability and treatment durability of microneedling plus topical tranexamic acid in combination with topical modified Kligman lightening formula for melasma: A four-arm assessor and analyst blinded randomized controlled clinical trial. Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology. doi.org/10.1111/jocd.16464
7. Friedmann et al. (2024). Granulomatous Reactions From Microneedling: A Systematic Review of the Literature. Dermatologic Surgery. doi.org/10.1097/DSS.0000000000004450
8. Chu et al. (2021). Safety Profile for Microneedling: A Systematic Review. Dermatologic Surgery. doi.org/10.1097/01.dss.0000790428.70373.f6
9. Pei et al. (2024). Efficacy and safety of combined microneedling therapy for androgenic alopecia: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials. Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology. doi.org/10.1111/jocd.16186
10. Adistri et al. (2024). Effectiveness and safety of the combination therapy of micro-needling and minoxidil in androgenetic alopecia of Indonesian men: a randomized controlled trial. Dermatology Reports. doi.org/10.4081/dr.2024.9945
11. Xia et al. (2025). Relative efficacy of minoxidil in combination with other treatments for androgenic alopecia: a network meta-analysis based on randomized controlled trials. Frontiers in Medicine. doi.org/10.3389/fmed.2025.1638496
12. Lin et al. (2022). Morphogenesis, Growth Cycle and Molecular Regulation of Hair Follicles. Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology. doi.org/10.3389/fcell.2022.899095
13. Natarelli et al. (2023). Integrative and Mechanistic Approach to the Hair Growth Cycle and Hair Loss. Journal of Clinical Medicine. doi.org/10.3390/jcm12030893
14. Wang et al. (2022). Regulation of signaling pathways in hair follicle stem cells. Burns & Trauma. doi.org/10.1093/burnst/tkac022
15. Mehta et al. (2025). Revolutionary Approaches to Hair Regrowth: Follicle Neogenesis, Wnt/β-Catenin Signaling, and Emerging Therapies. Cells. doi.org/10.3390/cells14110779
16. Samadi et al. (2023). Assessment of the efficacy and tolerability of a topical formulation containing caffeine and Procapil 3% for improvement of male pattern hair loss. Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology. doi.org/10.1111/jocd.16102
17. Szendzielorz & Spiewak (2025). Caffeine as an Active Molecule in Cosmetic Products for Hair Loss: Its Mechanisms of Action in the Context of Hair Physiology and Pathology. Molecules. doi.org/10.3390/molecules30010167
18. Boo (2021). Mechanistic Basis and Clinical Evidence for the Applications of Nicotinamide (Niacinamide) to Control Skin Aging and Pigmentation. Antioxidants. doi.org/10.3390/antiox10081315
19. Adnan et al. (2025). Exploring the Role of Tripeptides in Wound Healing and Skin Regeneration: A Comprehensive Review. International Journal of Medical Sciences. doi.org/10.7150/ijms.118118
20. Nukaly et al. (2026). Oral and topical peptides for skin aging: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Frontiers in Medicine. doi.org/10.3389/fmed.2026.1618306
21. Rosenthal & Conde (2024). Management of androgenic alopecia: a systematic review of the literature. Journal of Cosmetic and Laser Therapy. doi.org/10.1080/14764172.2024.2362126

The Restore Micro-Infusion System is covered by our 90-Day Money-Back Guarantee. This article is general information about published research and cosmetic skin and hair care. It is not medical advice, and cosmetic products do not treat medical conditions. Persistent hair loss, melasma, acne and scarring have medical causes that deserve a proper diagnosis; please see your GP or dermatologist.