Microneedling With PRP: Why People Call It the Vampire Facial

You have probably seen the photo. Someone in a spa chair, face streaked with red, smiling at the camera. The nickname wrote itself, and the internet did the rest.

The treatment is microneedling with PRP. It got famous back in 2013 when Kim Kardashian posted photos of hers, and it has stayed popular ever since. But there is more to know here than the nickname suggests, including one safety story every person considering this treatment should hear first.

What the Treatment Actually Is

Set the vampire imagery aside. The treatment combines two things.

The first is microneedling. A device with very fine needles makes tiny channels in the top layer of your skin. These little injuries are controlled and shallow, and they are the point. Your skin responds to them by making new collagen, the protein that keeps skin firm and smooth. This is sometimes called collagen induction.

The second is PRP, or platelet-rich plasma. A provider draws a small amount of your blood, spins it in a centrifuge to concentrate the platelets, and applies that concentrate to your freshly microneedled skin. Platelets carry growth factors, the signals your body uses to repair tissue.

The idea behind pairing them is simple. Microneedling opens tiny pathways, and the PRP goes right into skin that is already primed to heal. In theory, you get more repair than either step would deliver alone.

The red look in those photos is not blood pouring out. It is the flush from microneedling, plus the golden-red PRP sitting on the surface. It looks dramatic and washes off.

What People Use It For

Most people come in hoping for a few specific things: smoother texture, softer fine lines, smaller-looking pores, and improvement in acne scarring. Skin tone and overall glow come up often too.

Here is the honest state of the evidence. The American Academy of Dermatology has pointed out that there is not much research showing this treatment works, and not much showing it does not. It sits in that awkward middle. Some studies on PRP for acne scars and skin texture are encouraging. But large, high-quality trials are thin on the ground, and a lot of what you read online is personal experience rather than research.

Microneedling on its own has better-established support for texture and scarring. Whether adding PRP meaningfully raises the result is still being studied. That does not mean it is useless. It means you should walk in with steady expectations rather than the ones set by a viral post.

The Safety Story You Need to Hear

This is the most important part of this article, and most posts about the vampire facial skip it.

In April 2024, the CDC published an investigation into a cluster of HIV infections in New Mexico. Three women who received PRP microneedling facials at an unlicensed spa contracted HIV. They had no other known risk factors, and lab analysis found their HIV strains were closely related. It was the first time the CDC linked HIV transmission to cosmetic injection services.

What went wrong at that spa is the lesson. Investigators found unlabeled tubes of blood sitting on a kitchen counter and in a kitchen refrigerator. Equipment was not properly cleaned, stored, or labeled. The facility was unlicensed. It was shut down, and the owner was later convicted of practicing medicine without a license and sentenced to more than three years in prison.

This treatment involves drawing your blood, handling it, and putting it back on skin that has just been opened by needles. Done in a licensed setting with proper infection control, that process is considered safe, and health experts have said so. Done carelessly, the risk is real and serious.

So the treatment is not the villain here. The setting is.

How to Choose a Provider Safely

Use this as your checklist. A good provider will not mind a single one of these questions.

• Is the facility licensed, and is the provider trained and credentialed? Ask directly. This is the single biggest factor.

• Are needles and microneedling cartridges single-use? They should be, every time, with no exceptions.

• How is your blood handled? Your tube should be labeled with your name, kept in a proper medical fridge or handled immediately, and never stored loose alongside anyone else's.

• Is your PRP prepared in a closed, sterile system? Ask what equipment they use and whether it is designed for this.

• Does anyone review your health history first? A provider who skips this step is skipping other steps too.

• Is the treatment room a clinical space? It should look and feel like a medical setting, not a back room.

If a place is cagey about any of this, walk out. Price is never worth the trade.

Is It Right for You?

It comes down to your goal and your expectations.

Microneedling with PRP can be a reasonable choice if you want to work on texture, fine lines, or acne scarring, if you are comfortable with a series of sessions rather than one, and if you can handle a few days of redness afterward. Results build slowly as collagen forms, so patience is part of the deal.

It may not be your best first step if you want a fast, dramatic change, or if your main concern is deep lines or lost volume. Those often respond better to other options. Someone focused on overall skin health and glow might do just as well starting with a professional facial, while deeper texture and pigment concerns may point toward advanced skin treatments.

If the PRP part is what interests you, it is worth understanding the material itself. Our comparison of PRP versus PRF explains why some providers now use the newer version.

At Lux, our PRP and PRF treatments are done in a licensed medical setting with proper handling at every step, because that part is not optional.

Have questions about whether this treatment fits your skin? Reach out to our team and ask us anything, including everything on that checklist above.