Renuvion in Korea: Cost, and How It Compares with Liposuction and RF Tightening

Renuvion is the treatment people ask about when they have loose skin that a device from the outside has not fixed, but they do not want the scar of a surgical lift. This guide explains what Renuvion is, which degree of laxity it is actually for, what it costs at a Seoul clinic that publishes its list prices, and how that cost compares with the two alternatives on either side of it: radiofrequency body contouring and liposuction.

The prices below are the published list prices of HOMMAGE Clinic in Gangnam, in Korean won and excluding 10% VAT. They are the starting point for a quote, not the quote itself: what you are charged depends on the plan agreed at your consultation, and the clinic would rather show the list than make you ask for it.

What Renuvion does

Renuvion passes radiofrequency energy through helium gas to create a cold plasma, which is delivered under the skin through a thin cannula. At the tissue it reaches about 85°C — the temperature at which the collagen in the layer just under the skin contracts most efficiently — and then cools almost immediately, so the heat does its work without spreading to the surrounding tissue. The entry points are measured in millimetres rather than as an incision line.

Renuvion is FDA-approved for skin contraction and for improving the appearance of loose skin. It is used on the body — abdomen, arms, thighs and back — and on the face and neck, including the jawline and under the chin.

Mild, moderate or severe: the question that decides the treatment

Skin laxity is not one problem. Clinics that treat it well sort patients into three groups before talking about any device:

• Mild laxity responds to energy applied from outside the skin — radiofrequency or ultrasound — usually as a course of sessions with no incision and no downtime.
• Moderate laxity is where Renuvion belongs. It gives a genuine tightening result through entry points small enough not to leave a scar line, which is the gap that used to be empty between a device and surgery.
• Severe laxity needs an excisional lift — skin is removed and the wound closed — with the scar and the recovery that a surgical lift involves.

The honest version of a Renuvion consultation includes being told which of the three you are, and that includes being told when a device will not be enough. If a clinic proposes Renuvion without putting you in one of these groups first, ask which one you are in.

Published prices: Renuvion body treatment

HOMMAGE quotes body treatment per treated area. These are the clinic's list prices, in won, before VAT:

• Abdomen, upper or lower — KRW 4,000,000 / 6,000,000 per area
• Love handles — KRW 5,000,000 per area
• Legs — KRW 6,000,000 per area
• Full arm — KRW 6,000,000 per area
• Localised area — KRW 6,000,000 per area
• Sedation, where used — KRW 200,000 per procedure

Two areas are two prices. A patient treating the lower abdomen and the love handles, for example, is looking at a list figure of KRW 11,000,000 before VAT, before any fat removal is added. Confirm at consultation exactly what each area covers and whether sedation is planned.

When fat is removed in the same session

Loose skin and excess fat often arrive together, and treating one without the other is how people end up disappointed. Where fat is removed in the same session, HOMMAGE uses the LSSA suction platform, which has an unusually fine 0.9 mm tip and melts fat gently at the tip rather than tearing it loose. That is what keeps the surrounding tissue intact and the bruising, swelling and pain lower than a conventional suction technique. A treated area takes around twenty minutes. The clinic describes it as fine-line contouring rather than volume removal: a change of line, not a dramatic debulking.

Suction is priced as an addition to the body treatment above:

• LSSA suction, type A — + KRW 3,000,000
• LSSA suction, type B — + KRW 4,000,000

The clinic's own position is that where skin elasticity is the limiting factor, suction alone will disappoint, and Renuvion is planned with it in the same session. The reverse is also true: Renuvion tightens skin, it does not remove fat, so a patient whose main issue is volume is planned for suction first.

For smaller areas there are also injection options on the published list: lipolysis injection at KRW 3,900,000 per 300 cc, and contour injection at KRW 1,500,000 per 10 cc.

The cheaper alternative: radiofrequency body contouring

If the laxity is mild, Renuvion is the wrong tool and the cheaper option is the right one. HOMMAGE's radiofrequency body work uses Tune Body, which runs on the same Accent Prime platform as its Tune Face treatment at body scale, and InMode, which combines radiofrequency with ultrasound in one applicator. These are no-incision, no-downtime treatments done as a course rather than a single session, for the abdomen, thighs, upper arms, flanks and back.

• Tune Body — KRW 880,000 per session
• ONDA microwave lifting, body — KRW 330,000 for 10 lines, KRW 550,000 for 40 lines, KRW 1,100,000 for 100 lines

A course of four to six sessions can therefore cost less than a single Renuvion area. The trade-off is the degree of change: external energy firms mild laxity; it does not produce the contraction that Renuvion produces under the skin. The clinic's stated rule is that where the laxity is moderate it will say so rather than sell a longer course of the milder treatment.

Putting the three side by side

• RF body contouring — mild laxity. No incision, no downtime, several sessions. From a few hundred thousand won per session.
• Renuvion — moderate laxity. Millimetre entry points, one session per area, visible tightening. KRW 4,000,000 to 6,000,000 per area, plus suction if fat is removed.
• Excisional lift — severe laxity. A surgical incision and scar line, a surgical recovery. Not a device treatment; if this is what you need, a plasma or radiofrequency device is the wrong purchase.

Where Renuvion is used on the face

The same technology is used for the jawline, the double chin, the cheeks and the neck. Patients who have had an earlier non-surgical lift and were not satisfied, and patients who want something closer to a lift result but cannot accept the scar or the recovery, are the two groups the clinic describes as typical. Face and neck work is quoted at consultation rather than from the body list above.

Planning a Renuvion visit from abroad

Send your dates and photographs of the area on WhatsApp and say what bothers you about it. The reply should tell you which laxity group you are likely in and whether fat removal is likely to be planned alongside, so that the figure you travel with is close to the figure you are quoted. Allow for a consultation and examination before anything is booked, and for sedation if it is planned. Results vary between individuals, every procedure carries risk, and the specific risks of yours are explained at the consultation and written on the consent form.

Renuvion body treatment, RF contouring and LSSA liposuction are all described on the clinic's body treatments pages, and the full price list is on the pricing page.