Dr Kim Prescott explains how to achieve naturally dewy skin in time for your wedding
Whether you’re planning for an imminent summer wedding or an event far in advance, you may be thinking about how to achieve naturally dewy skin, allowing you to wear minimal make-up on the day. The internet is full of treatments that promise glowing perfection, but the quality and timing of any new product needs to be carefully considered.
The first step is to visit your skin practitioner as far in advance as possible to design a treatment plan to address any skin concerns and which also matches your budget and your travel schedule. Extreme heat or cold, wind chill and sun exposure can lead to unwanted reactions from treatments like chemical peels, IPL and laser. Include your home skin regimen in the plan (with a focus on ingredients like vitamin C, lactic acid and retinol) so that any new products have plenty of time to settle and produce noticeable results.
Longer term planning
Many treatments take months to deliver optimal results. Laser and IPL for pigmentation or chronic redness are popular before weddings and courses of 3 to 6 treatments are ideally conducted over the winter months. You need to avoid sun exposure for 6 weeks before and after your treatments, so these can be tricky to fit around ski and sun holidays, but skin rejuvenation options can be more flexible. Dermal fillers restore mid-face volume loss, but for non-surgical tightening of the whole face and neck, collagen induction treatments like hybrid energy radiofrequency (RF) microneedling (Voluderm or Legend M2) can help to volumise and plump the skin, as well as improving overall skin tone. Advanced lipofirm treatments combine skin tightening and muscle toning to lift the SMAS layer of the lower face and enhance the overall lift. Your best results will be seen around 3 months after a course of collagen induction treatments (although you should see improvements long before).
Microneedling with PRP or growth factors is another great option. It looks and sounds intimidating but can be more affordable and works for most people to improve overall skin tone and tightness. Microneedling hair restoration for men and women helps to improve hair and scalp condition.
3 to 6 months ahead
Treatments like chemical peels, anti-wrinkle injections, injectable skin boosters and radiofrequency skin tightening can give you noticeable improvements within a few days so are good options for anyone with a tight timeline. It can take a couple of treatments for your practitioner to get to know how you will respond so it’s best not to try these treatments for the first time too close to the event.
ProfhiloÆ is a popular option to rapidly boost hydration and skin firmness, but results are often more noticeable following a second treatment, so plan to do this with at least 6 weeks to spare.
Days to go
Avoid your retinol which can leave the skin feeling dry and focus on optimising hydration and exfoliation with some well-tested eye patches and lactic acid or hyaluronic acid skin masks. My secret weapon for those luminous wedding pictures is copious quantities of highly concentrated hyaluronic acid underneath and on top of your moisturiser followed by lots of water before you start on the coffee shots and breakfast champagne.
Dr Kim Prescott practices Aesthetic Medicine in Knightsbridge and Surrey as well as lecturing and training and working in clinical research.
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