Pre-Wedding Skincare: Tips For Your Wedding Beauty Regimen

Everyone wishes for bright, glowing skin on their wedding day. Preparing one’s skin can require lots of planning and care beforehand to achieve the perfect, radiant look when the big day arrives. How can you ensure that you have the ideal wedding skincare regimen for your skin? In this article, we will discuss some tips on how to get your skin in wedding-ready shape, as well as certain do’s and don’ts before your wedding in order to achieve that bridal glow.

In addition to a wedding checklist, starting or changing your skincare routine is a great way to practice self-care and de-stress before the big day. Plus, everyone wants glowing skin when all eyes are on them walking down the aisle.

When should the bride-to-be start preparing for a pre-wedding skincare regime?

When it comes to wedding beauty, women tend to get more hardworking with their regular masking and night-time skincare routine. Changing your skincare routine two or three months before your big day can give you ample time for your skin to reach its optimal condition. The skin’s natural renewal cycle is about 28 days for a middle aged adult which slows as we grow older, so this is the minimum time new skin takes to form at the deepest layer and emerge at the surface of the skin. When you start on a dermocosmetic skincare regimen, we expect 1-3 cycles of skin renewal before you see the results.

What are some wedding skincare tips or pre-wedding beauty regimen that you recommend?

Important lifestyle factors that will enhance absorption and effectiveness of your skincare would be an exercise regimen (High-Intensity Interval Type workouts are best for stimulating collagen production), a superfood-based diet with antioxidants, and 8-hour sleep timed according to our body’s natural circadian rhythm. Also, avoid alcohol and definitely don’t smoke!

Learn more about superfoods that are good for your skin in our podcast, Dermatologist Talks: Science of Beauty

You’ve probably encountered many bride-to-be’s in your practice, as seeing a dermatologist are on many bride’s beauty checklists before the big day. Skin-perfecting treatment options are seemingly endless and appear to be trending nowadays – and are also thought to give you an instant beauty boost.

What is the biggest misconception about a pre-wedding skincare routine?  

Skin-wise, many brides think they can fix everything in 3 months. Many come to me with long-standing untreated adult hormonal acne, rosacea, perioral dermatitis, facial eczema and think that everything can be fully treated before the wedding. What they fail to consider is that these conditions usually develop in genetically-prone individuals, and need to be controlled with medications and not facials. 

A dermocosmetic skincare regimen can help improve scars, texture and appearance significantly in 3 months, but the underlying disease must still be treated with medications. Medications take a minimum of 1 month to work, and there is a chance that we may need to switch medications if it does not work well for them. Additionally, the stress from wedding preparations will also impact the skin, making treatments may be less effective, so all these have to be considered. 

My advice? Don’t plan to treat your skin 1 month before the wedding. If you have an active skin disease, do not simply go for facials or aesthetic treatments but visit an accredited dermatologist 6 months before your wedding date to have ample time to get your skin condition under control.

Yes that’s true! Those suffering from skin diseases ought to consult a dermatologist as their conditions might worsen if they apply skincare or do treatments which cause further irritation. It can take up to months for a new skincare regimen to work, so we should give ourselves ample time to try out dermatologist-recommended products.

If you really want to get your skin in top form before the big day, don’t wait to see a dermatologist. In the meantime, here are some do’s and dont’s in terms of your pre-wedding skincare routine: 

Do: Protect your skin. Be diligent with applying sunscreens, seeking shade and using UPF protective fabrics to avoid harmful exposure from the sun. 

Do: Prevent body acne. If you’re planning on wearing a strapless or backless dress, you’d want to be especially mindful of back or chest acne. Use an antibacterial gentle cleanser. My patients use a medical grade antibacterial honey cleanser that emulsifies and also leaves a humectant layer on skin. A prescription retinoid is also helpful in the adjunct treatment of bacne  – it can help reduce the appearance of blackheads and whiteheads.

Don’t: Rely completely on makeup. Makeup may have varying results on camera, so it’s probably unwise to count on that to capture your best on the wedding day. Instead, stick to implementing a good skincare routine. The V-Face Bundle is great for hydrating, lifting and tightening of your face for the sculptured V-face look, and is perfect for pampering the facial skin before your big day.

The V-Face Bundle is specially put together to get the perfect v-face look. It features the Amino Acid 360° Masque for brightening and lifting, the Elixir-V™ Toal Recovery Serum which contains a nourishing concentrate of deep hydrating, lifting and tightening peptides, the Elixir-V™ Eyes for reduced wrinkles and dark circles, as well as the Jade Roller Rose Quartz for use with cosmeceuticals to increase serum absorption.

Are there any aesthetic treatments that you recommend as part of a pre-wedding skincare regimen? 

Chemical peels performed in a dermatology clinic can help to reduce the appearance of sun spots, fine lines, wrinkles, enlarged pores and acne scars. This helps to improve the appearance of the skin by gently stimulating the top layer of the skin cells through applying a solution made of fruit-derived acids. The acids we alternate in our clinic includes glycolic acid, lactic and salicylic acid. This treatment can stimulate the skin to regenerate, revealing improved skin texture and brighter-looking skin.

While booking a chemical peel right now may not be the safest option due to the pandemic, a skincare device that stimulates the effects of a chemical peel is recommended. 

The effects of the The effects of the SilkPeel Home Medi-Facial Kit are that of microdermabrasion which has a similar effect to microscopic skin exfoliation. This is achieved in a clinical setting with chemical peel acids. This silk peel provides a home-based facial peel system that is both safe and effective, and has the additional benefit of delivering bioactive cosmeceuticals to the skin.