Planning is Key
While we all want to look our best for any big event, it is best to plan aesthetic procedures well in advance. Things like bruising, redness, and swelling can be unpredictable and no one wants a surprise tripping them up before their big day. When getting on a new skin care routine, the skin takes a while to adjust. We have all experienced the dreaded breakouts and flakiness that can occur when adding something into our routine. Most “treatment” products can take 6-8 weeks before the skin becomes used to them. This is particularly true with anything that contains retinol. If possible it is ideal to start retinol 3 months prior to events so that your skin has enough time to adjust and the product has enough time to be making a difference in your complexion. If you are planning on making sure your Botox is fresh, plan on having your first treatment done at least 5 weeks in advance so that there is time for a touch up if needed. Bruising can last 14 days in some cases and is best not to have any injections within two weeks of an event. Dermal filler is recommended to have done one month prior to any large event so that bruising and swelling will be able to go down.
When looking at more invasive treatments, it is advisable to have them done even further from your event. After procedures like microneedling and laser resurfacing the skin increases its collagen production. Within the first 3 weeks, hyaluronic acid starts plumping the skin and allows you to start seeing results. It takes between 3-6 months for collagen to really set in and you will continue to see improvement over this time. In a perfect world, you would schedule your laser resurfacing appointments 3 months in advance. Microneedling is best performed in a series and it would be ideal to get 2-3 treatments in before an event in order for the skin to truly build collagen and improve your complexion. Not everything happens in a perfect world, and sometimes you do not have months and months to plan ahead. There are several other procedures that your provider can recommend that will have minimal downtime and will keep your skin looking fresh. Some things you can consider if time is short are BBL photofacial and chemical peels. A dermaplane is icing on the cake. It can be done days before an event and removes the dead layer of skin cells and that dreaded “peach fuzz.” Removing this allows products to absorb deeper, makeup to be applied flawlessly, and photos to be radiant. Let’s break this down into a more manageable list:
9-12 Months from Event
- Get a thorough skin care consult from one of our providers
- Get started on Retinol
- Make a plan for the rest of the year
3-6 Months from Event
- Get Botox 6 months prior (first timer’s it’s good to see how you respond)
- Get filler if needed
- Start microneedling series if needed
- Laser resurfacing if needed
- Start BBL treatments if needed
- Continue daily skin care routine
- Start Revitalash eyelash conditioner
1-3 Months from Event
- Get Botox 5 weeks prior to event (touch up two weeks later if needed)
- BBL follow up treatment if needed
- Microneedling follow up treatment if needed
- Chemical peel if needed
- Continue daily skin care routine
Days Before Event
- Dermaplane
- Continue daily skin care routine (don’t add in any new products or masks!)
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