Every bride dreams of looking radiant and beautiful on their wedding day, but achieving that perfect glow can be stressful. Instead of buying every skincare product in sight, it's essential to evaluate your specific skin goals. Whether you want to reduce wrinkles, clear acne, increase collagen and elastin, or simply hydrate your skin, setting clear goals will help you create an effective skincare routine for your wedding day.

Natalie Abouchar, Director of Privée Skin Clinic, shares the top treatments and products for brides-to-be, providing a detailed timeline from six months before the wedding, to the big day itself!

Six months out from your wedding

Starting your wedding skincare routine six months in advance will ensure you reap all the benefits of your treatments and products. Whether you're a super organised bride or planning last-minute, this guide has you covered.

Start using Retinol (if you’re not already)

Retinol is a form of vitamin A that belongs to the retinoid family. It stimulates skin cell renewal and encourages collagen production to create a thicker and plumper layer of skin. Overall improving the appearance of fine lines, wrinkles, discoloration, and skin texture. It can even treat acne prone skin.

Retinol can be quite potent for some people. So it's important to start slow and gradually build up your usage. Start by using it - only at night - 3 times a week initially and gradually increase the frequency to every night once you see that your skin tolerates it. 

Natalie Abouchar says “I’ve been using Retinol for a couple of years now, I started slow and built up to every night. Firstly I cleanse, ensuring the skin is completely dry, then apply a pea size amount of Retinol all over my face. I will use the same amount on my neck and chest, then apply a thick moisturiser. It’s a quick and effective routine to minimise pores, improve texture and keep the skin exfoliated.”

Find a Medical Aesthetician

If Medical (or Cosmetic) Aesthetics are something you are planning to integrate into your pre-wedding skin care routine, you should start looking for a Medical Aesthetics clinic about six months in advance. “Reducing wrinkles and improving skin tone and texture are the main things people want to fix before a wedding,” says Natalie Abouchar. “With six months of working together, medical aestheticians can really get to know your skin, perform multiple treatments, and help smooth your complexion. But this becomes more difficult as we get to 2 or 3 months out from your wedding.” 

Skin Treatments can range from Radio Frequency Resurfacing for improving skin tone and texture, Intense Pulsed Light (IPL) for improving pigmentation, REJURAN for reducing fine lines, dark circles and improving crepey skin and PDO Mono Threads to tighten and improve skin laxity. 

Natalie Abouchar says “It’s important to research your potential medical practitioner and ensure that they specialise in an area that aligns with your skin goals. Depending on your budget and the severity of skin concerns, you can then work together to create a tailored plan in advance for your wedding. My team of registered practitioners and skin experts will discuss your aesthetic concerns and goals, and you will receive a tailored plan to ensure your skin is glowing and wedding-ready.”

Four months out from your wedding

Try laser treatments

If your primary concern is eradicating sun spots or hyperpigmentation before your wedding, whether that be on your face or body, Intense Pulsed Light (IPL) might be an effective treatment for you. 

Intense Pulsed Light (IPL) is mainly for people with fairer skin types on the Fitzpatrick scale 1-3, who want to treat sun damage and clear uneven colour from their skin such as red and brown tones. It treats redness, rosacea, sun damage, freckles and any non melasma pigmentation. IPL helps to even out skin tone and stimulates the production of collagen. 

IPL uses Broad spectrum wavelengths of light in each pulse to target red and brown chromophores in the skin and the inflammatory pathway and stimulates the production of collagen.

“Depending on how severe the pigmentation is, I will generally do about three or four IPL treatments before the wedding day in order to see optimal results,” says Natalie. Because of this, I recommend coming in for a consultation about four to six months in advance of your wedding. This gives you enough time to assess how your skin reacts to the treatments, and gauge how long the downtime will be for your particular skin type, while also having the flexibility to change around treatments as needed. 

Chemical peels

A Chemical Peel is an active solution that is applied to the skin to accelerate the skin’s natural exfoliation in a controlled way, so that new skin can grow in its place. Professional peels can be applied to the face, neck, décolleté, hands and other body parts. 

Acids are capable of providing incredible results when it comes to hyperpigmentation, dullness, acne, or textural issues. At Privée Clinic we have several options for peels. The Cosmo Peel Forte is a Medium Depth Peel and is a powerful anti-ageing peel that smooths the skin and improves overall skin tone. The powerful ingredients work to target acne scarring, senile lentigines, actinic keratosis lesions and boost collagen production to improve the appearance of wrinkles and sagging skin. 

Natalie Abouchar says “At the Clinic, we analyse your skin in person and help you to find the right percentage formula for your unique skin type. Three to four months from your wedding date is an ideal window of time for you to begin using a new acid product and assess how your skin is responding without fear of irritation on your wedding day.”

One month before the wedding

Go in for your final Medical Aesthetics appointment

Every person’s timeline is unique to their skin type, but generally speaking, your final Medical Aesthetics appointment should be done no less than one month prior to your wedding day. That way, the treatment will have settled into your skin, while still giving a little bit of time to heal in the event that swelling or bruising occurs.  

Don’t start any new treatments or products

During the final weeks leading up to your wedding day, you should avoid trying any new products or treatments in order to avoid an irritation or flare-up. “The last thing you need a few weeks before your wedding is a bad reaction to something new you tried. So just keep using things that work for you, now is not the time to change anything,” explains Abouchar

One Week Before the Wedding 

Focus on hydration

“In order to avoid any possible skin irritation on the day of your wedding, and depending on your skin, it may be effective that you stop or reduce using exfoliators or retinol about a week prior to your wedding. Acids and retinol can trigger dry patches and irritation. Holding off the week before is an easy way to avoid a crisis the day of your wedding,” says Abouchar. “Instead you could opt for hydrating and calming serums or moisturisers to soothe and quench the skin. And drink lots of water!”

As your wedding day approaches, it's also important to prioritise sun protection to prevent sun damage. Use a broad-spectrum sunscreen with an SPF of 50 everyday, and reapply it throughout the day as needed.

At Privée Clinic we offer an extensive range of treatments to suit every bride-to-be, regardless of the timeline to your big day.. Our team of registered practitioners and skin experts will discuss your aesthetic concerns and goals, and you will receive a tailored plan to ensure your skin is glowing and wedding-ready.

Book a skin consultation here, or call us on (02) 8041 5725.