Your Wedding Skincare Roadmap: When, Where and How to Prep

Smooth, glowing skin that’s free of blemishes? For your wedding day?Groundbreaking. 

It’s the most common pre-wedding request that dermal therapist James Vivian receives, and let’s be real, it’s one we’d all like 365 days a year (with an extra day chucked on for leap years). But it’s especially important on your wedding day, when you want to feel your best.

While it’s 2022, and the notion of a traditional ceremony can seem a bit naff, weddings still manage to be incredibly stressful. Cruelly, stress compounds a number of skin woes, meaning your best skin can feel like a faraway dream in the lead-up to your wedding.

We spoke to James Vivian, founder of renowned Toorak Road treatment destination James Vivian clinics and creator of cosmeceutical range Viviology Skincare about your perfect wedding skincare roadmap.

When Should You Start Working On Your Skin Pre-Wedding?

There’s a first time for everything, but the first time for starting a new skincare regime, trying fillers for the first time, or getting a laser treatment shouldn’t be two weeks before your wedding.

Start your skincare prep “ASAP” says Vivian, and your skin will thank you for it.

“Skin conditions like hyperpigmentation, acne and hypersensitivity can all be exacerbated by stress,” explains Vivian. 

Related: How to Avoid Panic! At Your Wedding: The Top 5 Mistakes Brides Make

From wrangling in-laws, deciding who to invite, securing locations and wondering why you didn’t just make a dash to the registry, just like you, your skin copes best with stress if it’s in a happy, healthy place to begin with. Starting at least six months, and preferably 12 months before the date is ideal.

Your first step will be deciding if you want to tackle any major issues in the lead-up to your wedding. Think hyperpigmentation, texture and redness. These skin conditions can require collaboration with a professional if you want to treat them safely. Vivian says the most common approaches range from “minimally invasive” to “moderately,” while some require the skills of an aesthetician.

Where: Finding the Right Skincare Swat Team

Stumbling into the first clinic you see is a good way to end up on a cautionary Reddit thread. “The bulk of our clients at James Vivian find us by word of mouth,” says Vivian, who believes referral is still the best way to find your dermal therapist. 

If your friends are drawing blanks, there are some easy ways to screen your potential therapist. Vivian says a good clinician will ask a lot of questions. Short of asking you for your birth certificate, they should be enquiring about “your at-home skincare routine, your skin history, treatments that have and haven’t worked for you in the past and, of course, if the treatment is uncomfortable, your pain tolerance.” 

They should also be mindful of your budget and your time. We’ve all been to clinics where bundle deals that require three times a month attendance are pushed, so if you feel like your budget — or your busy schedule — has been disregarded, it’s a sign the clinic may not be right for you.

How to Decide On a Treatment Plan:

Vivian says treatments like laser genesis, Fraxel, picosure (favoured by Zoë Foster-Blake) injectables and botox are all commonly deployed pre-game day. For a treatment like fraxel or picosure, you will want to leave plenty of time before the big day, and even for laser genesis, multiple treatments are required to get results. 

Redness/Rosacea/Uneven Texture: Laser Genesis – Minimally invasive 

Pigmentation/Acne Scarring/Skin Texture: Fraxel Laser and Picosure – moderately invasive 

Wrinkles/Sagging and Dark Circles: Botox, filler, Collagen Induction -Invasive 

Before Treatment: 

While it might seem counter-intuitive, your homecare should start before you head to the clinic. This is why James Vivian offers free initial consults, so clients have the opportunity to consider their treatment plan, and prep to optimise results.

“Good dermal clinics will recommend prepping the skin with certain actives prior to treatment,” says Vivian, “For instance, vitamin C, vitamin A and Alpha Hydroxy Acids can boost your in-clinic results and minimise downtime.”

3 Months Out: Maintenance Phase

Three months out you should be moving into the “maintenance” phase of your skin journey. This means fewer visits to the clinic, and a solid at-home-care regimen to maintain your results. “We like to get our clients to a point where their skin concerns have been resolved, and they can take care of things themselves, then right before the wedding we’ll have them in for a spruce.” 

For Vivian, the core pillars of an at-home skincare regime are pretty simple. “They’re not the sexiest parts of your regimen but I always start with the basics,” — that’s a cleanser, moisturiser and sunscreen according to Vivian. Why? Thorough cleansing ensures your products will penetrate properly, a moisturiser will seal them in and sunscreen “is the most essential product for keeping issues like hyperpigmentation and scarring at bay.”

Where to Spend On Your Pre-Wedding Routine:

Even if you’ve narrowed down the ingredients you need in your routine, how do you select the best product? If you’ve invested in multiple professional treatments before the day, you might be reluctant to pump more money into at-home care.

Vivian’s advice is to look at “percentages rather than price points.” When creating his own skincare line Viviology, Vivian ensured all active ingredients were included at “therapeutic doses.” A therapeutic dose of an ingredient is one that has been clinically proven effective, rather than used in minuscule amounts as window dressing. Many cosmeceutical brands formulate with this in mind and have correlating high price points. Money spent on products that do the job is money wasted, so if you’re going to splurge, splurge on actives like retinol and vitamin C.

One #lifehack? With his own cosmeceutical line, Viviology James Vivian was able to deliver actives at a comparatively accessible price point. He says this is the advantage of shopping Australian-made, as well as an intentional decision on his part. “Brands imported from overseas pass through many hands and get more expensive at every point along the journey,” explains Vivian.

So, now you’re fully prepped, hand your skincare keys to the experts and get back to ruminating over whether you really need to invite your second cousin and her weird husband to your big day.