Bridal Skincare: Where to start?
Hey everyone! Colette and Sophie have just finished a wedding at Hobbit Hill, so we thought we’d do a podcast episode afterwards. Sun is shining in the Ribble Valley and we’ve just pulled over to chat about Skincare, apologize if you hear a car!
Disclaimer, I (Sophie) am not a dermatologist. I’m a makeup artist and hair stylist, so I have not been to medical school, if you have, real skin problems that you want to address, you need to go to a doctor. And I’m talking about acne that is debilitating, eczema that is debilitating, go to a doctor, go to a dermatologist.
In today’s quick episode we are talking about Skincare and Skin Prep in the lead up to your wedding.
When should a Bride start her Skin prep?
I suppose as soon as you’ve got engaged, or even before that. When brides come for their trial two or three months before the wedding, this can be too late to start. You want prepped skin for your trial and you don’t want to run the risk of having a reaction too close to the wedding.
We should all really be looking after our skin anyway, getting married or not!
What is bridal skin prep compared to our everyday skin prep? What’s different and or, what should we already be doing?
There isn’t really a difference, apart from if you are getting wedding and you want to treat yourself to an enhanced or a more luxurious skin routine, then you would start adding in
Facials and treatments, like hydro facials, led masks, micro needling to focus on any pain points that you might have like acne scarring, anti-aging, burst capillaries, dullness.
So what should everyone be doing right now?
Let’s just talk about basic skincare. Because I feel like there are still people out there that use a makeup wipe only.
So I am going to say if you, if you are happy with your skin and you’re happy with with how it looks, carry on doing what you are doing. However, if you have skin concerns, like you feel like you’re really dry, your skin feels like sandpaper. Or you have acne, or If there’s something that you’re not happy with, then yes, and you’re not doing a routine, then you need to start a routine.
So the basic things that we need to be doing is cleansing our skin, this gets rid of the daily impurities and pollution. If you live in a city, it’s amazing how much pollution can lay on your skin. If you wear makeup, make sure you are double cleansing your skin, so you’ve got the makeup off. Because it’s amazing how much can actually still stay on your skin.
The cleanser that I use it’s by DHC and it’s a cleansing oil. I like using an oil because they break down all the dirt. It takes away all the makeup. Now I don’t wear makeup every day. I very rarely wear makeup because my skin is so sensitive, but the cleansing oil will take off the makeup, melt all that away, and I do a double cleanse, even with that, just to make sure my skin is properly clean. There are other cleansers that are foaming cleansers. There are cleansers that have salicylic acid in DHC Also have another cleanser, Fash Wash Powder. You mix it with water and it foams up. I do like to use that as well sometimes after the Oil cleanser, just to feel really clean.
Then after cleansing, it’s moisturizing. What does a moisturizer do? It puts a barrier over your skin to stop moisture coming out. Your skin feels more plump, supple, softer. During the daytime, wear sun cream / SPF on your face. Ideally spf 50 especially in summer months, I enjoy using either Corsx SPF 50 witch Witch Hazel, or Eucerin Oil Control Dry Touch SPF 50.
So that’s it really……Cleanse, moisturize and SPF in the morning, and Cleanse, exfoliate three times a week then moisturize in the evening.
Now you can step that up by adding in an exfoliator, and you’ll hear of salicylic acid, glycolic acid, lactic acid.going to talk about exfoliating, So at night time you double cleanse, then exfoliate, then moisturize.
Caroline Hirons has got a really good PDF on the internet, it is a thorough, detailed description of all of the acids.
As an extra step in your routine you could introduce hyaluronic acid. Hyaluronic acid is not an acid where it’s exfoliating, but the molecules attract water to the skin. So I like to spray my face with a thermal mist, or any kind of mist or essence. Then use a hyaluronic acid. And I would use that before my moisturizing step in the morning and evening.
What advice can you give to people who struggle with Eczema?
I would say go to your doctor. First of all, push for an allergy test. And if they’re taking too long, go and do an intolerance test. I have had an allergy test and a few intolerance tests.
Now, for skincare, skincare wise, you want a really thick, super thick moisturizer or cream like Eucerin Original Healing cream and it’s good if you’ve got fungal acne, because it doesn’t make your fungal acne break out. It doesn’t feel sweaty. It’s like a dry cream, but it’s a really good barrier. So there are other creams, cetraben, epiderm, e45.
Also use fragrance free everything. When you are doing your makeup, use a damp beauty sponge because then it won’t exfoliate your skin like a makeup brush would.
So what is fungal acne?
So fungal acne is where the yeast in our skin causes breakouts, spots. In a nutshell.
When we apply certain skincare and makeup that contain certain ingredients our skin feeds off it and can break out into small spots. There was a website called Simple Skincare science, and it’s this guy who has gone through 1500 products, skin care and makeup and looked through all the ingredients. He’s looked through studies, case studies, medical case studies to understand what fungal acne is and how to kill it. So if you feel like you’re using skincare or a new product, or if you’re using makeup that’s new and you have started to break out, there could be an issue there. It could be fungal acne, or that you’re allergic to it, or intolerant to it.
So stop using that product. Just put it down, put it to the side, and don’t use anything. Just try and let your skin heal, because your skin’s amazing. And it exfoliates itself. It heals itself.
There’s another amazing website called Skin sort and you can put in a product, and it pulls up the ingredients, I’ve even mad a profile on skin sort, to say I have eczema, I need fragrance free, I’ve got fungal acne. Every time I find a product I just research it. I put it in and it’s like, Oh no, it’s not fungal acne safe. No, it’s not good for eczema. No, it’s not fragrance free. Well, I won’t buy it.
Do you recommend LED Masks?
I haven’t used them to be able to give my opinion. I do think LED treatments work in a clinic provided by a professional, however I am not convinced about home use. I would recommend going to a skin specialist or facialist for any treatments instead of trying to do them yourself at home. Or read all of the reviews before investing as they can be expensive. I feel like if they are cheap, are they actually doing anything?
We will be interviewing a skin specialist on the Podcast in the future so we will deep dive into questions about LED therapy and recommended luxury treatments for Brides.
Thank you all for joining us for another amazing episode on The Bridal Hour Podcast. If you liked this episode and think it can help someone, please share it with a friend or family member.
……and just remember it’s YOUR wedding, they are your memories to make.
Love Cassie, Colette & Sophie X
You can view all of Sophie’s favourite skincare products by clicking the images below. (if purchased through the link Sophie will make a small commission).
Cassie, Colette & Sophie x
