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Lots of brides put off dealing with their skin until too close to the wedding date to actually do much to improve it. Experts encourage newly-engaged women to start thinking about the way their face will appear in close up wedding photos from day one of wedding planning.
“Our skin renews itself, on average, every 27 days,” explains skin expert Candace Maurer, co-founder of the mineral-based makeup brand Sweet Minerals. “This means, it will take at least that long to determine if a new regimen is giving you a result that you desire.”
In other words, if you’re going to try out a new skincare line, or switch up any of the products you put on your skin on a regular basis, you need to try them out well ahead of your actual wedding date in case they don’t work for you, or cause irritation.
That also goes for the cosmetics you’re planning to wear to look your best on the big day. It’s never a good idea to switch up brands, just for the sake of using something new, for something as important as your wedding. Start experimenting with new makeup well in advance, after you’ve established that the skincare line you’re using agrees with your skin.
“The skin prepping process should begin at least six months before your wedding. As you determine the look you want on your wedding day, and decide, along with the help of your esthetician, on a skin regimen to achieve it, you’ll want as much time as possible to work with, and see, results from products, such as cleansers, toners, exfoliants, and creams. It also gives you time to schedule, and recover from, any corrective treatments you may want, such as microdermabrasion, peels, or laser therapy,” Maurer says.
It’s a good idea to set up a schedule, at least a few months in advance, for a series of deep-cleaning facials to really clear out your pores and hydrate to repair the sun damage you’ve inevitably caused over the years. The advantage of a good facial is that it will draw out blackheads, and other impurities, that might be more visible in high resolution wedding photos. The downside is that a good facial will likely trigger some blemishes in the days immediately following the treatment, a successful result of effectively cleaning out your skin. No bride should have a facial within two weeks of her wedding date.
No matter how well you prepare your skin in the months ahead of your wedding, you won’t look your best when the big day finally arrives if you don’t treat yourself well, get plenty of rest, and stay hydrated through those last very busy days of wedding preparations. It’s easy to let the stress get to you, and skimp on sleep. But doing so is to your own detriment — not only will you feel tired at your own wedding, you’ll look tired too.
See More: 50 Pre-Wedding Skincare Products For Every Complexion Type
Sandy Malone is the owner of Sandy Malone Weddings & Events and author of How to Plan Your Own Destination Wedding: Do-It-Yourself Tips from an Experienced Professional. Sandy is the star of TLC’s reality show Wedding Island, about her destination wedding planning company, Weddings in Vieques.