Getting Married? Skin Care Prep Tips for the Bride

My wedding day in 2011 was fabulous! Here is my six month plan to ensure the glow on your wedding day.

6 MONTHS BEFORE THE WEDDING:

Find a reputable skin care professional. Six months is the perfect amount of time to ensure that your skin is clear, smooth and glowing for the big day. It’s important to find a trained skin care professional that is able to give your skin everything it needs.  Let RENU U Aesthetics make a plan to get your skin glowing for your wedding day.

Schedule a consultation. What may work for your friend may not be right for you, everyone's skin has different needs and reacts to stress differently. Be sure to ask a lot of questions; particularly the cost of treatments, side-effects and the results they can guarantee.

Fit it in the budget. Generally, a good skin care plan (both professional and home-care products) can range from $500-$2000. Tip: If the budget is tight, let your maid of honor know that getting your skin in good condition for your wedding day is a priority and she may plan a shower where everyone pitches in to give your skin care services as a gift…

Patch test your skin. When starting a new skin care program, be sure to do a patch test if you’re trying out new skin care products as allergic reactions can take up to four weeks to heal. Rub a small amount of product on the side of your neck and wait 24 hours. If redness or irritation occurs, avoid using the product.

Follow the plan set forth by your skin care professional. A variety of skin care procedures such as facials, microdermabrasion, photo facials, and chemical peels will all be beneficial in getting your bridal glow.

IF YOU HAVE BREAKOUTS:

-Exfoliate well. This will keep off dry skin cells to lessen clogged pores and blemishes, and help fade post-breakout scars. Look for products with exfoliating acids and enzymes.  For an at-home exfoliant to smoothe and clear your skin, try Thalgo's exfoliant best suited for your skin from RENU U Aesthetics.

-Keep the skin clear of bacteria. Products using ingredients such as Salicylic Acid and Tea Tree help to eliminate bacteria and prevent the spread of breakouts. Regular High Frequency treatments at RENU U Aesthetics can also help minimize bacteria presence on the skin.

-Be sure to keep the skin hydrated. If you’re prone to blemishes, your skin needs water-based moisture to keep cells healthy to discourage dead skin cell buildup. Make sure to use an oil-free lotion such as Thalgo's 24H Source Marine Gel Cream.

IF YOU HAVE DISCOLORATION AND BROWN SPOTS:

-Use a skin lightener. By combining exfoliation, skin lighteners and daily use of sunscreen, the pigmented cells will slowly start break down and fade their color. Exfoliation is beneficial for breaking up the pigmented cells while a skin-lightening agent like Vitamin C or Kojic Acid will suppress the melanin cells and accelerate the fading process. 

IF YOU HAVE REDNESS AND ROSACEA:

–Avoid washing your skin with hot water. Cooler temperatures will keep reduce redness and keep the skin calm.  

–Use soothing ingredients in your products. Chamomile, Azulene and Sea Whip all help to comfort the skin and reduce redness.

-Make sure you get facials that cater to sensitive skin. Although facials can be extremely calming for red skins, you must make sure that your esthetician has experience in caring for this very delicate type of skin. Avoid strong chemical peels as they will only exacerbate redness. Also, avoid use of hot steam during a facial and use a Lucas Pulverizer.

3 MONTHS BEFORE THE WEDDING

Make a commitment to not pick at your skin. Acne breakouts usually last just 3-5 days, but when you pick at a blemish, the red mark that lingers can be there for three months! We know it’s tempting, but you can make problem skin much worse by forcing bacteria deeper into the skin, resulting in scarring and further break outs. A better solution for problem skin is a regular facial schedule, where your pores can be cleaned professionally. 

Cut back on the invasive skin treatments. If you have been having IPL treatments or a series of skin peels, now is the time to start cutting back on those. You need to start going into maintenance mode. Hopefully, those aggressive procedures helped to clear up break outs, post-breakout acne scars and discoloration and now the focus is on maintaining the results. Get a professional facial every 3-4 weeks for the remaining three months.

1 MONTH BEFORE THE WEDDING

Go easy. Now that you’re on the home stretch, it’s not the time to be experimenting with new products or services. Keep everything gentle by backing off aggressive professional treatments.

Avoid dairy products if you’re prone to acne cysts. Many people have heard that greasy foods and chocolate cause breakouts. Breakouts, especially those that are cyst-like in the chin and jaw line area, most often are related to too much ice cream, yogurt, milk and cheese. Try cutting back and watch your skin clear up!  

Get at least 8 hours of sleep a night. Sleep is not only important to keep dark circles at bay, but it is also the time when your body is most metabolically active, ridding itself of toxins which would otherwise wreak havoc with your skin. Sleep also reduces stress, the #1 aggravator of acne!

Keep your skin care products cold. When nerves are at their highest, it can cause increased blood flow to the skin. Try keeping your skin care products in the refrigerator. Cleansing, toning and moisturizing with cool temperature products keep the skin calm and soothed.

2-3 DAYS BEFORE THE WEDDING

Get your final facial. The facial should focus on skin smoothing via exfoliation and hydration. Keep extractions to a minimum to avoid unnecessary redness.

Don’t experiment with any new products. You don’t want to risk having an adverse reaction to anything—stick with tried and true.

Avoid shell fish. Especially for those who have traveled to a tropical island for their wedding, you’ll be tempted with all the wonderful seafood that is there. Many people are allergic to iodine commonly found in shell fish which can result in very serious skin and body reactions, so now is not the time to be eating foods you have not tried before.

Limit your intake of alcohol. Alcohol leads to skin and under eye puffiness, so for every alcoholic drink, follow it with a 4-8 oz glass of water. This will help prevent unnecessary morning puffiness.

Avoid crying (if possible). With all of the celebratory speeches that are given, it’s only normal that a few tears may be shed. If at all possible, try to avoid crying since it causes the eyes to swell resulting in excessive morning under eye puffiness. (Do cucumber slices on the eyes help reduce puffiness?)

WEDDING DAY

Apply a hydrating mask. Thalgo's Marine Source Masks are water-based so they won’t add any oil to the skin and interfere with wedding day makeup. They calm the skin from wedding day nerves, and gives your skin a smooth, healthy glow.

Drink a lot of water. To prevent skin from puffiness due to shedding tears or alcohol intake the night before, drink cold ice water throughout the day. This will also help prevent your mouth from getting dry due to nerves.

Practice deep breathing. There is nothing better to calm the nerves than frequent deep breathing. Relax. Enjoy. Your day is here.

Tips for a Confidence

The Healthiest You is a Confident You

For women and men in our society it can be difficult to be satisfied with self. We all watch TV and see magazine covers that make us feel ugly, fat and all over less than. It's hard to tell yourself that those pictures are touched up and there is simply no way we will ever look like the women and men on the cover of these magazines. Whether it be a fitness, or beauty magazine/show. It just seems impossible to reach and we feel discouraged and defeated. It happens to all ages, ranging from 5-70 people are feeling inadequate.

Here are some times to help you build your confidence every day:

Post it Notes: 

Leave yourself encouraging messages all over your home, cellphone background etc... Things like.

"You are Beautiful" "Love yourself" "Today is Gonna Be a Good Day" "You are Wonderful" "Think Happy thoughts" etc....

Things that make you feel special and loved. Things that make you smile.

Think Positive:

Don't put yourself down, what you say to yourself becomes the truth, if you tell yourself you are ugly or that you will never succeed... you'll never get anywhere.

Tell yourself as you look in the mirror "I am beautiful, and confident" and you will be.

Smile:

It's true that a smile can turn into a laugh, and can even brighten your day.

Take Pride:

If you have accomplished something that you've always dreamed about, make sure you tell yourself that you have succeeded. Remember confidence comes from within, praise from others is hollow if you don't believe it yourself. 

Don't focus on mistakes:

Look at the big picture. If you have had a set back in life just think how far you have come. If you are painting, losing weight etc... look at the overall picture! Does the painting still look beautiful despite that small flaw? Did you already lose 50lbs and you didn't get your total goal this week? 

That is what matters, don't knit pick the little details.

Change the things you can:

If you are unhappy in your life and there is something you can do to change it, change it! Loving yourself is making the hard decisions that will make you happy in the long run even if in that moment it seems like the hardest thing you will ever do.

Accept yourself:

If people tell you that you have flaws and that they don't like something about you... don't listen to them! If it makes you happy and you just wouldn't feel yourself without that part of you, find people that will love you for these special quirks! Surround yourself with people who love you for who you are no matter what! Never change for someone else.

One day you'll be surround by people who love you through and through, but first you have to love yourself utterly and completely.

Basically do what makes you happy, surround yourself with people that make you happy! Live in the moment, be happy and frolic. Don't let others bring you down. You are beautiful in your very own unique and special way and once you see that everyone else will too... those who don't aren't worth your time. Besides their opinions don't matter, what matters is what you think of yourself.

Live well and Be Healthy,

Renu U Aesthetics

Baby steps to a healthier you

How to start getting healthy

For a lot of us it can be very hard to get healthy, we are all stuck in front of the television wishing for a body like the ones we see. We don't know where to start. We don't know how to start! A completely new lifestyle started cold turkey can be good for some people. However for others it can be a challenge to keep it up because we are so used to something completely different, sometimes it's been years since the last time we did anything remotely close to healthy. So here are a few tips on how to get started:

1. Do you go to bed at a decent hour?

Say you wake up every morning to go to work at 6am, are you in bed sleeping (or at least trying to sleep) by 10 pm. That's 8 hours right there.

Try to get your 8 hours of sleep to start, you'd be surprised how much healthier you feel and actually are when you sleep enough.

* We have tips on how to get a more restful sleep in our blog.

2. Do you eat often through out the day?

It's very important to have good eating habits. They say eating smaller meals more often through out the day is very important to keep one's metabolism running efficiently. This means that you are constantly burning what you are eating and not putting too much stress on your digestive system, or starving it.

Don't skip meals! This is important.

3. Do you drink enough water?

Taking in enough fluids is very important some people use the 8, 8 ounce glasses of water a day rule. But you can also measure your hydration level by the colour of your urine. It needs to have a pale yellow colour to it. Not clear and not dark, you can actually be over working your kidneys if it's too dark or too clear.

Hydration is very important to help keep your body moving along smoothly. Fluids are like the oil in your car, it keeps things going the way they are supposed to.

4. Do you exercise?

If you are a very sedentary person, you should always take it slow. Try to get the minimum amount of suggested exercise a week to start out and go from there. According to Health Canada for an adult that's a least 2.5hrs of exercise a week. That comes out to just over 20 minutes a day of exercise!

You can gradually increase the amount of time you spend exercising as you go, but for someone who doesn't lee active this is a good place to start.

It's suggested focus on exercises that get the blood flowing. Jumping jacks, dancing, aerobics etc... Choose something that you enjoy.

5. Build some muscle.

So if you already have all this down. Building muscle will help you get rid of any unwanted/unhealthy excess fat. You wonder how come people who are fit can eat "what ever they want" it's because getting fit and having lean muscle actually helps to keep you fit. A well oiled machine runs at peak efficiency.

And women are very afraid of looking bulky, but to get "large" for a woman takes a lot of dedication and a lot of food, and supplementation. Using weights every once in a while will actually tone and thin out your arms and legs rather than make then grow.

6. Be calm!

Stress is one on of the #1 causes of death these days. It causes major complications in the body. Stress can be seen in many ways. Eating things that put pressure on your system, being inactive, under/over sleeping, poor posture etc... It can all make a big difference in your life span and over all health.

Try to take better care of yourself. Take time for you, read a book take a bath do something you enjoy. Go to a yoga class, learn to meditate. It will all benefit you in the long run.



It's important to pick one and stick with it till it becomes second nature and then move on to another and then another. This will help you to build healthy habits for the future. You won't even have to think about what you are doing, you'll just do it. And don't worry if you slip up once or twice, everyone does it. Things take time to become a reality and if you want it badly enough you'll do it. It's all about focus, and strategy.

Keep moving and keep trying any effort you make to take a step forward is still farther ahead then you were yesterday even if you skipped last night's 20 minute work out.

You can do it!

Live Well and Be Healthy,

Renu U Aesthetics