Bridal Skincare Routine
Everyone wants glowing skin for their wedding day walk down the aisle, but how do you achieve this? We have the inside scoop from the experts on how to manage a bridal routine for glowing skin and navigate wedding skincare — from when to schedule facials and treatments before your wedding to the bridal beauty products to buy as well as wedding skincare basics like how to tame breakouts fast. Keep reading for bridal skincare habits guaranteed to give you glowing wedding day skin.
1. Assess Early
If you really want to get your skin in top form, it’s recommended that you start a smart bridal skincare routine for glowing skin about a year in advance. It’s okay if you don’t have that long before the wedding day—just adopt these good bridal skincare habits as soon as possible.
2. Schedule Professional Facials
Your wedding is the perfect excuse for some extra pampering. You’ll want to book monthly facials to really refresh your skin. Experienced aestheticians will massage your skin, scalp and decolletage to stimulate blood circulation and keep your skin looking healthy. You can also request extractions. This is when your facialist gets all the dirt out of your pores. The process takes preparation and special techniques that, if done at home, can lead to irritation, or worse, scarring.
3. Manage Excess Facial Oil
If you’re on the go, blotting papers will help keep your face shine-free. If you need a more advanced grease solution, streamline your routine. Use a mild face wash, skip the toner and add a lightweight oil-free moisturizer. Excessive face washing will kick oil production into overdrive, which is no good for getting that bridal glow.
4. Eat Super Foods
No matter what your skin type is—oily, dry, normal or a combo— it craves water. Sure, drinking water helps, but snacking on naturally hydrating foods like watermelon works too. Other super foods for your face? Try grapefruit, cucumbers, tomatoes and kale.
5. “Shrink” Your Pores With Microdermabrasion
We want to give it to you straight, so first, the bad news: You can’t actually change the size of your pores. “The deeper a pore is, the bigger it looks on the skin’s surface,” says Cornelia Zicu, global chief creative officer at Elizabeth Arden Red Door Spas. The good news: You can minimize the depth of your pores to make them seem smaller. “Microdermabrasion, glycolic acid and other chemical peels will exfoliate layers of bad skin and minimize pore surface,” Zicu says.
6. Use Salt Scrubs to Soften Elbows
This is the one thing most brides forget about when considering their bridal routine for glowing skin and planning wedding skin preparation. Add a bath to your weekly routine and throw in bath salts with sodium bicarbonate. “The sodium bicarbonate will break down dry patches and make your skin a sponge for moisture,” says Zicu. For really tough patches, ask an aesthetician to put a glycolic peel on your elbows when you go in for a facial.
7. Sweat It Out
When you sweat, you allow your body to flush out all the impurities that are embedded in the dermal layer—from pollutants and dirt to old makeup and chemical residue. Regular sweating (made easy at Shape House) can improve the tone, clarity and texture of the skin. Your sweat also contains small amounts of antibiotics that combat dermal bacteria, reinforcing the cleansing process. Nutrient-rich blood is brought to the surface by increased circulation, allowing essential vitamins and minerals to help fill in the gaps between skin cells and plump up tiny wrinkles, while deterring future collagen breakdown.
8. Wear SPF 30…On Your Lips
It’s easier to prevent your lips from getting chapped than it is to repair them if they’re already dry and cracked. If you spend lots of time outdoors, especially in windy, sunny or cold weather, a thick balm with SPF 30 will keep your lips hydrated.
9. Use Skin-Specific Moisturizer
All moisturizers are not created equal. Look for one that caters to your skin concerns. For oily skin, you don’t want to add much more moisture, but you do want to hydrate. Look for ingredients like hyaluronic acid or ferulic acid, both of which help your skin maintain water. For dry skin, stick with the hyaluronic acid or ferulic acid, but don’t worry about finding an oil-free formula. Your skin craves moisture. For breakout-prone skin, choose a moisturizer that’s noncomedogenic. It should say so on the bottle. For sensitive skin, your go-to is a fragrance-free product.
10. Reduce Sunspots With an Acid Peel
Peels are designed to slough off dead skin and bring new, fresh skin to the surface. To make the most of these spa treatments, you’ll want to book a series of peels. Start with six different sessions, each two weeks apart (so skin has time to recover). If you have a full year until the wedding, Zicu recommends scheduling this treatment twice a year, once in spring and once in fall.
