The 10 Dos And Don'ts of Beautiful Bridal Skin Care

Don’t FAFF – Fiddling with your skin in the lead up the wedding is a sure fire way to bring out spots, redness, flakiness and general irritation. So paws off!

Do Keep It Simple – If you’ve never had a fancy skin care routine now’s not the time to start one. Use gentle cleansers and face washes that are designed to not irritate your skin, and a light moisturiser. Just make sure you do it every day.

Do Drink LOADS of Water – It’s not a myth that drinking an absolute tonne of water is one of the best ways to glowing skin. It really does work to flush out toxins, get rid of puffiness and keep a sparkle in your eyes. Get into the habit of carrying a bottle of water around with you everywhere you go and try to drink about 2 litres a day.

Don’t Over Scrub – It’s tempting to think that exfoliating your skin loads and loads will get rid of it’s dullness and leave you looking radiant. Too much scrubbing can, however, bring out redness and little pimples. It’s best to go for a proper scrub (like microdermabrasion) 2 weeks prior to W-Day, and then stick to a really gentle exfoliator twice a week thereafter.

Don’t Layer Up – So you’ve found a moisturizer that works really well for you? And an anti-wrinkle cream you’ve read does miracles, and there’s a cool facial oil which purifies your pores? Choose one! Layering up can result in mini reactions on your skin and can cause problems. Best to stick with the simplest thing you can find.

Do Sleep LOADS – I know it can be pretty hard to sleep when you’re buzzing with excitement, but lack of sleep will cause those dreaded bags under your eyes and generally give you skin a dull appearance. If you’re not good at napping, try and get used to taking 15-30 minutes every day to just lie down in a dark room, with a warm damp cloth over your face. You’ll feel like an idiot but it will de-stress both you and your skin.

Don’t Sun Worship – Tempting as it may be to lap up the rays or worse, hit the sunbeds(!) you run the risk of doing more harm than good. Stick with faking it with gradual tan moisturizers, and do some trials early on to eliminate the risk factor.

Do Eat Right – You are what you eat has never been so true. If you ditch too excess salt, sugar, alcohol and fried foods you will notice a difference in how you feel and ultimately how you look within a week. I’m not saying go cold turkey, though if you have the will power to do that, I salute you, but do try and cut down. Eat things like grilled fish or meat and lots of fresh veg, have some fruit every day but don’t go crazy on it, it’s still really sugary!

Don’t Squeeze That Spot! – It’s the day before the wedding and you wake up with a huge great spot. Brilliant. Unless it has a white head on it, don’t even think about squeezing. The best course of action at this stage is to steam the area (with a hot cloth) and apply a fast acting spot gel. Let that do it’s magic for as long as you can (maybe repeating after 4 hours if you have time) then take an ice cube wrapped in a thin cloth and press it on the spot. This should reduce the redness and swelling. Taking an asprin (which reduces swelling) should also help.

Do Go Natural – Whilst there are some exciting products out there containing magical secret ingredients, you’ll be far safer sticking to things that are natural. Got a break out? Try witch hazel. Fancy a mask? Go for clay. And for exfoliator there are heaps of fruit based options.