By Mary-Jane O’Regan

There is nothing more stressful for a bride than her skin being less than perfect on the day of the wedding and the makeup artist can only help so far with the look of the skin. The least stressful thing to do is to adopt a proactive approach to skincare, particularly targeted skincare, which will make your job a lot easier.

The best thing you will ever do for your skin is to book a skincare consultation. You can then work around the issues that you face like pores, acne and dehydration. The secret to getting targeted problems corrected is consistency in your approach to treatment. Daily double-cleansing of your skin, including a high-quality antioxidant and SPF, is imperative, no matter what your skin type.

Introducing regular peels or microdermabrasions will keep the cell turnover of dead skin at optimum levels and thus encouraging collagen synthesis. Targeted areas, such as your neck, décolletage and upper arms are areas that if you are a bride that you will need to look after especially if the neckline of a dress is swooped or daring.

For the neck try NeoStrata Triple Firming Neck Cream, €48.95, which helps the neck to look more even in tone and texture. The skeletal structure means that the neck gets very little support, therefore needs something specific to help it. The trio of state-of-art active ingredients work together to plump, build volume and firm sagging skin. The potent cream is fortified with Apple Stem Cell Extract to help protect longevity of the skin’s own stem cells, so your skin behaves like younger skin.

For the upper arms, try using a product like Guinot Sculpt Expert, applied daily. Sculpt Expert can help to firm and restore skin density and visibly reshape the figure, and is perfect for those concerned about sagging skin, particularly on the upper arms and thighs. This will serve you well for the honeymoon too!

Body brushing helps with keeping the overall skin looking great too. It helps with lymphatic drainage, so will help with the efficacy of any products you apply topically. You can buy a body brush in boots and you do it daily before showering, using circular motions upwards and outwards.

Your hands will be on show too with photographs, so keep them nice and maintained too. Being consistent will help take the pressure off nearer the day. Karite Shea Hand cream with Almond and Honey, €15.50, has a silky, non-sticky texture that you can pop in your handbag to keep your hands in terrific condition. Keeping your cuticles trimmed has never been easier with Kiss Cuticle Oil. Priced at just €5 it is suitable for nails and toenails and will help keep your cuticles manageable. If you indulge in two-week manicures, it will help keep them strong. If you suffer with extreme dryness then Uriage Bariederm Healing hand cream is fast penetrating and is invisible on application. It is ideal for anyone that works outdoors or suffers with cracked hands from hobbies. It is available in pharmacies for just €10.

Look after your feet for a day of dancing and greeting your guests by getting regular pedicures every four to six weeks approaching your big day. Lycon, the wax experts, launched Lyco Pedi, which is one of the best pedi systems on the market, comprising of a scrub callous remover and a refreshing foot lotion. During the process your feet get treated to some warm booties to help the skin get ultra-soft. This service is available in CityWax and you can opt to have your nails painted too.

These are all of the targeted areas that you need to consider for pre- and post-wedding.

I’d advise the men to get a man-icure prior to the day too, to make sure that their cuticles are neat and tidy for the photographs!

As an aside, any fillers or Botox should be done at least four weeks before the big day to ensure that the product is integrated and natural looking and any subsequent bruising has subsided.