Kavita Shyam
One month to your special day, you would leave no stone unturned to look perfect ten. Kavita Shyam finds out the varied indulgences that keep the working brides busy as a bee…
Beauty is a state of mind. Beauty treatments and cosmetic surgeries are a tool to make peace with it. With wedding jitters and escalating tensions, brides are most worried about their looks. Be it an arranged marriage or love, much emphasis is given to the bride’s appearance than anything else. However looking picture perfect for the big day has never been this easy.
Angelina Jolie
Every bride can gift herself a beautiful complexion, a svelte body or an Angelina Jolie pout in a matter of few sittings or a month. Opting for cosmetic fix or a quick facelift, few days prior to the wedding has become a norm especially with the working professionals who are ready to splurge the dough to get the porcelain look in place.
Brides opt for cosmetic surgeries around their D day for corrections in their appearances before they enter a new zone in their lives. With newer technology coming our way, with procedures and medications one can expect lesser downtime after procedures and faster results. Thanks to an increased awareness, brides want to put their best face forward after a plethora of makeovers.
To begin with luxurious lip plumping has become very popular, it adds that extra oomph and makes the bride stand out in a sea of beauties. In non-surgical treatments, brides are looking for ways to soften lines on the face, laugh lines and skin correction.
Supplement Special
If simply having cod liver oil, Vitamin C and neem tablets are passé, we have a few other inner glow beauty replacements or accompaniments. Renowned these days, or the new quick fix in town called the Amino Collagen beauty supplements, an effective collagen source for healthy & naturally glowing skin from Japan. This odorless, tasteless and colourless supplement can be consumed daily by adding it to your food, drink any time of the day.
It is made from made from high quality, low-molecular collagen peptide and includes fish collagen, arginine, vitamin c and glucosamine. Apparently the skin’s daily requirement is 5000mg and one leveled spoon of Meiji amino collagen gives your skin the required collagen for a flawless skin. The result include glowing, moisturized skin, prevents wrinkles, tightens skin, improves skin texture, improves hair and nail quality, lessens dark circles and blemishes.
Besides this, Acai berries are ultra popular in the country. Pronounced as ah-sigh-ee berries, these are found in the Brazilian, Central and South American rain forests. They are being used from centuries for energy, good health and beauty. They are a rich source of antioxidants, protein, unsaturated fatty acids, fiber and essential minerals. The berries are small, round, deep purple in color and contain antioxidant properties. Readily available in most beauty or medical stores Acai berry supplements are becoming a must-have!
Even wheat germ oil supplements are big with the brides, as it protects and nurtures the skin, acts as a laxative and reduces lipids besides being great anti-oxidants.
External Procedures
For those would-be-brides who do not have much time to spend on extensive beauty regimes, there are a number of quick fix lunch time beauty procedures that can do wonders, says dermatologist- Dr Indu Ballani. She suggests the following for the blushing brides-
A lip enhancement for fuller, more supple lips: If you think only a surgery can augment your lips to give them a fuller look, you are wrong. There is another quick procedure that can do the job and in a more natural way. Why is young skin so supple and full? In part, because of hyaluronic acid, a naturally occurring substance in skin that helps provide fullness and elasticity. Modern day hyaluronic acid based formulations like Restylane are a great way to get a fuller pout. When injected, Restylane can help maintain lip fullness for up to 6 months or more. For those who do not believe in a permanent lip job, this is an ideal option that does the trick more naturally and is not permanent. The procedure will take 15-20 minutes, with little or no discomfort when done under the supervision of an expert doctor, and give you remarkable new lips.
Diamond Polishing:
It is a technique in which the skin is polished with diamonds fixed on tips that electronically move on the skin. This is useful in removing dead cells, scars, tanning and overall improves glow and complexion of the skin. The diamond MDB is a new development worldwide that makes the skin look smoother and clearer along with adding softness and glow to it.
A filler to smoothen out facial wrinkles: Faulty lifestyles, stress, overload of work, sleep deprivation and exposure to sun. All these conditions will make signs of ageing appear early on your face. Some women even in their late 20s and early 30s develop wrinkles around the eyes, known as crow’s feet, or fine lines around the mouth. Hyaluronic acid based fillers like Restylane are a wonderful option to smoothen out these wrinkles. When injected in the upper layers of skin, the filler replenishes the skin’s lost reserves of hyaluronic acid which then fills up the hollows and lines. The water binding ability of HA ensure that deep hydration too comes naturally with the procedure and so does a smooth shine and glow.
Treating acne scars and marks:
Ozone Therapy Session
Acne scars can be a real irritant for many women. They can be traumatic for some when they are too many. Today, there are procedures that assure that you don’t have to live with them. Rejuvenating Orange Ozone Therapy is one. In this procedure orange ozone light is used to sterilize and rejuvenate the skin. It improves skin texture and scars and is helpful for acne and acne marks. Restylane skin boosters are another treatment that can reduce the appearance of acne scars. Acne scars are basically mini depressions on the skin. When Restylane skin booster gel is injected into the affected areas of the skin, it fills up the depressions and substantially reduces the appearance of scars and pock marks.
Laser hair removal:
Laser Hair Removal
The regular sessions of waxing and hair removing are another pain that have to be lived with. What if you can do away with the hair once and for all? Just think how much time and fuss it will save you all your life. Laser hair removal has come as a huge relief for such women who have excess hair on the body and need regular sessions of waxing or cleaning.
Beyond Beauty
On the other hand Dr Apratim Goel suggests a few treatments that the girls come to him for. “Every girl on her special day awaits to look her best and her pre-wedding skin preparation is the step-stone to glow like the moon and sparkle like the stars. While routine treatments such as Clean-ups, Facials, Microdermabrasion and Chemical Peels are effective to maintain the skin, brides-to-be need to undertake a more intensive regime to look out of the ordinary.” He furthers suggest the below treatments which can be done in a matter of a month.
Laser Skin Lightening:
This is one of the latest techniques to lighten the skin without experiencing any side-effects. Usually it takes about 2-3 sittings 2 weeks apart in which the laser is run over the face and neck two times each session to bring a good amount of lightening, say by 3 shades. It also removes pigmentation, melasma, areas of uneven skin tone, dark circles, sun-spots and freckles and imparts a glow. Lightening of fine facial hair is like a cherry on the icing.
Vampire Face-Lift:
Kim Kardashian Vampire Face Lift
It sounds like some-thing you would think twice before doing, unless you are as daring as Kim Kardashian who swears by this treatment. It is nothing as dramatic as what it sounds like. We take a small quantity of your blood, just like a blood test, and process it and inject the platelets from it into your skin. We don’t inject them with a syringe, but with the help of micro-needles which you do not feel as we have put a numbing cream on your face! Your skin post this treatment looks red, however after 2 days when it settles, your groom wont be able to take his eyes off you! Your skin looks rejuvenated, fine lines erased, luminous and tight… As we fed your skin with your own blood, the name Vampire Face Lift.
HA Meso Lift:
This is more of a hydrating treatment with hyaluronic acid which is placed as small drops beneath your skin. The hyaluronic acid is a normal content of your skin. As you get this content loses its form and starts to deplete… After this treatment what you will notice is that your fine lines are now erased, the skin looks hydrated and suppled, and it looks as if you have had a facial everyday!!
Vita C Meso Glow:
This is another option for brides who want to look very dewy and glow for all their wedding functions. We take a sterile solution of Vitamin C, anti-oxidants, lightening agents and amino-acids and help it penetrate through your skin with the help of a derma-roller or meso needles. It is painless as we have applied the numbing cream. As this reaches your skin, it makes it more and more luminous with each treatment, helps treat dull complexion and patchy pigmentation. As we have used derma-roller we have also stimulated collagen production which will make your skin tighter.
Skin Whitening Injections:
Not that I support whitening, but lets face it, its a craze among the young Indians these days. I have many brides coming to me asking me to lighten not only their face but the whole body as well. I respect their problem and advice one solution to this and that is Gluta injections. We use a natural nutraceutical agent called glutathione. It is already present in our diets but not in concentrations that can cause lightening. We inject this into the vein of the arm, which takes only 5-7 mins. Depending on the amount of tanning and pigmentation, numbers of injections are given twice a week and the body and face lightens by 4-5 shades. It also depends on the life-style of the individual. This is one of the treatments that brides seek and are very happy with the results.
Yellow Peel:
Now you don’t have to think twice before wearing your low-waist lozenges with back less blouses and sport that sexy bride look! Yellow Peel can be done 4-6 weeks before the wedding functions on back, neck, de-colleague to help exfoliate and renew the skin in these areas. The solution is applied on these areas over 10 mins and you are sent home and advised to wash them off after 6 hrs. The skin peels for 10 days there after without any discomfort. The dead skin is out and what you see is that the tan is off now, there is new skin with better texture and much lesser blemishes.
Hand and neck rejuvenation:
We all know the amount of stress and strain the skin of our hands and feet bears while running around for the marriage preparation. Neck, hands and feet are hence the most neglected part of our body. But with brides spending infinite amount on their wedding ring, there is latest craze for engagement ring selfies and hence hand rejuvenation with laser and filler injections. Pigmentation and tanning is treated by fractional CO2 laser at least 2 months prior to wedding. Topped up with deep hydrating and voluminizing hyaluronic acid injections gives unbelievable results. Post care with a good hand cream daily night is essential.
Make sure, you go to a trained and expert dermatologist to get best results. Happy pampering, happy wedding!