After an injectable
Stay upright for four hours. No gym, sauna, hot yoga or facial that day, and no lying flat. Do not press or massage the treated area, and avoid a face massage for a fortnight. Expect small bumps for an hour and possibly a bruise; arnica does no harm and the evidence for it is thin. Sleep with your head raised on the first night after lips or under-eyes.
After laser hair reduction
Redness and small bumps around each follicle for a few hours to a day, which is the expected response rather than a reaction. Cool the area, moisturise plainly, and keep it out of the sun. No sauna, hot bath or heavy exercise for a day. Shave between sessions as much as you like; do not wax, pluck or thread at all.
After resurfacing or a medium peel
Ointment, and nothing else, for the first days. Do not pick, pull or exfoliate anything, however tempting a hanging sheet of skin is — this is the single biggest determinant of whether you are left with a mark. Sleep propped up. No makeup until the skin has closed. Absolute sun protection for months afterwards, not weeks.
After microneedling
Nothing on the skin for twenty-four hours except what we hand you. Freshly channelled skin absorbs whatever it is given, and nearly every reported complication from this treatment comes from something inappropriate being applied afterwards. Normal skincare resumes gradually from day three, with actives last.
After body treatment
Massage the area as instructed after cryolipolysis — it is briefly unpleasant and it improves the result. Expect numbness for weeks, firmness under the skin for a month or two, and an ache for a few days that ordinary painkillers handle. Normal activity, including exercise, the next day.
After anything at all
Sunscreen every morning. Keep the area clean and leave it alone. Take a photograph if something looks unusual, because it helps enormously on a telephone call. And telephone us at any hour about severe pain, spreading redness with heat, skin colour change, or any change in vision — those are the four that are never worth waiting on.
Never wait on these
Four things worth a telephone call at any hour
Everything else can wait until the morning. These four cannot, and we would far rather take twenty calls about a normal bruise than miss one that was not.
- Pain that is severe, out of proportion, and getting worse rather than better
- Skin that goes white, then mottled, dusky or blue-grey
- Any change in vision at all, after any injectable treatment
- Spreading redness with heat and swelling, which can be an infection
The number on your written plan reaches the clinician who treated you rather than a call centre. Nobody is charged for managing a complication we caused, including every follow-up appointment involved in sorting it out.
Questions
Aftercare — the questions we are asked most
When can I wear makeup again?
After injectables, the next morning. After a light peel or dermaplaning, the following day. After microneedling, from day two or three. After radiofrequency microneedling, day three or four. After ablative resurfacing, about a week. Putting makeup on broken or freshly needled skin is how most avoidable infections after these treatments happen.
Can I exercise?
Not the same day after any injectable — heat and raised blood pressure increase bruising and swelling. Not for two days after peels or needling. Light walking is fine throughout. After body contouring, normal exercise the next day is fine.
What about sun?
The single biggest determinant of your result. Treated skin pigments very readily for weeks to months, so a broad-spectrum sunscreen every morning is part of the treatment rather than an optional extra. For resurfacing, peels and light-based treatment, deliberate sun exposure will undo what you paid for and can leave a patch.
Should I be worried about the swelling?
Usually not. Lips swell hard for forty-eight hours and are worst on the second morning. Under-eye treatment swells for up to a week. Injectable fat reduction swells visibly for a week and that swelling is the treatment working. What is not normal is severe pain, spreading redness with heat, or skin colour change — telephone us about any of those at any hour.
Can I have a facial or a massage afterwards?
Not for two weeks after an injectable, because pressure on the area can move product before it has settled. Tell any therapist that you have had treatment, because a routine face massage is precisely the thing to avoid.
When do I go back?
Two weeks after any injectable, free, and it is in the diary before you leave. Four to six weeks for the next session of a skin course. Six to eight weeks for laser or tattoo removal. Twelve weeks before deciding on a second body contouring session.
The risks, plainly. Every treatment on this site has side effects and some carry real risks. The common ones are minor and short-lived — redness, swelling, tenderness, bruising, a day or two of looking like you have had something done. The uncommon ones matter more: burns, blistering and long-lasting pigment change from light-based treatment, which is a greater risk on deeper skin tones and on recently tanned skin; infection anywhere the skin is broken; and lumps, asymmetry and, very rarely, a blocked blood vessel from injectable filler, which is the one true emergency in this field. We screen for what makes each of these more likely, we tell you your own risk rather than the average one, and we decline to treat when the answer should be no.
A written plan and a written price before anything is booked
Book a consultation
Pick a clinician and an hour from the calendar — it shows only the times each of them genuinely has free. A consultation is a full hour at a table with no treatment couch in the room, and it costs $85, or $120 with the medical director. If you go ahead, that comes off your first treatment. If we tell you the answer is nothing, or a dermatologist, it costs exactly the same.