Perfect wedding skin

The quest for perfect wedding day skin

I want to be beautiful on my wedding day. Then again, don't we all? I mean, why else am I spending loads of money on a dress, accessories, hair and make-up? My only problem is that all of me is not exactly on board with my whole beautiful bride thing and by all of me, I mean the one thing other than my dress that people will be looking at: my face.

I've always had a problem with my skin, and no amount of water-drinking, diet-watching, cream-applying or medicated pill-popping has ever rectified it. My skin is oily, dull and tired all the time. It also happens to be prone to many breakouts, and unfortunately, I am prone to picking them.

We all know that's the worst thing to do to your face, but I like to pick a fight with my breakouts because I like to remind them that I don't want them to be there. And I think that in the lead-up to the wedding, this is not going to change, because leopards don't change their spots. But that's not to say they can't change their skin regimens.

In an attempt to improve my skin condition, I have decided to join a gym. A skin-gym, I mean, which is a series of facial treatments all catered to my skin condition and administered by a professional beauty therapist at Ella Rouge. Priced at $999 (not exactly cheap but well worth it in the long term, especially considering it is valued at $1500 and consists of a total of 17 treatments), the Clean & Clear gym is recommended for congested and clogged skin – although it does come in packages catered to dull and pigmented skin, as well as skin with sun damage and premature ageing.

My skin gym consists of a mixture of oxygen therapy, omnilux light therapy treatments, clean out treatments and refining peels, two of which are conducted every fortnight for a few weeks at my local Ella Rouge Salon. There Rhonda, my skin's new best friend, uses her miracle hands and products to make me feel like a million dollars, despite my reservations about the equipment and the technologies (the omnilux, for example, means I lay under a really bright light for 20 mins, which is a hard adjustment for your eyes, although not damaging. After two visits, I am already seeing an amazing difference in my skin.

The best thing about it is that Rhonda recognises the stress that plays a role in my skin – and while I am there, I'm also treated to some short head, hand and shoulder massages that release a lot of tension and generally aid in my relaxation.

I'll be tracking the treatments in this blog as they continue, in the hope that they will really work for me and fulfil my beautiful bride dream. They might be worth the indulgence (and necessity) for other brides, which means less packing on of the make-up and a genuine great feeling about yourself in the lead-up to the big day.

These days, beauty technologies are marvels, but they still fall quite short, because, as you can see, they're still lacking in something to treat the congestion in my head that all my multi-tasking is causing!