What you do every single day is 80% of your skin health and probably 90% of the prevention of skin ageing in the long term! Having a good and consistent skincare regime is absolutely vital and supports the great work we do in the clinic by reactivating your collagen cells and helping them respond to treatments in a more powerful way.

These are my skincare non negotiables - all things that I expect and need my patients to be using every single day!

1. A High Calibre Vitamin C Serum

Vitamin C is a true multi-tasker and the most clinically evidenced antioxidant in skincare. It activates collagen production, reduces free radical damage in the skin (a powerful form of ageing a bit like internal skin rusting), supports collagen production, reduces hyperpigmentation and improves skin luminosity.

2. A Multi Peptide Serum

Peptides are chemical signallers and cell communicators. In the skin peptides talk to our renewal mechanisms and talk to our DNA repair mechanisms to create bio-regeneration. We also use peptides to talk to collagen and elastin cells to help them repair and reorganise their molecular cables.

3. A High Performance Retinoid

Retinoids are the absolute KING of home skincare. They should feature in everyone's regime such is their power and benefit. Even if you have sensitive skin you will benefit from a retinoid.

Retinoids are Vitamin A molecules that work in the tissue to up regulate cellular renewal, exfoliate debris and help the skin to resurface. They are phenomenal molecules for skin repair and create powerful communication with the skin's fibroblast cell - the powerhouse of collagen and elastin production. Miss out on retinoids at your peril!!

4. Daily Sunscreen

Daily sunscreen is THE MOST EFFECTIVE PREVENTATIVE AGEING MEASURE that you can ever take. It will beat any treatment that I can ever offer you if it's worn daily for the rest of your life. It's also the cheapest intervention you can take.

The reason it's so effective is because as much as 90% of the skin's damage and ageing over the years comes from the environment outside of us, especially from ultraviolet radiation. This can be blocked with daily sunscreen use. UV radiation is present all through the winter too so please please get in the habit of wearing it every, single day not just when the sun shines.

5. A Daily Collagen Supplement

Oral collagen is clinically evidenced to help support the body's collagen production. Given that it declines from our early 20's onwards it's a good idea to support the body's internal production with a collagen supplement.

All of my patients over 40 absolutely need to be on a 10,000mg oral collagen supplement to ensure long term hair, skin & nail health. If we are doing an energy treatment in the clinic like Neogen or Radiofrequency Microneedling I always insist on collagen supplementation.

The amino acids in collagen send signals through your blood stream to your fibroblast cell telling it to restart collagen production. It's a huge kickstart and it helps your body's own collagen factory get restarted. Think of it like flicking the light switch and equipment back on in your skin's protein factory. Your skin responds to collagen by making NEW collagen rather than going into decline. You don't EVER want your body's collagen production to decline.

The benefits in the long run of consistent collagen supplementation are better quality structural proteins throughout your entire body. And given that collagen is the most abundant protein this is pretty major!