As 2024 comes to a close, we are often booked and busy with holiday parties, family dinners, and photo opportunities. Even with the challenges of the year, we still want to put our best face forward. Our skin is a powerful reflection of our overall health and well-being, beautiful radiant skin is a representation of our inner and outward beauty. 

The good news is that our skin is very forgiving, designed to tolerate fluctuations and recover quickly compared with the other organs of our body. So even if there have been times of stress in the past year or the holidays, there are ways to minimize the impact on our skin and get back to glowing. There are also outstanding products and treatments available to help you look and feel your best every day, while making this holiday season your most beautiful yet. 

Here are my favorite tips by area:

Give Your Hands and Body Extra TLC  

Moisturize your hands every time after washing. Trade in traditional hand sanitizer for a combination sanitizer that contains moisturizer or lotion. The FDA has now banned triclosan and other antibacterial ingredients but you may still have these products at home so be sure to discard any remaining product in your cabinets. I like Lasercyn spray as a hand sanitizer, it contains an ingredient called hypochlorous acid, a non-drying ingredient that is gentle on the skin and that kills most bacteria and viruses including covid. It’s also safe on the face and around the eyes. 

Skin can be extra dry during cold winter months, look for rich creamy moisturizers and know that the best time to apply is right after the bath or shower or after washing or doing dishes. There are also excellent laser treatments to help remove sun spots from the hands and to improve skin texture. As the skin of the hands age, the veins become more prominent and visible as well. There is now a soft tissue filler called Radiesse that has been FDA approved for rejuvenation of the hands. It helps hands look younger and more beautiful in just one treatment. It’s one of my favorite treatments to do because the results are instant and gorgeous!

Remember Your Décolletage 

Your neck and chest age more poorly, scar more easily and are much harder to fix than your face. Recently there are more products designed and tested just for this area to help brighten and rejuvenate. My Retinol Body Serum is a great product for the décolletage and beyond. In office treatments such as chemical peels and fractional resurfacing lasers can also work magic in helping to improve the quality and strength of the skin in this area. Ultherapy and our new Fotona 5D are outstanding options to tighten and improve lines and wrinkles of the chest and decollete as well as the face and neck. 

Put Your Best Face Forward 

Everyone wants to look their best in photos, and this time of year the cameras are out, ready to capture the moment and the memories. To ensure you’re serving up a photo-ready complexion for social media or the family holiday card, I recommend adding these easy steps to your routine: 

1. Be sure to exfoliate.  A gentle exfoliating treatment like my Light & Bright Pads helps to cleanse away oil, debris, and hyperpigmented skin layers. This helps clear the way for superior skin brightening and radiance. I recommend adding this step right after cleansing and before serums or actives.
2. Boost your hydration.  During the winter months, our skin barrier can use all the help it can get. This is a great time to add an ultra-hydrating serum to your routine. Dew Drop Ultra is a powerful product to replenish your skin's natural glow with a combination of fatty acids and cholesterol. It leaves your skin looking and feeling dewy soft and ready for makeup application. 
3. Turn on the brights. For the ultimate glow-up, try an intensive brightening cream like my Triple Brightening Complex. This unique, high-potency product is an antioxidant cream, anti aging cream, and even-skin tone cream all rolled into one that features the added benefits of a gentle retinoid. It’s a great way to brighten up your complexion and even out your skin tone on the face, neck, chest, and the back of your hands.

A word about fillers.  Since the first Hyaluronic Acid (HA) soft tissue filler was FDA approved in the US in 2004 we have had over 15 new products approved in the US and literally hundreds available around the world to help us look soft, smooth and contoured. It’s been a game changer for those who want to enter the rejuvenation market without undergoing surgery, but there’s a lot to know before you get started. When considering a treatment and deciding where to go to have it done it’s important to consult with a board certified aesthetic physician like a dermatologist for optimal outcomes. Dermatologists study anatomy, structure and function of the skin for decades and this helps us use the products properly for natural and authentic outcomes.

Remember, Nothing Glows like Gratitude:  Nothing makes a person more beautiful than gratitude. Life is full of ups and downs but remembering to be thankful for what we have brings out the best in how we look and feel. There’s strong science behind the power of positive thinking and positive expression. Even just smiling makes you look younger and feel happier - and it brings out the best in those around you, too.