Bridal skin care: a fresh face by Cellular Intelligence and our favorite products

By Kelsey Bjelland On May 7, 2012 · 1 Comment

Your wedding day is all about the prettiest day of your life—looking and feeling every bit a gorgeous bride from the inside out. Be U Weddings recently posted about getting your body in shape and keeping diet in check (here), bridal makeup tips (here and here), and the benefits of meditation for easing your pre-wedding anxiety (here). But showing off your toned shape, flawless face, and inner glow have one important thing in common: they require a foundation of beautiful skin.

Enter: Cellular Intelligence. No, it’s not a cell phone store (as a few of my friends assumed from its namesake)—its the “skin miracle” store, of sorts. The luxury med spa, located at 100 East Walton, is a must for any Chicago bride who wants to have their skin in top form on their wedding day. Their recently redesigned bridal package intrigued us, so of course we had to venture to the Gold Coast locale and provide our Be U readers with the scoop.

Photo by Maria Ponce Photography

The bridal package at Cellular Intelligence is a five-week countdown to your big day. Week One, start with a skin analysis and consultation, followed up by the spa’s signature DermaFlash Facial Treatment, for which they are known best (and I describe in more detail below).

Week Two is a customized advanced facial treatment, determined by your original skin consultation and what problems you want to address to get your face wedding-ready.

The well-meaning folks at CI of course wouldn’t neglect the groom in this period of preparation—your guy gets Week Three all to himself, with the Well-Kept Man Facial Treatment. Since the space is not the least bit girly, but rather almost hospital-like and to the point, he won’t feel like he’s getting his fiance’s facial. Skin care products for this treatment are specifically tailored to a man’s skin, and he’ll leave feeling and looking younger and fresher.

In Week Four, a second DermaFlash Facial Treatment is on the menu—and we guarantee you will have loved it so much the first time, you’ll be begging for more.

During the final countdown before “I do,” Week Five, you’ll receive an Ultimate Oxygen Infusion—just two days before the big day is ideal. This treatment dramatically enhances hydration and meticulously cleanses and exfoliates, creating the perfect canvas for your makeup as you don your white gown.

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I was invited to experience the signature DermaFlash Facial Treatment last month. At first I was a little skeptical; I’d gone 25 years without ever having a facial and wasn’t convinced I was missing anything. But Beth Potts, aesthetic director for CI who was performing my treatment that day, put my mind at ease. A lovely, gorgeous blonde with flawless skin, eyelashes so long you could hate her (she says she swears by Latisse!), and a Chicago bride herself (look for her wedding on Be U soon!), Beth walked me through each step of the process.

Photo by Maria Ponce Photography

The DermaFlash begins with dermaplaning, essentially a blade that removes every trace of hair (peach fuzz) from your face. It doesn’t hurt a bit, and is in fact an oddly appealing feeling to have the dead skin scraped off your face—but to distract me from the scraping sound, she chatted to me about her upcoming Waldorf Astoria nuptials until it was time for the chemical peel. Since I was a newbie, she used a lighter version of the treatment than usual, but I still felt the burn. After an intense round of exfoliation, my favorite part, the hyperbaric oxygen infusion, countered the burn. The wand Beth used on my face during this part literally looked like a snowball on a stick—and felt oh-so-soothing on my freshly revealed layer of skin. After a short 35 minutes, the treatment was over, and after applying heavy moisturizer to my face and instructing me to let it “set” for the rest of the night, I was out the door.

Originally I had thought I would leave with skin so glowing I’d have to make up some place to go that night to show it off. But unlike a trip to the salon for fresh highlights and a blowout, I soon realized that a facial requires recovery time. My cheeks were quite red and blotchy from the chemical peel for about 24 hours after the treatment, and the skin around my mouth and eyes just felt strange and rather thin for two days. On the third day, my face felt almost “gritty” around my cheeks and nose, though it was soft to the touch. By the fourth day, I was finally recovering and loving how smooth my makeup was going on. I actually found myself wearing less foundation and switching to a much lighter cream. Two weeks out, I could still see and feel the results. Personally speaking, this is my new go-to recommendation for brides to get your face in shape and make sure that newlywed glow shows up in all of your photos.

Cellular Intelligence offers many more treatments than are included in the bridal package, including photo facial rejuvenation, signature peels, skin resurfacing, blue light acne treatment, microdermabrasion, skin tightening, and laser hair removal. They also offer dermal fillers and botox under the expert hand of Dr. Brian Braithwaite, who was previously a plastic surgeon at “The President’s Hospital” in Washington, DC. The med spa is open Tuesdays through Saturdays, and you can call 312.255.1495 or visit their Web site to set up a consultation.

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While it’s fun to indulge in a full spa experience once in a while, you don’t have to break your wedding budget to get your skin in top condition—the Be U Weddings girls share their favorite skin care products below!