On top of the numerous details soon-to-weds have to think of for their wedding, one thing they must also take care of is their skin care. Think: you’ll be hiring top-rated photographers and videographers and they’ll have high-power cameras that can zoom in those old zits on your face, making them look almost like the potholes in the road to Caleruega.

So yep, Hubby and I had our visits in House of Obagi for some facial care (note: hubby had more facials than I did! haha. Truly more the bride between us :D). Alas though, it wasn’t enough for me.

More than a year ago, at the start of uber hot summer in Manila, I started to have some rashes on the face. A dermatologist visit confirmed it’s caused by the intense heat. Doc gave me some moisturizers and it did help with the redness and rashes. They subsided. But from then on, I have had dry skin on the face. The moisturizers helped (I alternated between the moisturizer from dermatologist and some products from Face Shop and Clinique). But still haven’t quite got rid of the dryness.

On my March visit to Japan, I tried Hyalocharge which Hubby was using then. It’s a lotion with viscosity that’s almost equal to water and as Hubby explained, is infused with collagen for healthier skin.

It did help. But then again, that was late winter/early spring. Our wedding is in the middle of summer.

I wanted to try a new product but I was afraid to since our wedding was getting near; I want to avoid any facial mishaps that I’ve read a lot about. My old moisturizers were working fine anyway. Problem though was that my HMUA Irene Sy-Go and coordinator Erika, instructed me not to have any moisturizers on the face during the wedding day for the makeup to have its full effect. Result, dryness at the start of the preps shoot. Thankfully, the makeup has set a couple hours later hence it wasn’t obvious at all anymore. And really, Irene is just so good she made me look flawless.

So now that our wedding is over and done, I’m a bit freer to experiment on facial products to help with the dry skin.

Shu Uemura.

And I must say, I feel much better now. I’m far from being flawless still but the facial skin dryness certainly has lessened a lot.

Step 1: Skin purifier. You use it as a facial wash. It has the consistency of a makeup remover.

Step 2: Facial lotion. Clear as water yet viscous.

Step 3: Vitalizing concentrate. When the Shu Uemura lady made a demo of this on my face, she was drumming her fingers on my face so hard it was almost painful. She said the concentrate has to be “patted” to help the skin absorb the medicine. Very viscous. Hence, the medicine dropper.

Step 4: Revitilizing emulsion. Fluid inside looks like your ordinary facial lotion.

I know it’s a bit costly. But I bought it as a gift for myself using my first salary. Yippee! Thankful. Still though, I wish I used the lot in preparation for the wedding.