Guides

The things worth knowing before you book

Written by Ashleigh Trickett rather than by a content agency — including the parts that cost the clinic bookings, like when a treatment is the wrong answer and how to check any practitioner's credentials.

01Choosing a practitioner

Three connected checklist symbols: a registration document, a shield for preparation and accountability, and a phone for follow-up contact.

How to choose a safe injector

The UK aesthetics industry is barely regulated. Here is exactly what to check, wherever you go.

Three linked symbols for registration, relevant training, follow-up. They organise the checks explained in the adjacent text.

Nurse-led versus beauty-led aesthetics

What the difference actually amounts to in practice — written by someone who is not a neutral party, and honest about where it does not matter.

Emergency warning graphic with an exclamation mark above eye and skin symbols. It highlights that new vision changes, unusual pain and pale or mottled skin after filler require immediate medical attention.

When filler has gone wrong

How to tell a bad result from normal settling, what can be corrected, and what to do next.

02Regulation & who can treat you

Three linked symbols for who is the practitioner?, who assesses and prescribes?, who supports you afterwards?. They organise the checks explained in the adjacent text.

Who is legally allowed to inject in the UK?

In most of the UK, no qualification is legally required to inject dermal filler. Anti-wrinkle injections are controlled, but through medicines law rather than through any rule about who may hold the needle. Here is the actual position, and what the proposed licensing scheme would change.

Three linked symbols for verify the title, ask about the treatment, check accountability. They organise the checks explained in the adjacent text.

Can a beautician do injectables? Nurse, doctor, dentist and non-medic compared

Legally, a non-medic can inject filler today and can administer anti-wrinkle injections that someone else prescribed. What differs is accountability, what happens when it goes wrong, and what the proposed licensing scheme would require of each.

Three linked symbols for published proposal, detailed requirements, rules in force. They organise the checks explained in the adjacent text.

The cosmetic licensing scheme explained: green, amber and red

The government's proposed licensing scheme sorts non-surgical cosmetic procedures into three risk tiers. What is in each, what would change for practitioners and patients, what is still only a proposal, and when any of it might actually happen.

Three linked symbols for find the record, read the status, ask the remaining questions. They organise the checks explained in the adjacent text.

How to check any aesthetic practitioner in ten minutes

Every register you need is free, public and searchable. What to look up, in what order, what a clean result actually proves, and the four questions worth asking before you book anything.

Three linked symbols for assessment, prescription, administration and follow-up. They organise the checks explained in the adjacent text.

Who prescribes your treatment, and why you should ask

Anti-wrinkle injections use a prescription-only medicine, which means a prescriber must assess you personally. Remote prescribing — signing patients off from a list — is against guidance and widespread. How the chain is supposed to work, and how to tell whether it did.

03Regenerative & skin quality

Three panels show a symbolic nucleotide chain, a skin layer and a research document. They distinguish the material from its intended use and the evidence needed to assess it.

What are polynucleotides?

Purified DNA fragments used to support the skin's own repair processes — where they come from, what the evidence supports, and who they suit.

Two ingredient panels: a symbolic nucleotide chain labelled Polynucleotides, and a droplet labelled Hyaluronic acid. These compare material categories, not treatment outcomes.

Polynucleotides vs bio-remodelling

Both are injected across the face rather than into one spot, and both improve skin quality — but they work by different mechanisms and suit different skin. How to tell which one you are being offered and why.

Two panels: one droplet for hyaluronic acid, and another droplet surrounded by six small circles for hyaluronic acid with amino acids. The circles are symbolic ingredients, not molecules drawn to scale.

Sunekos vs bio-remodelling

Amino acids versus hyaluronic acid — what each supplies, which skin each suits, and why the choice is clinical rather than a preference.

Two schematic panels: fine lines across the skin surface on the left, and a curved supporting contour beneath the surface on the right. They distinguish skin quality from shape.

Skin booster or filler — which do you need?

One changes the quality of the skin, the other changes the shape of the face. They are not alternatives, and picking the wrong one is the most common reason a treatment disappoints.

Scalp cross-section with a thicker hair and a finer hair emerging from separate follicles. Three markers identify the hair shafts and the follicles beneath the skin.

Does PRP work for hair loss?

What platelet-rich plasma can and cannot do for thinning hair, who it suits, what the evidence actually shows, and the honest answer about how long it lasts.

04Lips

Lip anatomy drawing: 1 marks the visible upper lip, 2 its border, and 3 the surrounding mouth muscle, shown as a dashed oval.

What is a lip flip?

A few units of anti-wrinkle treatment to roll the upper lip outward — what it does, what it does not, and who it suits.

Three aftercare symbols: a shield for following written care instructions, a phone for reporting concerns, and a magnifying glass for the planned review.

Lip filler aftercare

What to do in the first forty-eight hours, what is normal in the first week, and the specific symptoms that mean you should contact me immediately rather than wait.

Three linked stages with a droplet, clock and review symbol, illustrating early swelling, gradual settling and clinical review without a fixed recovery deadline.

Lip filler swelling: what is normal

A day-by-day account of normal swelling, what reduces it, and the difference between swelling and something that needs a phone call.

A lip drawing with three markers: 1 at the Cupid’s bow, 2 at the mouth corners and 3 at the lower lip contour, highlighting shape, width and individual proportions.

How to get lip filler that looks natural

Natural is a proportion problem, not a volume problem. What actually makes lips read as done, and the specific things to ask for — and to refuse — at consultation.

Lower-face diagram highlighting the skin above the upper lip, the lip border and the visible lip. A shaded band indicates the area sometimes described as a ridge above the lip.

Filler migration: what it is and what to do

How to tell migration from swelling, why it happens, and why the right answer is almost always to dissolve and start again rather than to add more.

Two identical graduated measuring columns: the first is half filled and labelled 0.5 ml, the second is filled to 1 ml. They compare amounts only, without showing predicted lip changes.

How much lip filler do I need? What 0.5ml and 1ml actually look like

0.5ml is half of 1ml and is the right starting point for most first-time lips. What each amount changes, why more is rarely better, and how to tell what you actually need.

05Facial harmonisation

Nasolabial folds

The folds beside the nose are usually a midface problem. Treating them directly is why some faces end up looking heavy.

Marionette lines

The lines from the mouth corners toward the jaw — why they make a resting face look unhappy, and why the answer is structural.

Treating a double chin

Fat, skin laxity or a recessed chin — three different causes with three different answers, and treating the wrong one makes it worse.

Three schematic tissue panels: 1 shows reduced underlying volume, 2 shows soft tissue moving downward, and 3 shows a loose outer skin contour. The panels explain deflation, descent and laxity.

Is there such a thing as a non-surgical facelift?

What the phrase actually means, what it can and cannot do, and when the honest answer is a surgeon.

Facial diagram: 1 shades jowl tissue beside the chin, 2 marks the jaw contour, and 3 highlights the cheek. These show the relationship between lower-face contour and neighbouring structures.

Treating jowls without surgery

Why jowls form, which stage responds to treatment, and the point at which filler makes them worse.

Front-view face with a dashed vertical reference line and two slightly different eyebrow guide levels, illustrating that natural facial landmarks are not perfectly mirrored.

Facial asymmetry: what can be treated, and what should be left alone

Every face is asymmetric, and most asymmetry should not be treated. The four causes, which respond to treatment and which do not, the one presentation that needs a doctor rather than an injector, and how much of the difference is realistically going to change.

Front-view facial diagram. A dashed outline at 1 marks the cheekbone area where support sits, the shaded crescent at 2 marks the hollow below it, and 3 marks the temple. A small arrow points from the hollow up to the cheekbone.

Hollow cheeks: why they happen, and what actually fills them

Cheeks lose fat before the rest of the face does. What causes hollowing, which treatments genuinely restore it, and the one mistake that makes a hollow face look heavier rather than fuller.

06Anti-wrinkle

Facial diagram highlighting horizontal forehead creases, the eyebrow line and the outer eye area, with markers for each region.

Treating forehead lines

Why the forehead is the area most often treated badly, what the eyebrow has to do with it, and the difference between lines that move and lines that have set.

Two eye drawings, labelled Expression and At rest. The first shows folds fanning from the outer eye during a smile; the second shows that finer creases can remain at rest.

Treating crow's feet

The lines at the outer eye — why keeping some of them is usually right, and why the ones under your eye need a different treatment entirely.

Front-view facial diagram: 1 highlights diagonal creases on the sides of the upper nose, 2 marks the bridge, and 3 identifies the nearby upper lip.

Bunny lines on the nose

The diagonal creases across the bridge of the nose — what causes them, why they sometimes appear after other treatment, and how they are treated.

Lower-face drawing with fine vertical lines above the upper lip, a dashed outline around the mouth, and the lip contour, marked 1 to 3.

Lines around the mouth

Vertical lip lines — usually nothing to do with smoking, rarely fixed by one treatment, and one of the hardest areas to treat well.

07Skin

Skin-care illustration: a superficial flake lifts from the surface of a layered skin schematic, with a moisturising droplet and a sun-protection symbol below.

Chemical peel aftercare and recovery

What to expect day by day, what to use, and the one mistake that undoes the treatment.

Three skin-surface panels: distinct scattered spots, marks remaining at previous inflamed areas, and broader paired patches. These illustrate patterns of pigmentation rather than diagnostic examples.

Treating pigmentation on the face

Sun damage, post-inflammatory marks and melasma look similar and are treated differently — how to tell them apart, what actually works, and what makes each of them worse.

Front-view face with softly shaded patches across the forehead, both cheeks and above the upper lip, showing common areas affected by melasma.

Melasma: what it is and how it is managed

A chronic, hormonally driven pigmentation condition — managed rather than cured, and very easily made worse by the wrong treatment.

Skin cross-section with an uneven outer contour, a small follicle opening and the supporting tissue underneath, marked 1 to 3.

Improving skin texture

Roughness, visible pores and an uneven surface — what causes them, what genuinely improves them, and what no treatment can change.

Three skin cross-sections: a broad rolling depression, a boxcar depression with steep sides, and a narrow deep ice-pick depression.

Treating acne scarring

Which scars respond to which treatment, why the acne has to be settled first, and what a realistic improvement looks like.

Two simplified light diagrams show rays reflected from a smoother surface and rays scattered from an uneven surface. They explain an optical effect, not treatment results.

Why skin looks dull, and what actually helps

Dullness is a light problem before it is a skin problem. What causes it, what fixes it quickly, and what fixes it properly.

Three linked recovery stages: a droplet for early soothing care, a shield for the recovering skin surface, and a clock for gradual changes over the following weeks and months.

Microneedling aftercare and recovery

Day by day, what to use and what to leave alone — and why sun protection is part of the treatment.

Smaller questions

Not everything needs a guide. Booking, deposits, what to expect on the day and who does the treating are answered on the frequently asked questions page, and what other patients say is on reviews.

The guides are the reference. Ashleigh also writes from the treatment room — shorter pieces on what she is seeing in clinic, what is new, and the advice she finds herself repeating.

How these guides are researched, who reviews them and when they were last checked is set out in the editorial policy.

Get in touch

Book a consultation

Consultations are £30, and that comes off the cost of your treatment if you go ahead. No pressure to book anything on the day — if you are not sure whether you want treatment at all, that is still a good reason to come and talk.

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