With wedding season upon us, we unveil how you can get that celeb wedding glow.
From Lottie Ryan to Suzanne Jackson and Sophie Anderton, celeb facialist Corinna Tolan reveals the secrets to their flawless skin.
The brides are back and the poor things have been put on pause for two years.
The current trend is that brides want to wear their skin to their wedding as opposed to a huge amount of make-up.
Even celebs have problem skin and need help ahead of their big day.
Balbriggan skin expert Corinna, 42, told the Irish Mirror that treating skin holistically from the inside out is crucial for skin health.
Her most recent celeb client was reality star and model and newlywed Sophie Anderton.
The former IT girl wed her soul mate Count Kaz Balinski-Jundzill last week in a lavish ceremony in Glendalough House in County Wicklow.
The 44-year old’s skin is crystal clean. A clean diet, daily exercise and no alcohol is her secret.
Corinna reveals: “Sophie Anderton was very far along in her journey when she was working with me.
“I worked with hyaluronic acids near her wedding date, to give her skin a plump glow, but Sophie loves exercise and does not drink alcohol.
“Her diet is super clean too, eating avocados and fermented foods, so she’s doing all the right things for her skin.”
Top fashion and beauty blogger turned makeup entrepreneur Suzanne Jackson celebrated her fourth wedding anniversary with doting husband Dylan O'Connor this week.
The happy pair became man and wife in an intimate church ceremony on August 5 2017.
Four years on, it remains one of Ireland's most talked-about celebrity weddings.
Corinna told how Suzanne reached out in a panic four years ago, as she felt her skin lacked something.
Corinna explained: “A week before her wedding Suzanne called me, she was looking for more of a plumped glow, she felt her skin was dull.
“Suzanne has always loved her fish oils and her probiotics, I had her on Environ skincare for her wedding, but she had some issues before that.”
Ahead of 2FM star Lottie Ryan’s nuptials in 2017 to fiance Fabio Aprile, Lottie’s skin was over peeled and stripped of all the natural oils.
Corinna explained: “Lottie reached out to me with a far shorter time period with only a month before her wedding.
“Her legal ceremony was in March but her Italian ceremony was in May.
“Lottie didn’t have much time, she had over exfoliated, over peeled, her skincare didn’t suit her skin.
“We had to strip it right back and feed the skin with the right nutrients to get it back on track.
“When Lottie came to me her skin barrier was compromised, her skin was very inflamed and very sore and distressed.
“Holistically for Lottie, we looked at probiotics and fish oils, to this day Lottie’s skin won’t tolerate being peeled.”
Brides regularly got in touch in an emergency.
“Blogger Rosie Connolly called when her acne was out of control," said Corinna.
“She was on roaccutane, but she’s had many relapses, micro-needling really helped to treat the skin and the needling got rid of the scarring for her dream day.”
RTE star Anna Geary came to Corinna before her stint on Dancing with the stars "panicking about her skin”, Corinna explained.
“She knew she’d be sweating a lot on the show, her wedding was the following year.
“Again like Lottie we’ve never looked back, she’s a skin expert now.
“Anna’s breakouts were slow to heal and they would have left marks, that’s very distressing, you’re only over one and another one is coming.”
From minding your gut to eating more fish, minding your skin from the inside out is half the battle.
Corinna explained: “Gut Health is now supremely important when it comes to skin health.
“We know there’s a direct link between the gut and skin and also the brain and gut as well, up to 80 to 95% of serotonin is made in the gut.
“It’s a relatively new area, it’s only since 2012 that the gut biome is being studied.
“There’s a direct link between inflammation in the body and gut, a lot of inflammation presents on the skin like acne and rosacea and psoriasis.
“When we make the gut a healthier and happier place, it has a direct link on the skin.
“When dealing with inflammatory skin conditions you have to treat the gut.”
Probiotic foods are so important like Kombucha drinks, fermented and pickled food.
She said: “Introducing more strains of good bacteria to the gut, the more diverse the bacteria, the happier the gut is.
“I describe the gut as like an island with a party, the more diverse people at the party the better.
“There’ll always be some good and bad bacteria, that’s ok, we hope the good will outweigh the bad.”
Things to avoid are the sun and free radicals, pollution and stress.
She said: “It’s not always going to be possible to avoid pollution if you’re living in the city, so it’s important then to introduce skincare that has antioxidants to help neutralise those free radicals.
“We’re very limited, if you have a stressful life, cortisol is your fight or flight hormone
"If you're very stressed all your blood is going to your fight or flight organs to prepare you.
“The skin and cell renewal slows down and your skin becomes very dull and unhealthy.
“It’s important to limit the effects of cortisol on the skin by the skincare formulations that we work with.”
Supplementation is key too because we are never going to consume enough fish oils.
Corinna said: “I would always look to supplement diet, even though we can eat healthy and say Sophie for instance is one of my healthiest clients.
“Even though she exercises a lot and doesn’t drink alcohol, even she needs supplementation.
“All our cells are surrounded by a fatty membrane that keeps the cell structure and keeps it healthy.
“If only it was as easy as you drink a glass of water and your skin plumps out! Usually dry skin is due to lack of oil and not lack of water.”
Top tips for healthy vibrant skin
Eat all good fats, nuts, seeds and oil fish salmon mackerel and avocados
Fermented food for the gut probiotics are so crucial too
If you make one or two small changes to feed your gut and not yourself each day you’d be amazed, your whole mental health will improve too.
Add Probiotic yoghurts into your diet.
Sleep is a huge factor for skin health too, it’s when we sleep we regenerate and we should be getting 6 to 8 deep sleep.
Invest your budget in your skin health first, you won’t find skin health in a syringe.
For more info see monicatolan.com
