LIORA

Liora · Preparing & Healing

Preparing for it, and healing from it

Most of what decides a result happens outside the treatment room — in the week before and the fortnight after. Find your procedure below.

Before and after each procedure

Botox & other neuromodulators

15 minutes · no downtime

Before

  1. Come without makeup on the treatment area if you can, or allow a few minutes to remove it.
  2. For a week beforehand, avoid fish oil, vitamin E, ginkgo and high-dose NSAIDs, which make bruising more likely. Do not stop a prescribed blood thinner — tell us you take one instead.
  3. Skip alcohol the night before.
  4. If you have an event, book two weeks ahead of it rather than two days.

Afterwards

  1. Stay upright for four hours and do not lie face down.
  2. No strenuous exercise, sauna or hot yoga for twenty-four hours.
  3. Do not rub, massage or have a facial on the area for twenty-four hours — it can move the product.
  4. Small bumps settle within an hour. Bruising, if it happens, clears in seven to ten days and covers with makeup after the first day.
  5. It begins working at three to five days and is fully settled at fourteen. Judge the result then, not before.
  6. If one side looks stronger than the other at two weeks, call us — that is adjustable.

Fillers

30–60 minutes · 1–2 days social downtime

Before

  1. Same blood-thinning avoidances as above, for a week.
  2. Tell us if you have ever had a cold sore, particularly for lip treatment — we will cover you with an antiviral first.
  3. Arrive well hydrated and having eaten.
  4. Do not book within two weeks of a dental procedure, or of a vaccination.

Afterwards

  1. Expect swelling, most of it in the first forty-eight hours and most of it on lips.
  2. Ice in short spells for the first day. Sleep with your head slightly raised.
  3. No strenuous exercise, alcohol, sauna or steam for twenty-four to forty-eight hours.
  4. No dental work or facials for two weeks.
  5. The final shape is readable at two weeks. Lumps are common early and usually resolve; if one is still there at two weeks, tell us.
  6. Call the office the same day for pain that is increasing rather than easing, blanching or dusky-looking skin, or vision changes. These are rare and they are urgent.

Sofwave™

30–45 minutes · no downtime

Before

  1. Nothing is required. Come as you are, with the area clean of makeup or sunscreen.
  2. Tell us about any recent filler in the area so we can plan the order of treatment.

Afterwards

  1. Mild redness and warmth for a few hours, occasionally into the next day.
  2. Normal skincare, exercise and makeup the same day.
  3. Nothing visible happens for weeks. Collagen remodels over roughly twelve weeks and that is when the result is judged — at three months, against the photographs taken on the day.

Laser resurfacing & fractional lasers

45 minutes · 3–7 days downtime

Before

  1. Stop retinoids, acids and exfoliants five to seven days beforehand.
  2. No sun exposure, tanning or self-tan for two weeks. Treating recently tanned skin risks pigment change.
  3. Tell us about any cold sore history — an antiviral is started beforehand, not afterwards.
  4. Stop any hydroquinone as directed, and tell us about isotretinoin taken in the last six months.

Afterwards

  1. Expect redness and swelling like strong sunburn for two to five days, worst on the morning after.
  2. A bland emollient and nothing else. No actives, no acids, no retinoids until the skin is intact.
  3. Do not pick, scrub or pull at flaking skin. Peeling usually runs from day three to day seven.
  4. SPF 50 every day, reapplied, for at least a month. This is the step that decides whether you get pigment afterwards.
  5. No exercise, sauna, steam or swimming for forty-eight to seventy-two hours.
  6. Makeup once the skin is no longer broken, usually day three to five.
  7. Call us for spreading redness, increasing pain, yellow crusting or fever.

Laser hair removal

15–45 minutes · no downtime

Before

  1. Shave the area the day before or the morning of. Do not wax, pluck, thread or use depilatory cream for four weeks.
  2. No sun or self-tan for two weeks beforehand.
  3. Come with the area clean — no deodorant, lotion or makeup on it.

Afterwards

  1. Redness and small raised bumps around each follicle, like razor burn, for a few hours up to two days.
  2. Cool compresses. No hot showers, sauna, steam or strenuous exercise for twenty-four hours.
  3. Treated hairs shed over one to three weeks and can look like regrowth. They are not — do not pluck them.
  4. Daily SPF on exposed areas between sessions.
  5. It takes a course. Hair grows in cycles and only the hairs in the active phase respond to any one session.

Chemical peels

30 minutes · 2–5 days flaking

Before

  1. Stop retinoids and exfoliating acids three to five days beforehand.
  2. No waxing or hair removal on the area for a week.
  3. No sun exposure, and tell us about cold sore history.

Afterwards

  1. Tightness and a bronzed look for a day or two, then flaking from about day two to day five.
  2. Do not pull or help the flaking along. Pulling skin that is not ready is how peels leave marks.
  3. Moisturiser and SPF 50, nothing active, until the flaking has finished.
  4. No exercise or sweating for twenty-four hours.
  5. Hold off makeup for the first day if you can.

Microneedling

45 minutes · 1–2 days redness

Before

  1. Stop retinoids three days beforehand.
  2. Arrive with clean skin and no makeup.
  3. Tell us about cold sore history and any active breakout on the area.

Afterwards

  1. Redness like a strong flush for twenty-four to forty-eight hours, with some roughness for a few days.
  2. Nothing on the skin for the first twenty-four hours except what we send you home with.
  3. No makeup for twenty-four hours, no exercise or sweating for twenty-four hours.
  4. No actives or acids for five days. SPF daily.
  5. Results build across a course rather than appearing after one session.

Biopsy, excision & mole removal

20–45 minutes · 1–2 weeks of wound care

Before

  1. Eat beforehand. These are done under local anaesthetic and people who skip lunch are the ones who feel faint.
  2. Tell us about blood thinners, including aspirin — but do not stop any of them without speaking to the doctor who prescribed them.
  3. Wear something you do not mind getting a spot of blood on, and that does not need pulling over your head if the site is on your face or neck.
  4. Arrange not to drive yourself if the site is near your eye.

Afterwards

  1. Keep the dressing clean and dry for the first twenty-four to forty-eight hours.
  2. Then clean gently with soap and water, apply plain petrolatum and re-cover. Petrolatum, not an antibiotic ointment — the ointments are a common cause of contact dermatitis on a healing wound.
  3. A moist wound heals faster and scars less than one left to form a crust.
  4. Avoid stretching the area. For a site on the back, chest or a limb, no lifting or gym for two weeks.
  5. Stitches come out between five and fourteen days depending on where the site is. We will tell you which.
  6. A scar is red and firm for weeks and keeps improving for a full year. Judge it at twelve months.
  7. Call us for bleeding that soaks through a dressing, spreading redness, increasing pain after day three, or fever.
  8. Pathology results are discussed with you directly, including when they are normal.
These are general instructions. The ones you are given at your own visit are written for your skin, your history and your medications, and they take precedence over anything on this page. If the two differ, follow the instructions from your visit and call the office on 212.433.GLOW if you are unsure which applies.

Two Rules That Cover Most Of It

Sun, and patience

Sunscreen is the treatment

Not an accessory to it. Freshly treated skin makes pigment readily, and most of the disappointing outcomes after a laser or a peel are pigment that arrived because the first month was spent in the sun.

Judge it late

Neuromodulators read at two weeks. Fillers at two weeks. Sofwave at three months. A scar at a year. Almost every treatment looks worse before it looks better, and the week after is the worst possible time to decide what you think.

Call rather than wait

Pain that is increasing rather than easing, spreading redness, fever, or anything that does not match what you were told to expect, is a phone call the same day. It is never a nuisance.

Simplified Billing

We accept almost all major insurance plans, and cash pay

Don’t see your plan? Call or message us and we will look into it for you. Cosmetic treatment can be paid over time through CareCredit or Cherry.

Book a Consultation Call 212.433.GLOW