Your Pre-Holiday Glow Guide

The holiday season always sneaks up faster than we expect. One day you’re savoring the last warm days of fall, and the next you’re RSVPing to work parties, holiday dinners, and family gatherings. Between the photo ops, late nights, and full calendars, it’s no surprise that so many of our patients tell us they want to look fresh, radiant, and confident when the season arrives.

The key? Starting your glow-up early!

Skin and aesthetic treatments work best with a little planning. Some treatments require downtime, while others take weeks to show their full effect. At Defy Aesthetic, we love helping our patients map out timelines so every treatment lands at the perfect moment - and your skin is at its best just in time for all those holiday parties and photos. So, we’ve asked our expert nurse injectors and aestheticians to put together a step-by-step guide to building your pre-holiday glow. Keep reading!

6–8 Weeks Before the Holidays: Build Your Foundation

Think of this as your prep and prime phase. If you want smooth, even-toned, radiant skin in December, this is the time to tackle texture, pigmentation, and deeper skin concerns.

BBL + Moxi Laser: Fall is the perfect time for BroadBand Light (BBL), a treatment that uses pulses of light energy to gently heat the skin and target pigmentation, sun damage, redness, and even tiny broken capillaries. The light energy zeroes in on areas of discoloration, bringing pigment to the surface where it naturally flakes away over the days that follow. Over time, this process leaves skin looking clearer, brighter, and more even.

One of the reasons BBL is so popular - and why we recommend starting in the fall - is that the treatment makes your skin temporarily more sensitive to UV exposure. With shorter days and less time spent outdoors, autumn is the safest, most effective window to correct the sun damage you may have accumulated over summer.

VI Chemical Peel: If you’ve noticed stubborn pigmentation, dullness, or uneven texture from summer sun exposure, now is the perfect moment for a chemical peel. The VI Peel is one of our favorites because it’s medical-grade, yet gentle enough for a wide range of skin types. What makes it special is the formulation: it combines ingredients like TCA (trichloroacetic acid), retinoic acid, salicylic acid, and vitamin C, which work together to exfoliate the surface, stimulate cell turnover, and encourage collagen production. This makes it effective not only for pigmentation and uneven tone, but also for softening fine lines and improving overall skin clarity.

Most patients experience about 2-4 days of peeling - that’s your old, damaged skin shedding away to reveal the fresh layer beneath. Because the process takes about a week from start to finish, doing your peel now ensures you’ll be fully healed and glowing by the time holiday events begin.

Microneedling with PRP: Microneedling stimulates collagen and elastin, while PRP (platelet-rich plasma) supercharges the process with growth factors from your own blood. Together, they improve fine lines, scars, and texture for smoother, firmer skin. Because results build over a few weeks (and are even better in a series), this is a treatment you’ll want to kick off sooner rather than later.

Pro tip: This stage is all about laying the groundwork. Think of it as getting your skin camera-ready before the big events even hit your calendar.

4 Weeks Before the Holidays: Refresh & Hydrate

By now, you’ve addressed the big concerns and it’s time to add extra glow! Four weeks before the holidays is perfect for treatments that refine, smooth, and deeply hydrate without major downtime.

Custom Defy Facials with Dermaplaning: Dermaplaning gently removes peach fuzz and dead skin cells, leaving behind silky smooth skin that makeup glides over seamlessly. Pairing it with a facial gives you instant radiance and sets the stage for any additional treatments.

HydraFacial: This client-favorite treatment is all about hydration and glow. It cleanses, exfoliates, extracts, and infuses the skin with nourishing serums. The result? Plump, hydrated, dewy skin!

2 Weeks Before the Holidays: Finishing Touches

This is the time for injectables and small tweaks that make a big difference in holiday photos. Neurotoxins and filler need about two weeks to fully settle, so this is your “don’t wait any longer” window.

Botox, Dysort and Daxxify: Neurotoxins smooth fine lines and prevent new ones from forming. Since they take 5–10 days to kick in, two weeks before the holidays is the ideal timing. You’ll look rested and refreshed, just in time for your first party.

Botox Lip Flip or Lip Filler: Whether you’re after the subtle lift of a lip flip or the hydrated plumpness of filler, planning ahead ensures any swelling resolves well before your first big event. By the holidays, your lips will look naturally perfected.

Pro tip: The closer you get to the holidays, the more strategic you need to be. Injectables look their best once they’ve had time to “settle in.”

1 Week Before the Holidays: Glow Maintenance

This is not the time for anything aggressive. A week out, focus on treatments that give you instant radiance with zero downtime.

Custom Defy Facial: At this stage, we focus on hydration, glow, and soothing the skin. It’s the ultimate way to ensure your complexion looks healthy and fresh.

Dermaplaning Add-On: For that flawless makeup finish, dermaplaning is the ultimate event-week trick. It’s quick, painless, and makes your skin look instantly smoother.

Pro tip: This week, stick to treatments that offer instant results without redness, swelling, or peeling. You want to be glowing, not recovering.

At Defy Aesthetic, we love creating treatment timelines that take the guesswork out of holiday prep. Whether you’re starting with lasers, planning injectables, or just want a glow-boosting facial before your big event, we’ll create a plan that ensures you feel radiant for every party, every photo, and every special moment this season!

Whether you're interested in filler, Botox/Dysport, collagen-boosting skin treatments, or want to learn more about our Defy Annual Membership (a perfect choice for those who want to transform their skin without the price tag over the course of a year!), we’d love to see you in our Bethesda medical spa soon.