September 25, 2026
A question we are asked often, answered properly.
You can tell us the treatment you want. We may not be able to give it to you on the first visit — and that is the honest reason the consultation exists.
A professional facial is a controlled injury. Microneedling makes thousands of small channels through the epidermis. A chemical peel removes a measured depth of tissue. Both work by provoking a repair response. Whether that repair produces a good result or a bad one depends less on the treatment than on the skin receiving it.
So before we choose a treatment, we have to answer a prior question: can this skin take it today?
No. Two faces of the same age, in the same city, with the same complaint, can behave completely differently under the same treatment.
Start with how common reactivity is. In a systematic review and meta-analysis of 26 studies covering 51,783 people across 18 countries, 71% reported sensitive skin to some degree, and 40% described their skin as very or moderately sensitive (Chen, Dai & Li, 2020). That is not a rare subgroup. On any given day, a large share of the people sitting in a treatment chair have skin that will over-respond to something.
Then there is pigment. Postinflammatory hyperpigmentation — the brown marks that appear after inflammation settles — is a well-documented consequence of both skin conditions and dermatologic procedures, and it occurs more readily in people with darker skin (Kaufman, Aman & Alexis, 2018). A treatment that leaves one person clear can leave another with months of discolouration to correct.
This is why we do not work from a fixed facial menu. The menu assumes the skin is a constant. It isn't.
The dermatology literature is unusually direct about this.
A review of chemical peeling complications lists swelling, persistent erythema, itching, allergic reaction, folliculitis and acne, infection, herpes recurrence, hyperpigmentation and hypopigmentation, demarcation lines and scarring — and notes that complications are more likely with darker skin types, with certain peeling agents, and with sun exposure afterwards. Its conclusion is the sentence this whole page rests on: "The first step in preventing complications is to identify the patients at risk" (Costa, Damasceno, Costa & Gomes, 2017).
A 2024 retrospective review of patients who presented to a dermatology clinic with complications after peels, lasers and energy-based devices — all performed by qualified core cosmetic physicians — found hypertrophic and atrophic scarring, postinflammatory erythema, hyperpigmentation and hypopigmentation among the outcomes, and concluded plainly that "even in experienced hands, complications can arise" (Murray, Lohray, Schultz, Boutros & Friedman, 2024).
A broader review of complications in facial procedures makes the preventive point: "Many complications can be prevented through thorough preprocedural evaluation, patient counseling, and close postoperative monitoring" (Langsdon & Schroeder, 2020).
Preprocedural evaluation is what a consultation is. It is not a sales meeting with a clinical name on it.
We say so, and we tell you what would make it ready.
Sometimes the answer is a short delay — an active breakout that should settle, a course of medication to finish, a sunburn to recover from, a cold sore history that needs managing before we make channels in the skin.
More often the answer is a period of preparation. If the barrier is compromised — tight, stinging, flushing, flaking, reacting to products that used to be fine — then adding a controlled injury on top of an uncontrolled one is not a treatment plan. The skin is conditioned first, over a number of weeks and usually several appointments, until it can tolerate the procedure and heal from it cleanly.
This is standard practice, not a Complete Elixir invention. Published clinical guidance for microneedling sets out pretreatment recommendations alongside technique and aftercare, precisely because the preparation is part of the protocol rather than an optional extra (Alster & Graham, 2018).
So if you come in asking for microneedling, one of three things happens:
All three are good outcomes. The third is the one that protects you.
Because we would rather lose the booking than take it on the wrong skin.
Charging for the assessment creates a quiet pressure to find something treatable. Making it complimentary removes that pressure entirely — from us and from you. You can come in, be told "not yet, and here is why," and leave having paid nothing. That is a legitimate result of a consultation, and it happens regularly.
It also means nobody is committed. If the plan we propose isn't what you wanted to hear, you are free to take it elsewhere or think about it.
We look at the skin and we ask about it. History — what you have used, what you have reacted to, what treatments you have had, what medication you are on, how you heal, how you pigment. Then the four questions everything here is built on:
You leave with a written plan: what we would do, in what order, over what period, and what to use at home in between. Whether you book anything is a separate decision, made afterwards.
Complete Elixir Lab + Spa is a skincare formulation studio, not a medical clinic. A consultation here is a professional skin assessment. It is not a medical diagnosis, and it does not replace advice from a physician or dermatologist. Where something we see belongs with a doctor, we will tell you that too.
Literature retrieved from PubMed.
October 07, 2026
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