What a good aesthetic consultation looks like
Twenty minutes in a room decides most of what follows. What a thorough assessment covers, and the shortcuts that should make you leave.
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What this is
A trade magazine that sits on your side of the desk
Cosmetic Journal covers the UK non-surgical aesthetics sector the way a trade title covers an industry, except that the reader is the patient rather than the practitioner. We write about consultations, credentials, pricing, regulation, recovery and complications at more length than about treatments themselves, because those are the parts a reader can actually act on.
We sell nothing. No affiliate links, no sponsored articles, no paid placements, no rankings of clinics we have not examined, and no before and after photographs. Nineteen guides, four sections, and a disclosure block at the foot of every single page saying which kind of article you are reading.
01
Before You Book
Consultations, credentials, cost and the questions worth asking before any deposit changes hands.
How to check an aesthetic practitioner's credentials before you book
Four public registers, ten minutes and a name. What each one proves, what none of them prove, and how to read a qualification list.
Read the guideWhat cosmetic treatments cost in the UK, and why the price varies so much
Typical 2026 ranges for the treatments people actually book, what sits inside the price, and why the cheapest quote often costs the most.
Read the guideHow to read before and after photographs
Lighting, angle, expression and timing can produce a transformation without any treatment at all. How to tell a result from a photograph.
Read the guideConsultation practice, register rules and typical prices all move, and a guide written last spring may not say what this one says now. Join the email list and we will write when any of that changes. This is editorial guidance by email: we take no bookings, check no practitioners and provide no treatment.
02
Treatments
What each treatment does, what it cannot do, and how the common options compare on the face.
Botox for frown and forehead lines: what patients in Chiswick should know
What botulinum toxin does to the upper face, what it cannot change, and the checks worth making before booking in west London.
Read the guideUnderstanding smoker's lines: causes and treatment options
Vertical lip lines have several causes and smoking is only one of them. What actually works on the perioral area, and what makes it worse.
Read the guideMarionette lines: why they form and how to treat them
A structural problem that patients experience as a line. Why treating the crease itself rarely works, and what does.
Read the guideForehead lines: prevention and treatment options
The trickiest area in the upper face. What prevents forehead lines, what treats them, and why less product is often the better answer.
Read the guideWhy faces age: the anatomy behind the lines
Bone, fat, muscle and skin. Which layer is driving your concern determines whether a treatment can do anything about it.
Read the guideToxin, filler or neither: choosing the right treatment
Two treatments, two entirely different problems. A comparison of what each does, where they overlap, and when the answer is neither.
Read the guideWhich treatment suits which problem is the part patients are most often sold wrongly, and the comparisons here are revised as the evidence is. Join the email list for the revisions. Editorial guidance only, never a treatment recommendation for an individual face.
03
Safety and Recovery
Regulation, downtime, aftercare and the warning signs that mean you stop and ring the clinic.
Who can legally inject in the UK
The rules are narrower than most patients assume in one respect and far wider in another. What the law actually restricts.
Read the guideRecognising a complication after injectable treatment
How to tell normal swelling from a genuine problem, which signs are urgent, and exactly what to do at each stage.
Read the guideRealistic downtime and recovery, treatment by treatment
What recovery actually looks like, how long results take to appear, and how far ahead of an event to book anything at all.
Read the guideAftercare in the first six weeks
What genuinely helps after treatment, what makes no measurable difference, and the few things that actively make results worse.
Read the guideRecovery timings, aftercare and the warning signs are worth having in writing before you need them. Join the email list and we will tell you when UK guidance on any of it changes. Editorial guidance only: if something is wrong after treatment, ring the clinic that treated you.
04
Inside the Clinic
How UK aesthetic practices are built, staffed and run, and why that shapes what patients experience.
Aesthetic Launch Lab brings a new infrastructure model to the UK aesthetics sector
Clinics are increasingly built as operating businesses rather than personal practices. What that means, and why patients feel the difference.
Read the guideThe business of aesthetic clinics: from clinical skill to scalable enterprise
The transition from a personal practice to a company that runs without its founder, and what breaks along the way.
Read the guideHow to use this site
Three guides cover the decisions that matter most, and they take about fifteen minutes between them.
Understand the consultation
What a thorough assessment covers, and the shortcuts that should make you leave the room.
Read the guideVerify the practitioner
Four public registers, ten minutes and a name. What each one proves and what none of them prove.
Read the guideKnow the warning signs
What normal recovery looks like, and the small number of signs that mean act now.
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The Journal
Patient-side reporting, once in a while
We email when UK regulation or professional guidance changes, and when a guide is revised in a way that would change what a reader does.
Occasional emails when regulation changes, guidance moves or a guide is updated. No treatment offers, because we do not carry any. Your address is used for the list and nothing else: see our privacy page.