What is actually happening under there.

For most people, visible bruising from injectables runs about five to ten days from red, through purple, to green and yellow before it clears. Lip filler and work around the eyes tend to bruise more and last a little longer, because the tissue is thin and the blood supply is generous.

If you bruise easily, or a lot was done in one sitting, add a few days rather than assuming something has gone wrong.

Because that is usually when it peaks. Inflammation builds over the first 24 to 48 hours rather than appearing instantly, and lying flat overnight lets fluid settle in the treated area. Most people leave the clinic looking better than they will the following morning.

Sleeping with your head elevated for the first two nights genuinely helps — gravity does real work here.

It depends entirely on what was done, and your provider sets the clock. As a general pattern: after injectables many clinics say a few hours to a day; after microneedling or a peel it is usually longer, because you are covering skin with open channels or a compromised barrier.

Ask before you leave the chair. If you forgot to, call and ask — it is a thirty-second question and they would much rather answer it.

No — not until you are cleared. Retinoids, acids, vitamin C and any physical exfoliation all work by provoking the skin, and provoking skin that is already inflamed is how you turn a normal recovery into a prolonged one.

This is the week to be boring. Bland, fragrance-free, barrier-supporting products only, then reintroduce your actives one at a time rather than all at once.

Honest answer: the evidence for topical arnica is mixed. Some trials on post-surgical and post-procedure bruising report a visible difference in how quickly discolouration fades; others find little or none. It is not a settled question, and any brand telling you it definitely works is overstating what the research supports.

What we will stand behind is the formulation logic: if you are going to use arnica at all, use it at a meaningful concentration, cold-processed so the extract survives, in a barrier cream rather than an alcohol gel that freshly treated skin cannot tolerate. That is what we make. Whether it outperforms time and patience for you specifically, we cannot promise.

Yes, and it is the part most aftercare advice skips. On Fitzpatrick IV to VI, the bruise itself can be harder to see, but the mark it leaves behind often outlasts it — pigment-producing cells respond to inflammation by making more pigment, so a brown or grey-brown patch can sit there for weeks after the swelling has gone.

That changes the priorities: start barrier care early, be stricter than you think necessary about sun protection through the whole pigment window, and be more conservative about reintroducing actives. Discuss treatment depth with your provider before you book, not after.

Call — do not wait for your follow-up — if you have severe or one-sided pain, skin that turns white, grey, mottled or dusky, any change in vision, spreading redness that feels hot, fever, or anything that is clearly getting worse rather than better after the first couple of days.

Normal recovery has a shape: worse, then steadily better. Anything that breaks that pattern is worth a phone call, and no good clinic will mind you making it.