Choosing a clinic

Your First Aesthetic Consultation: What to Bring and Ask

How to prepare for a first aesthetic consultation: what to bring, what to disclose about medicines, the questions that save money, and how to judge the plan you are offered.

The first aesthetic consultation is the most useful appointment you will have, and most patients arrive unprepared for it. They know the treatment they saw online, but not the three facts that decide whether it is right: what the actual problem is, what it will take to change it, and what it costs over six months.

Here is how to prepare, so that thirty minutes of a doctor's time produces a plan instead of a sales conversation.

Before you go

Bring your medicine list, written down

Not the names you remember. Every medicine, every dose, every supplement. Three categories matter most:

• Retinoids taken by mouth, such as isotretinoin for acne. They change healing and interact with some treatments, and they need a washout period before others.
• Blood thinners and antiplatelets, including aspirin, clopidogrel and anticoagulants, which affect bleeding and bruising.
• Hormonal medicines and contraceptives, which matter for melasma and for pregnancy planning around any procedure.

Also mention supplements, especially high-dose vitamin E, fish oil, ginkgo and anything sold as a "skin glow" capsule, because several of them increase bleeding or photosensitivity.

Come with a clean face

Makeup, sunscreen and tinted moisturiser hide exactly what the doctor needs to see. If the concern is on your face, arrive with nothing on it. Bring your usual products in a bag if you want advice on them.

Bring photos of what changed

If a spot appeared three months ago and looks different today, the comparison is clinical information. Photos from your phone, with the same lighting, are enough.

Know your constraints

Two questions shape the whole plan, and answering them early saves time:

• How many days of downtime can you accept? A peel with three days of flaking is incompatible with a client-facing job on Monday.
• What can you spend over the next six months, not this week? The second number is usually the honest one.

What happens during the consultation

A properly run first consultation follows a sequence.

1. History. What bothers you, when it started, what you have already tried, what happened, your medicines, your general health, pregnancies, allergies, keloid tendency.
2. Examination. Skin type, lesion type, scarring pattern, symmetry, sun damage. Sometimes a dermatoscope, sometimes photographs.
3. Assessment. A named problem. "Dull skin" is not a diagnosis. Melasma, post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation, acne scarring and photodamage are different problems with different treatments.
4. Plan. What to do first, what to do later, and what not to do. Good plans are staged, because doing everything at once is how skin gets angry.
5. Quote. Per session, number of sessions, medicines and tests, in writing.
6. Consent and expectations. What the treatment can realistically achieve, what it cannot, and what the recovery looks like.

If the consultation jumps from step 2 to step 5, you are being sold to, not assessed.

The eight questions worth asking

1. What exactly is the problem, in medical terms?
2. What will this treatment change, and what will it not change?
3. How many sessions, spaced how far apart?
4. What is the total cost, including medicines and tests?
5. What is the downtime, day by day?
6. What are the common side effects, and what should make me call you?
7. What happens if it does not work, or if it comes back?
8. Who performs it, and who do I contact afterwards?

Write the answers down or ask to have the plan written. A clinic that resists putting a plan in writing is telling you something.

What not to do

• Do not book a package on the first visit before an assessment. There is no discount worth buying the wrong treatment for.
• Do not accept a diagnosis without an examination, including a "diagnosis by photo" in a chat.
• Do not start three new products at once. If you react, you will not know which one caused it.
• Do not hide a pregnancy, a planned pregnancy, or a history of cold sores. All three change the plan.
• Do not treat a suspicious mole as a cosmetic problem. Anything changing in size, shape, colour or bleeding needs to be checked, and a mole that needs checking is removed and sent for histopathology, not just lasered away.

How to judge the plan you are offered

A plan that fits your life has four features:

Watch for the opposite: a single high-priced device sold as a solution to everything, a package that expires in three months, or a promise of results that no treatment can make.

After the consultation

You leave with three things: a plan, a quote, and aftercare instructions. You do not have to decide on the spot. A clinic that has done its job does not need to close you in the room.

Before the first session, ask what to avoid: sun exposure, waxing, alcohol, certain medicines, exercise. Before and after photographs, if the clinic takes them, need your permission before anything is published.

Booking a first consultation

At La Peau Parfaite the aesthetic medicine consultation is ₱600 for thirty minutes, in Laoag City or online. The 2026 price list shows what treatments start at, and the clinic checklist covers what to verify before booking anywhere.

If you would rather sort out whether you need an in-person visit first, an online consultation is enough for most initial questions.

You can request an appointment in about thirty seconds. No account, no payment on the website, and the clinic replies directly.

La Peau Parfaite Medical ClinicWritten and fact-checked by the La Peau Parfaite clinic team. Clinical decisions are made by Dr. Katheryne Castillo, MD during a consultation, never on a web page. Questions about this page: doctor@md-k.com.