Your free consultation, and same day treatment

A free consultation can sound like a sales appointment with the price taken off. It is not meant to be one. Thirty minutes is roughly what it takes to gather a proper medical history, look at your face in movement as well as at rest, and have an honest conversation about whether anything we offer will do what you actually want. Sometimes the answer is that nothing will, and that is still a useful thirty minutes.

The first part is questions, not treatment

We start with what is bothering you, in your own words, before we look at anything or suggest anything: what you dislike, how long it has bothered you, what you have already tried, and what you are picturing as an outcome. This matters more than it sounds. The commonest reason a treatment disappoints is not that it was done badly, it is that it was aimed at the wrong problem. Lost volume, poor skin quality and tissue descent can look similar in your own mirror, and they respond to entirely different things.

Then medical history, in detail. Every prescribed medicine and supplement you take. Allergies, including to bee and wasp stings. Bleeding disorders and anything affecting clotting. Autoimmune conditions and immune-modulating medication. Whether you are pregnant or breastfeeding. Recent or planned dental work, vaccinations and surgery. And any previous injectable treatment: what it was, where it went, and when.

That last question gets asked carefully, because it is the one people most often round off. Hyaluronic acid filler can remain in the tissue long after the visible effect has faded, so something you had four years ago is still part of what we assess today.

Then we look, and we photograph

We assess the face in movement as well as at rest. Judging a face only at rest is one of the ways overfilling happens, because product in the wrong plane shows itself when you smile and talk, not when you sit still. We look at skin quality separately from structure, because they are different problems with different answers.

We photograph you in the same light and position at every appointment. Memory is unreliable about slow change in your own face, in both directions, so photographs are how you check later whether something worked.

What we will tell you, and what we will not do

You will be told what we think the problem is, what would address it, and what the treatment cannot do. If it is unlikely to give you what you are describing, we say so at the consultation rather than after you have paid.

We do not use time-limited offers, discounts that expire at the end of the appointment, or any other pressure to decide on the day. General Medical Council guidance for clinicians offering cosmetic interventions is explicit that promotional tactics must not be used in ways that could encourage an ill-considered decision, and that patients need time to reflect in proportion to how invasive, complex, lasting and risky the intervention is. The NHS puts it from the patient's side: you should be offered a cooling off period after any consultation, and you can walk away at any stage.

When we can treat you the same day

For treatments that do not involve a prescription medicine, same day treatment is often possible. That includes skin boosters and bioremodelling, polynucleotides, microneedling, chemical peels and IPL. We would go ahead on the day only where your history is clear, nothing rules the treatment out, the plan is simple, and you have had enough time in the appointment to think and ask questions rather than be carried along by it.

Dermal fillers are not prescription medicines in the UK either, but we treat them differently. They last longer in the tissue than most people expect, they are awkward and expensive to reverse, and the decision benefits from a night's sleep. For a first filler treatment with us, we will normally ask you to come back.

When we cannot

Anything requiring a prescription cannot be arranged before we have seen you. Wrinkle-relaxing treatments use prescription only medicines, and the rules on prescribing them have tightened across the professions.

GMC guidance states that a clinician must carry out a physical examination before prescribing injectable cosmetic medicines, and must not prescribe them by telephone, video link, online, or at the request of someone else. The Nursing and Midwifery Council introduced equivalent standards for its registrants on 1 June 2025, requiring a face to face assessment before prescribing for non-surgical cosmetic procedures, and a further in person consultation if the medicine or dose changes, the medical history changes, there has been an adverse event, or more than six months have passed.

In practice, nobody can prescribe for you from a photograph, a phone call or an online form, and no prescription is waiting before you have been assessed in person.

We also do not treat with prescription medicines on the day of a first consultation. That is our own policy rather than a legal requirement, and the reason is the reflection time above.

Who same day treatment does not suit

We will not treat on the day, and in some cases not at all, where any of the following apply.

Anyone under 18. In England it has been a criminal offence since 1 October 2021 to administer cosmetic fillers or wrinkle-relaxing injections to someone under 18 for cosmetic purposes.

Anyone who cannot give a reliable account of what has been injected before, where and when.

Anyone pregnant or breastfeeding, for treatments that have not been studied in those groups.

Anyone with an active skin infection, active acne or inflamed skin at the intended site, until it has settled.

Anyone with a bleeding disorder, or taking anticoagulant or antiplatelet medication, without an individual discussion first.

Anyone with an autoimmune condition or on immune-modulating medication, until we have gone through it properly.

Anyone who has come in because of an offer, a wedding next week, or a comment somebody made. Those are reasons to talk, not reasons to treat.

Anyone whose distress about an area is clearly out of proportion to what we can see. More treatment does not resolve that, and the NHS advice to speak to a GP first is sound. We will say so, and we will not treat.

What the free part means, and what it does not

Free means no charge and no obligation. There is no deposit and no expectation that you book anything. A fair proportion of our consultations end with a recommendation to do nothing, to sort out a skincare routine first, or to come back in a year.

The consultation is not the treatment. If we agree a plan, that is booked separately, with the cost set out in full beforehand.

If you want an honest assessment

Our consultations are free, last 30 minutes and carry no obligation to book anything. Bring a list of your medicines and, if you can, the details of any injectable treatment you have had before. You can book a free 30 minute consultation online.

Written by the clinical team at Nova Beauty Clinic.