While celebrities sit in hair and makeup for hours the day of the Met Gala, in many cases skin care prep begins months before.

“I like to start a good six weeks out, and that would be weekly facials for about five weeks, and then a treatment on the day of the event,” said Lord Gavin McLeod-Valentine, a Los Angeles-based facial masseur to the stars, and in-house brand representative and spokesperson for the Augustinus Bader company, who descends on New York City a couple of weeks before the first Monday of May. His client list includes Emily Blunt, Zoe Saldaña, Jonathan Bailey and many more.

“Now, I might recommend that they do some more invasive treatments within that initial period of time like a VI peel just to really cleanse and get those dead skin cells away. Maybe I’ll recommend something like Everesse to give them a bit of lift, depending on what time. But as it comes to me, I’ll spend maybe five weeks, four weeks really working on hydration levels within the skin.”

For the treatment on the day, the focus is on despuffing, lifting and radiance and his preference would be to see the celebrity on the morning of the Met Gala.

“I have a tier system. So I will say, if you’re the girl of the moment, if you’re an icon, I will see you day of. If you’re extremely famous, I’ll see you the day before. And if you’re famous, I’ll see you day before that. That’s how it goes,” he said.

Angela Caglia, a celebrity aesthetician with her own eponymous skin care line, usually works with her clients in Los Angeles before they fly to New York with a regimen she gives them. 

“It depends on if I’m working with a doctor like Dr. Derek Jones, who does laser. If they have the time to prep before, I usually have them do a laser treatment (around a month before Met Gala), just for tightening and brightening. And then I see them right before they fly out to New York like a day or two prior to the Met Gala. I usually do the micro current, the lifting, the sculpting, but I get them on a regimen with Angela Caglia Cell Forté (skin care products) at least a month before to get it bright and get the skin ready,” said Caglia, who usually works with Aurora James among others ahead of the Met Gala.

“I use these medical grade peels, but there’s no downtime, so it’s just a hydrating, nourishing, brightening peel. And then I’ll do the syringe of the Cell Forté on top. Then I have this little mini laser machine that stimulates the collagen. And I’ll end it with two rounds of micro current.”

For Met Gala attendees who want injectables like Botox or filler, the time frame is even earlier, according to Dr. David Shafer, a double-board-certified plastic surgeon. 

“If you want to maximize, let’s say your Botox appearance, or your filler appearance, we want to do that six to eight weeks ahead of time, because, at the most and at the least, about three weeks ahead of time, you want to have time for the Botox to settle in and then tweak it if needed before the procedure with filler. You get a couple days of swelling, and if you happen to get a tiny chance of a bruise you want that to resolve before the event. So that’s why, before these big events, it’s playing weeks ahead of time.”

Dr. Dendy Engelman, a triple-board-certified cosmetic dermatologist and Mohs surgeon, who works alongside Shafer at the Shafer Clinic in New York, added that getting other in-office treatments like laser or micro needling should also be done sooner rather than later in terms of preparation. “In-office, lasers or resurfacing treatments are done earlier to avoid residual redness or peeling. I also love Everesse, a monopolar radiofrequency [RF] treatment. It’s an excellent option for creating a firming effect and stimulating collagen and elastin synthesis.”