Because advertising a prescription-only medicine to the public is prohibited under UK medicines law, and because a figure detached from who assesses you, what is used and what happens when something goes wrong is not information. Cost follows the assessment, and this page sets out every variable that moves it.
Premises cost more here than anywhere else in the country, and that does appear in what you pay. It is also, in most cases, a small part of the difference between two quotes for the same named treatment.
The larger differences sit elsewhere: in who assesses you, whether they can prescribe, how long they spend, what product they choose, how much of it they use, whether a review is included, what they carry for complications, and what happens on a Sunday evening when something is wrong. Two clinics quoting very different figures are usually not selling the same thing at all.
You are not buying a millilitre. You are buying a judgement and a safety net.
Ask both the same questions and write the answers side by side. Compare the answers, not the figures.
Once both sets of answers are written down, the price difference generally explains itself. Occasionally the cheaper clinic answers better on every line, in which case you have found something good rather than something suspect.
The underlying costs in this field are not especially compressible. Product, indemnity, premises, sterile consumables and clinical time are what they are. When a quote sits far below the market, something has been removed.
None of this appears on a price list, which is precisely why a price list is the wrong document to compare.
Skin treatments are legitimately sold as courses because they work cumulatively. What deserves scrutiny is a course sold under time pressure, a package bundling treatments you did not ask about, or a large prepayment for sessions stretching a year ahead.
Reasonable practice: a written plan with a stated number of sessions, a stated review point, a clear statement of what happens if you stop, and a deposit rather than payment in full in advance. Ask what happens to unused sessions if you move or if the clinic closes.
Cosmetic treatment offered with credit deserves the same scrutiny as any other credit agreement, and rather more scepticism about the setting in which it is being offered. If the plan only works spread across payments, that is a reason to wait. None of this is time critical.
A clinic that tells you this at the consultation is saving you money, which is a useful thing to notice about a clinic.
There is no price list here because a number quoted before anyone has looked at your face is a shopping prompt rather than information. Cost follows the assessment, and the assessment decides the plan.
A written quotation should name the product and the quantity, state the number of sessions where a course is proposed, say whether the review and any adjustment are included, and set out what managing a complication would cost. The consultation is where that quotation is produced.
Advertising a prescription-only medicine to the public is prohibited under the Human Medicines Regulations 2012. Cost can be discussed within a consultation, which is a different situation from advertising.
Not automatically. Price correlates with some things that matter and not with others. The checks in the clinic guide predict quality better than the fee does.
Either model can be fine. A charged consultation deducted on proceeding removes a conflict of interest.
For treatments that work cumulatively, often. Be cautious about prepaying for a long programme you have not yet decided you want.
Possibly, but factor in follow-up. Reviews and complications both need access to the person who treated you.
Establish before booking whether a two-week review and any adjustment are included, because a low headline price can become a higher total.
Write with the area that concerns you and what you have had done before. You will get a considered reply setting out which treatments apply, which do not, and what an assessment would need to establish before anything is proposed.
hello@aestheticlaunchlab.comPlease do not send clinical photographs or medical records by email. If something has gone wrong after a procedure, contact the practitioner who treated you, or NHS 111, rather than waiting for a reply here.
