Welcome to the blog!

Well, hello hello! It has been recommended for a few years that I create an email mailing list or at least a blog to share with you. If I am being honest, your email inbox would get more crickets than actual emails from me. A blog allows me to hop on here when the light bulb randomly goes off and I want to take a dive into something I hope will be educational, helpful, and even inspiring.

While there is an “about” page on here, I am going to take a deeper dive into my personal skincare background and journey. When I was in middle school, I started getting breakouts on my face and then on my back. I considered myself to be a bit different from others, in my personality, my individual expression through my wardrobe and accessories, and even through the hairstyles and hair colors I wore. When I looked around at many of my friends and classmates, the one thing I wanted to have that they had was “flawless” skin. The more I grew concerned about my skin, the worse the breakouts seemed to get. By the time I was 21 years old, and I was considering becoming a mother, I decided to get off birth control pills to allow my body some time to regain its natural cycles. The transition brought about painful cystic acne which made me feel ugly and wanting to hide. I went to a dermatologist and was treated as many were back then, with stripping cleansers and exfoliating scrubs (funny, I don’t even feel a need to name them), painful and scar-risking extractions, barrier-disrupting peels, liquid nitrogen to freeze things, benzoyl peroxide, Retin-A, Doxycycline antibiotics, and eventually Accutane. Some things worked temporarily, and some things inflamed my body and my skin even more, which meant more acne along with a host of other issues. I used to joke that I was surprised I had any skin left. My face hurt, and along with it my feelings about myself.

I want to be very clear that every individual should have the ability to make their own informed decisions about any treatment and anything that goes into or onto their bodies. I am sharing my personal experience, and the bigger story is one to be discussed privately in proper context, which is exclusive to my clients at this time. I encourage you to ask all the questions you have to any professional who might be treating you, and when something does not feel right, trust yourself, and do not sign on the dotted line until you are certain about it.

I was frustrated with my worsening skin inflammation, and I felt physically sick a lot. I had tummy aches often, and I had various issues that made me want to take a deeper dive to discover how to properly care for myself. As I saw and felt the inflammation, I knew my breakouts were more than skin deep. So I started doing my own research. I weaned off the antibiotics (*do not self-wean- speak with your medical professional). I learned about probiotics. I learned about different forms of dairy and that the conventional skim cow’s milk and ice cream, which was part of my daily diet, were wrecking my gut. As I ditched dairy altogether for some time, my illnesses subsided, my tummy woes were no longer, and my skin began to clear up. I stopped getting various respiratory infections. I learned about inflammatory and anti-inflammatory foods. I discovered how conventional laundry detergents and fabric softeners were breaking me out and exposing me to harmful toxins and endocrine disruptors. As well, I would discover the toxic ingredients were in many household and personal care items I was exposed to all of my life.

Making changes to what is familiar and even passed down through the family can be tough and sometimes even cause us sadness. We get used to the comfort foods our parents and grandparents make for us, and certain scents worn by our loved ones bring the sweetest memories. But because of our concern for our loved ones and ourselves, once we see the multitude of benefits from making positive, healthful shifts, even a little at a time, we hopefully pass new healthy habits to our elders and our younger generations. When we adopt these habits and have greater health and quality of life, we are also positively impacting our precious planet and potentially paving the way for its longevity and that of its inhabitants, from soil, ocean, and air, to flora and fauna. And all of this amounts to greater skin health.

My growing curiosity and awareness, paired with more research and understanding of not simply the skin as an isolated organ, but of the optimal health of the body as a whole, and ultimately how it impacts skin health, is what made me become a holistic esthetician.

In future posts, I plan to cover different aspects of skin and overall health. I will share specific changes I made to my own diet and lifestyle. I will also get into the importance of barrier health and how we can rebuild the skin’s microbiome after experiencing potentially harmful lifestyles and treatments. There is a lot to cover, and there is no one size fits all approach. I meet a lot of people in my practice, and clients come to me with acne and other concerns, and they tell me their goal is to have clear, glowing skin like mine. This is when I share my story. They know I understand, and they are not alone, and they can see to believe that we can get things balanced, cleared, and strengthened. PS- I also cleared up a patch of melasma that took over most of my forehead. More to come!