Skincare Gratitude in 2020
Over the last several months, I have to admit it’s been a struggle to know what to share on my blog. I really needed (and still need) to take the time to truly reflect on what it is I want to put out into the world because it’s been such an unstable time for many of us. But the reality is that my biggest inspiration over the last 5 years of blogging has been my clients, which I’m not seeing a lot of at the moment. So when I go to write, I start to journal and it becomes a litany of complaints that starts to feel like just a big dose of verbal diarrhea. And the last thing most of you need to read about is about my uncertainty when you are still very much in your own.
How To Cleanse your Skin!
Imagine a morning without coffee, a night without netflix or starting your car without keys. All of these scenarios have missing parts that just don’t make sense. That’s exactly how I feel about a skincare routine with no cleansing. It simply doesn’t work. Cleansing your skin is something that more often than not is done incorrectly. As the first step to your skincare routine it is often skipped over or done way too quickly. In order to have your skincare routine work effectively you must prepare your skin for success. This post is bringing it back to basics to bring you the proper education on how to cleanse your skin.
Is skin journaling right for you?
To preface, it’s important to acknowledge the transition of our skin throughout the course of our day. Your skin will not be the same from when you wake up, workout, eat, go to work, socialize, drive in your car to when you get home and wash your face at the end of the day. Your skin is working really hard to function with you throughout those transitions so that your fighting off free radicals, regulating your temperature, protecting you from UV rays (both sun and your daily screens), as well as how the rest of your body is responding to those same transitions. At the end of the day, our skin has exhausted itself from all of the work it happily does for us. So when we engage in negative self-talk throughout the course of its endless work for us, each cell hears your resistance and starts to respond accordingly. Call it woo-woo, but the more you shut down and think your skin isn’t working for you - the more it will start to dim your inner radiance. Believing in that inner radiance and showing gratitude for your skin is easier said than done, and that’s how skin journaling can help you get to that next step.
Inside the TSC online skin series
Whenever I find myself in a predicament there are a few things that happen. I get upset, I feel helpless, and then I get to work. Today, I'm going to go through the roadblock that motivated me to create the TSC program. I'm also going to walk you through exactly the who, what, when, where, and why of this program so you can feel supported while you achieve your best skin and your best self. This program helps turn your skincare into your self-care plus so much more.
The secret to eye care
As usual, I get inspired to write about each subject on the blog from my experiences with clients. Over the weekend there were a few common themes, one of which I spoke about in an instagram live and the other I’m writing about today. Many of you may have noticed that I’m not big on recommending eye products. It’s not because I don’t believe in them because some eye products are fantastic. It’s more so that the work goes a little deeper than just an expensive skincare product. The eye area can correlate to so many different aspects of your health. Whether it stems from a reproductive, detoxification, endocrine, or simply genetic issue, the care can be tricky to uncover if you're not tapped in. With so many great products out there formulated for just the eye area, it's important to understand that it takes just as much of the inner work to obtain the benefits of the product. Let me break down common eye area issues and what to do to help support them.
Acne without the stigma.
If you know me, you know I love movies. I especially love this time of year when all of the year’s best movies are recognized and the industry that rules the city I live in gets to showcase its most impressive talents. Each aspect of the movie-making process is honored, including the makeup department which is often overlooked as a vital part of the process unless the film includes impressive prosthetics. The film that really got me to notice their makeup departments artistic choices was Lady Bird.
Traveling Skin Blues
Over the last weekend, I had a lot of new and regular clients ask about the inevitability of stressed skin during travel. I was certain that I addressed this on a blog somewhere but realized that this subject has been skipped almost entirely in the last 2 years of the blog! What a disservice this has been! Traveling is already so frustrating and stressful so the last thing you want to worry about is your skin having a meltdown as a result. Though I’m not the expert on extensive travel (I’ve never been to Europe or across any major ocean), I have traveled for 24 hours plus before and to multiple climates. I also have experienced just about any major setback as in lost luggage, flights canceled, and the sprained ankle while crossing borders (remember that?), so I can speak to the unexpected. Since I have a major trip aka my HONEYMOON coming up soon as well I wanted to take the opportunity to talk about prep for in case of emergency so your skin doesn’t go crazy.
Skin Solutions for the body
I have to admit that when I do a facial I mostly do consider what’s going directly on the face. But as you can imagine, since skin covers the whole body it isn’t the only place in which we can experience imbalance. The skin is a communicator of what is going on internally so it can be difficult to determine why we all of a sudden could be experiencing a rash or breakout in an odd place. Skin conditions that aren't on the face can be just as damaging to our self-esteem. With these weather shifts and increase in the holiday celebrating there are a few pesky skin conditions that most of us struggle with but never talk about. Today I want to talk about how to support your whole body for best body skin practices.
My everyday skin hacks
Great skin comes from a few different factors. Good genes are ideal, a healthy lifestyle is always a plus, and some results-driven products can usually turn most conditions around. However, there are a few things that I do daily that can really take your skin from great to GRAND almost immediately. I like to call these my skin hacks, mostly because they are free and simple. Today I'm going to walk you through the few that I do pretty much every day and make the biggest difference in my skin's success.
What I've had done...
Yes, I mean exactly what it sounds like. Today I want to talk about what I've had "done" as an esthetician as well as what I haven't and why. People ask me this all the time because they want to know if I have a big secret to my skin's success. I've been taking care of my skin for a long time and given the perks of being in the industry I've been able to try a lot of things. There are things I also haven't tried but performed on others. It's sort of a mixed bag but I'm very excited to share this once and for all.
What's your intention?
Every day we set an intention for ourselves, whether we are conscious of it or not. I get to work on a diverse group of people all the time and there are two major things that I see as a commonality amongst my clients time and time again: 1 - They all have skin (duh) and 2 - There are disconnects with their intention for themselves and intention for their skin. You can’t commit to being healthy or loving to yourself and exclude your skin in that factor. Your skin is part of the package people so it’s important to remember that you can put forth just as much love in your skin as you do everything else. So how do you start setting intentions for your skin? Here’s how to do it.
Timelines for your skin
One question I am constantly faced with regarding skin concerns is a timeline on when things will be better. I hate to break it to y’all but putting a timeline on your health is like telling God your plans - it doesn’t work out that way. There are a few things you can do to help create a plan for yourself but when dealing with a live organ that reflects the imbalances of your internal organs, there is only so much you can control. I want to run through a few steps to help you stay on track when things seem to be going nowhere or even feels like you’re taking a few steps backward.
Intuitive Skincare.
This weekend I had 3 clients in a row tell me about their person experience with strong intuitive pulls. The first noticed some strong coincidences between her and a new person in her life. The second was very specific in the signs that she asked the universe for (and received them). And the third had a gut feeling about a previous skin therapist she worked with. Sometimes you just know things and there is no rhyme or reason behind it. That is your intuition tapping in to help guide you. That “I just know” feeling is not something that is taught but it can make the most impactful shifts when you listen in. When I first started my skincare practice I had to really tune into my intuition. Most spas that I had worked for had a set protocol and formula to what they wanted their services providers to follow so I felt silenced in a lot of what I truly wanted to convey to my clients. The good thing is that behind closed doors in the treatment room I would usually break the rules and talk about what I felt was truly going on. Whether it was my intuition telling me that my client needed a quiet facial to soothe their nervous system or that they needed to talk about what was really going on in their lives, I wouldn’t structure the facial around selling product or upgrading the treatment. I knew that when I was going to start to build my practice, I would have to create an environment in which I could build the treatment as it needed to unfold. Those intuitive pulls became so much more powerful once I dropped the tight structure of a spa’s idea of what works for the client. I use those same instincts to decide what to use on skin, whether it’s my own or yours. So how can you tap into that yourself? Here are my top 3 intuitive tips for the best custom skincare.
Becoming attached: Why the rules of dating often apply to my work
When it comes to my relationships with clients it feels like I often have to play by the rules of dating. Over the last decade I feel like I have experienced a non stop rotation of new, existing and returning clients. Every day I get several inquiries about how someone found me and I’m the answer to their skin prayers. I mindfully reply back and then - nothing. Since I have been with my husband for almost 6 years I missed the era of online dating, so I find that I still play a very old school part in courting someone. When a client ghosts me I get confused and think “didn’t you reach out to me?”. I also get broken up with by clients. I find that as strong as my return rate is there are many reasons why some people don’t come back. As an empathetic healer there are a lot of lessons I have to continuously learn again and again because I become heavily invested in each case. Whether a client ghosts me or gives me a very thoughtful reason why they can no longer see me, it still somehow manages to sting. There are many reasons why I think that a service providers clientele continues to evolve. I want to explore what may be holding back from taking the leap you need to trusting the process to finally achieving the skin of your dreams.