As an esthetician, sometimes it feels like there is a fork in the road and you have to choose which path to go down. Do you want to be a holistic practitioner and focus on massage-based, whole-body therapies and products enriched with ingredients from the earth? Or do you want to be an esthetician who focuses on advanced, med spa type treatments like chemical peels, lasers, injectables, dermabrasion, and clinical products?

14+ years into being an esthetician I can confidently say you don’t have to choose a side! You can adapt practices from both of these realms and utilize products and treatments that you feel the best about. It’s all about improving our client’s skin in the end!

What is holistic skincare?

Holistic skincare means treating the skin from the inside out and considering the whole body and lifestyle when choosing treatment techniques and products. This means taking into account diet, sleep habits, health issues, stress levels, and lifestyle choices when choosing how to best treat the skin. Many holistic skincare treatments focus on the skin's overall health as it is connected to the body; because the skin is a live, functioning organ after all. When our total body is in alignment, our skin can reflect great health. You’ll find that many holistic skincare practices focus less on high-tech tools and intensive ingredients and more on helping the skin’s tissues to be their healthiest.

Holistic skincare practices:

Treatments like lymphatic manipulation massage, deep tissue massage, tools that create microcirculation, and herbal remedies are all examples of holistic practices that promote both skin health and esthetic benefits. Another popular holistic skincare practice is facial acupuncture. In holistic facials and skincare products, you’ll also find ingredients derived from the earth like aloe, rose, clays, essential oils, activated charcoal, shea butter, jojoba oil, and many more. The idea behind holistic skincare is that “less is more”. Picking and choosing specific ingredients that help our skin but do not harm our bodies is the goal.

scrub me secret: Not all holistic skincare products are made equal. We still need to do our ingredient detective work and make sure we know what’s in our skincare before purchasing. Just because an item has essential oils or clay or is marketed as “natural” or organic doesn’t mean it will be good for our skin. We want to make sure if there are essential oils in the product they are close to last or last on the product ingredient list because when too many essential oils are added to a product it can be irritating to the skin. We also want to make sure there are no mineral oils or lanolin in any of our products and avoiding coconut oil in facial products is also a good idea. For more helpful skincare product shopping tips visit my blog post “Tips to navigating a product label”

What is the definition of advanced skincare?

Advanced skincare is a term that doesn’t have one concrete definition, but mainly the term advanced skincare is used to refer to treatments and products that utilize science or medical science to create results for the skin. Some advanced skincare practices are chemical peels, laser therapy, LED therapy, microcurrent lifting, microneedlig, and nano-needling. Advanced skincare products often contain ingredients that are found in med-spa products. Examples of these ingredients are retinoids, hyaluronic acid, L-ascorbic acid (vitamin C), salicylic acid, glycolic acid, benzoyl peroxide, and gluconolactone. The medical and advanced skincare field is always innovating and growing so we often see new products and ingredients.

What is a clinical skincare product? Are clinical skincare items usually better than others?

Clinical skincare products use different formulations of ingredients that are backed by science to deliver changes to your skin. The ingredients I listed in the paragraph above like retinoids, vitamin C, glycolic acid, and salicylic acid are some of the most popular and well-known ingredients. Clinical skincare items like creams, serums, cleansers, etc are most often made in labs and go through ingredient testing before being brought to market for us to purchase and use. These products are potent and need to be used properly. When used incorrectly (in the wrong order or using an item too often) these products could cause damage to your skin that results in redness, uneven texture, dryness, and possible breakouts.

scrub me secret: This blog post about the correct order and which time of day to use your skincare items is extremely helpful! Another blog post I wrote about skin cycling - the approach to skincare where certain exfoliants and active items are used on certain days is also a great read for anyone using a retinol product + AHA’s and/or other exfoliants.

So are clinical skincare products better than organic, plant-based, holistic skincare products? It’s really all about the ingredients. As an esthetician, I’ve used, researched, tested, and seen A LOT of different skincare products. Some clinical skincare items have amazing formulations and have proven beneficial results for the skin. And some other clinical skincare items have ingredients that are harmful to our skin and body like fragrance, perfume, denatured alcohol, parabens, and hydroquinone just to name a few. Just because a product is sold at a med spa and contains l-ascorbic acid, retinol, hyaluronic acid, etc doesn’t mean it’s automatically good for our skin. All the same as holistic and natural skincare, some of it is great and some of it should go in the garbage.

scrub me secret: I like to use the EWG skin-deep database as a guide to help me or my facial clients decode a skincare product and decide if it will be beneficial and safe to use on our skin. This database rates your product or product ingredient list on a scale of 1-10 and lists out the ingredients. The lower the score the better!

My approach to treating the skin ➡️ A combination of holistic and advanced skincare:

My approach to treating my client’s skin is to treat their specific skin type and skincare needs using whatever works best for them and contributes to overall skin health. I like to gather a wide array of knowledge on skincare products, ingredients, innovative skincare treatments, advanced skincare tools, and holistic practices. Gathering this knowledge helps me determine what gives the best overall results. I want to take my client’s lifestyle, diet, and home skincare into account and help treat the skin using products and techniques that will continue to make it healthier and function optimally.

I like using advanced skincare treatments like LED therapy, the occasional chemical peel, nano-needling, and skincare items that contain retinol, AHAs, PHAs, and salicylic. I am also a fan of micro-needling and always tell my clients to visit a medspa and try it out if they are thinking about it. I also see value in laser treatments like C02 and BBL. I believe that there are some advanced skincare techniques and skincare items that can speed up the visible results we hope to see from our treatments.

The majority of my skincare techniques and treatments are holistically based. I am becoming more well-versed in the art and science of face massage as the years go on and I see how it can create visible results like lifting and facial contour while also contributing to the overall health of our skin and body. I am a big believer in less is more and most of your skincare should have gentle, antioxidant-rich, and healing ingredients vs. harsh or potent ones. Therefore, I do like to mainly utilize facial massage techniques and tools plus products that contain minimal and plant-based ingredients to treat my client’s skin and give them the results they desire. It’s about esthetics and looking great but it’s also about having your skin and body be as healthy as it can be.

scrub me secret: My take on Botox and other injectables? Read about it here in this blog post.

My esthetician education history:

I started my esthetics journey at the Aveda Institute in Chicago, Illinois where I graduated with 750 hours of esthetics training in 2010. The Aveda Institute focused on plant-based ingredient knowledge and holistically geared skincare practices as well as all the basics and science we needed to know for our education. After graduating from Aveda I felt that I lacked knowledge in advanced skincare practices like chemical peels, microdermabrasion, LED therapy, and microcurrent. Over the next few years, I focused my continuing education on such practices and took courses from Obaji, Dermalogica, PCA, and more. As my career went on I was pulled toward facial massage techniques and gua sha massage and wanted to learn more. I took the time to get certified in acupressure massage, gua sha massage, Thai herbal poultice massage, and lymphatic brush massage. I am also certified in clinical treatments like chemical peels, nano-needling, and dermaplaning. Now, over 14 years into my esthetics career, I like to expand and refresh my knowledge by taking a wide array of education courses that are sometimes holistically based and sometimes advanced skincare based. I will always keep learning and expanding my knowledge as an esthetician.