Healthy Skin: More Than Beautiful Skin

Skincare Is Health Care.

I grew up in a generation that valued natural beauty. Healthy skin that required little to no makeup was the goal. Our mothers and grandmothers reminded us to drink water, eat whole foods, get enough sleep, wash our faces before bed, and be mindful of what we put in and on our bodies.

I’m grateful for the women in my life who gave me that foundation. Through changing trends and seasons of life, their basic message has stayed with me: how we care for our bodies eventually shows up in how we look, feel, and function.

And healthy skin isn’t only about appearance. Skin has important work to do.

Our skin is our largest organ and one of the body’s primary protective barriers. It helps keep moisture in and unwanted substances out. It protects us from irritants and microorganisms, contributes to temperature regulation, provides our sense of touch, heat, cold, and pain, and participates in our body’s immune defenses.

In other words, the women who came before me had something right. We’re not simply trying to keep the surface looking beautiful.

We’re caring for a living, working organ.

Skincare is health care.

My Skin Has Changed—and So Have I

The skin I had as a teenager wasn’t the skin I had in my twenties. My thirties brought different needs, and after forty, those needs continued to change.

Something else changed along the way: my awareness.

I’ve become increasingly interested in ingredients. I started asking not only, “Will this make my skin look better?” but also, “What am I putting on my body every day? How does my skin respond to it? Do I need all these products?”

As my understanding of whole-person wellness has grown, so has my desire to make more mindful skincare choices—and to help others navigate choices of their own.

For a long time, I thought the question was:

“Which brand is best?”

I’ve come to believe that’s the wrong question.

The better question is:

“What is your body telling you?”

That’s where my health-coaching instincts kick in. Tell me more. What are you experiencing? What are you hoping to accomplish? Let’s find the right answer for you.

Your answer may not be a single brand.

Mine isn’t.

Putting That Question to the Test

This summer, I had an opportunity to reconsider my own product choices.

To support a friend who had fallen in love with a new skincare line, I committed to giving her favorite brand a genuine try. I didn’t want to use it for a few days and make a snap judgment. I left my tried-and-true products behind and took only the new skincare products with me for the six weeks I would be working from upstate New York.

After the first week, I began noticing blemishes.

Rather than immediately blaming the products, I approached it methodically. I eliminated the heaviest creams first and gradually removed other products one at a time. I kept observing my skin and gave it nearly a month to adjust.

Instead of improving, my skin became increasingly irritated. By the fourth week, the breakout was significant enough that I stopped using even the cleanser.

At that point, I returned to products I already knew my skin tolerated well: doTERRA Veráge Cleanser, Frankincense, Rose Mist, Yarrow|Pom, and my lightweight Aveda moisturizer.

Gradually, my skin calmed.

And I was reminded of something important:

My skin was communicating with me. My job was to listen, not override it.

Personalize Your Routine

There’s another important part of this story.

The friend who introduced me to the skincare line loves it. It works beautifully for her.

It simply didn’t work beautifully for me.

Neither experience makes the product universally good or bad. Our experiences were simply different.

That reinforced something I believe about wellness in general:

There is rarely one perfect solution for everyone.

Our age, environment, lifestyle, preferences, sensitivities, budgets, and individual bodies are different. What works wonderfully for one person may not be the right choice for another.

That’s why I’m less interested in finding the “perfect” brand and more interested in finding the right combination of habits and products for the individual.

Skincare Is Part of a Bigger Picture

As a health coach, I believe healthy skin begins long before we open the bathroom cabinet.

The fundamentals aren’t glamorous:

• Eating nourishing foods
• Drinking enough water
• Moving our bodies
• Getting restorative sleep
• Managing stress
• Protecting our skin from excessive sun exposure
• Reducing unnecessary exposures when practical

And then we choose products that complement those healthy habits rather than expecting products to replace them.

Beautiful skin is a perfectly worthwhile goal. I enjoy looking good, and I don’t think we need to apologize for that.

But today, I want more than skin that looks healthy.

I want healthy skin that also looks beautiful.

Perhaps that’s why I no longer spend much energy searching for the “perfect” skincare line. I’m more interested in paying attention, adjusting when necessary, and building habits I can realistically maintain.

That’s what sustainable wellness means to me.

Not perfection.

Not the latest trend.

Not an elaborate routine I won’t still be following six months from now.

Simple, mindful choices that support my health and fit my real life.

Because the best skincare routine isn’t necessarily the most impressive one.

It’s the one that cares well for your skin—and that you’ll still be practicing a year from now.