Why my Own Skin Struggles Changed Everything

Something you should know about me is this: when something truly interests me — when it lights me up — I go deep.

I have an almost insatiable desire to understand things from every angle. I want to know why something works, how it works, and what happens when we look at it differently.

It’s actually very fitting that in Human Design my profile is a 1/3 — The Investigator and the Experimenter.

This simply means that my natural gift is studying something deeply and then learning through lived experience. I don’t just read about something and pass it along — I explore it, test it, question it, and integrate it into my own life.

If you’re unfamiliar with Human Design, it’s a fascinating system that blends elements of astrology, the chakras, the I Ching, and the Kabbalah to help us understand our natural gifts and ways of moving through the world.

This is exactly how I approach my work as a holistic Master Esthetician.

My work is informed not only by my professional training and years of experience — but also by my own skin journey.

Over the years, I’ve personally dealt with eczema, acne that didn’t respond to conventional treatments, and skin that at times felt inflamed, unpredictable, or simply dull and lackluster.

I was doing everything I had been taught.

The peels. The acids. The exfoliation. The products.

And yet… something still wasn’t adding up.

At the same time, in my personal life I had already been exploring a much more holistic way of living — focusing on nutrition, switching to non-toxic household and personal care products, seeing alternative healers, and becoming more aware of how the body functions as a whole system.

But that philosophy hadn’t yet made its way into my professional approach to skin.

That changed when my own skin began going through another series of challenges — including sudden hyperpigmentation, despite the fact that I practically hid from the sun and religiously wore sunscreen (it’s a very different story today, but more on that later), and recurring bouts of perioral dermatitis that burned and itched for months at a time.

I remember wondering, why is this happening to me — especially as an esthetician?

At times, I even felt like a fraud. How can I help others with their skin when I can’t even help my own?

I had the training.

The knowledge.

The products.

The treatments.

Yet my own skin was asking for something different. I could feel there was a missing piece — a gap in knowledge. Something outside the understanding and methods of traditional estheticians and dermatologists.

Looking back now, I can see that those experiences were actually one of the greatest gifts for my work.

They pushed me to question everything I had been taught about skin — and to begin studying a more holistic approach.

I retrained as a holistic esthetician and began exploring the deeper connections between skin, nutrition, lifestyle, environment, and nervous system health. I started rethinking many of the traditional approaches to exfoliation, acids, and even the way we think about the sun.

And interestingly enough… many of the things I once saw as problems for skin and health became powerful allies.

Today my approach to skin is very different.

Because what I’ve come to understand is that many of the things we see on the surface — acne, pigmentation, inflammation, accelerated aging — often have deeper internal and environmental connections.

When we begin supporting the skin through that wider lens, things can start to shift in ways that feel much more sustainable and aligned with the body’s natural intelligence.

We don’t need more neurotoxin injections, fillers, acids, or aggressive products and treatments.

My approach now focuses on cellular energy and mitochondrial health, the muscles and fascia of the face, circulation and the lymphatic system, the nervous system, and intelligent, intentional ingredients and modalities.

This is the lens I now bring to every treatment I offer.

If this perspective resonates with you, keep an eye out for my next few posts.

I’ll be sharing more about the holistic shifts that made the biggest difference in my own skin — and the approach I now use to support my clients as well.

Samantha

P.S. Lately I’ve been doing a lot of inner work to create deeper congruence between who I am, my own journey, and how I feel called to serve through my gifts.

Like many people, I’ve realized there can be a quiet fear of being fully seen. Sharing more of my story — and the “why” behind my approach to skincare and wellness — is one way for me to move through that fear.

If you're interested, some of my earlier posts dive deeper into topics like the nervous system and intuition, how I have built my own capacity to trust myself, and how our internal state influences the health of our skin.