Have you ever wished you could chat face-to-face with a holistic skincare expert and ask them everything about skin health?
Me too! So I invited one to the Toxic Free with KB podcast and made sure to get the juiciest information we’re both looking for.
So sit down with holistic esthetician and Beauty Shamans founder Shelly Marshall as we dig into a much deeper conversation than many of us usually get (and one that completely changed the way I approach my own skin wellness).
Shelly is sharing her own skin journey while breaking down what we need to know about:
- Why Skincare Rituals Matter More Than You Think
- Why Skin Wellness Goes Way Deeper than Products
- Skincare Ingredients to Avoid for A Healthy Skin Barrier
- Minerals and Foods for Glowing Skin
Why Skin Wellness Goes Way Deeper than Products
Shelley shared she’s struggled with acne since her pre-teens, which is something I know plenty of my listeners relate to. That alone can be isolating and emotionally exhausting for young girls growing up in toxic beauty standards (don’t get me started on bullying!)
But her acne struggles sparked a clear plan for her professional career: become an aesthetician and finally figure out how to heal it for good. And while her training gave her the basics – skin types, ingredients, products – it was never enough to heal her own skin.
“It got to the point where the owner of the spa told me that I had to do my facials with the lights out because she didn’t want people looking at my skin. ”
Access to the high-end, medical-grade products did very little when she was dealing with emotional trauma, spiked cortisol from a cross-country move, and unmanaged stress levels.
That experience eventually pushed her deeper into understanding the connection between emotional well-being, inflammation, stress, and skin health.
She didn’t need to detox her skin; she needed to detox her life.
Oof, something we all needed to hear, yeah?
Stress Acne: Why Emotions Show Up on Your Skin
Shelly’s skin journey is a needed reminder that the skin is often one of the first places that stress shows up physically.
Think about it.
- disrupted sleep
- elevated cortisol
- dehydration
- nervous system overload
- chronic inflammation
- emotional tension
All of those things affect how your body functions.
And eventually, they affect how your skin behaves, too.
That’s why Shelley believes chronic, hormonal, or stress acne is often much more layered than simply adding on a monthly facial.
She said, “To really change your skin at the cellular level, you have to change your emotions.” Which does sound intense at first. But it’s true!
Most of us are walking around overstimulated, carrying tension, under-rested, and wondering why our skin feels dull, dry, or angry as hell.
Which is why Shelly’s philosophy behind her natural skincare brand is all about supporting the body – through non-toxic ingredients, through calming rituals, through nervous system regulation, and through nourishment.
So instead of asking: “What product fixes this?”
Shelly’s approach starts with a different question: “What does the body actually need more of?”
Let’s start there!
Holistic Skincare Tips: Add Hydration, Minerals, and Foods for Glowing Skin
If you’ve been on your holistic skincare kick, you already know that hydration is key! But Shelly so kindly reminded us that just because you’re drinking water like you’re a fish doesn’t always mean your body is actually hydrated.
In fact, most of us are missing the biggest ingredients for proper absorption – minerals and electrolytes. And you know me, I love clean skincare and beauty hacks. So, of course, I asked her for her best ways to add these to your routine naturally.
Here are a few of the foods for healthy skin and mineral-rich habits she swears by:
Seaweed for Minerals + Skin Support
At this point, we fully fell down a seaweed rabbit hole. Partially because I am obsessed with it myself and partially because she built her holistic skincare brand entirely around it.
So when I told her I pack nori when I travel, wake surf through sea kelp, and somehow always end up with insanely glowy skin after being in the ocean, she told me there’s a reason for it.
According to her, seaweed is packed with:
- trace minerals
- iodine
- amino acids
- antioxidants
AKA: a ton of nutrients that support overall skin wellness.
She also talked about how healing the ocean can feel for the body because salt water naturally contains minerals we respond to deeply.
Sweet Potatoes for Vitamin A + C
One of the reasons I’m obsessed with Shelly’s holistic skincare routine is that it’s refreshingly simple, realistic, and more affordable than many of us think.
She specifically mentioned sweet potatoes and red/orange vegetables because they’re packed with vitamin A and vitamin C, both of which support overall skin health and cell turnover.
She shared that during the fall and winter, she’ll literally roast a sweet potato the night before and eat it for breakfast the next morning because it’s nourishing and easy on the body.
She also mentioned loving:
- squash soups
- Japanese purple sweet potatoes
- and other deeply pigmented vegetables rich in nutrients that support the skin.
So add those to your shopping list!
RELATED: Anti-Inflammatory Foods for Gut Health Dr. William Li
Bone Broth for Deep Nourishment
Bone broth also came up — not as some magic wellness cure-all, but as one of Shelly’s favorite ways to deeply nourish the body.
She talked about it as a source of:
- minerals
- hydration support
- warmth
- replenishment
Especially during colder months or periods of stress when the body feels depleted.
The conversation around foods for healthy skin never felt obsessive or restrictive, like a lot of the nonsense we hear online. Instead, it was about adding supportive things in while making sure our current routines are rooted in natural, nourishing ingredients.
Speaking of..
Skincare Ingredients to Avoid According to a Holistic Skincare Expert
Once Shelly started focusing on supporting her skin instead of aggressively trying to “fix” it, she also became way more intentional about what she wasn’t putting on her skin.
Between TikTok trends, 14-step skincare routines, and constantly layering active ingredients, it’s easy to accidentally overwhelm your skin while trying to improve it.
Signs Your Skin Barrier Might Be Damaged
According to Shelly, some common signs of a damaged skin barrier can include:
- redness
- irritation
- dryness
- inflammation
- tightness
- sensitivity
- reactive skin
and breakouts that seem impossible to calm down. Which explains why so many people feel stuck in the cycle of: buying more products → irritating the skin → buying even more products to fix it.
Ingredients Shelly Avoids in her Natural Skincare Routine
Like me, Shelly is all about clean skincare and natural ingredients. So when the back of your bottle starts to sound like a chemistry lab, you might want to check what those things actually do.
Shelly specifically mentions these as red-flag ingredients, especially for my acne-prone girls:
- Sodium lauryl sulfate: this bad boy is a harsh foaming ingredient that gives you a “squeaky clean” feeling but strips the skin too aggressively, especially for people already dealing with inflammation, acne, dryness, or sensitivity.
- Dimethicone: another no-no, this can create a kind of synthetic coating over the skin that may temporarily make skin feel smooth, but doesn’t necessarily nourish or support the skin long-term.
Essentially, what you think is helping short-term can actually be making your skin worse. Shelly is all about ingredient lists that have supportive and nourishing benefits — so do your research!
Face Massage, Lymphatic Drainage, and Releasing Tension
Another thing Shelly incorporates into her holistic skincare routine that made me so excited to talk about because I, too, am a lymphatic drainage junkie.
Earlier, we talked about how nervous system dysregulation and stress can affect the skin emotionally and hormonally, but we carry stress physically, too.
So another holistic skincare routine must have for Shelly are practices that help release tension and support circulation in the body.
- lymphatic drainage
- face massage
- gua sha
- stretching
- face yoga
Shelly dives way deeper into lymphatic drainage, facial tension, and circulation support in the full podcast episode and she also has a really helpful breakdown of lymphatic drainage FAQs on the Beauty Shamans blog if you want to learn more! 🔎
Why Your Self-Care Rituals Matter More Than You Think
If there is ANYTHING you take away from this episode, let it be this: Skincare routines aren’t only about how you look.
At one point, we started talking about all the random little beauty tools, face gadgets, tape, and masks we both use at night, and I jokingly described my “bath time” routine as a full nightly reset ritual.
To which Shelly responded, “Those are my adult toys.” Which honestly made me laugh because..SAME. But past the giggles is a really important point:
Holistic skincare routines don’t just support your skin. They support your nervous system, too!
Those “silly” routines help you:
- slow down
- reconnect with yourself
- regulate stress
- create moments of calm
That healthy flow is a very happy side effect!
So have adult bathtime, babe. Let your holistic skincare routine become a ritual you love. Don’t worry about perfection. Don’t let it become an obsession. Let it be you dedicating yourself to a happier, healthier, way less toxic life.
Listen or Watch Shelly’s Full Episode on Toxic Free with KB
If you thought this blog was beefy, it barely scratches the surface of the details we dive into on the podcast.
The full conversation with Shelly gets into:
- the emotional side of chronic acne
- why she thinks so many of us physically store tension in our bodies
- the beauty industry’s obsession with “fixing” women
- our favorite “adult toys” and face gadgets
👀Watch on Youtube
🎧Tune in on Apple or Spotify
I’ll meet you down the holistic skincare routine rabbit hole <3
