Tune In: How A Holistic Esthetician Treats Her Own Skin Issues & How She Recommends Treating Yours

If you follow mindbodygreen on TikTok (and you should), you'll recognize Katey Kristabelle's face and voice. Kristabelle is a holistic esthetician, certified facial massage specialist, nutrition coach, and online educator—both on her own channels and oftentimes mindbodygreen's. And today, she's a guest on mindbodygreen's beauty podcast Clean Beauty School. 

As she explains in the episode, Kristabelle's own journey in skin care started early—prompted in part by an early case of acne. Later becoming an esthetician and nutrition coach, she finally learned how to care for her own skin—and now helps others on their own path to a clear, healthy complexion. 

As a facial massage therapist and esthetician, Kristabelle's professional work revolves mostly around the power of touch. Both for her clients and herself.

"Massage is one of the oldest forms of therapies and has so many benefits," she says. "I often say that you can have 'fluff' and results, but I actually don't think massage is 'fluffy' at all. I think it's very powerful." 

A good amount of research shows that massage can certainly put people in a state of relaxation1, ease muscle tension, improve circulation, and even activate the parasympathetic nervous system and improve heart rate variability. 

"Healing comes from within, and when you're able to activate somebody's parasympathetic nervous system, help them relax, help them rest, and be in that state, then you can help them truly heal," she says, noting that not only does she use it to help her clients relax—but she also practices it on herself at home. 

Plus, research shows it can help encourage circulation to the skin2, thereby improving the skin's overall appearance. 

As Kristabelle found out with her own cystic acne journey, you can't make significant changes in skin quality without first addressing inflammation. "We want to create an environment where it can heal on its own—so we want to address inflammation first," she says.

As she explains in the episode, she does this in her own life by eating a balanced diet, consuming lots of antioxidants ("How can you be rubbing all of these antioxidants on the surface but then not matching that same energy from within?") and managing stress to the best of her abilities (more on that in a second). 

Only then does she move on to skin care. "I prioritize building that strong foundation with a strong moisture barrier and a balanced microbiome because those are your skin's first line of defense," she says. "And to address inflammation, we want the skin to be more resilient."

"Everyone wants to take a magic pill to fix their skin. But you have to address the stress factor first, or it's never going to get fixed," she says, noting that "of course, you can't stop stress. Things happen in life, but we definitely need coping mechanisms in place to handle them."

That can look different for everyone: Regular exercise, yoga, meditation, breathwork, journaling, gratitude practices, walks, time in nature, and time away from screens are all science-backed ways to cope with stress. 

But another underrated way is through your diet—specifically eating enough throughout the day. "I see so many women do this: They maybe have a little bite of something in the morning and then they don't eat until dinnertime. They're just running off adrenaline," she explains. "But they're also working, managing their household, and taking care of everybody. That's stressful. Simply snacking every couple of hours is such a valuable way to keep that in balance and address stress."