What happens when the way you see beauty changes
There was a time when I thought HolSol was my story. I started it from a place of wanting something different—for myself, for my skin, for the way I cared for my body, and eventually for the women who walked through my door. But the longer I’ve been doing this, the more I’ve realized that my story was never really mine alone.
It is my mom’s story, too, and maybe that’s where this next chapter of HolSol begins. My mom and I have been talking about beauty for as long as I can remember. But we don’t always see it the same way. We couldn’t, really. We’re women in different generations, different seasons, with different experiences written into our bodies.
And my mom’s experience with her health has changed the way she sees beauty in a way that I don’t think either of us could have anticipated. There was a time when beauty might have been easier to define. Healthy skin. Feeling good in your body. Looking rested. Taking care of yourself.
Then her health changed, and so did her skin. Suddenly, things she may have once taken for granted became impossible to ignore. Her skin became a visible reminder that something inside her had changed. And when your face changes, it can change the way you see yourself, too. But somewhere in that experience, her definition of beauty began to change.
Beauty isn’t separate from us
As an esthetician, I’ve spent years learning the science of skin — barrier function, inflammation, circulation, cellular health, ingredients, treatments, and all of the ways the skin communicates what is happening beneath it. I know that skin doesn’t exist in isolation, but knowing something professionally and witnessing it in someone you love are two very different things.
Watching my mom move through her health journey made that truth much more personal. Her experience reminded me that skin carries our history. It can reflect our health, our hormones, our stress, our environment, our seasons, and sometimes the things we’ve been through that no one else can see.
Sometimes our skin looks vibrant and healthy. Sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes we feel completely at home in our bodies. Sometimes we don’t recognize ourselves in the mirror. And none of those things make us less worthy of care. That has changed the way I think about beauty.
I don’t want beauty to be something we have to earn by looking a certain way. I don’t want aging to be something we’re constantly at war with. And I don’t want wellness to become another list of things we’re failing to do correctly.
I want us to be curious about our bodies. I want us to understand our skin. I want us to have access to treatments and products that genuinely support us. But more than anything, I want us to learn how to care for ourselves through every version of ourselves.
Enjoying my favorite beach in 30A.
Two generations, one conversation
This is one of the reasons I’m so excited to begin writing with my mom. We are in very different chapters of life. She has lived through motherhood, raising a family, changing hormones, changing skin, and the quiet shifts that happen when you realize you’re no longer the woman you were twenty — or thirty — years ago.
I’m building a business, becoming a mother myself, and learning that so much of what we’re told about beauty and wellness doesn’t necessarily make sense once you start living inside your own body.
My mom and I don’t always have the same perspective, and I think that’s exactly what makes this conversation worth having. What does it mean to take care of ourselves? What does beauty mean when our bodies change? What are we actually doing for our skin — and why? What happens when the things that once worked for us don’t anymore? How do we care for ourselves when life gets busy, messy, beautiful, or hard?
And maybe most importantly: How do we learn to love the bodies and lives we’re actually living, instead of constantly trying to become someone else?
We don’t have all the answers. But we’ve both lived enough to know that the answers change.
SO, WHAT IS HOLSOL?
HolSol started with my story, but it has grown through the stories of so many women.
The women who have sat in my treatment room during pregnancy. The women navigating hormones. The women learning to care for aging skin. The women who come in because they want their skin to look better, and leave realizing they needed to slow down for an hour, too.
It’s why I don’t think of what we do as skincare alone. It’s why I believe modern beauty can exist alongside ancient wisdom. Why science and ritual don’t have to compete. Why touch can be both therapeutic and deeply human. Why caring for your skin can also be caring for your nervous system. And why sometimes a facial is about much more than your face.
HolSol has become a place where all of those things can exist together.
And now, this journal will be another extension of that. A place for the things we’re learning, questioning, cooking, trying, laughing about, changing our minds about, and coming back to. Some weeks we’ll talk about skin. Some weeks we’ll talk about our changing bodies, what’s happening around our dinner table, something we’re experimenting with, or the parts of life that don’t fit neatly into a wellness routine. And sometimes we’ll simply talk about what we believe.
Because my story may have been where HolSol began, but our story is where it goes from here.
