Meet The Hollywood Skin Doctor Rewriting The Beauty Rules With Crystals
From healing stones to yin and yang tools: welcome to 2021’s biggest beauty trend
If your facial doesn’t start with you setting an intention and some chakra balancing, doesn’t use crystals to massage your skin and doesn’t end with an empowering message about loving your body – is it really even a facial in 2021?
Celebrities are flocking to LA-based holistic aesthetician Emma Goodman (known to her famous fans as The Skin Witch) for a facial where spiritual skin healing takes precedence over creams and erm… potions.
Emma’s impressive CV covers qualifications in aesthetics, cranial sacral therapy, chakra and energy balancing, facial reflexology, yoga teaching and the ancient Chinese skin healing technique of Gua Sha, and she’s combined all these skills to offer treatments that incorporate healing stones as massage tools, breath work to release pent-up emotion and energy healing to help work on the skin from the inside-out.
And A-listers such as Hailey Bieber, Camila Morrone, Addison Rae, Sofia Richie, Josephine Skriver, Sydney Sweeney and Emma Roberts are queueing up to get this dose of wellness, alongside the glow of radiant skin. “I see them monthly when they are in Los Angeles, some before shoots or awards, and with some we work on maintenance or specific concerns,” explains Emma of the celebrity clients that she’s picked up through Instagram and word of mouth. “Not only do they come for the glow-up, they come to relax. They have crazy schedules, and time zones they pass though, which can take a toll on the skin and stress the nerves.”
Emma started working on a more wellness-based practice after a holistic doctor was able to improve her chronic stomach pain where conventional medicine hadn’t been able to help. “After that, I started doing my own research about the gut-brain connection and it helped me to incorporate it into my business,” she recalls. “No one really teaches you about diet and hormones, and how they reflect the health of your skin.” And the more holistic approach took off immediately.
“I did have the goal when moving to Los Angeles that I wanted to help actors and models with their skin, but I didn’t expect my approach to be this popular,” she laughs. “I love empowering others so I knew this was the market that I could make real changes in. They require their skin to get them jobs and I know how stressful it can be when your skin is broken out.”
As well as her practice in Beverley Hills, Emma offers virtual sessions across the globe for those looking for a facial with a difference. Bazaar caught up with Emma to find out more about her technique and pick up some skin tips…
How can crystals help improve the skin?
What I love about crystals is they hold a resonance of vibrational energy, and with my background in chakra balancing, I know how powerful they can be to either stimulate or calm you down. The wellbeing of your skin is effected by stress and tension – when you hold emotions you can see it in the skin. By attuning your body to specific frequencies, your skin – and muscles in your face – seem to change. Some things can’t be described but when people leave my table, their entire energy has been renewed.
What are some of the techniques you use?
I use facial reflexology to face map the skin, it gives me more information to what is happening internally. Chakra balancing helps harmonise the energy of the client and I use cranial sacral therapy, by tuning into the nervous system, to read the ebb and flow of cranial fluid. Sometimes it is stuck and sometimes it is off on one side or another. I’m able to tune into the flow and help it back into balance through lightweight touch and connective tissue release.
Tell us about how Gua Sha massage works?
This helps with lymphatic drainage for puffiness, increases blood flow and circulation for better product penetration, it also helps to oxygenate cells, lifts and sculpts, and releases tension in the facial muscles.
Why use facial tools?
It’s a perfect way to stay on top of maintaining your skin. Through facial massage you are able to increase cellular metabolism, allowing a deeper penetration of the ingredients you are using in your products, and helping with lymphatic drainage (removal of toxins). It keeps your skin glowing!
What more conventional treatments would you suggest to avoid?
The one thing I would stay away from is constant exfoliation. It can sensitise the skin, leaving it very vulnerable and causing it to weaken over time. Without the cells to protect it, you can get more sun damage. I’m not a fan of scrubs or harsh chemicals like acids or lasers either.
What skincare products would you recommend?
I say use a clean professional brand from an esthetician you trust. Don’t use something because your friend does, not everyone will react the same to the same products. Always seek professional advice, I spend most of my time trying to undo damage that people are doing at home.
What’s your top advice for better skin?
Heal the gut – take prebiotics to colonise the good bacteria and eliminate inflammatory foods. Drink more water and less caffeine. Wash your face with a clean cleanser (free of chemicals and acids) twice a day and apply serums, moisturisers or oils to lock in moisture and always wash make-up off. Use tools like Gua Sha stones, or my yin and yang tool, or focus on massaging your skin daily when you apply your oils. This will help increase blood flow and help oxygenate your skin.
Are there any alternative treatments from the Middle East that you incorporate?
Rose water has been a trusted beauty ingredient for anti-ageing since the ancient times for Arabian women; even the beautiful queen Cleopatra used rose water. I use it in my facials as a toner. Many of its beauty benefits include balancing of pH, reducing inflammation and redness, controlling oil and healing scars. Honey is a great anti- oxidant, and has anti-inflammatory and anti-ageing properties as a face mask for home.
How can you stay looking youthful?
Normalise ageing! Stop the injections, they only cause the muscles to atrophy and over time weaken and lose that beautiful shape. Fillers can leave your skin uneven underneath, as skin will encapsulate the foreign matter and create little balls under the skin. Stay away from inflammatory foods like gluten, cow dairy, and processed sugar that can cause digestive issues and mucus. Eat organic and non-GMO and drink filtered water – a lot of it!
How much can you tell about a person from their skin?
From my background of face mapping from Eastern-based philosophies, you can tell so much about the internal health of the client. Your body and skin is always communicating with you! I’m able to detect the root cause of most symptoms such as acne, rosacea, hyperpigmentation, wrinkles, eczema, psoriasis, and blackheads. I also do ear seeding (reflexology). The body shows the ‘out-of-orders’ through wrinkles, darkness, bumps, protrusions and sensitive spots on their ears. You can also see this in the tongue, fingernails and facial zones.
Emma’s Step-by-Step Gua Sha Ritual For You To Try At Home
1. Begin with a cleansed and moisturised face and find the stone or skin tool that you connect with the most; this will be what you use to massage the skin.
2. Start your ritual by lighting a candle and setting an intention. Place your hands on your heart, close your eyes and take a deep breath and connect to that intention.
3. Apply an oil before you begin your facial massage. Ensure that the Gua Sha stone is as flat to your skin as possible with light pressure. The aim is a very light, delicate pull rather than push. It should feel cooling and calming.
4. Start your massage on the back of the neck, on either side of the spine to release neck tension (this is great for tech-neck from being on the computer). Then move gently across the chest, out towards the shoulders on both sides.
5. Next, focus on the front of the neck, working from the base up to the jaw to open up the ‘waterways’, or lymph nodes, for detoxification. Use an up and down motion to wake the lymph up. Always hold the muscle that you are working on with the opposite hand as a base, then gently pull your tool – pumping along the face, up and outward.
6. Work from the midline of the face out towards the ears and down the neck. When you get to the ear, always wiggle your tool at the end of your stroke and then take it down the side of the neck to drain. Repeat these strokes in each section three to five times.
7. When you are finished, thank your body for everything it does for you.
Lead images courtesy of Instagram/skinwithcla (via @marianna_hewitt and @haileybieber)
From Harper’s Bazaar Arabia’s January 2021 Issue