WHAT I TEACH / HERBALISM FOR SKINHerbalism for Skin: Plants, Physiology, and the Intelligence of the Body
How plants interact with skin physiology, inflammation, and the lymphatic system. Rooted in 20 years of clinical herbalism.
Botanical ingredients are everywhere in professional esthetics. They're on the labels of every serum, every mask, every toner on your shelf. But knowing that an ingredient is in a product is not the same as knowing what it does — how it works at the tissue level, what conditions it's suited for, what conditions it should be avoided in, and how it interacts with everything else in the formula and in your client's body.
I trained as a clinical herbalist before I became an esthetician. I spent years learning plants the way plants want to be learned: by growing them, harvesting them, preparing them, taking them, and studying the long history of their use in traditional medicine systems around the world. That foundation changed the way I practice esthetics in ways I couldn't have anticipated.
This is the teaching I most wanted when I was in esthetics school, and the one I've never found adequately covered anywhere else.
Why Herbalism Belongs in Your Esthetic Practice
Your clients are using botanical products at home. They're asking about CBD, bakuchiol, turmeric, and sea buckthorn. They're coming in with skin that has been over-exfoliated with enzyme treatments and under-supported with anything that actually addresses the underlying tissue. They need a practitioner who can speak to the plants — not just the marketing.
Understanding herbalism doesn't mean you become an herbalist. It means you understand the tools you're already using with far greater precision. You can look at an ingredient list and understand the mechanism, not just the claim. You can choose products — or formulate them — based on the skin condition in front of you, not the trend in the trade publication.
It also means your treatments go deeper. Plants are complex, intelligent medicines. When you work with them intentionally — selecting them based on your client's constitution and current skin state, using them at effective concentrations, and supporting the skin's barrier and lymphatics alongside them — the results are consistently better.
Key Areas of Study
Plant Families and Skin Affinities
Different plant families have characteristic effects on skin tissue. The Asteraceae (daisies, calendula, chamomile) are anti-inflammatory and wound-healing. The Lamiaceae (mints, rosemary, lavender) are antimicrobial and nervine. The Rosaceae (roses, hawthorn) are astringent and tissue-tonifying. Understanding these family patterns gives you a framework for approaching unfamiliar plants with educated intuition.
Inflammation and the Skin Barrier
Inflammation is not the enemy — it's a process. Chronic, dysregulated inflammation is the problem, and it underlies most of the conditions estheticians encounter: acne, rosacea, eczema, perioral dermatitis, post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation. Learning which plants modulate the inflammatory cascade — and how — changes how you approach every inflamed skin condition.
The Lymphatic System and Botanical Support
The lymphatic system is the skin's drainage network, and it is chronically underworked in conventional esthetic practice. Certain plants have a specific affinity for the lymphatics — cleavers, red clover, calendula, violet leaf — and understanding how to use them alongside lymphatic massage creates results that neither approach achieves alone.
Ayurvedic Botanicals
The Tending Practice curriculum approaches herbalism for skin through both Western clinical herbalism and Ayurvedic traditions — because the two are complementary and because most of the plants with the deepest skin traditions come from the Ayurvedic pharmacopeia. Turmeric, neem, ashwagandha, manjistha, amalaki: these are not trendy ingredients. They are medicines with thousands of years of documented clinical use.
Formulation Fundamentals
I hold a Natural Skincare Formulator certification, and I teach basic formulation principles within the herbalism curriculum. This is not a cosmetic chemistry course — it's a grounding in how to combine botanicals intelligently: understanding solubility, preservation, the role of the carrier, and how active concentrations affect outcomes.
15+ Years in Practice
I earned my clinical herbalism certification in 2009 and have been studying, growing, and working with plants ever since. My herbal practice has always been intertwined with my esthetic practice — informing how I formulate, how I choose products, and how I counsel clients about what's happening beneath their skin.
When I teach herbalism, I teach from that depth. Not just the actions and indications, but the relationship with plants that makes practice sustainable, effective, and alive.
What You'll Learn
Plant families with skin affinities and their characteristic actions
How plants interact with the inflammatory cascade, the skin barrier, and the lymphatic system
Ayurvedic botanicals for skin — history, mechanism, and application
How to evaluate botanical ingredients in professional and retail products
Basic formulation principles for esthetic applications
How to integrate botanical knowledge into client education and treatment design
Ready to Go Deeper?
→ Explore upcoming workshops and courses (tendingpractice.com/workshops)
→ See all modalities in the Tending Practice curriculum (tendingpractice.com/what-i-teach)
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need a background in herbalism to take this course?
No. The curriculum is designed for estheticians who are curious about plants but have no formal herbal training. I teach the foundations you need alongside the skin-specific applications.
Is this about making my own products?
Formulation is included as a component of the curriculum, but the primary focus is on understanding botanical action — how plants work on skin tissue — rather than cosmetic chemistry. You'll leave with skills that are useful whether you formulate, curate professional lines, or educate clients about their homecare.
How is this different from learning about ingredients through product training?
Product training teaches you what the brand wants you to know about their ingredient. Herbalism education teaches you what the plant actually does, at the tissue level, based on centuries of traditional use and modern phytochemical research. The depth is different, and so is your ability to apply it independently.
What plants will we focus on?
The curriculum emphasizes plants with particular relevance to facial skin and the lymphatic system — calendula, chamomile, rose, nettle, cleavers, neem, turmeric, manjistha, bacopa, gotu kola, and more. We'll also cover foundational carrier oils and their skin affinities from both Western and Ayurvedic traditions.
Can I use this knowledge to build a botanical facial menu?
Absolutely. One of the practical outcomes of this training is the ability to design treatments and homecare recommendations built around botanical intelligence — not just brand recommendations. That's a differentiator most estheticians don't have.