Face of Grace

Bookmark this 🔖 so you can always refer back later!

I’ve had clients over the years ask me for a bit of a guideline on how they can start to food shop for their skin, so I made this mini guide.

Remember, everyone is different. All foods impact people differently and sometimes starting with a focus on diet is not a healthy place to start for you. I am not a dietician, and this is not medical advice. But if you’re looking for a food guide that leaves room for growth and personalization, I hope this one is helpful.

If you’d like me to send you the PDF version, comment below or DM me!

Happy eating 🤍

Well this was a fun little trend to hop on. Did I miss anything??

Let’s talk about why using skincare with more effective delivery systems is a game-changer for your skin health. 🪞

Think of your skin as a fortress. 🌲🌲🌲The outermost layer, the stratum corneum, is like the fortress walls, protecting everything inside. When we use skincare products, it’s crucial that the active ingredients can pe*****te these walls to work their magic from within.

🔬 Why does this matter? Effective delivery systems (like phospholipids) enhance the potency and efficacy of the ingredients, giving you better, longer-lasting results. It’s like having a direct line to your skin cells, delivering nourishment exactly where it’s needed most. This means more hydration, firmer skin, and a radiant glow that comes from within.
Delivery systems allow for higher efficacy without “peeling away dead skin so that your products are more effective.” Your barrier and biome will thank you.🧬

🌿 So, if you’re investing in your skin, look for products that boast advanced delivery systems. Your skin will thank you for it, and you’ll see the difference in how your skin looks and feels.

Remember, it’s not just about what’s in your skincare, but how well it can get to where it needs to be. Let’s keep that skin glowing and healthy, my friends! 💛

It’s been a while since I’ve introduced myself around here, so I thought I’d give everyone a little update 💛 and if you’re new here, welcome!

✨my name is Valene and I’ve been an esthetician for 6 years
✨I focus on barrier health and use holistic approaches to give you your best skin ever.
✨I have PCOS, hashimotos, and struggle with acne. If I could get a lifestyle routine down I would be a better person, but this is what has led me to holistic esthetics.
✨I have a knack for working with acne-prone skin since I’ve been living the journey for 15+ years, but I’m here to help with it all 🫶🏻
✨my dog Pudding is my life and the mascot of Face of Grace. Her bark means hello and she’s happy to meet you.
✨I enjoy true crime, laughing loudly, naps, and iced matchas.
✨ice cream is my downfall, as is thinking I can consume more than 2 shots of espresso in a day 😵‍💫
✨I love to watch people love with their face just by tweaking their lifestyle and skincare routines
✨I love the sun and protecting your skin from sun damage. You’ll find me practicing safe sun all year, and explaining how you can too!
✨I’m located in Lewes Delaware for all of your skincare needs, and travel back to NY throughout the year to see my clients who enjoy me just as much as I enjoy them 🥹
✨my hair is usually on top of my head in a messy bun… this hair really is for the gram.
✨I like pigeons, possums, and most other creatures that aren’t appreciated by the general public. Misfits are to be loved.
✨I’ll probably always talk about starting a podcast and never start one.
✨I find the journey of aging fascinating, and really hope to inspire people to love the journey that is reflected in their mirror.
✨Face of Grace is a safe space for EVERYBODY.
✨I love being your friendly neighborhood esthetician and can’t wait to see you soon!

First in a series of 6 Deep Space facials
💫💫💫

Utilizing buccal massage, we carve away patterns of stress held in the face to reveal a more true version of yourself. We work on softening fascia adhesions that lead to the formation of fine lines and wrinkles, and with deeper pressure and pressure points we melt away tension held in the jaw and face.

Releasing tension creates space for better circulation and healthy lymphatic flow, bringing back natural elasticity and radiance.

We love to see it! Hydrated, sculpted, and glowing with the Outer Peace facial✨

Book yours now at my link in bio 💛

May is Skin Cancer Awareness Month and I’m excited to partner with Bask Suncare and offer you their invisible SPF 40 for free when you book your facial!

Schedule any facial of your choosing by May 31 for anytime in May or June to get your free sunscreen. That’s it!

www.shopfaceofgrace.com/pages/facials

I promised this mini guide back in September 🫠 whooops. But here we are! I spoke last time about the connection between the skin and the gut, and I’m here following up on the importance of the connection between the brain and the gut.

I recently heard on a podcast episode of What’s the Juice with Organic Olivia that the brain ultimately controls everything, telling your hormones what to do. So if you have hormone imbalance… don’t ignore your brain. It really is all connected.

The gut-brain axis suggests that there’s a connection between the health of your gut and the function of your brain, and it can be tied to the condition of your skin.

If you’re someone who has tried a lot of things holistically but still can’t get the results you’re looking for ✨long term✨, ask yourself if you’ve addressed regulating your nervous system. (This is something that I am currently working on myself!)

🧘🏼‍♀️try yoga, meditation, box breathing, or all three! Slowing down your breathing helps your body relieve stress, and your lymphatic system benefits from it too! Moderate movement and/or a workout that you enjoy will also help relieve stress.

🌱get outside. Spending time in nature has been shown to help with depression and anxiety, reduces cortisol levels, and can lower heart rate and blood pressure. Get connected with the earth and ground at the beach or on grass.

📓if therapy is an option for you then take it! If that’s not attainable for you, also consider EFT tapping, which focuses on the 12 meridian points of the body to relieve symptoms of a negative experience or emotion

🎶there’s a reason why singing in our car has such a positive effect on us. Gentle humming calms the vagus nerve. You can begin to reset the nervous system! actually holds workshops that connects healing through song. Check out his link in bio, as he’s in the Philly area but does online workshops too.

By helping to regulate our nervous system we can truly start to lower internal inflammation and the harmful feedback loops that we find ourselves in.

Did you see me in the Cape Gazette this morning?

Sun care the focus at Face of Grace There’s a place in Lewes where you can get an orange crush on your face. It’s not a rowdy bar; it’s the Face of Grace Skincare Studio. The orange crush is just one of licensed esthetician Valene Hathaway’s treatments that she says will keep skin...

Small Business Weekend kicks off today! Now through Monday get big deals on your favorites, new additions, and facial packages!

Use code SMALLBIZ10 for 10% off $100+
Use code SMALLBIZ20 for 20% off $200+
Use code SMALLBIZ30 for 30% off $300+

Facial packages can be found under FACIAL BUNDLES under the skincare tab on my website.

Happy shopping ✨

Mark your calendars for my Small Business Weekend sale! You won’t want to miss it ✨

Come check out the festival of trees, and sponsor one if you can!

Millville Boardwalk's Festival of Trees Help local families during the holiday with Millville Boardwalk's Festival of Trees.

Whether you’re just starting your routine or feeling overwhelmed by the amount of products floating around, my advices is to focus on your ACES and you’ll ace your preventative aging skincare routine.

🥬🍊🥭Vitamins A, C, and E hit all of your targets when it comes to collagen manufacturing, cell turnover regulation, texture, and pigmentation. You’re left with hydrated, glowing, bouncy skin.

🌤️S is for your sun protection, and while I don’t fear monger the sun, you can’t argue that prolonged sun exposure heavily impacts the skin when it comes to signs of aging.

⚡️Osmosis Vitamin A serums + Catalyst set you up for vitamins A, C, and E, are sun safe and barrier safe, and top it all off with your favorite TIZO SPF (their AM replenish SPF also has vitamins C and E in it!).

🧬 Want to bump up your preventative aging routine to the next level? Add in StemFactor. The growth factors found in StemFactor encourage multiple cell type growth to repair and replace damaged cells while protecting the skin.

✨Find your ACES(S) on my website via the link in my bio and let me know if you have any questions!

Book now before the calendar gets full! Your skin and stress levels will thank you ✨

Just a few of my favorite things ✨

🧊 cool tool to bring down puffiness and inflammation
🪩epic tool to pe*****te product 15% more
🔮gua sha to promote lymphatic drainage, depuff, and loosen fascia to help soften fine lines
🧡facial infusion with RevitaPen to give you a 30 day boost of retinaldehyde with 30% product pe*******on

All tools can be found in all of my facials, and you’ll find the facial infusion in my Orange crush and Higher Dose, and the RevitaPen is a Higher Dose exclusive 😍

What’s your face?

We love to see it 😍

Working on sensitivity and congestion with proper home care, and in treatment with gentle exfoliation and LED.

Facials aren’t always about heavy lifting with strong acids and intense modalities. A lot of the time it’s about helping my clients understand how to best gently nurture their skin with proper products and lifestyle adjustments.

Our skin is a great communicator and always doing its best based on what we are giving it. The more we understand the why of what our skin is doing, the better we are able to work with our skin and not fight against it. It’s like having an adult conversation instead of a screaming match 😅

Come book a facial to unpack the why of your skin concerns. I’ll be here 💛

When it comes to chronic skin issues, topical solutions are rarely the answer for long-term success.

✨your skin is an organ, which makes it a piece of an entire system. That system is called the integumentary system.

✨the integumentary system is linked to your immune system (gut X skin axis!), nervous system (brain-gut-skin axis!), and endocrine system (read: hormones). It’s all connected.

✨the gut is a great place to start when you’re looking to heal holistically for long term skin success. What does this look like?

🍉🥬 eat as many unprocessed foods as you can. Eat with the seasons! This can be a difficult transition for some (hi! It’s me!) so just do your best and keep at it. Healing journeys are rarely fast. And don’t beat yourself up when you fall off the horse - the stress of that is not helpful 🙅🏼‍♀️ learn from it and get back in the saddle.

🧘🏼‍♀️ stress management doesn’t mean get rid of all of the stress in your life. That’s impossible. It means carving out a little time in each day to relax your mind and body. Even if it’s just breathing. That breathing app on all of our smart watches can actually be really beneficial!

💦keep hydrated with water and no, LaCroix doesn’t count. Every single organ in your body requires water to function properly.

🧄 prebiotics are my go-to to helping reset your gut Microbiome. Prebiotics help repopulate your body’s own probiotic population. My favorite 3 month gut-reset is with Recovery (find it on my linkin.bio!), a prebiotic with all of the omegas you need for a healthy gut. Oh, and those struggling with acne, inflammation, and dryness can have an omega-3 deficiency, so get those omegas in for proper skin health! Foods high in prebiotics are bananas, garlic, onions, asparagus, sunchokes, and dandelion greens.

✨a few of my favorite things✨

I love love love my space, the products are not only luxurious but advanced, and I can’t wait for you to experience it! Book your facial today for total rejuvenated skin and mind 💛

Head to my link in bio to book your Outer Peace facial 💫

💛💛💛

We are thrilled to announce that Osmosis has been awarded Favorite Anti-Aging Line in the Associated Skin Care Professionals (ASCP) Skin Deep Readers' Choice Awards! 🏆 Thank you to our community for playing an integral role in helping us to challenge the status quo and set new standards for skincare excellence. We value and appreciate your support, expertise, and dedication. Without you, this achievement would not have been possible. 🌿

It might be almost August, but summer isn’t over - especially at the beach. Support and protect your skin while enjoying everything the sun has to offer with the Practice Safe Sun serum bundle with a 10% discount and hurry… you’ll only be get some of these online for a short amount of time because something new is arriving soon 👀 head over to my linkin.bio to snag the bundle ☀️

Do you Practice Safe Sun? My summertime campaign to help people better understand how the sun is both beneficial for us, but can also have harmful side effects that you might not see for years. The best way to enjoy your days at the beach (and every day, really) is to practice safe sun. Don’t know how? Head to my link in bio where you can Download your free safe sun guide with tips and tricks to live your best sun-filled life.

You can also head to my website and purchase your favorite local practice safe sun print! All art was photographed and designed by my friend and local photographer 😎

Have you met Pudding yet? While Pudding is still learning how to greet clients with her best inside voice, she quickly warms up and also wants some facial massage time 😅

A lot of my clients love to have her on their lap during their facial, but don’t worry, if it’s not your thing she will make her way over to the couch or dog bed and take a nap while you nod off under LED. 😌

If you haven’t met her yet, what are you waiting for? Head over to my linkin.bio or my website and book your facial! No better way to gear up to and start your journey to your happiest skin ever 💛

You’re crushing it 🍊🍊🍊

This is a before and after from one Orange Crush facial 😍 focusing on pigmentation, collagen building, and DNA repair. She’s leaving more hydrated and with a concentrated cocktail of ingredients penetrating to skin to create real and lasting change.

✨✨book your facial today and let’s get you on your way to having your best skin at the beach

Stop by and say hi! I’ll be giving mini skin consults, have some skincare kits on hand, and I’ll be answering all of your skincare questions! See you soon 💛

Let me count the reasons I (and my clients) are in love with the facial infusion🧡

The facial infusion is 2.5% retinaldehyde formulated with a rockstar line up of other amazing actives to heal, rejuvenate, and transform your skin, giving you a full 30 day boost of collagen production.

Swipe along to learn more about
✨Retinaldehyde
✨Japanese Honeysuckle
✨Sea Buckthorn
(A personal fave for anyone who knows me)
✨Phosphotydalcholine
(The delivery system in many Osmosis serums)
✨Beta Glucan
(better than hyaluronic acid)
✨Chlorella Vulgaris Extract

In addition, niacinamide, fulvic acid, and less than 5% of mandelic and lactic acid are going to give your skin a boost.

🧡less than 5% of mandelic and lactic acid doesn’t disrupt your skins barrier function. Lactic acid is hydrating and brightening, and mandelic acid has a large molecule size making it very gentle, and is great for pigmentation and acne.

🧡niacinamide is involved in cellular respiration; lipid-synthesis, provides antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, and improves epidermal barrier function, in addition to inhibiting skin pigmentation.

🧡fulvic acid is a potent antioxidant that detoxes the skin, improves vitamin and mineral delivery into the cell, and improves production of proteins and wound healing.

Once you’ve been using an Osmosis vitamin A serum for a month, we can dive right in with Facial Infusions and experience the magic (science) 💫 Head to the link in my bio to book your appointment!

Happy Valen(tin)e’s day from your favorite holistic esthetician and shop pup💞
I’m so grateful for all of you who keep supporting me and believing in my philosophy on skincare. You’re really the best 🫶🏻
And shoutout to for some amazing photos he took that are coming your way as I redo my website. I’m so excited!