Stories of transformation all around the world

For many of our students, the allure of making natural and organic skincare products isn’t just a fun hobby or a path to owning a small business. It’s quite frequently a goal rooted in a personal journey, something born of a desire to address a troubling and persistent skin concern.

Here at the School of Natural Skincare, we have seen firsthand that making high-quality natural and organic skincare products can be fun, empowering, and totally transformative. We’ve seen students change their whole perspective on skincare—and their own “bad” skin, too. Whether it was a case of being let down by traditional options, being disappointed in their off-the-shelf solutions, losing faith in their skin’s ability to heal and be renewed, the change they find on their journey can be empowering, uplifting, and inspiring.

With the right knowledge, they can make that change. With practice and professional-quality training, they can see amazing results, both for themselves, and for others.

One of the most amazing things we get to enjoy about what we do is hearing from our students how their experience studying with the School of Natural Skincare has changed their lives. Here are some stories we’ve gathered recently from our students.

Jennifer Vatza – Restorative Aromatics

Jennifer Vatza was first drawn to work with essential oils after taking a class at her local yoga studio, and her passion led to her pursuing a certification in aromatherapy, as well as starting her own business. After dabbling a bit with using carrier and essential oils for skincare, she saw some amazing results with her own stubborn and persistent problems.

“When I first started really getting into aromatherapy, I was having such terrible issues with my skin, like under my eyes it was all wrinkled, red, puffy, the dark circles, the whole gamut. And I tried everything from the high-end store products to the drug store products. Everything just made it worse. The breaking point for me was I bought this little fifty-six dollar bottle of intensive eye care cream, and it didn’t do anything—and it made it worse.”

Jennifer’s initial experiments with natural skincare showed dramatic improvements—and when she saw an ad for the School of Natural Skincare, she decided to dig even deeper.

After enrolling in the Diploma in Natural Skincare Formulation, Jennifer began working on the course and, in her words, “Fell in love.”

Jennifer had a solid foundation and a business already in the works, but she soon discovered that there was so much more to learn—and so many more possibilities to create targeted products for specific issues. One of her first interests was creating anti-aging products and skincare for mature skin. She was able to combine her essential oil knowledge with new information about botanical extracts, different types of emulsifying waxes, safety, testing, and storage.

“Anyone can make an Etsy store, throw up their skincare stuff,” Jennifer says, “You want to be able to protect yourself and your customers by doing it right.” We agree! Now, more than just experiencing her own transformation, she’s able to develop new and targeted skincare products. To prospective students, or folks just considering whether or not the Diploma in Natural Skincare is right for them, Jennifer says: “Do this program. You won’t regret it. It was amazing.”

Alexandra Paulino – Alexa Sky Botanicals

Another of our satisfied students who experienced a personal skincare transformation is Alexandra. She’d been suffering from a then-undiagnosed skin condition since 1992, and in 2000, was finally diagnosed with the autoimmune condition psoriasis. She says she was prescribed petroleum-based creams, as well as ones with steroids, and then later developed an allergy to the steroids, which meant she could no longer use them.

“I started to search online for natural alternatives,” she says, “things that I could do, things I could take, creams that I could apply on my skin… I couldn’t find anything. So I started to try different ingredients like aloe vera gel and coconut oil in my skin, and with a few ingredients, I noticed that my skin got better.”

With just a few natural ingredients, Alexandra saw some progress. Several years down the line, she learned about the School of Natural Skincare. Fascinated by the options available, and the idea that these specialized products could be made at home with the right training, she took the opportunity.

“Within about three months,” Alexandra says, “my skin was completely healed.”

It wasn’t just the skincare that changed her life, but the idea that change could come from within—from diet and lifestyle—as well as without. All of this new knowledge, and these changes, paired with her newly-created skincare products to reduce the redness and irritation in her skin in a dramatic way. After seeing this initial success, she returned for another course with us, and eventually developed a beauty brand of her own.

Tanya Joslin – Indagare Beauty

For student Tanya Joslin, acne and severely congested skin was the frustrating skin condition that had troubled her for most of her adult life. Stress levels, lifestyle, and hormonal changes seemed to make it come and go, but her trips to dermatologists hadn’t really been able to fully treat it. Even antibiotics and prescription-strength creams didn’t make a long-term difference. Her skin would be clear for a few weeks, but then inevitably it would all come right back. As the years passed, Tanya found herself struggling both with acne and with aging skin, which caused her to become frustrated. Eventually, she began to truly examine what was in the products she was using. And from there, it just felt inevitable that her skincare choices needed to reflect her natural and organic lifestyle.

Tanya began learning about skin health and function, then about ingredients, sourcing, and in particular, about the power of oils to heal and calm her angry skin. “It started with investigating what would work for my skin, and then it was about investigating supply chains and just becoming a more conscious consumer on so many different levels.” Encouraged by her success, and the success of the people she shared her first products with, she registered her business and began approaching it with a more serious eye.

“There’s a lot of misinformation on the internet. If anyone is thinking about selling or giving stuff to other people to use, consider doing a course like this where you’re dealing with facts.”

Studying with School of Natural Skincare empowered Tanya with the information she needed to develop her products as well as her business and branding. Now, she’s eager to spread the word about the amazing power of oils to heal, renew, and restore even the most damaged skin!

Whether you’re searching for a solution for your own skin challenge or have big dreams of launching your own brand and selling your own products, all of our students share a love for natural and organic products, a willingness to learn, and a desire to create professional-quality products.

The most challenging thing about this journey is that unless you’ve invested in developing your skills, learned from professionals, and put those skills to practice, it can be extremely difficult to be sure that what you’re doing is correct, and that your products are safe, stable and effective—let alone whether they’d pass a cosmetic safety test! If you want your products to work, you have to understand why they work, and how to fix it when they don’t.

The thing is, you don’t know what you don’t know… and that means you risk making all manner of mistakes when you try to piece it together yourself. You can find all sorts of things from all types of sources that aren’t actually true or correct.

And unless you know for sure after having learned, how will you ever know?

Whatever your dreams or ambitions, and if you’re just starting out, you may not know yet, making your own natural and organic skincare can take you to places you’ve not even thought of yet, provide solutions you’ve been looking for, and give you a much needed boost in times of need.

So what are you waiting for? You can get started today by learning about our Diploma in Natural Skincare Formulation .