Ovulation is the true main event of the menstrual cycle.

While most of us were taught to organize our cycle around bleeding, biologically the entire month builds toward ovulation. This is your inner summer — a phase of outward vitality, peak circulation, collagen stimulation, and hormonal expression.

It’s often when skin looks luminous and resilient… but it can also be when:

• Breakouts begin forming • Redness feels amplified • Hyperpigmentation appears darker • Oil production shifts

Skin Care:

Live Botanicals Oasis Enzyme Mask

Live Botanicals Oil Cleanser

Laurel Oil Cleanser

Live Botanicals Gel Cleanser

Laurel Sun Serum

Blissoma Photonic SPF

Resources:

Episode 92. Your Skin & Your Cycle: Part 1: The Menstrual Phase

Episode 93. Your Skin & Your Cycle: Part 2: The Follicular Phase

Cookbook: The Moon Cycle Cookbook

Book: The Fifth Vital Sign

✨ Moonday Notes — my weekly love letter with seasonal rituals, skincare wisdom, and herbal support. Sign up here: https://stratumaesthetics.myflodesk.com/newslettersignup

✨ Stratum Aesthetics Apothecary — herbal skincare, castor oil packs, body oils, and tools I use every day. Shop here: https://stratumaesthetics.com/collections

Understanding your monthly cycle is a literal superpower. When you begin to track and work with your cycle, you strengthen your relationship with your physical body and your intuition. This awareness creates clarity, agency, and self-trust, and honestly, I believe the world would be a better place if more of us lived this way!

In today’s episode, we’re continuing our four-part series on the menstrual cycle and the skin, focusing on the follicular phase, the springtime of your cycle. We’ll explore what’s happening hormonally and physiologically, why breakouts can appear after your period, and how to support your skin so it continues to thrive.

Skin Care:

Refine Clay Mask

Unburden Serum

Face Cupping Cups

Resources:

Episode 92. Your Skin & Your Cycle: Part 2: The Menstrual Phase

Book: Wild Power

Book: The Fifth Vital Sign

✨ Moonday Notes — my weekly love letter with seasonal rituals, skincare wisdom, and herbal support. Sign up here: https://stratumaesthetics.myflodesk.com/newslettersignup

✨ Stratum Aesthetics Apothecary — herbal skincare, castor oil packs, body oils, and tools I use every day. Shop here: https://stratumaesthetics.com/collections

If your skin changes every month during your period, it’s easy to dismiss it as “just hormones.” But that explanation doesn't helps us understand what’s actually happening, or how to support our bodies more effectively.

In this episode, we’re taking a closer look at what’s happening in your body during the menstrual phase and why your skin can feel drier, more sensitive, inflamed, or prone to breakouts during this time. We’ll explore how hormonal shifts, inflammation, circulation, and nervous system tone all play a role, and why pushing through your period can make skin symptoms worse.

This is the first episode in a four-part series on your skin through the menstrual cycle. We begin with menstruation, the winter of the cycle, and talk about what changes in the skin are normal, which ones are common but not supportive, and how to work with your body rather than against it.

Wild Power Book

✨ Moonday Notes — my weekly love letter with seasonal rituals, skincare wisdom, and herbal support. Sign up here: https://stratumaesthetics.myflodesk.com/newslettersignup

✨ Stratum Aesthetics Apothecary — herbal skincare, castor oil packs, body oils, and tools I use every day. Shop here: https://stratumaesthetics.com/collections

Just over 100 days ago, I went cold turkey off Instagram and all social media. What I didn’t expect was how much mental space, clarity, and inner authority I would regain.

In this episode, I share a long-form reflection on why I left, what changed after stepping away, and what I’ve learned about attention, creativity, comparison, productivity, and emotional regulation along the way.

This is not an episode meant to convince anyone to quit social media. If it doesn’t feel like a problem in your life, carry on. This is simply a field report for those who feel curious

Episode 79. Field Notes From Leaving Social Media

✨ Moonday Notes — my weekly love letter with seasonal rituals, skincare wisdom, and herbal support. Sign up here: https://stratumaesthetics.myflodesk.com/newslettersignup

✨ Stratum Aesthetics Apothecary — herbal skincare, castor oil packs, body oils, and tools I use every day. Shop here: https://stratumaesthetics.com/collections

If you’re coming out of the holidays, or really any period of indulgence, stress, illness, or disrupted routine.. you might be feeling bloated, foggy, sluggish, or noticing changes in your skin. Breakouts, dryness, sensitivity, and inflammation are common signals that something feels “off.”

The instinctive reaction is often: I need to detox.

In today’s episode, I want to reframe detox entirely. Instead of thinking of detox as something extreme that you do to your body, think of it as a natural process your body is already designed to do when the right conditions are present.

This conversation is about understanding how detox actually works, why it slows down after periods like the holidays, and how to support your system so you feel better without punishment or extremes.

Detox is not a juice cleanse, tea, or program. It’s a natural, ongoing physiological process. In this episode I share a holistic herbalist point of view on detoxification and how you can support your skin by supporting this natural process.

Shop My Curated Apothecary StratumAesthetics.com (Skincare, body care, and wellness tools hand-selected by me)

Castor Oil Support

• Castor Oil Pack (used for liver and lymphatic support)

• Podcast episode: Castor Oil: Everything You Want to Know

Nervous System Support

• Yoga Nidra (YouTube): Ali Boothroyd

• EFT Tapping (YouTube): Tapping with Brad

Skincare Products Discussed

• Laurel Detox Mask

• Live Botanical Oasis Enzyme Mask

• Laurel Unburden Serum

✨ Moonday Notes — my weekly love letter with seasonal rituals, skincare wisdom, and herbal support. Sign up here: https://stratumaesthetics.myflodesk.com/newslettersignup

✨ Stratum Aesthetics Apothecary — herbal skincare, castor oil packs, body oils, and tools I use every day. Shop here: https://stratumaesthetics.com/collections

Have you ever set a New Year's goal you were genuinely excited about… only to burn out by February?

In this episode, Emily shares the seasonal planning framework she stumbled into last year, a way of working toward goals that follows the intelligence of nature instead of relying on willpower, urgency, or constant output.

Instead of rushing to become a brand-new person on January 1, this approach honors the natural sequence of change: winter for structure and rooting, spring for strengthening and direction, summer for expression and expansion, and fall for release and refinement. Through this, you can create lasting and sustainable change in your life.

Emily walks through how this played out in her own life: from finances, to writing, to her annual fall shed, and why this method created more ease, clarity, and sustainable progress than any traditional goal-setting system she’d tried before.

This episode focuses specifically on winter: how to use this season to build structure, shift identity, and create systems that actually hold your goals.

Mentioned in this episode:

episode 80: The Art of Decluttering 2.0: The Fall Shed Ritual

✨ Moonday Notes — my weekly love letter with seasonal rituals, skincare wisdom, and herbal support. Sign up here: https://stratumaesthetics.myflodesk.com/newslettersignup

✨ Stratum Aesthetics Apothecary — herbal skincare, castor oil packs, body oils, and tools I use every day. Shop here: https://stratumaesthetics.com/collections

If your skin feels dry, sensitive, dull, or like it just wants a blanket this time of year, you’re not imagining it. Winter changes the light, the air, circulation, digestion, and hydration in the body, and your skin feels all of it!

In this episode, Emily breaks down why winter skin behaves the way it does through a holistic, seasonal lens and shares practical ways to support your skin so it feels comfortable, nourished, and resilient throughout the colder months.

• Join the waitlist for the upcoming Evergreen Facial Massage Program

• Listen to related episodes on circadian rhythm and internal weather

✨ Moonday Notes — my weekly love letter with seasonal rituals, skincare wisdom, and herbal support. Sign up here: https://stratumaesthetics.myflodesk.com/newslettersignup

✨ Stratum Aesthetics Apothecary — herbal skincare, castor oil packs, body oils, and tools I use every day. Shop here: https://stratumaesthetics.com/collections

Once a month, I disappear from the world ... on purpose. No phone. No notifications. No chores. No pressure to be productive. Just a full day of white space that I call Moon Day.

In this episode, I’m sharing the ritual that changed my relationship with rest, my creativity, and my work. It’s simple, nourishing, and surprisingly radical in the best way — because it asks nothing of you except to slow down enough to meet yourself again.

• Holistic Herbalism Podcast

• Digital Minimalism — Cal Newport

✨ Moonday Notes — my weekly love letter with seasonal rituals, skincare wisdom, and herbal support. Sign up here: https://stratumaesthetics.myflodesk.com/newslettersignup

✨ Stratum Aesthetics Apothecary — herbal skincare, castor oil packs, body oils, and tools I use every day. Shop here: https://stratumaesthetics.com/collections