Alice came to me afraid. Afraid of the mirror, and of the rooms she’d sat in before. She’d carried skin problems since she was young. The treatments meant to fix her had done their own damage.

The cortisol creams. The years of it. A face that got worse the harder they fought it. By the time we spoke, the fear had its own weight. She flinched at the word dermatologist. Alice had learned, in her own skin, that being treated and being helped are not always the same thing. She had yellow buildup along her eyebrows. Seborrheic dermatitis, she’d been told. She was asking me bravely, openly, the way a person asks when they have run out of other doors: what do I do? I told her what I know. The body heals itself when balance returns. Every one of these symptoms is a sign of imbalance, not an enemy to be attacked and destroyed but a message to be read. For her eyebrows, I said: just tap the raw jojoba. Tap it, so it doesn’t run into your eyes. Then keep going; add the rose mist, the face elixir and then the sun elixir for the rest of the face, building a living microbiome across your skin until the whole picture clears. Be patient; be consistent.  We spoke on a video call together and discussed this routine. At the time, Alice was completely removing the raw jojoba with another cleanser, making it squeaky clean before applying the rest of the Flow Ritual set. This is why the skin wasn’t learning how to produce sebum again. When there is no sebum, there won't be a healthy microbiome or moreover, a skin barrier. The skin was struggling to return to balance because the oil wasn’t left to do its job of communicating with her body. After using the product as intended, Alice later went to her GP. Her doctor looked at the before and after photos (seen below) and said the thing I will not forget: Seborrheic dermatitis is usually managed with antifungal creams and steroids. But looking at these, what you’re doing is working. Keep doing what you’re doing.