1. About the Project

The Skin Well began with a simple question:
Why isn’t skin included in national health conversations?

Skin reflects stress, sleep, air quality, hormones, age, and environment — yet it barely appears in public health guidance.

What started as twelve clinic leaflets became a wider exploration of that gap, and the four structural solutions that could close it:

→ Recognise skin in national health
→ Shape education accordingly
→ Regulate the sector
→ Protect professional titles

Not radical.
Just necessary.
And long overdue.
[Read the full story here →]

2. Executive Summary—The Skin Well Project:

A concise overview of the project’s purpose, priorities, and approach across public health, education, regulation, and professional identity.
[Read the Executive Summary →]

3. What Affects Skin—Lifestyle and Environment:

Skin responds to lifestyle, environment, stress, and internal health — yet these influences are rarely acknowledged in national messaging.

The chart below summarises what is:

• supported in research
• emerging in studies
• consistently observed in clinic

These factors shape the everyday skin of millions.
Recognising them is one reason The Skin Well exists.

[View the chart here →]

4. The Current Landscape: Licensing Skin Treatments in England

How does England regulate skin-facing treatments — and why does the system still fall short?

This briefing explains:

• where licensing laws came from
• why they vary between councils
• how the upcoming national scheme risks focusing only on invasive procedures
• what this means for the public and for practitioners

Three hundred councils.
Three hundred interpretations.
One organ at the centre.

It’s time to ask whether the system can do better.
 [Read the full briefing →]

5. The Big 5 Questions About Regulation

Short reflections exploring the most common concerns about national skin regulation.

1. Should the Beauty Industry Be Medicalised?
Regulating a treatment doesn’t turn it into medicine.
It sets standards that protect the public while preserving professional identity.

🔗Read → Should the beauty industry be medicalised?

2. Can Regulation and Creativity Co-Exist?
Yes — just look at dentistry, aviation, cosmetic formulation.
Oversight doesn’t stifle innovation. It grounds it.
🔗Read → Can regulation and creativity co-exist?

3. What About Health and Safety — for Practitioners and the Public?
Two people can perform the same treatment — one regulated and vaccinated, the other not.
That gap affects safety for both practitioners and clients.
🔗Read → What about Health & Safety - for practitioners and the public?

4. Who Gets to Say They’re Not Part of the Industry?
If you work on skin for cosmetic or aesthetic reasons, you’re part of this sector.
A proper framework makes that something to be proud of.
🔗Read → Who gets to say they are not part of the industry?

5. Does Regulation Mean People Will Lose Their Jobs?

Standards don’t remove people — they support them.
Clear pathways bring everyone up together.

🔗Read → Does Regulation Mean People Will Lose Their Jobs?

6. The Litmus Test - Why It’s Time to Let Skin In

A simple test applied to NHS public health messaging reveals a striking gap:
skin, the body’s most visible organ, is absent.

[Read the Litmus Test here →]

7. The Four Phases of Work:

Phase One: Quiet Questions:

Scenarios and letters that introduce three core ideas, inviting people to consider how skin is treated in policy, education, and public health.
[Explore Phase 1 →]

Phase Two: Clear Proposals:

Structural solutions designed to close the recognised gaps — each grounded in public interest..
[Explore Phase 2 →]

Phase Three: Proving the Case:

A national call for evidence.
This phase invites researchers and policymakers to examine whether a national skin framework would deliver measurable public benefit.
[Explore Phase 3 →]

Phase Four: From Theory to Practice:

This phase does not exist yet.
If the evidence supports it, Phase 4 would explore how a national skin health structure could be introduced. The ideas are here.
What happens next depends on who carries them forward.
[Explore Phase 4 →]