Skin Health as a Source of Dignity, Care, and Everyday Well-being

Explore Your Growing Resources

👨‍👩‍👧 For Everyone
Learn more about skin in everyday life.

• Happy Skin Leaflets
  Where the project began, and where I first realised that skin is missing from public health messaging. You can dip in here, or head straight to the flashcards below for quick, actionable habits drawn from The Skin Well.

• Flashcards
  Mini everyday prompts that show how daily habits can protect and support your skin barrier.

• Flare-Up Checklists
  Helpful reflection tools to support self-care during skin flare-ups.

• Trading Standards Warnings and Alerts
  The latest public safety alerts from CTSI covering unsafe products, treatments, and practices that could affect your skin.

• Your Child’s Health Journey: At-a-Glance NHS Appointment Guide
  Your Child’s Health Journey — a quick view of some of the key NHS check-ups, screenings, and support offered from pregnancy to teen years. These are valuable opportunities to be in front of healthcare professionals, supporting your child’s health and wellbeing as they grow.

• Client Access

  [Log in to your private skin hub →]

💼 For Professionals & Curious Minds

A project born from care, shaped by concern, and rooted in the belief that skin is more than cosmetic—it’s an organ, and it’s time we treated it as one in national health policy: through public messaging, education reform, regulation, and protected titles.

1. About the Project:

The Skin Well began as a simple idea: to help people understand how lifestyle and environment affect their skin. What started as 12 client leaflets quickly became something bigger—a quiet call to include skin in national health conversations.

Skin is our largest organ. It reflects stress, sleep, diet, and air quality—but it's rarely mentioned in public health messaging. The Skin Well asks: why not?

This project explores that question and offers four clear solutions:
→ Recognise skin in national health
→ Shape education accordingly
→ Regulate the sector
→ Protect professional titles

It’s not radical—just necessary. And long overdue.
[Read the full story here →]

2. Executive Summary—The Skin Well® Project:

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

3. What Affects Skin—Lifestyle and Environment:

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

The chart below summarises what is:

• Proven in research

• Emerging in studies

• Observed in clinic

📊 [View the chart here →]

These influences are real. And they’re one of the reasons The Skin Well® was created.

4. The Current Landscape: Licensing Skin Treatments in England

How does England really regulate skin-facing treatments — and why is it still falling short? This updated briefing explains how local licensing laws evolved, why they differ between councils, and how the upcoming national scheme risks regulating only the most invasive procedures — while leaving basic skin care unaddressed. With over 300 councils still interpreting the rules in different ways, it’s time to ask: can we do better?
👉 Read the full briefing

5. The Big 5 Questions About Regulation

These short reflections tackle some of the most common concerns people have about national skin regulation — from medicalisation to creativity to safety.

1. Should the Beauty Industry Be Medicalised?
The Skin Well doesn’t believe so — and explains why. Regulating a treatment doesn’t mean turning it into medicine. It means setting standards that protect the public without erasing professional identity.

🔗Read the full article → Should the beauty industry be medicalised?

2. Can Regulation and Creativity Co-Exist?
Yes. Just look at dentistry, aviation, and cosmetic formulation. Oversight doesn’t stifle new ideas — it gives them structure and credibility.
🔗Read the full article → Can regulation and creativity co-exist?

3. What About Health and Safety — for Practitioners and the Public?
Right now, two people can perform the same treatment — one is vaccinated and accountable; the other is unregulated and unsupported. That’s a loophole big enough to drive a syringe through.
🔗Read the full article → 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 industry — whether you call yourself a beautician, a nurse, or a doctor. The moment we regulate it properly, that becomes something to be proud of.
🔗Read the full article → Who gets to say they are not part of the industry?

5. Does Regulation Mean People Will Lose Their Jobs?

Regulation isn’t about locking people out — it’s about creating clear, fair pathways to bring everyone up to standard. Keeping things unregulated to ‘protect jobs’ only protects low standards.

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

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

By applying a simple Litmus Test to NHS public health messaging, the project reveals a clear gap: skin, our most visible organ, is absent. [Read the Litmus Test here →]

7. The Four Phases of Work:

Phase One: Quiet Questions:

Scenarios and open letters that introduce three core ideas—inviting reflection on how skin is treated in policy, education, and public health.
[Explore Phase 1 →]

Phase Two: Clear Proposals:

A series of structural solutions designed to close the gaps in skin oversight, education, and recognition—each rooted in public interest.
[Explore Phase 2 →]

Phase Three: Proving the Case:

A national call for evidence. This phase invites researchers, institutions, and policymakers to help examine whether the proposed skin health framework would deliver public benefit. Through foundational questions and early proposals, Phase 3 begins to build the case for future change.
[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 the proposed skin health structure could be introduced into national systems.
The ideas are here. The questions are laid out. What happens next depends on who’s willing to carry it forward.
[Explore Phase 4 →]