652. Look at Your Beautification Routine as Self Love

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In this rejuvenating episode, host Lesley Logan welcomes back double board-certified aesthetic nurse specialist Rachel Varga to uncover the truth behind popular skincare trends and everyday habits. Drawing from her extensive clinical experience with rejuvenation procedures since 2011, Rachel reveals why expensive beauty tools might be a waste of money and how simple, affordable biohacking practices can entirely transform a daily routine. Tune in to learn how to turn basic skincare into a profound act of self-love and parasympathetic nervous system healing!

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In this episode you will learn about:

  • Self-care rituals that actively regulate your parasympathetic nervous system.
  • Why hydration and salt intake are crucial for morning adrenal support.
  • How your fingertips provide better lymphatic drainage than expensive tools.
  • Why dermal rolling at home beats expensive in-clinic microneedling treatments.
  • Keeping your jaw relaxed to prevent unwanted lower facial aging.


Episode References/Links:


Guest Bio:

Rachel Varga, BSN, RN, CANS, is a Double Board Certified Aesthetic Nurse Specialist. Since 2011, Rachel has been offering medical aesthetic rejuvenation in the specialty of Oculoplastics and is known for providing a natural and healthy-looking transformation and educating through her show "The School of Radiance" podcast. She has performed over 20,000 rejuvenation procedures and is also a trainer for other practitioners on rejuvenation procedures including medical grade skin care, laser skin rejuvenation, injectables including neuromodulators and dermal fillers, and slowing aging in general. Rachel is passionate about delivering the highest standard of care, with a focus on what the patient’s specific rejuvenation goals are, and a tailored approach to suit their needs, values, and lifestyle. She has published multiple research articles on rejuvenation protocols for the eyelids, jawline, and overall skin health transformation. Rachel is known for her gentle touch, natural-looking results, and making her patients feel comfortable, and at ease with her caring bedside manner that originated in pediatric nursing before beginning her career in medical aesthetics in 2011. She will guide you in creating your customized rejuvenation plan and skincare routine to achieve your goals through one-on-one sessions, expert 7-week seasonal skincare tutorials, and year-long membership for the deeper layers of being beautifully radiant at TheSchoolofRadiance.com. Rachel Varga is one of the first to blend Western approaches to skin care and rejuvenation, functional insights, and biohacking optimization strategies. By blending the best of these worlds and observing what her most radiant patients are doing she will also help guide you on your path to healthy skin and vibrancy for many years.

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Episode Transcript:

Rachel Varga 0:00  

Because at the end of the day, that state itself that you're consciously stepping into, when you step into your bathroom, where you do your self-care, it's setting that intention and setting that stage. That's what your self-love time really is doing is it's giving you that opportunity to dip into that parasympathetic nervous system, rest and recover and regenerative state.


Lesley Logan 0:26  

Welcome to the Be It Till You See It podcast where we talk about taking messy action, knowing that perfect is boring. I'm Lesley Logan, Pilates instructor and fitness business coach. I've trained thousands of people around the world and the number one thing I see stopping people from achieving anything is self-doubt. My friends, action brings clarity and it's the antidote to fear. Each week, my guest will bring bold, executable, intrinsic and targeted steps that you can use to put yourself first and Be It Till You See It. It's a practice, not a perfect. Let's get started. 


Lesley Logan 1:12  

Hello, Be It babe. Well, I've got someone back. She's fabulous, she's amazing. You loved her first episode. I loved it so much. We got off and I was like, oh my god, I have to talk to her about so much more. So obviously, this is going to just have to be a theme we do. But Rachel Varga is back from The School of Radiance, her amazing podcast, I've been on it. So if you want to, you want to hear me over there and check it out, you should. We're actually going to talk about all the things that we need to be doing to take care of our skin, ourselves. Are the are the tools are being advertised to even worth the time. So lots of scientific words we use, but she also explains all of them. So I promise you, it's great. And we talked about gua sha, facial yoga, derma planing, derma rolling, like, what? What should we be doing? What's a waste of our money and time? You're gonna be mind blown. I'm so mind blown. I just, you just saved me two things from the store, so I'm freaking excited about it, and you can work with her. So check this episode out. You might have a notepad out as anyone you want to listen to, and I hope it, I hope you see how you know, there's things we can be doing every day that are self-care, self-love and helping us be it till we see it. 


Lesley Logan 2:21  

All right, Be It babe. She's back. Love the first episode, we got so much out of it, but we want to get tactical. We don't want to waste our time. We're good at healthy habits, and Rachel Varga is here to make sure that we are doing all the right things to take care of ourselves. Because, I don't know if we talked about in the first episode, but did we talk about how, like self-care is an act of self-love, like it's self-love when you care for yourself, right?


Rachel Varga 2:46  

It's critical. We need to tend to our inner garden and sanctuary first and foremost, before we give back to others so that we can from the most present place, which is love. 


Lesley Logan 2:58  

Well, Rachel Varga, just in case anyone hasn't listened to your last episode, we'll link it in the show notes. But can you tell everyone a little bit, you know, remind them who you are and why you rock at all the things we're about to talk about.


Rachel Varga 3:10  

Oh, thanks, Lesley, and I'm thrilled to be here again where we're going to get into some practical tips. So a little bit about myself. I am a what you would consider a double board certified aesthetic nurse specialist since 2011. What does that mean? Well, as a traditionally trained aesthetic nurse, I've performed thousands of rejuvenation procedures on patients over the years, from peels to lasers to injectables, assisting with surgery, teach other docs and nurses on these techniques, right? Research papers, obviously have The School of Radiance Podcast that you've been on, Lesley. However, after being in that world for so long, and then incorporating biohacking and longevity practices and truly amplifying the home care practices that actually make a huge difference long term, and then maybe sprinkling in some of the in-clinic things, it's just made the world of difference for me. And that's really what I'm all about, is helping you both look and feel your best. And if I can do it, you can do it too.


Rachel Varga 3:59  

Yes, that's what we want. Because sometimes it's like, oh my god. Is this even impossible? Like, can I even attain these things? Do you have to be an expert at it? So I appreciate that you make things accessible and easy for us. Okay, so let's talk about it. You know, most of the women listening to this show are like me. We're over 40. We're trying to, we, you know, some of us were raised in the 80s, and like no one, everyone liked a tan baby back then. So we're all we learned in our 20s. Oops, we got to wear sunscreen. Gotta do all the things. But what are some practical tips in our self-care, in our bathrooms and taking care of ourselves that we that we should be thinking about? I'm thinking like, should I? Is gua sha anything thing? Is that gonna do anything for me? I'm thinking like, you know that kind of stuff, like, what are your favorite tools that maybe are underrated, and we should be thinking about?


Rachel Varga 5:01  

100%. let's start with setting the stage for am and pm rituals. I don't say morning, because why do we want to mourn the morning right the start to the day? This is like, beautiful, rise and shine, babes. So it really starts with hydration. The skin, bottom line, we need to be drinking about two to two and a half liters water a day. Make sure there's some salt in there to support those adrenals. Hello, life in our 40s, if we're not for full, those adrenals are going to get taxed just with life stuff that happens. So your am and pm routine, we're going to get into the practical facial wash off skin care. But what this actually can do that's really potent is allow you to drop in for five to 15 minutes, however long it takes you to get ready, into your parasympathetic nervous system state. And I would say that this is actually one of the most important things for us as women to dip into as often as possible. That's actually going to slow our aging. Get that cortisol down. Get that adrenaline down. Get that sympathetic state nervous system state down and regulated into the parasympathetic, because at the end of the day, that state itself that you're consciously stepping into when you step into your bathroom, where you do your self-care, it's setting that intention and setting that stage. So I didn't want to bypass or skim over bu that's what your self-love time really is doing is it's giving you that opportunity to dip into that parasympathetic nervous system, rest and recover and regenerative state. That's what we're doing with our skincare right? 


Lesley Logan 6:59  

I'm sorry, you blew my mind. You're like, okay, the first thing is going to be the water. I mean, like, yes, yes. But you know, like, I don't I think that no one was expecting that to be the first thing. We're like, okay, hydration, yes, which moisturizer? And you're like, water. I do think we we miss it, and then the salt, the part, component of it. Because I do think people are like, oh, my god, I would be bloated, like, I remember, you know, everyone's like, I have a photo I'm in the fitness world. I have a photo shoot. No salt. And it's like, yeah, but like, I've had blood tests gone where, like, a guy's like, you could eat a salt, like, like, your body needs more salt.


Rachel Varga 7:35  

Most of us do, and especially if we're here. I mean, I'm in my late 30s. I'm not 40 yet, but I'm feeling those shifts. I'm feeling that need for that softness and that additional salt intake with the hydration to support the adrenals, because I know that there's things that are going to be happening, coming up with perimenopause and menopause and all that. So I don't want to downplay that, and it's also just a really good practice to focus on your hydration before you reach for that coffee to nourish the body. It's going to be great for brain support as well. So now getting into the nitty gritty side of the skin care things. I'm a huge fan of taking a shower or taking a bath in the AM, it's really great for me. I train a ton, whether that's Pilates or yoga, weightlifting. I do a big mix of a lot of different things. I need that warmth. I need that relaxation in the AM, sometimes we can wake up just like a little bit stiff, especially when we are training quite a bit. Fascia relaxed, relax that nervous system, and you'll actually get a better face wash and exfoliation, we'll talk about for the body. But I do like to suggest doing cleanse. I have a great cleanser on my skin shop, and then follow that up with a scrub, and you'll get a better face wash with that fresh running water, as opposed to over the sink. You might have some residual cleanser left over, and then you have water fade on your vanity.


Lesley Logan 9:12  

I one of my facialists, she made these amazing things where that it was a towel on your hands, and I went all the way up, like, imagine, like, leg warmers for your arms when it was, like, a towel so you could, like, wash your hands, wash your face, with these on, and then the water would catch but then I had to put them on every day, and I'm like, this is too much. I prefer to be in the shower. I have my face wash in the shower. It just, you are correct. I hate when I get up. I'm like, oh, there's a bunch all around my eyes. Awesome.


Rachel Varga 9:39  

I think it's just more efficient. Because I don't know about you all, but I brush my teeth in the bathroom, in the shower, too. So, do my face cleanse, do my face scrub, because that regular exfoliation is actually, it's a huge myth that people think, oh, if I read sensitive, dry skin, I don't want to scrub. You do want to gently exfoliate so that your products and serums can be better absorbed in the skin. You don't have this build up of the stratum corneum, which are like stacked corn flakes. Brush your teeth in there too. Get that heat on the body, get the body kind of relaxed, waking up a little bit, and then, if you are brave enough, doing about a 20 to 32nd blast of cold is really helpful for toning that vagus nerve, maybe even humming in the shower. Not enough women are doing this, and I see a lot of women struggling in that sympathetic, dominant nervous system state. So all of these little things just that you start to weave into your daily practices are not only going to help your skin look better, but are going to be supportive of the brain and the nervous system health, which thus is going to make you a little bit more powerful in that mind-body connection when you go into your workouts too.


Lesley Logan 10:55  

Oh my gosh. Love this. What a fun shower routine like I'm really I think this is great. I, humming. What an interesting so do you hum with the cold, or instead of the cold, or after the cold, when do you hum?


Rachel Varga 11:08  

It's actually a great distraction technique when you're getting that cold exposure. And I mean, I don't love cold exposure. I much prefer heat, but we do want to balance that heat and cold yin yang. We live in a world of duality. So if humming can, I think it's kind of stacking your vagus nerve toning with the humming. So like a hum or boo, those are good to do while you're getting through the motion of that 20 to 32nd cold shock which, which is good for you. And these are just little things that can be woven into your routines that are just going to make it a little bit next level. 


Lesley Logan 11:50  

Yeah, okay, I love this, and it's true. I also had heard like, don't exfoliate your face too much. But I got a really amazing gentle, gentle exfoliation, that face wash that I really loved, and it my face left feeling moisturized afterwards. I think I was the youngest when I was using that every single day, so I clearly have to get back on that.


Rachel Varga 12:11  

I should actually send you. I don't know why I haven't sent you this already, but just like a whole skin routine of cleanser, scrub, I have a really great tightening eye serum, C60 serum, copper peptide, moisturizer, sunscreen, like you're going to be set that's a really solid basic routine. And when you're in the shower, another thing to stack in this moment for you, when you're rinsing your body off. By the way, I wrote a research paper about a year and a half ago, titled Oxidative Stress Status and Its Impacts on Skin Aging. What does that mean? Why is it important? Well, it's really inflammation that ages us, and where do those environmental toxins come from? Air, water, lighting, electromagnetics, eating the wrong foods, yeast, fungi, mold, heavy metals and parasites. And when I was researching air, when heavy metals in the air land on the skin, they actually tell your keratinocyte stem cells to die faster. So this concept of cleanliness is next to godliness, or rinsing off the energy of the day has another layer to it that you might not have thought about just literally rinsing off debris in the air that might have landed on you while you were sleeping or going throughout your daily life. To get that skin clean like you don't have to scrub down your entire body. But I what I will say is a really good scrub to do in the bath or the shower, is actually Epsom salts. So you're getting that simultaneous absorption of magnesium. Really good. 


Lesley Logan 13:53  

This. So should I do this in the in the nighttime shower, the pm shower, because it's magnesium will help me sleep, is that a better (inaudible).


Rachel Varga 14:00  

Yeah, I'm a huge fan of either soaking in a magnesium I mean, I consume magnesium as well, and last last night, I actually did like probably 40 sprays of magnesium all over my body. But exfoliating with an Epsom salt, like salt with a bit of avocado oil is such a great hack, especially if you are in high altitude or desert climates, for the full body, it's really cheap, but you're just getting this absorption of the magnesium. So it depends what you're doing that day.


Lesley Logan 14:33  

I love this because it's I really love a float tank, like I'm obsessed with them. I think they're really great. They're so good for my usually, when I would go to a coaching event to be coached, I would float the night before, and then at the next morning, before I fly out, I'd float again. Because just like you know, that's a lot of over ones, a lot of information, a lot of stuff for the body. And I just slept so good. I felt so good. I felt so connected. But here in Vegas, there's none near me, so this feels like kind of the in between the best of both worlds. And for the people worried about the water, they just want to like, I know my peeps are wanting to take care of the environment. I know in Las Vegas, 98% of all shower, sink water is actually getting repurposed and reused. It is actually getting cycled, cleaned and put back out there. Vegas is actually doing amazing things with re reusing water. So don't worry. Don't worry, like, check where you are, what they're doing to make sure that we're maintaining water sources. But like, you don't have to sacrifice yourself as what I was my point is, there's probably a great service happening around you, too.


Rachel Varga 15:34  

Yeah, and I do live on a small island, Vancouver Island, so our water is pretty good here. However, there's things that get added to the water to purify it, and like pharmaceuticals that enter the water supply too. So I am a huge fan of drinking filtered water and also showering with filtered water. And I have a shower head recommendation, actually on my bio hacking page that you could just easily install, too, 


Lesley Logan 15:59  

We just did that this year, because it is, it's hard water here, and I could tell, and we got, oh my gosh, it changed everything. And now my poor guests, I've got to do one for them, you know, you got to do it. So these are little things that we don't think about, you know, like you don't think about the water that's coming on your skin. And you could be doing all these amazing things, and then you could be reversing it a little bit with the water.


Rachel Varga 16:21  

Yeah, and people, people always ask me, like, oh, you know about skincare and rejuvenation? And it's like, yes, those are all important. But it's these little nuanced layers that are either going to relax your nervous system, help tone your nervous system or support it from a nutrient or mineral perspective. So really good, dialed in rejuvenation. Skincare routine is not only going to be just what you put on your skin, it's literally actually how you completely move through life. And one other thing I want to talk about is just using that Epsom salt. Like, just pick up some Epsom salt from your local pharmacy or chemist that doesn't have anything else added to it, and just put, like, grab some of that salt. And I like to put that avocado oil all over my body, like in the bathroom, shower, and then just use that. It's, it's better in the shower, so that you don't have the avocado oil like in your tub, yeah, and then just grab handfuls of that salt and go over the body. So it's similar to say dry brushing. Dry brushing isn't something that I'm really on board with. The main benefits of dry brushing is actually for micro circulation, lymph and the nervous system, but a magnesium scrub, I think, is going to be accomplishing something similar. While you're simultaneously hydrating with that avocado oil, exfoliating with the Epsom salt, magnesium flakes, and you're absorbing some of that magnesium. So I just think it's a little bit more efficient.


Lesley Logan 17:59  

Well, yeah, because I mean, like, you know, I have a dry brush, and I have used it for, like, the circulation, like, type of a thing, but because it's so dry here, it actually is not pleasant for me, like, as except for, like, when I'm in a place, it's like, more like, lay a little more humid. It feels nice. Here, I'm like, okay, we're just dry on dry. So I like what you're saying. I do think my housekeeper and Brad are gonna start to wonder why the kitchen is now in the bathroom, but I'm all in also, can we just, like, shout out to like, how affordable this thing is? Because I think sometimes we start to think about, like, taking care of our skin. All of a sudden everything is like, $75 $1,000 and so this is avocado oil. Is not the cheapest oil, but, like, it's also not like my Osea exfoliant salt scrub is like, 60 bucks in last month. This is gonna an Epsom salt bag is huge. And then the I think that I can make this last longer. I love this.


Rachel Varga 18:52  

Yeah, I've seen lots of scrubs on the market over the years, including, like, coffee grounds scrubs that is a mess, okay?


Lesley Logan 18:59  

I know. I don't think I need, coffee grounds get ever, it's like glitter. No, no. 


Rachel Varga 19:04  

Yeah, yeah, the Epsom salts. I mean, do that have some in the tub. Take a bath with it to finish things off. But yeah, you're gonna want to clean out your tub afterwards. I just found that the avocado oil worked a little bit better than olive oil, not to mention, a lot of olive oils are like and avocado oils are mixtures. So you do want that single source oil. Yeah for sure. So when it comes to what I've seen in the marketplace, in the medical aesthetics world, for products for the body, they're just really expensive skincare in a larger bottle. 


Lesley Logan 19:41  

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.


Rachel Varga 19:44  

Yeah, that gets too expensive. But when it comes to doing our skincare on our face, neck, chest and hands, this is when I recommend getting into some more sophisticated formulations, simply because the skin on the face, neck, chest, hands is more high real estate area, and also the arms, depending on if you're in a climate that's warm all the time, like you are, Lesley, you want to be cleansing, exfoliating, feeding, nourishing and protecting that skin all the time, and just getting in that habit. So when I'm in the bath or the shower, I'm doing my cleanser. Face, neck, side of the neck, upper back, entire chest area. Follow that up with the scrub. I have a really great, actually magnesium facial scrub. You don't want to use the Epsom salts on the face, because those the grit is pretty big and it's also jagged, so it's okay for the body, but for the more delicate areas of the face, neck and chest, we want to be using more of like a spherical particle to buff and polish somewhat more delicate skin, so we don't get micro tears and things like that. So I did just want to delineate not using that what you're doing for the body on the more delicate areas and the all the products that I'm mentioning are on my skin shop too, by the way, I source at the best and also make products. And then after you've fully rinsed that all off, you want to actually go straight into your skincare and your skin hydration routine. And I remember, I have a sister who's six years older than me, and for all of us here around this age group, do you remember the Cosmopolitan magazine?


Lesley Logan 21:26  

Oh, yes, are you kidding? I was a subscriber. Had to hide it, but I would loved it. 


Rachel Varga 21:30  

Absolutely. And I remember coming across an interview with Halle Berry, and one of the tips that she shared was, as soon as she gets out of the bath or the shower, she gets right into her hydration routine. And that's really wise, because when you are applying your skin care without fully towel drying your face, neck and chest area, and there's still some of that humidity, like sure go over your hairline, a little bit to the eyes, maybe underneath the jawline, but going right into your skincare routine while the skin is still humid, you'll actually be able to use less product and have more of that product slip easier and be ever be able to cover more areas. So go right after the bath, shower, go right into, say, your eye serum or eye cream, and then follow that up with an antioxidant serum. I love C60. I've created an incredible C60 formula. You can also look at hyaluronic acid or copper peptide serums, for example, follow that up with your moisturizer and your sunscreen. The nuance here is literally every time you are this is going to save you a lot of time and money, because we're going to talk about gua sha lymphatic drainage here. You don't need a gua sha stone. You don't need a gua sha roller. You got your hands. I mean, I got like, mega gym hands here, lifting those weights proofs in the pudding. But what's cool about our fingertips is not a machine. It's called the bio well, and when we put our fingers in this little box, it can actually measure the photons coming off of our fingertips. This is called purely on photography. It gets six we literally, we have little lightning bolts coming off of our fingers that you can't see.


Lesley Logan 23:24  

What? That's crazy. And so we can put these back in to our body, is what you're saying? So instead of using a stone, we can be using our own hands. So now you've already saved us 60 bucks on a stone. Brad, don't listen to that. We have two stones. We will still use them.


Rachel Varga 23:44  

I mean, with a lot of those gua sha tools and jade rollers, where are they being made? Right? They're being made overseas and some four year old probably made it.


Lesley Logan 23:57  

I really hope not from one company, but yes, it's true. But I think, like, I think we think, oh, it's this great stone. This is jade. This is rose quartz. Rose quartz can be healing, but I have seen you can use your fingers, as long as your hands are, clean them up, and then you have moisturizer on your hands and your face. And then you can do it. It's actually, there's something, I'm sure this is why the photons on the fingertips is going to come into play. There's something really calming and nurturing about it, because it's not a stone on the body, it's you on your own body, like it's like you getting to know your own faith. Like there's just different things you're going to feel and you're going to find. 


Rachel Varga 24:35  

Yeah, 100%. So if we're using a hard tool, like a gua sha tool, we kind of miss the engagement to feel what our lymph nodes are up to. And that's the whole point of facial gua sha and lymphatic drainage is to open up these lymph nodes. So say, for example, you're opening up your nodes first above your clavicles. And I have a whole tutorial on like how to really do it, but we have our nodes here. So if you palpate above your collarbone, you might feel like a couple of sore spots. And when you dig in a little bit more and you kind of get to that, oh, okay, I can feel it. That's actually, again, really good for vagus toning, vagus lymph toning.


Lesley Logan 25:24  

And what should it feel like? Like, because I can feel like, I can feel like muscles, and then I can feel some like soft spots. Like, is it should it feel like juicy? Should it feel?


Rachel Varga 25:35  

You'll feel like a point of discomfort. And that's actually really good for helping to tone the vagus nerve and just a little bit of gentle pressure here, it's going to squish the lymph in the nodes above your clavicle. Because whatever we do to for lymphatic drainage on the face and the neck, it has to flow out. So we actually need to first open up these clovicular lymph nodes, and then with our fingers we are applying our products at the same time. So when you're cleansing, when you're doing your eye cream, when you're doing your serums, your moisturizer, your sunscreen, you're always going over these lymph nodes going underneath the jaw line and and the sort of pattern I like to do is start with the nodes when you're cleansing, and then when you follow up with every other step, like your serums, your eye cream, your moisturizer, your sunscreen. We're doing these sweeping motions so circular around the eyes, kind of going in a little bit with firmer pressure on the side of the nose, sweeping laterally, and then also in front of your ears, here we have a big cluster of nodes too, and they'll feel like a little bit tender, but you want to make sure you're opening that up. 


Lesley Logan 26:56  

Because if you're not, if you're listening to this, you can watch it on the YouTube, because she's doing it with what you're supposed to do. Yeah.


Rachel Varga 27:01  

And then one of the things that a lot of women really struggle with is tight (inaudible), from clenching from the more embodied and in tune you are with your body, the more self-mastery you have around what you're doing with your face when you're focusing on a task when you're communicating, and a lot of us will furrow the brows or clench the jaw or purse the lips, so when you have a greater awareness of your body, you're not going to do these things as much, which are going to contribute to say, lines on the brows, lines on the upper lip, but the masseter is we want to make sure that these pretty big muscle groups are given some love, so that all of this lymph can drain out.


Lesley Logan 27:51  

So it feels like, correct me, if I'm wrong, you just basically were saved us some time, because when we are applying our moisturizer, we can be doing the gua sha techniques with our own hands, and then we're also getting to know what's going on with our own body on that day. And we're getting to, like, really check in with ourselves. So thank you, because that's what a great, what a because it's like, I want to be doing all the right things. I definitely want to, like, if I'm puffy or what's going about. Like, also, like, I want to have that habit and to have to not have to have the excuse to have the tool, and I could be doing it myself. What a nice freedom thing, but also a great way to get to know yourself and get to know what you need.


Rachel Varga 28:33  

Yeah, and you're doing it when you're doing your am and pm skincare routine. So it's not like this additional 15, 20 minute thing that you're doing because it's cute for Instagram. Instead, take that time and do dermal rolling at home instead. So that's not using a jade roller with a stone that's actually using a tool that has little needles on it. Not all dermal rollers are created equally. I use and offer some that have been manufactured since the 90s, then you want to follow that up with appropriate products afterwards to get that collagen and elastin stimulated to help reduce that pigmentation. So it's just a better use of time and energy from using a jade roller to a couple nights a week doing the dermal rolling instead for more collagen.


Lesley Logan 29:21  

Oh, okay, so I'm clearly going to the shop and I'm doing some stuff. Is dermal rolling different than I'm going to sound like an idiot, is dermal rolling different than dermal blading? Derma blading? Do you know? I mean, okay, and should we be doing that? 


Rachel Varga 29:36  

Great question, I get this all the time. So, dermal planing. 


Lesley Logan 29:42  

Oh, planing, yes. 


Rachel Varga 29:43  

Yes, that got really popular. I'm trained in it, but I never bothered to do it because it's just glorified shaving the face. I gotta do a really funny confession here. Okay, you could pay somebody $300 to $400 to take a scalpel. Put some fancy powder on your face, and then take that scalpel and shave your face off your facial skin. Right? Off facial skin? Well, you're removing some skin, but it's it's great for the peach fuzz, right? And then your skincare and your makeup just goes on flawlessly after that. Shaving the face is huge to have a flawless, dewy look, especially in when it's sunny and warm out, and we want that glassiness to the skin, right? So you could pay somebody three to $300 to $400 to shave your face for you, or you could just do it yourself. 


Lesley Logan 30:33  

So you don't have to get like a derma you could just do a regular razor, like a good one, but a regular one. Okay. How come? Okay. Well, these ads are really pissing me off, because they make it seem like you do a special thing. Well, thanks, thanks for that. Thank you for that. I know I do see the ones where they're all the powder and I'm like, I feel like I can see my peach buzz, like, I'm it's there. Like, I don't need to have powder on to know where the peach buzz is.


Rachel Varga 30:56  

So ridiculous when I see these ads, because what the heck is in that powder? Like, is it talc? And people are putting this powder on because it looks kind of interesting, but they're inhaling it. And I pretty much guarantee that that product has not been tested or approved for inhalation and engagement interaction with the respiratory tract, just saying. 


Lesley Logan 31:22  

Yeah, okay, well, that's great. So derma, derma blading, derma, derma rolling. 


Rachel Varga 31:27  

Derma planing. 


Lesley Logan 31:29  

And it's not the same as derma rolling. 


Rachel Varga 31:31  

Exactly, yeah, and then we have micro blading, which is semi permanent brow makeup or powder brow. So dermal rolling, otherwise known as, say, microneedling, can be done in two ways. In the clinic, there's like a pen type of tool that's done in the clinic, and then you can have PRP or exosomes or other products applied afterwards, those are, again, about $400 to $600 a treatment. It's recommended every month, and usually a package of six. Now you could do that, which would be the equivalent of, say, biohacking once a month, or living healthy once a month and going to somebody to tell you what to do, or do it for you once a month. That doesn't make a ton of sense, does it?


Lesley Logan 32:23  

Right. No, it's like, it's like, doing your workout one time a month. So I got it, yeah. 


Rachel Varga 32:26  

Going to a personal trainer once a month and not doing anything really in between, except for maybe stretching. So if you were to say, consider doing dermal rolling or microneedling at home with the right tool, with the right technique, with the right products to stabilize your skin beforehand, with that cleanser, moisturizer, sunscreen, scrub and then what to apply afterwards, you're getting that collagen induction two to five nights a week. You're keeping those collagen enzymes activated constantly in this state of cell renewal. To me, that just makes a lot more sense. And not to mention the rollers are, like 150 bucks, if you were to and they're gonna, the ones that I have are like a two year product as well, like they last about two years, they'll just kind of dull, like a razor, more economical weeks, makes way more sense to me.


Lesley Logan 33:18  

And you can use it on the face, can use it on the neck? Wonderful. Okay, we can come back to that topic, but face yoga, worth the time? Is it a thing, like, is it a thing? Do I be making faces in front of the mirror to get my muscle?


Rachel Varga 33:38  

You're asking all the right questions, Lesley, I'm super proud of you. You know, I go on Instagram, and because I'm in the skin space, my page is @RachelVargaOfficial, by the way, and so I get to see all these ads that you are all seeing too, because I'm interested in skin and health and anti aging wellness and all that biohacking stuff too. And I see these ads this, like, before on one side of the face, and then after, of, like, instantly lifted.


Lesley Logan 34:12  

Oh, I just got that one where she's like, watch me lift my face. And she took this thing and, like, her face is up, and I'm like, You look like you just had a stroke. What did you just do on the other side of your face? Like, what just happened? I don't think that's supposed to happen.


Rachel Varga 34:25  

The funny thing with that is they never show both sides of the face before they do that demonstration, so that person could very likely have some pre existing facial asymmetries that with some good marketing and product placement. Oh my gosh. Look at these before and after results comparing both sides, that person might constantly be sleeping on this side, on their left side, and also the driving side, that brow could just be naturally lower in another place. So the other side, the right side that maybe they don't sleep on, they don't have as much sun damage, and just the way that their facial musculature is could naturally be a couple millimeters higher. So I always have a bit of a laugh when I see those.


Lesley Logan 35:14  

Oh my gosh. Okay, so well, I appreciate that you're seeing the same ads as me, because, like, after this conversation, I'm gonna get more of them. My phone is right here, listening away. So, okay, so, but so face yoga, we can save our time, or it's worth doing?


Rachel Varga 35:29  

I'm a huge fan of yoga for the body, and while you're doing your your yoga for the body, you're keeping your face relaxed, right? You're you're having an awareness. You're maybe doing a hard pose, or a hard Pilates routine, like you're really there, you're really present, you're giving it your all, and you're doing it, and you're clenching your jaw, or you're biting down and bearing down, or you're bringing your brows together and like focus. In those states, this is just nervous system mastery, this is full body awareness, mind-body connection, what you're doing with your face, you actually want to keep your face as relaxed as possible, because that's directly tied to beauty. That's why I mentioned the nervous system state. The more relaxed you are in that parasympathetic state, the more beautiful you are going to be perceived as because a sign of nervous system regulation, signs of health and vitality, that's actually what's attractive, even if you have signs of aging, right? It's the way that you carry yourself, it's the way that you present yourself. It's the how present you are. The facial yoga, in a nutshell, never been a huge fan of it. And again, I've seen these before and after images of people who promote these things, and I take one look at them, there's especially this one more mature oriental woman who does it, and before she just had a really wide jaw. And to me, when I see that, I see face lift, I see lower jaw surgery as very likely a possibility of happening. So I kind of take that into consideration that I really don't think that having that face shape shift be that significant is from doing facial yoga exercises. Now that being said, there are some really good things that we can do with our face, which is to not go through life with your mouth open. If we go through life with our mouth open, we actually can, and we mouth breathe, or we do that while we sleep, you're going to have crummy sleep. And actually you're you can experience we see this when we look at long term mouth breathers, they have this lower mandible jaw recession. And I think that's also related to some of the scaling muscles and some of the soft connective tissue, the fascia. When the mouth is open, it can get tight. Something's tight here that's resulting in that back shift of the mandible. So I'm here to say that go through life with your with your lips together. 


Lesley Logan 38:34  

Yeah. Well, you know, I read that in the book Breathe from James Nestor, like we are changing our faces, like by being by mouth breathing. It's like changing the way that your cheeks are shaped, and the way your your cheeks rest on your face, and that all that stuff, you know, you're it's a really interesting thing. We used to say, like, your ears just keep in. Nose keep growing. But actually, like, the bones of your face can change your whole life, depending on, like, how you're breathing. So I believe that. Well, I love that. So that makes me happy. Okay, puffy eyes. Do I need to be taking my things out of the freezer? And is that going to help me every single morning? It should be my spoons.


Rachel Varga 39:10  

I love this so much. Definitely. We'll talk about that, because that's actually the area that the eyes and eye aging is, it's an area of specialty I've been involved in since 2011 in the field as an aesthetic nurse in ocular plastics, ophthalmology, and my first research paper was actually on eye aging and rejuvenation algorithms. So this is actually totally related, because when it comes to in-clinic rejuvenation, we've all heard of neuromodulators. We've heard of the brand name Botox, right? What does that do? Well, it's injected in specific areas to relax the communication from the nerve to the muscle, and that can create a lifting effect between the brows, so it reduces the ability to furrow the brows. It can allow, I wrote a paper on micro droplet technique around the eyes to give a non surgical eyelid lift, to relax this circular muscle around the eyes. It's like a sphincter. When we scrunch or when we smile, it brings the brow down and we get the lines in the corners of the eyes, which we call the crow's feet, simply by the mechanism of the muscle fibers being like a circle around the eyes. So when you're doing your eye cream and facial cleansing, to actually do a circular motion around the eyes to keep those muscle fibers oriented in that circular direction helps with methodic flow, too, and even around the mouth, it's a circular muscle group. That's why we get those perpendicular, vertical lip lines, which women experience a little bit more than men do. Side sleeping is going to do that, drinking from straws as well as going to contribute to that. So here we have neuromuscular and neuromodular treatments like Botox came on the market in the 90s, and now there's lots of different versions of that that work similarly. There's a cleaner version of it, which is the one that I prefer to use instead, but they relax the message of the nerve to the muscle, and they do a great job at refining the skin, giving a little bit of like a glassier look to the skin. And the funny thing is, I wrote a drawing rejuvenation paper too, with the jowls, the jowl, if you were to pinch your jowl, and then kind of move back a little bit. You can kind of tell there's, like, there's something underneath the skin where the jowl is, it's a little thicker.


Lesley Logan 41:48  

Yeah, like I can feel like this, like it's, I would have thought it was like a muscle, like, this feels thick. This is a yeah, yeah, yeah.


Rachel Varga 41:55  

This is the DAO muscle. So when we're doing this type of motion, like, we respond to something, we flex our neck, or we're bearing down, and our teeth are together, our lips are apart, and we flex the neck, activate that muscle. So actually, chewing gum will age your jawline faster.


Lesley Logan 42:19  

Thank God I quit doing that in 2003 I'm so proud of myself.


Rachel Varga 42:25  

It's also super like uncouth. If you're well put together and you're going through life with chewing gum, it's not like a great look. 


Lesley Logan 42:37  

I also just want to say, and I don't want to get sidetracked about what you're telling, but I just want to say all my Pilates people who are listening you always ask me, like, how do we breathe in Pilates, and should we do the (inaudible) mouth exhale out through the mouth, right there she was doing this weird thing with her like, like her doing tension in her cheeks. That's why I don't let people breathe out their mouth. They have to do in and out their nose, because it keeps the jaw soft. It keeps the neck soft, because we are going to crawl up. And people are might overuse their neck, but when they do that, that breathing, I can't handle that progressive because it creates tension in the neck, tension in the jaw. And now I can just say it also is going to age you. So I'm so grateful for having another reason why you shouldn't do it. 


Rachel Varga 43:18  

I'm your firsthand, I'm and your intuition on that is right? Because you're seeing people do that. You're seeing these muscles pop out and it's like, oh, that doesn't look very good. It's like we're seeing more shadows and things we don't want to see, say, from where the jowl goes down to underneath the jaw bone and into the neck. We have these muscles in the neck called the platysma bands, and then we get these horizontal necklace lines to the neck. We call it tech neck. We're looking at our phone. Everybody gets them pretty common, even in the teens, but the jowl muscle connects to the platysma bands. So when I flex my neck, you'll see the platysma bands pop out and that shadowing? We don't really want a lot of shadows on the skin. We want smooth looking skin, like we want to soften the crow's feet and and have a sharper, defined jaw line. So when we chew and we do facial yoga exercises, we are working out jowl muscle, talking, singing, things like that. So exactly what you're saying of keeping that jaw line and the neck relaxed. It's also going to be really good to do that self massage on the neck to release those scalenes, because with stress, we can have tight shoulders. We want to go through life with our heart open, with our heart relaxed, not compressed inwards, which is going to impact our beauty, because we have poor posture, and then also get these platysma bands really tight. So we do want to have this awareness of actually keeping our face and our neck and our shoulders relaxed. So again, nervous system and mastery does help you be more beautiful and being embodied with what is going on with your body. Where are you carrying your tension? And you need to let it go. So that's getting into the deeper emotional intelligence side of things, but the Pilates and stretching absolutely critical for keeping this fascia limber and lubricated and softened. So that's structurally why we don't want to be doing facial yoga, because these muscles say to the jowls get worked out all the time. Anyways, it's just your life, neuromodulators, off label into the jaw line. Here. I wrote a paper on it, it's why I talk about it. When you don't work out a muscle, it shrinks. When we work out a muscle it gets bigger. So we can actually shrink that.


Lesley Logan 45:54  

Okay, so, and that's like, that goes to the nerve. You can do things for the puffy eyes or for the gels, what you're saying with that's a little extra thing that's coming in for treatments with the neuromodulators, not you're talking about not a botox necessarily, but the cleaner one.


Rachel Varga 46:10  

Yeah, yeah. And I'm happy to discuss that more in like a one on one session, because not everything is great for everybody, especially if there's some autoimmune stuff going on, high levels of inflammation. Rejuvenation is not for everybody, but there is one other muscle group I want to talk about in the lower face area, and that's the chin. We can also carry tension in the chin, and when we pout out our lower lip, we can see the appearance of more dimples to the chin. So like that orange peel chin, we think it's pores, large pores, but it's actually just that constant contraction of chin muscle that can lead to that textural change over time as we age. So again, just having that awareness, lips together, jaw relaxed. Nose breathing, we have our nasal cavities, which have little hairs and hydrate and provide humidity to the air before it enters our lungs. So nose breathing is way better than mouth breathing. Mouth breathing terrible for your oral microbiome, too.


Lesley Logan 47:21  

Cool stuff. Okay, this conversation, so fun. I feel like, if like you got not if you're like, I don't wanna buy anything, ladies, if you could just keep your face relaxed and enjoy a nice shower where you wash your face, I think with your ear like you could think that's a lot right there. But I also just feel like, very empowered in, like, all the different things we can do, for anti aging, but also for in for self-care that doesn't require going to do things like, there's like, options that we have, and we have the tools are at our fingertips.


Rachel Varga 47:57  

Literally. 


Lesley Logan 47:57  

Literally.


Rachel Varga 47:58  

What this is, is this just adding intentional layers to all that you do something in life that could seem really simple. There's a complexity to it that's like the beauty of life. I don't want to miss what you asked about puffy eyes, because that's the number one question I get, is, Rachel, what do I do about these dark under eye circles or eye bags, and the area around the eyes, it's about as thin as an eggshell, and it's the first area of the face to show signs of aging. And what I don't want you all to do is go get tear trough filler, because I just started to see huge issues after that. It was it got really popular in 2017.


Lesley Logan 48:41  

People are filling their eyes? 


Rachel Varga 48:43  

Yeah, it got very popular around that time, and because I come from oculoplastics, when people had lymphatic drainage from hyaluronic acid filler in the lower eyelid, guess where they guess who they would call up, they'd called me to fix it. So I wrote a paper of, okay, what can we do to rejuvenate the eyes that isn't going to give like random puffiness or lymphatic drainage a month later, nine months later, nine years later. I don't do any tear trough fillers for my clients. It's not worth the risk, because there's other things we can do instead. So your skin care, focusing on collagen through dermal rolling, maybe some lasers, relaxing the muscles around the eyes and even to the side of the nose here. So when I scrunch my nose, say, if I'm smiling, we have a (inaudible) muscles picks up the mid face. It can contribute to the lower eyelid bunching and those horizontal eyelid lines. So again, another muscle group that can be softened and just have an awareness of so when you react, you're not, you know, snarling, that's going to contribute to contraction and stretching a lower eyelid skin, but it's really thickening up that skin is going to be helpful. Maybe some filler into the cheeks to support the lower eyelid content. And also surgery, sometimes surgery is just going to be what's going to move any little fat pockets in the lower eyelid.


Lesley Logan 50:14  

That's what I had. I had a doctor say he's like, your situation is a fat pocket and I have to remove it. And I was like, I don't want to believe that. I want to believe that I have an allergy. I could just figure out what the allergy is. It'll just go away. But I think here we are 20 years later, and it's still there. So I think it's, I think it's probably just a little fat pocket, but that's a.


Rachel Varga 50:36  

Yeah just little fat pads is better than having, you know, hollow looking eyes. 


Lesley Logan 50:40  

Oh yeah. 


Rachel Varga 50:41  

Right? So that's a surgical situation. It's thicken up that skin, maybe reorient some of the fat that's in the lower eyelid area, and continued skin care and sunscreen is helpful.


Lesley Logan 50:54  

Yeah, as always, so many great tips. I just really feel like, I mean, clearly, you're so knowledgeable, but also you're pragmatic. And it's like, what here like, we've heard tips from that it still range from having to go in house, but also, like, in your own house, like, what are the things you can be doing? And like, if you can even just start with relaxing your face, like, relax your nervous system, ladies, we got to do it. We can't let you go without your Be It Action Items. So we're gonna take a brief break and come back. Find out where people can find you, follow you, get your amazing tools, biohacking tips and more.


Lesley Logan 51:29  

All right, Rachel, remind us where you hang out. Remind us where like your store is all that good stuff.


Rachel Varga 51:35  

Absolutely. On Instagram, @RachelVargaOfficial, I share lots of things to keep you inspired for both looking and feeling your best. And then theschoolofradiance.com is where you can listen to the podcast, where you can shop my skincare products that I've created or have sourced that are fantastic. And you can also book a 90 minute one-on-one with me, where I give you the roadmap of what to do at home and in the clinic, and also my seasonal skin tutorials, where I take you into my restroom and show you exactly how to maximize your basic all the way to advanced layers of really optimizing your skin and rejuvenation routines and even what rejuvenation options are great to do that season. 


Lesley Logan 52:24  

Love it, love, love, love it. I'm going to stock those because, you know, the seasons around here, we've got two, really, but, but when I go, when I travel the world, I enter all the other seasons. So, okay, bold, executable, intrinsic or targeted steps to for people to take, to be it till they see it. What do you have for us? 


Rachel Varga 52:42  

Ooh, look at your beautification routine as self-love, because you are worth it. You have one body. Care for that body as best you can by making good decisions. Weave in the skin care, weave in the biohacking. I also have a free 30 minute biohacking for the skin video at the schoolofradiance.com, too.


Lesley Logan 53:07  

Yeah, I think, I mean, like we said at the very beginning, I I'm also reading an amazing book about, like, just like, the more you have so much self-love, like your life is just better because you don't burn out. You have, you have amazing boundaries because you don't break them for somebody else, because you love yourself so much that you keep all the boundaries that you have so, and you guys, we'll have these links in the show notes, but you can use Lesley Logan 15 for discounts on the one-on-one. So definitely use that. And my name is L-E-S-L-E-Y guys, but I just think that like when I started this podcast about being it till you see it, I thought, like, okay, action-oriented things we can do. And one of the greatest things we can do is love ourselves. And part of that is like that, caring for ourselves, like that, that time in the morning, that time at night. So I love where you started this podcast is that am and pm rituals. I am totally doing the Epsom salt with the avocado oil like that is starting tomorrow. Like, just because we were just talking about before we hit record guys, I just came from an amazing Korean spa. It's my favorite spa in L.A. and it's, I've gone to many of them, but this is one of the best. And I just love how my skin feels. Because if you are hydrating well, when you take that dead skin off, you're moisturized, like it's all there, like you're taking your body knows how to do it. So, so this just sounds like it's gonna do all the most amazing things for me. So thank you for being you, Rachel. Thank you for your amazing tips. Of course, send in all your amazingness to Rachel. Send it to us. Tell us what your takeaways are, share this with a friend who needs to hear it. And then, you know, maybe we'll have to come back and talk about more things, because we're gonna get more ads on junk that we are supposed to buy. And there's probably a biohack for that. So Rachel, thank you for being our in-house biohacking supporter. And everyone else, until next time, Be It Till You See It. 


Lesley Logan 54:50  

That's all I got for this episode of the Be It Till You See It Podcast. One thing that would help both myself and future listeners is for you to rate the show and leave a review and follow or subscribe for free wherever you listen to your podcast. Also, make sure to introduce yourself over at the Be It Pod on Instagram. I would love to know more about you. Share this episode with whoever you think needs to hear it. Help us and others Be It Till You See It. Have an awesome day. Be It Till You See It is a production of The Bloom Podcast Network. If you want to leave us a message or a question that we might read on another episode, you can text us at +1-310-905-5534 or send a DM on Instagram @BeItPod.


Brad Crowell 55:31  

It's written, filmed, and recorded by your host, Lesley Logan, and me, Brad Crowell.


Lesley Logan 55:38  

It is transcribed, produced and edited by the epic team at Disenyo.co.


Brad Crowell 55:42  

Our theme music is by Ali at Apex Production Music and our branding by designer and artist, Gianfranco Cioffi.


Lesley Logan 55:49  

Special thanks to Melissa Solomon for creating our visuals.


Brad Crowell 55:52  

Also to Angelina Herico for adding all of our content to our website. And finally to Meridith Root for keeping us all on point and on time.



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