Healthy Lymph is Pretty Skin
On the Semiotics of Skin
Venus of the Mind is a weekly beauty and culture newsletter designed for aesthetes.
Inside Today’s Missive for January 2026
Healthy Lymph is Pretty Skin: On the Semiotics of Skin
1. Manifest Beauty. The Cecily Braden Spa & Wellness Academy in Lakewood, Colorado.
2. The skin we’re in. Connecting the nervous system with skin and the neuroscience of touch.
3. A mini journey into manual lymphatic drainage. Foundational info and resources for further learning.
4. The body as a conduit.
5. Last Looks
- A peak into new tools, products, and happenings over at Ivana Martínez Studio.
- A reading list themed around small-business ownership and notes on lessons from the beauty industry patterns of 2025.
OF NOTE: Your favorite facialist was recently featured in The Carrington Collection! It was a pleasure being interviewed by Carrington Epperson for her lifestyle publication. We had a delightful chat about the intersection of ethics and esthetics. I will be incredibly meta and quote myself from the interview because it’s the perfect introduction for today’s newsletter:
What are your predictions concerning the future of skincare?
- when it comes to the future of skincare as it pertains to markets, I have no idea. I am not in the business of beauty industry forecasting. I am in the business of skin whispering.
In my personal practice as a working facialist, I see the future of skincare as ancient. What will matter long term is what has mattered since the beginning of our species but long before we even put language to it: lymphatic flow, a balanced skin microbiome, and approaching the skin first and foremost as an organ of protection that is in constant communication with our nervous system (central and bilateral); regulating everything we experience across the spectrum of pleasure to pain and safety to fear.
Every person is a distinct universe housed within a marvel of evolution. I believe skincare offerings should honor that marvelousness. In my little sliver of the world out here in Northern Virginia, inside Ivana Martínez Studio what will always be relevant is tailored and timeless skincare.
Read the entire interview here: The Intersection of Ethics & Esthetics
Healthy Lymph is Pretty Skin: On the Semiotics of Skin
Manifest Beauty
I live most of my days around the Potomac River, between Northern Virginia and D.C. In this life I’ve gone further east than west. A few weeks ago a longtime client and I were chuckling over the fact that I was once in Jerusalem for a wedding but until recently I have never crossed over the Mississippi, “Has been to the the Dead Sea but never L.A.” my client - originally a Cali girl - observed teasingly.
This past November I finally went west of the Mississippi. I flew out to Denver, Colorado not to manifest a mythical destiny but to expand my expertise, returning from the suburb of Lakewood with an internationally accredited certification from the Cecily Braden Academy as a specialist in manual lymphatic drainage (MLD) of the face and neck.
I spent all last summer and a good chunk of last autumn studying for this week-long intensive followed by an hours long exam. The exam consisted of two parts: 1) a hand-written short answer portion covering history, theory, anatomy, physiology, and case study observations; no multiple choice. 2) a hands-on practical where we performed the classic MLD sequence under observation. Three students performed the full sequence on three other students as models and then we switched places.
My Lyft driver got lost on my first day so when I walked in class had already started but I nonetheless was greeted by glowing and smiling faces inside our classroom. The estheticians in last fall’s cohort were all so kind and intellectually generous. Everyday I was inspired to be around other like-minded practitioners who care about integrative and wholistic practices within their treatment rooms. Each esthetician had a unique story and path into esthetics which made for lively conversations plus valuable shared insights.
The Skin We’re In
The skin is the nervous system turned inside out.
Ashley Jo Press, a luminary in the world of wholistic esthetics, was my teacher for this intensive. I am lucky to have always had stand-out teachers at every life season and this certification was no exception.
On our first day she opened the lecture by noting that “the skin is the nervous system turned inside out.” I would return to this comment later during one of our first Q&A portions because I intuited there was more to explore and I wanted to go deeper. Even without explaining, what Ashley said made sense. Everything from blushing, to goosebumps, nervous sweating and other reactions indicate this as a common sense observation and yet, I’d never heard it articulated in such a succinctly evocative manner. What was the actual physiological connection?
Ashley went on to explain that in-utero, our skin and nervous system develop from the same fetal tissue known as the ectoderm, one of three primary embryonic tissues. INSANE. But also, MAKES SENSE. My brain lit up like a winning casino machine as suddenly other related connections from my early days of beauty school over a decade ago were foregrounded once again.
Back in my hotel room, during a study time tangent I revisited one of my favorite video playlists on the neuroscience of touch and how it connects to communicative processes. In a screen-driven world, tactility is diminished but this sense remains at the core of being alive and processing our experiences of aliveness.
From that train of thought, I made my way over to an article published by Penn State’s extension blog, Touch - Why We Need It, and found myself considering just how important consensual familial affection, safety affirming touch, and loving expressions are for longterm wellbeing. Care for the babies! Hug your kids! Hold hands with your friends! Cuddle with your pets! Wash your body with intention while reminding yourself that you are loved by you!
A Mini Journey into Manual Lymphatic Drainage (MLD)
The lymph system is the origin of life. Youth, life, and death are dependent on lymph and its renewal. We live in lymph; our tissues are washed in lymph. It supplies us with the life-giving nutrients necessary for body development.
Emil Vodder, Paris 1936
It was back in 2012 that I first learned about the lymphatic system, how to support it, and its massive importance to immune function, metabolic function, and just about every other major process our cells undergo in their life cycle. It was also over a decade ago in beauty school where I studied with teachers who took traditional Chinese medicine and Indian Ayurvedic medicine seriously. From my trade school teachers who had studied other health traditions, I was gifted some introductory knowledge about interstitial fluid and would later revisit those gifts while studying with Ashley Jo in Colorado.
Interstitial fluid exists throughout the most granular spaces of the mammalian body, filling up the spaces within and between our organ tissues, spaces that many Western scientists long believed to be empty. Now they know better and have begun to language what other ancient health traditions have long observed: interstitial fluid acts like an organ itself and may very well be one. Today, in the West it’s called the interstitium and is being studied as a newly identified (possible) organ. I highly recommending listening to this fascinating podcast episode from NPR’s radio lab for more on the interstitium. This context is important because lymphatic fluid originates from within the interstitium.
When I was first in beauty school, mainstream Western science still considered it woo-woo-pseudoscience to claim that non-invasive manipulation of superficial lymphatic fluid could be supportive to whole body health. It was wacky to suggest activating the superficial lymph nodes through intentional and focused touch could unlock a host of positive whole body health results. Results like analgesic benefits, reduced inflammation, improved cognitive function, soothed vibrant skin, and better sleep. There were longtime exceptions to this resistance of course, like the Wittlinger Lymphedema Clinic in Austria which partners with the Dr. Vodder school.
I remember an esthetics teacher back then commenting about how many of her clients reported greater mental clarity in their day-to-day post facial. One client even started seeing her for weekly facials when she noticed that her persistent brain fog - a residual symptom of a previous traumatic brain injury - seemed to improve after every facial. What was my teacher doing in that facial? Vodder method manual lymphatic drainage of the superficial lymph nodes in the face and neck.
What’s the status of superficial lymphatic drainage in Western perspectives today?
Woo-Woo for the win!
See some emerging research below, specifically regarding brain health and lymphatics.
Increased CSF drainage by non-invasive manipulation of cervical lymphatics
A 2025 open access paper detailing the results of new research showing the connective pathways between cervical-spine lymph nodes, our brains, and a burgeoning understanding of how non-invasive stimulation of these pathways can support longterm brain health and stave off age-related neurological disorders.
What’s wild is that wholistic beauty practitioners have intuited this very connection for decades because of lived practical experience with client feedback.
The TLDR summary of the above paper: Facial Stimulation Clears Brain Waste and Boosts Aging Minds
Unraveling the Secrets of ‘Chemo Brain’
“A new study by Jennifer Munson and Monet Roberts suggests memory problems and inability to concentrate following chemotherapy could result from poor lymphatic-system drainage in response to the cancer drugs.”
An easy and fascinating four minute read that illustrates just how vital our lymphatic system is.
Despite learning about the lymphatic system back in 2012, my true interest in lymphatic health was first peaked in the summer of 2023 while completing an esthetic oncology certification through Oncology Spa Solutions. We had to learn the placements of all lymphatic pathways since working with someone who’s had lymph nodes removed (especially common having had a mastectomy or lumpectomy) impacts whether or not we massage someone’s skin in a particular area, direction, and the kind of pressure used. This attention to lymphatics stayed with me and further deepening my understanding felt like the next right step in my evolution as a facialist.
Following up my esthetic oncology certification with studies at the Cecily Braden Academy after having first learned about lymphatics as a reluctant teen in beauty school - a full-circle intellectual homecoming.
The Body as a Conduit
In Colorado, during lunch one class day, I was struck by the following quote (middle picture above) that I saw printed on cards placed in the academy’s lobby:
Fast Fashion x Fast Beauty. The definition of fast skincare (
fashion) is quickly producing inexpensive skincare (clothing) to meet rapidly changing trends. This approach prioritizes speed and cost efficiency, enabling retailers to bring new products (styles) to market in a matter of weeks rather than months.
In many ways, the professional practice of manual lymphatic drainage works antithetically to the demands of instant-gratification in our current world. Amidst an overculture obsessed with the speed of mass-produced experiences, Vodder method MLD is an oppositional service that requires slowness in order to deliver its benefits.
Rooted in esthetic craft and attention to physiological processes, the movements of Vodder method MLD are methodical, rhythmic, gentle, precise and intentionally patterned to stimulate the vagus nerve, a key pathway that regulates involuntary functions like breath, heart rate, and digestion.
Every facet of the Vodder method is directed towards calming the nervous system which is when optimal lymphatic flow can occur; progressive aesthetic results are prioritized over trendy superficial fixes. This methodology values the depth of each client’s unique physiological experience in the moment, which sets the stage for continued compounded benefits over the course of days after a session.
In class, during the practical portion of each day, we were always instructed to move our hands at the rate of the skin’s underlying tissue structure which varies from person to person - every face is unique. From this instruction, I began to conceptualize of MLD as a conversation with the body’s loose connective tissue. A peaceful conversation that brings extrinsic harmony to the face while nurturing a sense of vitality from within.
I also began to think of an MLD-focused facial as an experiential journey that gently leads to a process of softening into the self. This perspective arose from both giving and receiving the treatment everyday as part of training. Throughout the week it was exciting to note changes in my own body. Longtime personal pain points across my forehead and down along my upper trapezius were alleviated. I started my cycle the second day of class but for the first time in my life I experienced zero menstrual cramps. By the final day of class, even while still acclimating to a new altitude and the absurdly dry Colorado air, my skin looked brighter despite no new products being introduced. It should also be noted that Vodder method MLD is done on dry skin, so again, no new products were introduced to my skin during service, just intentionally light touch with technical precision along lymph-node pathways.
Inspired by our lectures and class conversations, in my notes from that certification week I wrote to myself that aging was a privilege, a process to work with and not against. In my notes I also reminded myself and marveled once again at how the body is a conduit of inherited, embodied, and studied knowledge. Knowledge that can only be accessed in states of calm, away from the noise of digital chatter, interpersonal expectations, and self-inflicted pressure.
With this all of this understanding, it’s my responsibility as someone’s facialist to facilitate a space of sanctuary. I do not know what they lived before arriving. I do not know what they will live after leaving. All I know is that during our time together, there’s the potential for them to feel safe inside their bodies as they tap into their built-in parasympathetic system for resting and digesting which supports longterm wellbeing.
What an honor to usher clients into a space that’s been attuned to unlocking their intrinsic potentiality. A little bit of pretty girl magic rooted in ancient methodologies, extolled by naturopathic practitioners, and now recognized by conventional science.
Curious to learn more about esthetics as a profession?
Esthetics 101 ⬇️
Last Looks
Pictured above, all the wholesale goodies I got to choose from at the Cecily Braden Academy, for my private studio practice. Facialist perks! So many wonderful tools to prep the superficial loose connective tissue for optimal lymphatic drainage as well as products that nourish, protect, and heal the skin.
As soon as I returned from Colorado I began integrating everything I learned into offerings both at my employer’s location and at Ivana Martínez Studio. In just three months, the feedback from clients in both spaces has been resoundingly encouraging. It has been deeply satisfying to see the short-term results plus compounded benefits of continued MLD-centric treatments overtime with clients and I’m delighted that my studio's waitlist continues to grow in response to solid word-of-mouth.
Many estheticians are generalists when it comes to lymphatic drainage but only a handful of us are facialists who specialize in the classic Dr. Vodder method of manual lymphatic drainage. While still new to this, I’m proud to now belong in the latter group as the lineage of Vodder method trained wellness practitioners is a special one.
This January marks three years of my return to esthetics after having initially left the industry in 2018 to do college and experience other kinds of labor beyond the beauty space. Now, as I lay the transitional foundation for pivoting into my business full-time, I’ve been contemplating the kind of mind-set needed to engage ethically with the world as a business owner.
Listed below are some of the titles that have left their mark on me as I continue to refine my studio’s ethos. Along with personal notes regarding several business analyses that have shaped my outlook on some major takeaways from the beauty industry patterns of last year. Plus, what I’ve been working on privately in studio.