Naturopathic Beauty's Clear Skin Sessions
Clear skin and aging beautifully conversations, trainings and challenges by Dr. Stacey Shillington ND.
Naturopathic Beauty's Clear Skin Sessions
My Clear Skin Story
What if the clearest path to calm, radiant skin starts far from your bathroom cabinet? We open up about the raw reality of rebound acne after stopping the pill abroad, the spiral of harsh topicals and trial‑and‑error diets, and the heavier truth few talk about: the isolation, lost confidence, and stalled careers that acne can cause. From that low point came a new direction—one built on data, not guesswork.
We trace the pivotal shift from surface fixes to systems healing. You’ll hear how functional testing changed everything: GI mapping and organic acids to uncover candida, parasites, and dysbiosis; advanced hormone panels to explain post‑pill chaos and high reverse T3; and metabolic markers that revealed insulin resistance driving breakouts. Layer by layer, we connect the dots between the microbiome, detox pathways, cortisol and sleep, and how insulin and androgens push oil production and clogged pores. The outcome is a practical, compassionate roadmap: targeted antimicrobials, fiber and bile support, blood sugar balance, nervous system resets, and simple, barrier‑friendly skincare that supports—not fights—your biology.
We also share the underrated lever that moved the needle fast: removing alcohol to reduce gut permeability, stabilize glucose, and lighten the liver’s load. Alongside smarter nutrition and measured retinoid use, this shift helped turn stubborn acne into a solvable problem. If you’ve felt alone, overwhelmed, or stuck on the topical treadmill, this story offers proof that clarity is possible and faster than you might think with the right tools.
If this conversation sparks an aha moment, subscribe, share it with a friend who needs hope, and leave a quick review. Check the show notes to watch the Clear Skin Mastery masterclass and get the first module of the Clear Skin program when you leave a review. Your skin—and your future self—will thank you.
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Welcome to Naturopathic Beauty's Clear Skin Sessions, where we heal your acne from the inside out. Hello, beauties, and welcome to the Clear Skin Sessions. I'm Dr. Stacey Shillington. I'm a Naturopathic doctor for the last 20 years. I can't believe it's been that long. I've been helping women heal their acne from the inside out. This podcast is for you to help you navigate your clear skin journey because it's not always easy. And when you're living with acne, it can deeply affect your life emotionally, mentally, physically. And in this podcast, I'm going to share my story with you. And I really haven't shared my short, I really have not shared my story completely. And that's what I want to do today, just to give you a bit of background about where I'm coming from, where I've what I've experienced, and how I can deeply relate to all of you out there that are experiencing acne. So number one, I'm just going to put it out there. I'm 52 years old. So I've been, it's been a long time since I've had active acne. And when I had active acne, things were very different. We did not know as much back then as we do today. So I'm going to go all the way back to the 1980s. Yes, the 1980s when I was a teenager and I was struggling with my skin. It wasn't super bad. It wasn't super cystic, but it was there. And it was bad enough that I was upset about it. So upset about it that my mother took me to the doctor, and the doctor put me on a cream of clindamycin and benzyl peroxide. This was like our acne cream in the house. And myself and all my sisters, we would use this cream religiously to keep our acne at bay, and it worked. It destroyed all our sheets and pillowcases and towels. That's true, but it did work. And so we used it. And the truth is, we did not know that there was any other way to address our acne. And if I knew back then what I knew now, I know exactly what I would do to probably, you know, eliminate our acne almost immediately at that point in time. There were some diet shifts that I'm sure we could have made. This was the 80s. We were, you know, eating a lot of home-cooked meals, but there was also a lot of food that was not very good, such as eating a full pack of Chipsahoy cookies after school while we were watching TV. That I clearly remember. And also there was a lot of dairy going on in our house at that time. We had no idea. We had no idea. Nobody even had made a connection between dairy and acne. The only thing we knew how to what to do to heal our acne was to go to see our doctor. So that was that. So I had my acne under control as a teenager. And then when I was 17 years old, I left my hometown in Calgary, Alberta, and I moved to Montreal to start university. And this was a big shift for me. This was a super exciting change in my life. I was so enthralled by the big city. I grew up in like a small ranching town. That's where I went to school. So to all of a sudden land in Montreal was it blew my mind. And of course, my lifestyle changed. I started going out to parties and bars, and I had the time of my life. I was not eating well at all. And of course, my skin blew up in acne. So I went to the campus doctor because I didn't know what else to do. The doctor put me on the birth control pill for my skin. And honestly, for the next 10 years, I barely thought about my skin. I did put some topicals on. I remember I had an exfoliant uh toner that I used. And then I also put a Retin-A cream on. So I was on the birth control pill. I was in an exfoliant toner, and I was on Retin A. And I didn't think about my skin because I was like, oh, I solved it. It's not an issue at all. My skin is clear. My acne is gone. I was living life. And then in my late 20s, I had started doing yoga. I was really into it. I started paying attention to my body and I wanted to restore my body's natural rhythms. I was starting to learn that, you know, we wanted to be as natural as possible. Our hormones were actually a really big deal. And I didn't feel comfortable being on the birth control pill anymore. I was getting really into yoga at this point. So I wanted to live naturally. So I was backpacking for nine months in Asia. So it was me, my partner at the time, two backpacks, and we were going to see the world. This was the most exciting thing I had ever done in my life. And I decided at the beginning of the trip that I was going to stop my birth control pill. So I still remember the moment. I was in Bangkok. I was walking down Kosan Road. I had my birth control pills in my hand and I tossed them in the garbage. I still remember this as clear as day. And I just thought, I'm free. I'm free. This is like such a great moment for me. But little did I know, within literally 10 days, my skin would blow up. And remember, I had not had barely a single blemish for years. And so it happened. I was in, where was I? I think I was in Tibet. We were doing, you know, a tour of Tibet at the time. And all of a sudden my skin started breaking out. And I was like, oh, this is weird. Like, this never happens to me. What could be happening? I didn't realize that it was coming off the birth control pill at first because I had no idea that I that coming off the birth control pill could include rebound acle. Like, no idea. You have to remember, we did not have the internet back then. I was not able to, you know, go onto Instagram and hear other women's stories. It was basically just me and my story and what the doctor told me and BTW, all my friends had perfect skin. So nobody had the same experience that I did. So at first I was confounded. I had no idea what was happening. But I just I wasn't going to go back on the birth control pill. I knew that for sure. I did get some retinai cream. I started, because in Asia you can buy everything just on the side of the street. And back then, even more so. So I just like picked up a tube of Retin A. I knew nothing. I slathered it on my face. My face started drying out and peeling. And I was breaking out. And I was, I was devastated. And I did not have a barely a single picture was taken of me during that entire nine-month experience going through Asia. This was one of the best experiences of my entire life. And, you know, I experienced it and I have memories and, you know, is still wonderful, but there's no pictures of me documenting this, which I mean, I guess it's not really necessary, but it is too bad that there's nothing because my skin was so bad. And I went from being outgoing and, you know, successful. I had a really great career in Toronto. I was the youngest account supervisor at the largest ad agency in Canada. And I had a great group of friends. You know, it was it was a fun life. I was living a very fun life. And when this breakout hit me, it changed everything. So I was backpacking. I was meeting people from all over the world. This was a really exciting time. And more often than not, I would stay in my hostel. And believe me, these hostels were not nice places. I would stay in my little hostel room, embarrassed about my skin, instead of going downstairs and mingling and meeting all these incredible people that were on a similar journey to me. I was devastated. And when I returned to Toronto, I was so embarrassed about my skin that I couldn't even go back to work. I had this fantastic job, this great career path, and I was like, I can't do it. I can't be, I can't go into meetings with my face looking like this. Like I physically could not do it. The only thing that I could do was teach yoga and try and calm my nervous system, which was completely rattled at the time. And I tried everything. I tried diets. I tried supplements. I was out of my mind because I knew nothing and I was reading all these crazy books. And, you know, then at one point I spent so much money, you know, on my skin. I bought every skincare product. I went into debt. I tried raw food diet. For a while, I thought that a soy latte from Starbucks might be good because it had protein in it. Like I was out of my mind thinking of really crazy shit that didn't work at all. In fact, it made my skin worse. And then at one point, one of my friends or colleagues said, Why don't you go see a naturopathic doctor to help you heal your skin? And I was like, What's a naturopathic doctor? I have no idea. And you have to know that I was living a very different lifestyle at the time. My husband was a drummer. He was the drummer for Celindion. So you can imagine there was a lot of touring that was going on. He was living a musician's life. He was, you know, there was a lot of partying, a lot of drinking. It was, it was a very social, social life. So I was not into natural medicine. I was into yoga, but I had no idea what a naturopathic doctor was. So I was like, all right, I'll go see a naturopathic doctor because I will do anything to clear my skin. So I went and I saw the naturopathic doctor. She wasn't able to help me. She didn't solve my acne, but she did say this to me. She said, the only way you're ever going to clear your skin is if you heal your body from the inside out. And when she said that, that was like I had my aha moment. It's kind of like the angels started singing, and I was like, of course that's it. And I was like, this is what I need to do. I need to heal my body from within. And from that moment on, that became my goal. So I started digging into the research. And before I knew it, I was like, you know what? I have to go back to school and study this because there's not enough information for me yet. Remember, this is still before, you know, the internet had really hit us hard. This was like in the year 2000. So, you know, I was like, I need to go back to school to learn how to properly heal the body. And so that's what I did. And I had to go and get, you know, all my science prerequisites first, because when you become a naturopathic doctor, you have to have your, you know, a pre-medical degree. And then you do four years of additional schooling. So this is not a joke. And it's also about$100,000 at the time, which was a super big, huge amount of money. I mean, it still is. And um, so I decided to go back to school. It was a huge endeavor. It was probably the most difficult thing I've ever done in my life because I had to go from a lifestyle that was really fun and really cool to spending most of my time studying for four years. That's all I did. Really seriously. I was an obsessive person. I love to really throw myself into things, and that's exactly what I did when it came to school. So I worked so hard. When I graduated, I was exhausted, and my skin was still not amazing. And here's the thing: I went into school, I went into my naturopathic studies thinking this is going to solve my issue. And I tried everything. And part of school is meeting with, you know, naturopathic doctors and healing yourself. That's part of the journey. So I met with the naturopathic doctors, I did everything that they told me, and my skin continued to get worse and worse. And I was devastated. I was like, I thought I was gonna learn the secret to clear skin, but you know what? It did not exist. So my skin got worse and worse. And at one point, I was gonna drop out of naturopathic school because I'm like, I guess my body just cannot heal naturally. It's just not going to do it. I don't know what I'm gonna do, but this is a waste of my time and my money. I almost dropped out. But then I thought to myself, what else am I gonna do? Am I going to go back on the pill? Well, no. I'm getting to the age where now I want to start to have children. So definitely not gonna do that. Am I gonna start, you know, going on other medications? Well, no. Those medications just are not gonna fit with my life right now because I want to have babies and I don't want to take antibiotics. I want my gut to be healthy. So medications weren't an option for me. So I was like, well, I don't know what to do. I'm I'm just gonna have to double down and really figure this out because in my heart of hearts, I knew that there was an answer. I knew that there was a solution, and I knew that I was going to find it. And so I went back into school and I doubled down, I did all the research, I really put my heart and soul into it, but it wasn't until I actually graduated and started working with patients that I was able to clear my skin. I was able to put all the pieces of the puzzles together because new research kept coming out. We start learning more, we started to learn more and more about certain things that actually influenced acne. We started to learn more about the microbiome. We started to learn more about metabolism and insulin resistance and also detoxification, and more tests started to become available to us. We had the CDSA, which is a very, you know, it's an obsolete gut test now. We had uh salivary hormones, and that now has progressed to, you know, the Dutch test. And then, you know, we started to get the oat test, and we started to get more tests. So as we got more tests, I was able to learn more. I was able to refine my protocols, and I was able to start to heal acne. And it really started started because I was working in a dermatology clinic, and all the most difficult cases were sent to me, as you can imagine. So I really had to dig in and work hard, but it came together. I finally understood how to do the testing, how to interpret the testing, and how to heal the body based on those results. And so I did that for many years, 12 years in a dermatology clinic. And then I just burnt out. I was like, I can't do this anymore. It's just, it's too hard. I had small babies. I had, you know, it had been a road for me for sure. And I just knew that I needed to do something different. But I want to back up a little bit actually, because as I was trying to figure out how to clear my skin, I was also trying to get pregnant. I had three miscarriages along the way. And that was because my hormones were not balanced, and that's because there was something underlying that was preventing my hormones from balancing. So, you know, I did do the testing, I did discover certain imbalances in my body. I discovered a really bad candida infection. My metabolism was all over the place. My insulin was sky high. Uh, my thyroid was out of whack, my very high reverse 3 T3. Um, and you know, my gut was in very poor shape. I had very bad chronic constipation. My nervous system was out. I was a chronic insomniac. Honestly, my health in my 30s was really bad. School, you know, made it worse. And I also learned that when I was traveling in Asia, I got a parasite. And this is something I did not know. I didn't, I tested for parasites, but it kept coming back negative. But the truth is, parasites are very difficult to test for. So I learned other ways to determine whether or not parasites are present. And, you know, I do that now through a number of ways, one of which is reading a GI mapping in a very particular way, looking at clinical symptoms, looking at certain blood markers. It's kind of a process to figure it out. But that is something else that I discovered. And the other thing that really made a big difference for me was alcohol. So, you know, I had been living a very fun life. You know, I went out a lot with friends, I was very social, I drank a lot. And, you know, at one point, my husband drank way more than me. And he's like, I'm stopping. I have to stop. I cannot do this anymore. He did. And when he stopped, I said, Well, I'm gonna stop with you, you know, for support. And when I stopped drinking, that's when I had a huge improvement in my skin. That's when things really, really shifted for me. They were already shifting because I was learning and I was healing and I was implementing. But then when I stopped completely drinking, that's when my skin really started to clear. And then I really got a hold of, you know, the parasite issue, and I also got a hold of the systemic candida issue and also detox. I started understanding that more. So all the pieces came into the puzzle pieces came together. I understood how to heal my skin, and I've been following that same protocol since my late 30s. I'm now 52. I don't have any Botox, I don't have any filler. This is just me. But this is what, you know, balancing your body and living a healthy lifestyle does. You start to age better. You really do, you feel better, you have more energy, and your skin is clear. You know, if you're looking to really, you know, have youthful, clear skin, you know, you really need to look at a lot of these issues, especially if you have acne right now. And the really exciting thing is that we know how to solve acne. This is a whole new type of medicine. When I had acne, this medicine didn't exist. This medicine where we actually run functional medicine testing, we understand what's going on in the body on a very deep level, and we develop protocols to solve it. This is something that is new. Honestly, it's been developed in the last 10 years. It's super exciting because believe me, when I was struggling with acne, the options were so limited. We did not have what we have today. This is a blessing to be able to understand what's going on in your body and then to heal it. And by doing so, you're able to live decades and decades feeling and looking beautiful. Like this is a gift. This is incredibly exciting. I'm like over the moon about how, you know, my patients come to me, they're suffering with acne. I know what it's like, but I also know that within a few months, they don't have to suffer anymore. And yes, it is hard work. You know, you do have to take your supplements, you have to make diet and lifestyle changes for a period of time, but the payoff is so huge. It saves you years and years of suffering. And I know this truly, I know this personally because I went through those years of suffering in order to get to a place where my skin is clear, my health is restored. So that is my story. Hopefully, I've told it in a way that, you know, really, I just I really want to share with you how excited I am for you that you do not have to suffer the way so many of us have suffered in the past, because now we can heal. This is this is such a gift. This is such an opportunity that you have. So I hope that you, that message fills you with a lot of hope and a lot of inspiration because you don't have to live with acne if that's what you're doing right now. So if you're interested in learning more about my method of healing acne, definitely check out the show notes. There is a link for you to watch my Clear Skin Mastery masterclass. And this explains the strategy that I use when I heal my patients from their acne. So definitely check out that masterclass. If this podcast has given you an aha moment, I would love it if you could leave a review. Uh, click the links in the show notes because if you leave a positive review, I'm as a token of gratitude, I will give you the first module of my Clear Skin program for free. So check that out. Leave a review. I want to know that this podcast is helping you, and that's also a way that we reach other people that are suffering from acne and let them know they no longer have to suffer. And so that's really that's really the take-home message of my story. You know, it was a long time ago that I had acne, but I will never forget how emotionally, mentally, and physically disruptive acne was to my life. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise, but at the time I was grounded by acne. It was probably one of the most traumatic times of my entire life. So have a wonderful day. Check out the show notes, and I will see you in the next podcast episode.