Health & Wellness

A Top Facialist Says Most People Have Good Skin, They’re Just Wrecking It at Home

July 1, 2026

A Top Facialist Shares Skincare Habits That Actually Work — Image: Ron Lach/Pexels

After years of everyone peeling, zapping, and over-exfoliating their way to a wrecked skin barrier, 2026 is the year of doing less but smarter—and few people preach that gospel harder than Candace Marino.

Better known as the L.A. Facialist, Marino has spent 20 years treating everyone from celebrities to everyday clients, and she’s convinced most of us are making skincare way harder than it needs to be. On GlowLab, she sits down with host Susan Yara to explain which habits are worth keeping, which ones to quit, and the surprisingly simple routine she says makes the biggest difference.

A Top Facialist Shares Skincare Habits That Actually Work

Stop wrecking your skin barrier

“Nine times out of ten, people have good skin,” Marino says. “But they’re causing inflammation, they’re causing reactions.” The culprit is usually a cabinet full of harsh actives bought on impulse, a trap she says even she falls into. “I do it too, and I know what I’m doing. I’m like, oh, that sounds cool, and I’m ordering it.”

Between TikTok experts and endless buzzy launches, the temptation to keep adding is relentless, but she says the move is to “take a beat” and consider working with someone who can actually guide you. Because a healthy barrier is the whole game. “We all need to have stable barriers in order to have good skin,” and piling on more product is usually what breaks it.

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The only products she says you really need

So if you’re paring back, what stays? Marino keeps her “non-negotiables” refreshingly short. Skip the 24-karat-gold gimmicks and cover the basics:

A cleanser, because “we can’t be crusty and dirty”
An antioxidant serum like a vitamin C, which she calls “the insurance policy on your sunscreen” since SPF isn’t bulletproof and these “coat and protect the cells” from the UV rays that still get through
Something resurfacing at night, either a retinol or a gentle acid
Sunscreen, and the best one is simply “the one that you’ll use”

Don’t quit before it gets good

Beauty trends used to last years. Now they can burn through in a matter of weeks, which means there’s always a shinier product begging you to abandon the one you just started. Marino says that’s exactly what tanks results. “People don’t give products the time to do their job,” she explains. “They get excited by the next thing, and so they hop around. You’re never going to see results unless you’re consistent.”

Same goes for tools. The fanciest gua sha on your feed isn’t doing anything from a drawer. “If you wake up every day and you do even just a five-minute gua sha or even just using your hands or a spoon, anything that you’re consistently doing, you’re going to notice a difference.”

Put the magnifying mirror down

“I’ve seen people just destroy their skin,” Marino says of compulsive picking, pointing out that many people literally scar themselves “jamming acrylic nails into the tissue.” The deeper fix is a routine that resurfaces gently every day so there’s nothing to pick at in the first place. And her final piece of advice is blunt: “Throw out the magnifying mirror. Those things are a sin to humanity.”

Want to catch the rest of Marino’s tips? Listen to the full episode on GlowLab, available wherever you listen to podcasts.