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Originally from Pennsylvania where I spent my first 13 years, my family relocated to North Carolina, the place I would eventually refer to as “home.” The youngest of three children, I have two older brothers, I trained to become a professional ballet dancer with Patricia McBride and Melissa Hayden, esteemed Balanchine Ballerinas, and attended the high school division of University of North Carolina School of the Arts. After being cast in the lead role in Swan Lake, and not feeling any kind of excitement at all, I realized that I had lost the fire in my belly that had driven me to dance. Having wanted to live in New York City, and drawn to small and intimate classroom settings, I studied Communication Arts at Marymount Manhattan College, a private liberal arts college quaintly tucked away on East 71st Street on Manhattan's Upper East Side, graduating Summa Cum Laude.

I remained in NYC and embarked on a colorful fashion and beauty career, getting my feet wet with the likes of Chanel, Hermès, Versace, and Lucky magazine before landing a highly-coveted seat with the events and marketing team at The Wall Street Journal. My department executed nearly 150 customized events each year throughout the U.S. for TWSJ and WSJ. Magazine, working with luxury clients in the fashion, art and design, and hospitality space, such as Barneys New York, De Beers, Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy USA, MoMA, and Paul Stuart.

Seeking a more hands-on creative source of inspiration, I left TWSJ to dive into the world of makeup and skincare. I navigated a space for myself on-set working as a first assistant makeup artist for advertising and editorial photoshoots, fulfilling a childhood dream.

I craved thick, glossy fashion magazines as a little girl, and I’d beg my mother to purchase for me all the books that decorated the grocery store checkout lines. I was mesmerized by the editorials—the clothes, the makeup—it was magical in every way,  a fantasy world that I wanted to be a part of. So much so, that I would eagerly convince my closest neighborhood friends—all just houses away, scattered on the same neighborhood block—to play a part in my elaborate fashion shows. I was the creative director, and we would use the grand staircase in my childhood home in PA as our runway. My mother would buy me beautiful vintage evening wear specifically to play dress-up, so there were plenty of dresses to go around for my friends and me to curate a full collection to showcase for the lucky VIPs of Tara Drive. Makeup. Hair. The works. We, of course, thought it was a brilliant spectacle, and I loved every minute of it. So, without prior professional makeup training, as long as you don’t count my self-education from the ripe age of three when my Italian Grandmother, Stella (whose own beauty trademark was the most gorgeous fuchsia lipstick that sung against her olive complexion), first taught me the importance of cleansing one’s face with that bright pink gel–you know, the Lancôme face wash, do you remember that one? I digress… and so –

I jumped at the thought of working on-set and landed the first assistant position for top makeup artists Jodie Boland and Kristi Matamoros, working with the crème de la crème in NYC and around the world for Bergdorf Goodman, Calvin Klein, Equipment, Neiman Marcus, Tommy Hilfiger, Victoria’s Secret, Zac Posen, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, GQ, Interview, Teen Vogue, Vogue, V Magazine, and, with photographers Daniel Jackson, Sebastian Kim, Ryan McGinley, Paola Kudacki, and Ben Watts, and talent, such as Emanuela de Paula, Cintia Dicker, Anna Ewers, Amanda Murphy, Coco Rocha, Ashley Smith, and Edita Vilkevičiūtė.

Igniting my curiosity and natural gravitation toward the beauty industry inspired my fascination with the wellness space, where I began to nurture and develop a deep interest and understanding of the holistic mind, body, and soul connection. Specifically around skincare, by this time having seen so many different skin types on-set everyday, and noticing a direct correlation to how we treat ourselves through self-care rituals (or lack thereof), and how our nutritional choices directly impact our skin. This was deeply personal to me because having healthy, beautiful skin was not something that came naturally for me. Throughout my 20s and early 30s, I struggled with maintaining a clear complexion. I know now it was related to the stress and anxiety I was enduring and to my inflamed gut. I was unaware of how crucial nutrition played into everything, and especially skin health. My eating habits consisted of processed, sugary foods, and calorie counting, and an avoidance of fresh fruits and vegetables. I tried everything to heal my breakouts—antibiotics, skincare products, you name it—but nothing worked. Over the course of seven years, I went on Accutane three times, putting my own health at risk with the laundry list of possible dangerous side effects, because it was the only solution that seemed to work for me at that time. All I cared about was having clear skin. It’s painfully shaming to hide in your own skin. I would cancel plans, dates, hanging out with friends, hiding out for days, sometimes weeks. It made me feel depressed, and I was so embarrassed because I had put my value in not only material things, but in my physical appearance. I genuinely thought people liked me solely for the way I looked, and it was crippling to me. I feel deeply for anyone who has suffered through skin challenges. I was on-set with Kristi Matamoros one day when she recommended that I apply organic, raw honey to my skin like a facial mask to soothe and heal my acne while hydrating and brightening my skin. After a decade, it is something I still do to this day, and have preached about to everyone I know. Honey-masking has become a ritual for me in my skincare routine and has truly transformed my skin. Years later, I wrote about the healing benefits of honey-masking for Sakara Life’s S LIFE MAG.

That was the turning point for me—when I decided to make smarter choices about my physical health. It became a no-brainer for me to study skincare and nutrition at a deeper level. I wanted to nerd out and dive deeper into ingredient knowledge and nutritional studies, and understand skincare science more intently. Taking a welcome hiatus from NYC after a decade of priceless opportunities, I studied Holistic Skincare Science in Austin, Texas, looking to experience a new way of living outside of “the city” to reflect and turn inward. I relocated to Texas alone, not knowing a single soul. I was both excited and terrified of the challenges that lay ahead, but it was a thrilling and transformational time in my life.

This leap allowed me to connect with myself, paving the way for me to understand my life’s mission. It was during my time in Austin that my curiosity and desire to understand the mind and how human emotions flourish began, and I embraced conscious choices, practiced mindfulness, and dove into a whole foods, plant-based lifestyle. An aforementioned skincare and ingredient nerd, I was blissfully excited to use my newly acquired skills as a holistic skincare therapist, so I jumped at an opportunity to live in Miami and work side-by-side with skincare guru, Tatum Fritts, a legend in Miami Beach. I coached clients to their wellness and skincare goals by setting mindful intentions, tackling mind, body, and soul, along with nutritional upgrades and careful product curation. Frequently visited by Miami’s elite, celebrity clients, and Miami Heat team members, it was an enriching experience and incredibly expansive in strengthening my overall wellness and coaching skills, and intensifying my personal mindfulness and meditation training.

I returned to NYC, having missed the constant energy and inspiration it provides, with the goal to create the skincare line of my dreams. In this process, I was introduced by a college friend to a dynamic team at a shiny new start-up, a platform to shop fashion and beauty must-haves in a gorgeous, glossy, editorial format. It was fun and came with a sexy address on Madison Aveune. We were excited to build something bold and creative. However, like many start-ups, there's risk involved, and unfortunately, we folded, but not without forming close relationships and walking away with a wealth of knowledge. I found myself with the ability to now focus on creating my skincare brand full-time, and I began writing for S LIFE MAG for Sakara Life as a creative outlet to stimulate my love for the word and my commitment to beauty, wellness, and plant-based spaces. I was ready to hit fast-forward with my skincare line, Complexion Rituals, when my investor suddenly backed out before the first run of production. While this was heartbreaking at first, I am now thankful, as it was exactly what I needed to have happen at the time.

My purpose, my mission, which is truly in my heart and soul, is to help others by inspiring and supporting self-care. This includes establishing science-backed mindfulness practices, and bringing mental wellness to the forefront through daily rituals, distress tolerance skills, and emotional regulation that ultimately empowers.

I have self-educated intently for the last decade, actively studying and making mindfulness, meditation, and mental wellness skills and practices my main focus in 2014. I began deepening my personal awakening journey in my early 30s, throwing myself into the works of healers, teachers, therapists, and spiritual thought leaders around the world, such as Tara Brach, Pema Chödrön, Ram Dass, Thich Nhat Hanh, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D., Jack Kornfield, Marsha M. Linehan, Ph.D., Bruce Lipton, Ph.D., and Sharon Salzberg. To satisfy my interest in how gut health and eating habits can affect not only your skin, but also overall well-being, and the direct correlation between what we eat and mood and brain health, I earned a Plant-Based Nutrition Science degree through Cornell University to provide as much well-rounded expertise as possible for my clients. I am an active member and affiliate of two institutions where I have also studied, The Institute of Coaching at McLean, Harvard Medical School Affiliate, and The American Institute of Stress, and have taken rigorous courses at the National Institute for Clinical Application of Behavioral Medicine (NICABM), the Mindfulness Center at Brown University, the Oxford Mindfulness Centre, Learning In Action, and The Radical Compassion Institute. Always a student in my field, I am furthering my studies through Brown University’s Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Teacher Education and Development Intensive, a highly respected and dedicated program that spans over the course of three to six years depending on your chosen educational path.

It’s an honor to be part of such an incredible and enlightened collective founded in 1979 by Jon Kabat-Zin, Ph.D. and his colleagues. MBSR is intensive mindfulness training scientifically proven to change the structure of the brain, and enable us to disrupt ingrained patterns of reactivity, judgment, and defensiveness. Designed to assist people with managing stress, anxiety, depression, and emotional pain, MBSR is offered in hospitals, health centers, and through private coaches around the world.

As I embark on this personal journey of mine, there’s nothing I want more than to continue to expand myself and be more of a light source. I want to show up better than I was yesterday, and continuing my education makes that possible, so I can offer you the best guidance and support needed for your total well-being.

Through my life experiences, the pain, trauma, and loss I endured, Rituels du Jour, simply translated to “rituals of the day,” was born to serve you and shed light into this world. It is my greatest hope and mission to provide you with the tools you need in order to celebrate and embrace who you are. We all deserve to feel balanced, to be happy, seen, valued, and in our own personal power. What could be more beautiful?