We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Christalyne Causey a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Christalyne, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Are you happier as a business owner? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job?

I never even considered being a business owner until I was in grad school and had no choice. I still needed to work, but my school hours were not conducive to holding down a stable job that would pay the bills. That’s when I opened Bare. Once I got used to calling my own hours, making all the decisions and shaping the business the way I wanted, there was no looking back. I’ll admit though, later, when I started having kids, I questioned my choice. I had a very hard first pregnancy that made working difficult, followed by the normal stressors of having your first baby. I had to be back to work within a couple weeks, meanwhile my friends got to enjoy 3-6months paid maternity leave. In those first few years of being a mother, my business definitely suffered as I learned to balance running a business, and raising a family. There are many days when I wish I could “unplug” after work, but instead I’m often doing admin after the kids go down and waking up early to get everything done before they wake up. On the flip side, working for someone else would not allow me the flexibility I have now, and for that I am eternally grateful.

Christalyne, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’m the owner of Bare Aesthetics Skincare & Nutrition, a results-driven skincare clinic based in Scottsdale. My background is a little different from most in this industry. I’m both a medical esthetician and a clinical nutritionist with a PhD in nutrition and endocrinology, which completely shapes how I approach skin.

I didn’t get into this field because I loved products or trends. I got into it because I was frustrated by how surface-level most skincare advice is, yet knew that healthy skin has the ability to completely shape someone’s self-confidence. I saw people spending thousands on treatments and products, but no one was addressing what’s actually driving skin issues in the first place.

So I built a clinic that does.

At Bare Aesthetics, we specialize in corrective skincare (acne, melasma, scarring, and aging), but we approach it differently. Instead of just treating what you see on the surface, we look at what’s happening underneath. Hormones, stress, inflammation, diet, skin barrier function… all of it matters.

Most people don’t realize how much things like chronic stress, blood sugar dysregulation, or hormonal imbalances can directly impact their skin. You can have the best products and the best treatments in the world, but if those factors aren’t addressed, results are inconsistent at best. I like to tell my clients the skin talks, and its telling you something is off internally.

We combine traditional advanced treatments, like facials, lasers, microneedling, and chemical peels, with nutrition and hormone optimization to create a true inside-out approach. It allows us to not only get better results, but more sustainable ones.

What I’m most proud of is that we don’t chase trends. We focus on outcomes.
We simplify things for our clients, educate them, and give them a clear plan that actually works in real life.

I also take a lot of pride in helping people understand their skin on a deeper level. When clients realize their skin isn’t “sensitive” or “just bad” and that there’s actually a reason behind what’s happening they are really able to make things shift.

If there’s one thing I want people to know about me and my brand, it’s this:
We’re not here to sell you more products.
We’re here to fix the problem.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

One of the biggest tests of my resilience came over the past couple of years, when I was navigating both personal and physical challenges while still running and growing my business.

I went through multiple abdominal surgeries that significantly impacted my health, my energy, and honestly, my sense of stability in my own body. At the same time, I was raising two young kids and trying to keep my business not just afloat, but moving forward.

There wasn’t really an option to “pause life” and figure it out later.

What that period forced me to do was practice exactly what I teach. That meant understanding the body as a system, respecting its limits, and adjusting instead of pushing blindly through. I had to shift how I worked, how I took care of myself, and how I managed stress, because I could see firsthand how quickly things fall apart when those pieces aren’t in place.

It also deepened the way I approach my clients.

I don’t just understand, academically, how stress, inflammation, and hormonal disruption affect the skin. I’ve lived it. I’ve seen what it does to healing, to energy, to confidence. And I’ve also seen how powerful it is when you support the body the right way.

That experience made me a better practitioner and maybe even a better business owner. It forced me to simplify, focus on what actually works, and build systems that are sustainable. Not just for me, but for the people I work with.

Resilience, for me, hasn’t looked like pushing harder.
Instead, I’ve been adapting, staying consistent, and continuing to move forward, even when things weren’t ideal.

That’s the same approach I bring to my clients every day.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

One of the biggest pivots in my career was realizing that traditional skincare alone wasn’t enough to get people the results they were looking for.

When I first started, I was doing what most clinics do, facials, peels, and recommending good skincare. While clients would see some improvement, it was often temporary or inconsistent. Acne would come back. Melasma would flare. Skin just wouldn’t “stay fixed”

At some point, I had to be honest with myself: This approach, while easier, wasn’t solving the real problem.

So I started leaning into my background in nutrition and endocrinology and began integrating internal health into my practice, looking at hormones, stress, inflammation, and diet alongside in-clinic treatments.

It meant re-educating clients who were used to quick fixes, restructuring my services, and essentially building a new model in an industry that largely focuses on surface-level solutions. There were definitely moments where it felt like I was going against the grain.

But once I made that shift, everything changed.

Clients started getting better, more consistent results. Cases that used to feel “stubborn” or unpredictable started making sense. And my business evolved from being just another skincare clinic to something much more specialized and impactful. Not to mention, I started to feel better about what I was doing to help my clients.

The beauty industry is a saturated market. In order to stand out, everyone tries to be flashier and louder. But with this shift, I didn’t have to be.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://thebareeffect.com
• Instagram: bare.aesthetics

Image Credits

These are all owned by me