After years of dealing with stubborn adult acne, Olivia Pierson got fed up.
The 34-year-old TV personality and influencer — who appeared on WAGs, Relatively Nat and Liv and is close friends with Kim Kardashian — was previously on birth control (which is known for calming skin conditions) but decided to stop taking the medication to give her body a break. In the months that followed, Pierson began to experience breakouts in places she’d never had before. She quickly relied on popular remedies like spironolactone, doxycycline and accutane — without success.
Her frustration prompted her to take a different approach to skin health and fix her issues from within. She did some searching on YouTube and came across Katarina Grabic, the owner of Glow Beauty — The Gut Lab Inc., a treatment program that uses holistic practices to reverse the side effects of external problems like acne.
“I just didn’t want to put more chemicals or over-the-counter medicine in my body,” Pierson exclusively told Us Weekly. “[Katarina] started giving me so much knowledge about how important your gut health is and what it really controls or contributes to throughout your body like psoriasis, acne — all kinds of things. I never looked at it that way. It was an eye-opener to heal from the root.”
After a consultation with Grabic, Pierson enrolled in her Full Reset treatment program, which costs $2,400. “I will be honest and say, you know, if you want to invest in yourself, it’s not always super cheap,” Pierson told Us.
Grabic’s other programs include the Medical Reset for $3,175 and the annual membership for $10,000 a year. She offers payment plans for each service and each program is also personalized for each client.
Grabic is a Los Angeles-based board certified and licensed acupuncturist and a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner. She is also a registered nutritionist, registered herbalist and is certified in biological medicine and somatic energetics.
Pierson’s particular plan is a six to eight week process that involves an extremely clean diet that includes no sugar, diary and alcohol. At the start, Grabic detected that Pierson had candidiasis — a fungal infection caused by an overgrowth of yeast in your body often brought on by foods with a lot of sugar. The infection shows up most on the skin.
“I wasn’t eating the healthiest before this, so it was quite a shock. I immediately noticed that I no longer had brain fog. I got such a clear mind just from changing my foods. Cutting out bad foods helped remove certain chemicals and even parasites from my body that were causing these flare ups — that at a point even turned cystic,” Pierson told Us.
As Pierson cleansed, Grabic would check in. “She’d take a look at my tongue, the patterns and what she sees. I learned if there’s a white film on your tongue, it’s your candidas. If your tongue is pink, your blood flow is good. Additionally, she tests your blood,” Pierson explained.
The results then determined what supplements Pierson needed. Grabic also prescribed Sips, which is a concoction of “different natural ingredients catered to my specific condition,” Pierson shared.
Us also caught up with Grabic, who explained, “The tongue shows me what is going on internally within the body using ancient traditional Chinese medicine.”
She continued, “Oftentimes, patients are layered. It is not as simple as others believe. [Telling people to] take milk thistle or add omega to their diet are band-aid approaches and they simply do not address the root.”
Together with Sips, as well as iron and liver supplements, Pierson noticed a change on her face. Little by little, her skin cleared up. (The liver is known for its detoxing properties and helps maintain collagen levels. Collagen improves skin moisture, elasticity and hydration.)
Since working with Grabic, Pierson has simplified her skincare routine. “I went back to the basics. I use a cleanser, moisturizer and of course, SPF,” she told Us. “I have added retinol back in slowly because I do have scarring and that’s my next challenge, getting rid of that.”
Knowing what she knows now, Pierson wants to encourage others to find the “root cause” of their skin issues.
“Of course, medication can work, but only for so long. Get to know your body. Watch what you eat. Bad food doesn’t just impact weight or moods, it can also be the reason why your skin is suffering. What you’re putting into your body matters,” Pierson added.
Grabic shared that Pierson’s most recent lab tests came back with “no flags” and is a result of her “hard work” of eating clean and prioritizing internal health to get glowing skin.
