Jamie McGuire is a revolutionary figure in the world of skincare and health. Serving as both a skincare specialist and gut health nutritionist, Jamie has dedicated her career to transforming how we perceive beauty and wellness. As the founder of Jamie Anne Aesthetics, Jamie provides clients with personalized skincare solutions that go beyond traditional methods. Her holistic approach integrates skincare with gut health, offering a comprehensive path to lasting beauty and well-being.
Jamie is also the author of HEALTHY SKIN, a practical grocery and recipe guide designed to nourish your skin from the inside out. Her insights and easy-to-follow advice have empowered others to take control of their skin health through mindful eating. In addition, Jamie created the acclaimed Healthy Skin 90-Day Program, guiding members through a three-month transformation that addresses both external skincare routines and internal health practices. This program stands as a testament to Jamie's commitment to holistic health and her innovative approach to skincare. Jamie is not afraid to challenge the status quo. With a mission to expose the shortcomings of big food, big pharma, and big beauty, Jamie's work is stirring up the industry in ways that are both controversial and impactful. Her skincare philosophies break away from conventional methods, emphasizing the importance of gut health and nutrition in achieving optimal skin health.
Read more on how Jamie’s experience with botox poisoning led her to a powerful shift toward clean beauty and holistic healing.
Your journey into being anti-botox and challenging beauty standards is deeply personal. What led you to rethink mainstream beauty treatments and explore alternative approaches?
My eyes opened to “big beauty” when I was working in medspas and plastic surgeons offices in LA. I saw firsthand how miracle medspa treatments were brainwashing all of us (including myself). I would sell laser packages for thousands of dollars that promised amazing results. I watched women come in every month for their appointments and I never saw any real change or improvements to their skin. When they were unhappy with their results, instead of a refund, I would suggest the next treatment package that would be the “one” that they needed to fix the problem. It was a vicious cycle. Botox and fillers were similar but at least these had noticeable results. You would actually see wrinkles go away, frozen muscles that wouldn’t move, volume replaced with plump cheeks and lips etc. Eventually I started down the path of botox and filler and something that I got sucked into doing consistently to keep the results for almost 10 years.
Can you share what it was like to experience botox poisoning firsthand? What symptoms did you face, and how did you ultimately connect the dots between botox and your health struggles?
I learned a very hard lesson when I got botox poisoning over a year ago. It rocked my world and ruined my health. It ended up being a blessing in disguise because this is when my perspective on beauty standards started to shift. All of my instincts about what I had felt and witnesses working in the med spa and plastic surgery world were all validated. I had so much guilt over how long I believed in something that I knew deep down didn’t feel right but was so normalized in my surroundings. How could I be so blind for so long? I mean botox is literally a toxin and we are injecting it into our bodies without question. But here I am. Lessons learned and eyes fully open. I now see what is happening all around us with these “big beauty” treatments and how we have truly lost ourselves in the anti-aging obsession. I still struggle seeing my natural face and all the movement and wrinkles I have - it’s been a long time since I have truly seen what I look like through my 30’s and now my 40’s. It’s definitely a wake up call and has been a personal struggle at times, but I have been embracing this “new me”.
Today it is all about a healthy mindset first. Learning to be okay with what I see in the mirror. I still want to look my best and find healthy ways for me to feel confident and content. Face taping has been something I started exploring last year and has been working wonders for me. It’s definitely not a replacement for botox, nor do I want it to be. I don’t over complicate this method- I just put two pieces above my brow where I have the most movement and it holds things in place and smooths out the lines. Very simple. It does the trick for me and after months of doing it, the results have gotten even better. It’s one of those things you need to be consistent with for the long haul if you want it to work.
Back to the botox poisoning and what that looked and felt like. Getting botox poisoning was the scariest health issue I had ever faced. And it’s so different than if I had been in a car accident with a bunch of broken bones and wounds all over and in the hospital for weeks. This was an internal attack on my body that you couldn’t see on the outside. I was suffering from the worst panic attacks where I thought I was going to die. So bad that the only way for me to calm my panic modes was just to make peace with the fact that if I die this way, then so be it. I had come to terms with accepting death, that’s how bad this got. I didn’t get out of bed or leave my house for 14 days. I felt like I couldn’t swallow, my tongue would swell up and push against my teeth that it actually hurt. I would have teeth marks deeply indented into my tongue. It took up my whole mouth and made it hard to breathe. The brain fog and fatigue was completely debilitating. My legs felt like they were 100lbs each and walking felt like trying to run under water.
Come to find out these were all symptoms of MCAS (Mast Cell Activation Syndrome) - which is a condition where your immune system is stuck in overdrive. Essentially, your body’s mast cells, which play a key role in your immune response, act like an overprotective security system. They constantly sense a threat, even when there isn’t one, and stay on high alert, releasing chemicals, like histamine, inappropriately. This creates widespread inflammation and drains your energy as your body is always "fighting" something that's not actually there. MCAS causes you to have allergic reactions to many things but the biggest for me was food. I already had a very strict diet, but had never paid much attention to high histamine foods that were causing these reactions. I eliminated as many high histamine foods as possible to prevent triggering any allergic reactions.
By the time I eliminated everything that was causing reactions, my diet only consisted of 5 foods: ground beef, apples, butter, eggs and dijon mustard. That’s all I ate for more than 3 months. I was too afraid to eat anything else. No drinks other than water. I think this is what helped me recover the fastest. It wasn’t fun, but it was way worse having histamine reactions that made me feel like I was going to die. So I did this to feel just “okay” everyday, but it was still a struggle.
How did your experience with botox and MCAS impact your gut health?
Another side effect of botox poisoning and MCAS is how it affects your gut. It wrecked mine. I had just healed my gut after having SIBO and IBS for years. I worked so hard at healing it, and now it completely backtracked. It was a disaster. Slowly it got back to normal after month 4. I still had to stay on a low histamine diet in addition to a ton of other things I had to do to heal.
What did your healing journey look like? How did you support your body’s recovery?
My healing process took months and consistent focus. Different combinations of supplements and peptides everyday. A LOT of nervous system work: breath work, meditation, EESystem, PEMF therapy, and red light therapy. I had to be very careful with detoxing and go slow. You have to do things in stages so that you don’t overwhelm your system and have more setbacks. This felt like a long healing journey, but compared to others who have been injured by botox, I healed fairly fast. A lot of women I speak to that have experienced botox poisoning still experience symptoms even years later. My health is still an ongoing process, but I am grateful that the worst is now behind me.
How are you redefining beauty and wellness for yourself now? What are some of your favorite alternatives to botox that support skin health and longevity?
Once my health took a turn and began to improve, I started exploring alternatives to botox. The most important focus for me was my mindset. I wanted to put a stop to these unrealistic standards that compromised my health and kept me in a constant state of negative obsession about my looks. I wanted to work on realistic, healthy expectations and acceptance. After all, I am in my 40’s. It’s okay to age. It’s okay to have wrinkles. Natural beauty is beautiful. I want to stop caring about aging and just embrace it. While working on a more positive mindset, I also had curiosity about other options like face taping. I didn’t think it would work and I didn’t want to add another step to my routine. But, after trying it over and over and seeing that it did smooth out the lines, and it only took me a few extra seconds each night, it is something that I believe is a great alternative to botox.
What does your daily wellness and skincare routine look like today, and how does clean beauty play a role in it?
I’ll give you a breakdown of my daily routine and practices that all play a role in anti-aging, skin health and overall health:
First thing when I wake up, I get my PEMF mat warmed up. While the PEMF is preheating, I drink water with salt and a squeeze of lemon. I like to hydrate first before any caffeine. Adding lemon and salt provides me with essential minerals, boosts hydration, provides some vitamin C and supports digestion. Then I either do a couple minutes on the rebounder or vibration plate to wake up my body and get the lymphatic system flowing. After, I do a PEMF session (level 4) + red light session while I journal. I use the Five Minute Journal. This gets me in a positive mindset for the day. I write out 3 things I am grateful for, 3 things I am looking forward to, and 3 positive affirmations. It’s so easy and literally takes five minutes but sets you up for the day. I have been journaling everyday for the past 5 years and really think this has been a huge help for my mental health and reaching personal and professional goals.
After journaling, I do my skincare routine and brush my teeth. I start by wiping my skin down with filtered water and a cotton square (no cleansing). Followed by a combination of serums, then moisturizer, then SPF and wear clean makeup. My daily schedule consists of working out, then work and healthy eating throughout the day. I cook everything at home and focus on an animal based diet - which is truly my biggest anti-aging secret weapon. The bulk of my meals include grass fed/grass finished red meat, pasture raised corn and soy free eggs, grass fed butter, organic fruit, organic seasonal veggies (not a lot), and raw dairy. This diet has been my top priority for years and has been the biggest game changer to my health. I don’t eat processed foods, I don’t eat refined sugar, no gluten, no ultra processed dairy and no alcohol.
What are some of your go-to daily rituals for maintaining youthful skin?
At night I have some strict boundaries that play a role on my mental health and work to improve my sleep which is SO important for skin health, anti-aging and overall health. If your sleep isn’t optimal, this is something that will affect your health and can play a role in our appearance, especially skin and accelerated aging. These rules include: no eating past 7pm, no snacks, nothing. After 8pm there are no more phones or computers. No scrolling, no emails, no texting. This de-stresses me, and shuts my brain off to get me ready to wind down and optimize my sleep.
Once I have eaten my last meal and shut down my electronic devices, I do my PM skincare routine. Double cleanse, oil cleanse first (my oil cleanser coming soon!), then gel cleanser, rinse, serum cocktail, moisturizer, eye serum, and last is face tape. A few nights a week I will dermaroll (also coming out soon!). Once my skincare is done, I drink a magnesium cocktail with either lemon or organic tart cherry juice and have another PEMF session (level 2) to decompress and get my body ready for the rest state.
Bedtime is 9pm most nights. The phone goes on airplane mode (even better to not have it in the room at all). We keep our bedroom like a cave. Blackout dark, 68 degrees, and white noise. We like listening to rain and thunder. We also have an EightSleep mattress that monitors our body temperature as we sleep and adjusts the temperature of the bed to improve sleep cycles. It also has a vibration alarm that gently wakes us up with a light vibration rather than a jarring loud sound of an alarm. It keeps track of our sleep scores and patterns from deep sleep, REM, HRV, heart rate, snoring etc. I highly recommend one of these mattress pads (or maybe it’s time for HigherDOSE to make one)!
Beyond botox, you also made the decision to remove your breast implants. What led to that choice, and what changes did you notice in your health and well-being after explant surgery?
I had my breast implants removed in February 2025. I believe the implants also contributed to the toxic overload my body was experiencing. Botox poisoning was the match that lit the fire of my health issues. I had been considering getting my implants removed for years, even before the botox incident. I believe they were the root cause to a lot of my health issues that started out of nowhere. My health was still not 100%, even after I healed my botox poisoning and MCAS. It didn’t make sense for someone who was as healthy as me. Since taking them out things have been going well. My implants and capsule were actually in good condition and “healthy," no leakage or calcification.
Today, I am about six weeks out and I am so happy with not only the result of how they look, I think the smaller natural breasts fit my frame so much better - but I have also noticed subtle improvements to my overall health. It’s not perfect yet and I imagine it will take time for my body to recover and see more health benefits from removing a plastic, foreign object in my body. I am really happy with my decision and this aligns so much more with who I am today and my health values. Leaning into everything as natural as possible.
What’s your biggest takeaway from this entire experience, and how has it transformed your outlook on health and beauty?
Overall I don’t feel like my routines take all that much time, but they do take discipline. Especially things like diet and electronic boundaries. Implementing healthy habits and sticking to them will significantly improve your health and skin. Even though I thought I was on top of my health game for years before getting botox poisoning, I was definitely living by the 80/20 rule. I was doing a lot of good things for my health, but my “20” was seriously bad. Like botox and drinking alcohol. My life changed drastically after botox poisoning. Not only with my health, but my perspective on beauty standards completely. I also moved from LA to Oklahoma! Within a year I changed into a completely different person and I am embracing every moment. I am happy with all of these changes and feel more myself and am excited for what’s next.
To follow along Jamie's wellness journey, connect with her on Instagram: @jamieanneaesthetics or her website www.jamieanneaesthetics.com.
