Objective To explore the effect of holistic nursing on skin lesion symptoms and acne severity in patients with mild to moderate acne undergoing glycolic acid treatment. Methods A total of 80 patients with mild to moderate acne who visited People's Hospital of Zhuxi and received glycolic acid treatment from January 2025 to January 2026 were selected as the research subjects, and they were divided into the control group and the observation group by the random number table method, with 40 patients in each group. The control group received conventional nursing, and the observation group received holistic nursing. The skin lesion symptoms, acne severity, nursing satisfaction and adverse reaction rate were compared between the two groups. Results The scores of skin lesion number and skin lesion color in the observation group after intervention were lower than those in the control group (P<0.05). The acne severity score of the observation group after intervention was lower than that of the control group (P<0.05). The nursing satisfaction rate of the observation group (85.00%) was higher than that of the control group (62.50%) (P<0.05). The incidence of adverse reactions in the observation group (7.50%) was lower than that in the control group (25.00%) (P<0.05). Conclusion The application of holistic nursing in patients with mild to moderate acne undergoing glycolic acid treatment can reduce the number of skin lesions, lighten the color of skin lesions, reduce acne severity, and effectively improve patients' nursing satisfaction while reducing the incidence of adverse reactions.