For those who haven’t heard my story, a huge part of how I ended up opening Butterfly Effect and getting into this business in general was that I had constant skin problems starting from my early teens. From oily skin to hormonal breakouts to funny...

I get a lot of inquiries as to my where I go for info regarding cosmetics ingredients and the answer is usually “well, all over the place”. I go to Skin Deep’s Cosmetics Safety Database to get an overall idea of a product but, although it’s...

We’ve all heard this one before- What’s the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. When it comes to ice cream, I am definitely a nutter. Despite the knowledge that I’m lactose intolerant, that...

My junior year of college I had the great misfortune of getting ringworm. How a twenty-one year old student in a college town with no contact with small children managed to get ringworm while not a single other person I knew or lived with did is a mystery...

courtesy stock.xchng, mishahu If the gardenia were to represent the essence of girliness, then jasmine would surely represent the essence of Goddesses. It evokes a sense of connectedness to the universe, mystery, joy and well-being. Jasmine has been...

When making a decision about what products and ingredients are safe for you and your family, it’s important to balance your sources. There are lots of people making radical (and serious) claims about ingredients that cause everything from cancer to...

JULIET: “…What’s in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet; So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call’d, Retain that dear perfection which he owes Without that title…” -          Shakespeare’s Romeo...

The only thing more powerful than Fear is Faith: faith that everything happens for a reason, that you’ll get it right (eventually), that people will understand you (even if it doesn’t come out right), and that when you put effort into a project it...

Rev-o-lu-tion: A dramatic and wide-reaching change in the way something works or is organized and in people’s ideas about it. Or-gan-ic: Produced without the use of chemicals or artificial agents. Over the past few years I have done numerous makeup...

Dear Beauty Chick, I’m so frustrated! I have these things, they seem like pimples or clogged pores, on my scalp and along my hairline. Sometimes, they even hurt and they make me feel really self-conscious. What’s worse is I’ve struggled with them...

Breast cancer awareness is an issue at the forefront of both the American and the medical community. According to The American Cancer Society, breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in women and is the second leading cause of cancer death in...

I watched a commercial for a well-known brand of face cream. The volume was muted, but having seen this particular ad before, I knew the narrator was talking about the new technology, cool ingredients, and amazing results that women saw when they used...

When I began my research on parabens, I was completely overwhelmed. There are innumerable websites making blanket statements regarding their safety and very few actually comparing both sides of the data to come to a well-rounded conclusion. Not content...

They make a cream for everything. There are ones for eye puffiness and ones for wrinkles (heaven forbid!). There are ones with antioxidants and exotic extracts, and others with lab-engineered stem cells and other science-y stuff. Not to mention the vast...

I am all for change as part of a positive evolution. Let’s take a generally accepted product, method, belief, etc., and build upon what’s working and modify what isn’t, so that it can better work within the parameters of our current needs, system,...

When I moved in with my roommate and very close friend, Sarah, two summers ago I decided to show how excited I was by baking us some homemade banana bread. Two days later, it was gone! So I made some more, this time with dark chocolate chips and toasted...