I got severe acne after falling sick from appendicitis. The experience inspired me to start a plant-based-skincare company.
Stella Kalinina for BI
- Jenny Evans became interested in wellness after a traumatic appendicitis experience in her 20s.
- She's now a facialist and owns a skincare company, BeautyGrass, that sells CBD-infused products.
- Evans' approach to wellness embraces natural ingredients and exercise.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Jenny Evans, a facialist and business owner in Los Angeles. It's been edited for length and clarity.
I spent my high-school years as a jock with naturally clear skin. But while I was in school in my 20s to become a furniture designer, my life changed after I developed appendicitis.
The infection turned my whole body toxic. I ended up in the hospital and was prescribed a lengthy list of antibiotics that made me feel sick. My perfect skin erupted into grade 4 severe purple acne across my face.
I needed a reset. I felt lost and was looking for anything to make me feel better. A friend recommended facials. I was a student working as a bartender and couldn't really afford weekly facials. But I stretched my budget thin to try it. After one session, I was hooked. I asked my facialist how she got started, and she told me she went to esthetician school. I enrolled almost immediately.
Stella Kalinina for BI
Becoming an esthetician set me on a journey to heal myself from the inside out. Because I grew up near the Santa Cruz Mountains and had a master gardener for a mother, I always had a love of earth and nature. I continued my education after getting my certification, researching natural remedies and learning Eastern techniques such as cupping to incorporate into my practice.
I discovered the importance of touch
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When I started my healing journey, I became most connected to my hands. I realized they're my greatest tools. While working as a bartender, I developed tendonitis and rheumatoid arthritis from flipping bottles. Now I have an intense appreciation for my hands. I practice acupuncture, use herbal remedies, and treat them as my greatest asset in my work.
Human beings crave touch as part of their nature. During the COVID-19 health crisis, I had to close my business three times. I, like everyone else, felt touch-starved and without connection. Those years were some of my most challenging, but I came out of them reinvigorated with purpose.
My knowledge of natural remedies turned into a business
Stella Kalinina for BI
For wellness practices, I started to look at the world around me and find solutions in nature.
A predictive moment was when I was a child, and I gave my mother a plant because I thought it looked beautiful — she told me it was a cannabis leaf. Later, as an adult, I started researching the properties of cannabis, including its link to apoptosis induction.
Stella Kalinina for BI
After decades of working as an esthetician, I launched my beauty brand, BeautyGrass, shortly before the pandemic started. It incorporates cannabis and other natural ingredients into skincare products. I experimented with how CBD, a non-psychoactive component of cannabis, could affect the skin and tested to see which amounts could potentially help with eczema, psoriasis, and acne.
As I navigate owning a beauty brand, I'm always hearing about the latest trend. There are many products and multistep skincare routines on the market. BeautyGrass is making trends by creating handmade plant-based products crafted sustainably.
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Maintaining a space of peace and calm is essential to Saving Faces, my beauty treatment and facials business, and BeautyGrass. I designed the location as a sanctuary to help the outside world fade away. The surfaces are adorned with various crystals, including a large piece of amethyst, my birthstone, that my husband gifted me.
Now I'm living a more mindful life
Stella Kalinina for BI
My approach to skincare has always been "less is more." I use a BeautyGrass hydrating oil in the morning and serums on occasion. I've read a lot of research that suggests time in the sun can help improve your mental health, so I don't limit my exposure, and I make sure to put on a little bit of sunscreen. When I'm in the sun, I also hydrate my body by eating water-rich foods such as watermelon and cucumber.
I also practice physical wellness in my regular Pilates lessons. Six years ago, I discovered the Lagree method, which emphasizes slower counts, allowing me to feel more centered and confront my thoughts.
Stella Kalinina for BI
One of my goals is to pass what I have learned on to my kids. I think they're great, but I'm worried — especially about my 13-year-old daughter — about the parts of their lives I can't control. I teach them to consider how the physical world affects them. I'm not going to try to stop my daughter from putting on sheet masks at sleepovers that make her face red and irritated. But I want her to ask herself, "How does it make me feel?"
My appendicitis changed my direction in life, but it led me on a path that I'm incredibly grateful for. I feel more connected to my body and have a greater understanding of the world around me. I know now that my goal is to create a stable environment for my family and my clients in an unstable world.
Stella Kalinina for BI
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