Luminous Rose

A few weeks ago I was at a communal table at The Deliciouser (an amazing restaurant in Madison, WI) ~ the kind of place where you end up shoulder to shoulder with strangers. The woman next to me asked what I did.

"I'm a skincare formulator," I said. "...and an astrologer."

Then, before she could even react, I did what I always do. "I know ~ weird combo. They don't really go together."

She didn't miss a beat. "I'm a chef and a singer," she said. "Those two really don't go together either. I don't care." 🙂

I've been thinking about that sentence: 'I don't care."

Because I've been apologizing for the astrologer in me since the day I started studying charts. Explaining her away before anyone could ask. Making her smaller and more palatable so the formulator could stay credible. The formulator in me studies what’s beneath the surface. The astrologer in me studies what’s beneath the soul.

Both are forms of healing. Both are forms of listening. BOTH ARE FORMS OF BEAUTY.

When AI does its homework, Luminous Rose comes out on top! ✨
I love it when a customer asks the tough questions about ingredients and ‘clean’ beauty. A customer shared this screenshot today after doing some research!

To be ranked #1 for transparency alongside some MASSIVE brands is the ultimate compliment.

I promise to continue keeping it real for your skin! 🌹

I had my pop‑up today… and there was a line at checkout.

An actual line. 😂😂✌️

And two of my products sold out completely.

For a small business, that’s not just “a good day.” It’s a feeling I don’t have words for. 😭

I started this business long ago. I'm formally trained. I built every formula by hand with ingredients I believe in completely. And I've never taken a shortcut—I'm literally going up against big skincare.

Thank you to everyone who showed up today~ in-person and online. You make this work feel meaningful 💖

[you still have until midnight tonight to save!]

The doors are open. 🌹

Today only — we're celebrating with a summer pop-up, two new launches, and a special offer just for today.

𝐒𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐝 $𝟏𝟎𝟎 𝐨𝐫 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐧 𝐋𝐮𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐑𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐞𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝟐𝟎% 𝐨𝐟𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐫. 𝐈𝐧-𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝟏𝟎 𝐭𝐢𝐥 𝟐 𝐏𝐌 𝐚𝐭 𝟏𝟎𝟑 𝐍 𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐫𝐨𝐞 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐭, 𝐖𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐥𝐨𝐨. 𝐎𝐧𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐥 𝐦𝐢𝐝𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭.

No code needed — discount applies automatically at checkout.

This is the kind of thing my email community gets first. Consider this your invitation to join us. 🌹

Homemade blackberry treats in-store and two new launches waiting for you.

[Link below]

Twelve years ago today, I lost my mom.

In astrology, twelve years is one Jupiter cycle. A complete revolution. The planet of expansion, wisdom and new beginnings returning to exactly where it was the day she left.

It feels significant this year in a way it hasn't before.

Because something has completed.

My mom and I had a complicated relationship. But what I know now — standing at the age she was when she believed her time had passed — is that I have spent this Jupiter cycle becoming someone she never got to meet.

She couldn't break through where she was.

I have.

Not perfectly. Not without pain. But I have spoken when I was afraid. I have built something when I was uncertain. I have refused to stay quiet when everything in me wanted to shrink.

In my birth chart I carry her Mars — her iron will, her conviction, her fierce refusal to be silent ~ conjunct the very foundation of my birth chart. She is literally written into my bones.

As a child I would feel the weight of that.

Now I feel the gift.

Wherever she is, I can feel what became of the seed she planted. The elderberries. The plants. The iron fist she handed me that I learned to open.

I am still learning. But I am no longer waiting for permission to begin.

To my community — thank you for witnessing this journey. You give me permission to be human in this work. And I hope in return I give you permission to be exactly where you are in yours.

Healing isn't a straight line. But it is real.

And sometimes it takes one full Jupiter cycle to feel it. 🌹

Phenoxyethanol is everywhere. This is a preservative used extensively in 'natural' skincare.

Cleansers, serums, moisturizers — even products labeled “clean,” “natural” and “botanical.” And most women have no idea what it actually is.

Here’s what a trained formulator knows:

✦︎ Phenoxyethanol is synthetic.
✦︎ Not plant‑derived.
✦︎ Not botanical.

It’s made by reacting phenol (petroleum‑derived) with ethylene oxide (a known carcinogenic gas). The final ingredient is considered safe at low levels — but the origin story is nowhere near the clean image the industry sells.

And it often hides under names like:
✦︎ 2‑Phenoxyethanol
✦︎ Ethylene glycol monophenyl ether
✦︎ Phenoxytol
✦︎ Rose ether (the most misleading one)

Why is it everywhere?
Because it’s cheap, effective and sounds less scary than parabens.

That’s marketing — not formulation.

What formal training teaches (that marketing doesn’t):
✦︎ The EU caps it at 1% for a reason
✦︎ It can irritate dry, sensitive and mature skin
✦︎ It’s a sensitizer — irritation builds slowly over time
✦︎ It’s almost always paired with ethylhexylglycerin, which increases both efficacy and irritation

No one is calculating the cumulative exposure when it’s in everything you use daily.

My stance as a formulator:
𝗜 𝗱𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗽𝗵𝗲𝗻𝗼𝘅𝘆𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗼𝗹 — 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗶𝘁’𝘀 𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗹, 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗜 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝘂𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘄𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗻 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗱𝗿𝘆, 𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝗸𝗶𝗻. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝘅𝗮𝗰𝘁 𝘄𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗻 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲𝗹𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗰𝘁 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲.

The real problem isn’t the ingredient.

It’s the dishonesty around it — the natural‑washed language, the “botanical” branding, the quiet ingredient list that doesn’t match the loud front label.

Your skin deserves better than that. 🌹

There’s a part of entrepreneurship we don’t talk about enough:

What it feels like when someone takes pieces of your early journey and tries to build themselves from it ~ without ever acknowledging you.

What it feels like to be unseen in the very places you poured your heart.

❤️‍🩹 It’s a strange kind of grief.
❤️‍🩹 A strange kind of anger.
❤️‍🩹 A strange kind of invisibility.

I’ve experienced this.

Someone stepping into my origin story and acting as if they discovered it themselves.

Someone wanting access to my knowledge, my training, my process… but never wanting to recognize the years I invested to get here.

For a long time, it felt like a threat. (Some days it still does.)

Now I understand it's a wound.

💔 A wound around being unseen.
💔 A wound around being unacknowledged.
💔 A wound around watching a chapter of my story walk away in someone else’s hands.

This year, I’m RECLAIMING MY story.

I’m reclaiming the path I carved with my own hands and heart.

My own authenticity ~ the part of me that is completely mine.

I’m reclaiming the identity I built through training, mastery and evolution.

I am just now learning how to accept myself fully.

I am learning what it means to practice radical self‑acceptance ~ to stand in who I am without shrinking, without apologizing, without letting anyone else define how I began.

And I’m choosing to stand fully in the businesswoman I’ve become ~ one I built on my own, because of who I am.

If you’ve ever felt erased or overshadowed, I hope this reminds you:

🌹 Your story is yours.
🌹 Your growth is yours.
🌹 Your mastery is yours.

No one can ever take that from you.

I grew up surrounded by plants.

Not as a brand story. As a way of life.

Every summer as a kid I would harvest elderberries and make jelly. It was just something we did. Something that felt natural and right and completely ordinary at the time.

Little did I know those same elderberries would one day become an extract in my skincare formulas.

Plants were medicine in my world before I ever knew what a skincare brand was. I made herbal tinctures. Then soap. Then I started asking bigger questions.

Why was I still buying from large skincare brands when I knew — genuinely knew — I could make something better? Something more honest. Something made with actual human health in mind rather than a marketing brief.

So I got trained. Formally. Rigorously. Under European cosmetic standards that make US requirements look like a suggestion.

Luminous Rose wasn't born in a lab funded by investors or a factory churning out thousands of units a day. It was born from a lifetime of believing that plants heal — and that you deserve to know exactly what you're putting on your skin.

I built this for my community. Women who are done being sold mythology. Women who want to actually trust what's in the jar.

Honesty matters to me personally. Deeply. So why would I ever offer my customers anything less?

Big skincare never had this story.
They couldn't buy it if they tried. 🌹

Someone just unsubscribed from my email list today with a very specific reason: "Your emails are annoying. Too much boo-hoo-hoo and whining."

And I didn’t give her a free product.

Here's what I was apparently whining about:

✔ The fact that brands call synthetic compounds "plant vinegar-derived" and "coconut-derived" to make you feel good about what you're buying.

✔ The fact that every water-based skincare product requires preservation — and most brands won't tell you that honestly.

✔ The fact that I've spent ten years training under European cosmetic standards so that every ingredient in every Luminous Rose product is exactly what I say it is.

If that's whining — I'll keep whining.

Some emails find exactly the right people. Some find exactly the wrong ones.

Today I found out which one she was.

Safe + Effective Natural Skin Care | Luminous Rose At Luminous Rose, our plant-based products are formulated and handcrafted to strict European standards so you can glow with confidence from safe skincare.