As a single mother of four, she turned a homemade maize face mask into a skincare line that doubled its customer base & built a loyal following through word of mouth.
Some brands are born from market gaps. Others are born from motherhood. For Jennifer Sanford, the founder of Shimmer Chef, it was both: a beauty ritual with her daughters, a bout of childhood eczema, and a nagging feeling that the products touching her girls’ skin weren’t safe enough. That moment sparked something deeper—a desire to nourish from the inside out, to protect her daughters’ well-being, and to reclaim beauty as something rooted in culture, safety, and self-respect.
In this week’s Motherhood Identity Series, we meet a mother who became a licensed chef and esthetician to develop her own formulas and built a beauty brand inspired by ancestral Mexican folk remedies, powered by science, and grounded in maternal devotion. As a single mother of four daughters, her story is as textured as the products she creates—full of pivots, sacrifices, and quiet victories.
Shimmer Chef has doubled its customer base in the past year, launched on Amazon, expanded into new retail partners, and cultivated a loyal following through farmers markets, in-person events, and, most powerfully, word of mouth.
All nine products now carry the rigorous Made Safe Certification, and repeat purchase rates continue to climb—a sign that the formulas aren’t just landing, they’re changing lives. But for Jennifer, the real metric of success lives in the messages she receives from customers who have finally found relief from chronic skin conditions, or from mothers who feel safe putting her products on their kids’ skin.
Shimmer Chef isn’t just skincare. It’s a deeply personal legacy: a love letter in lime, honey and polenta. And at the heart of it all is a mother doing what mothers do best: building something better for the next generation.
You’re a trained esthetician, chef, and now founder of a beauty brand that’s redefining skincare. How did motherhood shape your decision to build Shimmer Chef?
Motherhood significantly shifted my perspective in many ways, and I seriously tapped into that primal instinct of protecting my children. My first daughter suffered from eczema that was triggered from our laundry detergent, so I became diligent about ensuring we always had gentle products in our home for anything that would touch her skin. Years later, a fun mom-and-daughters night of wearing beauty masks got me questioning what exactly we were putting on our faces. One thing led to another and Shimmer Chef beauty care was born.
I became a trained and licensed esthetician as well as a chef in order to create the best formulas possible with master chefs, and to fully understand my consumers’ skin, scalp, and hair care concerns. I wanted to fully understand every angle possible that we deal with when using beauty care.
Could you speak more specifically to the transition between esthetician, chef, and founder—what was the most difficult pivot? What support systems or sacrifices were involved?
The most difficult pivot was when my youngest daughter and I moved to San Francisco last year, and my third daughter began college in Pennsylvania. At that time, I felt an obligation to return to school, which was not only physically exhausting but emotionally draining as I knew my daughter would have to take the city bus to and from school, and make her own dinners and eat alone while I was in class.
It was a brutal several months, as I had always walked her and my older daughters to and from school, and dinner was always family together time. Those days definitely twisted my heart as I felt I wasn’t there for her after she had already endured such a challenging life change. But she astounded me with her resilience—and she became a wonderful cook in the process.
You’re raising four daughters while running a company rooted in ancestral wisdom. How has your identity as a mother influenced the way you approach beauty, healing, and business?
It’s hard to separate my identity as a mother from my identity as a woman—they’re just so intertwined. It’s possible that being the mother of daughters has given me a different perspective than if I had sons. The beauty industry really targets young girls and impacts them in such pervasive ways, from the clothing they choose to the products they want to use.
I feel compelled to give them a truly safe option for what they put on their skin, as there aren’t many in the marketplace. Our skin and scalp are critical avenues to nourish for physical and mental well-being, and we’re trying to educate consumers about their importance for looking and feeling our best.
What was the emotional or mental shift like going from practicing culinary wellness to becoming a founder—especially with four young girls watching you?
Underlying this transition has always been a sense of intrigue and excitement, but at the same time, a fear that this journey was taking my attention away from my daughters. It’s a hard choice to make as we have such a short window of time to raise our children before they head out into the world. That’s why I’ve moved very slowly and deliberately in each phase of Shimmer Chef’s growth. And I will say, I feel like these products have a life of their own. They’re almost like another child, in how they have sprouted from a spark of imagination into this full-blown career.
So much of Shimmer Chef is about honoring your Mexican roots and your grandmother’s Folk Medicine recipes. How do you keep that cultural connection alive at home with your daughters?
Our very first product, the Honey Lime Polenta Face & Neck Plaster, came from my grandmother Juanita. When I recreated this formula for my girls, it ignited a sense of honoring her and our ancestry. This led to more conversations with their grandfather and what it was like being a first-generation Mexican American. It’s through these stories that we keep our heritage alive.
Have your daughters influenced the way you formulate or market your products—or even how you define beauty?
Absolutely. My daughters have very strong opinions about our product line with very good instincts about what we should be sharing with our consumers. From the beginning, they have been pivotal in what the formulas should be and how they should feel and smell. They were my original testers, models, and marketing experts. Their strong, valuable opinions were sometimes tough to hear but couldn’t be ignored.
Could you share an anecdote that illustrates a formative moment—maybe the first time you saw them truly engage with the brand or reflect your values back to you?
From the very beginning, my oldest teenage daughter would share our plaster masks with her friends—she was the most critical of me at that time and didn’t hold back her opinion of me in general. She could be tough... like most teenagers. But when she shared the Shimmer Chef products with her friends, I knew beneath all of the teenage angst she was proud of me and what we were creating. That sense—that I was working on something that made my daughter proud—propelled me in the darkest moments when I felt like giving up.
How do you navigate the tension between building something big and staying grounded in motherhood?
As I mentioned, that tension is real. It’s a hard choice. But there’s a significant part of my mind that knows I have a responsibility to bring our products to as many people as possible, especially as it seems we are regularly getting bad news about how the chemicals we are using on our bodies are harming us. The flip-side is that my girls are growing up so fast that I do feel torn when I have to make the choice between the two.
Are there specific examples of when you’ve had to choose one over the other—and how did that feel?
I'm constantly having to make a choice—do I go to my daughter’s volleyball games or stay home and work? Do I travel to NYC for a business meeting and leave her with family? As a single mom for the last 10 years, there has been a continuous pull between wanting to create a separate life for myself and wanting to stay nestled close to my children. I have no idea if the choices I’m making for my career equate to value for any of us. It’s just a super vague, conflicted choice for me.
I worry about it a ton as I have four daughters who will most likely have to make this decision in the future. I honestly don’t have the right answer for them—it’s so personal. But when I became a single mother, and I slowly regained my confidence with each endeavor, each step I took in creating Shimmer Chef, my hope is that as I’ve put myself back together, my daughters will understand how necessary these formative actions were to ultimately make me a better mom and a more complete person.
Your brand is rooted in nourishment, inside and out. Has your relationship to nourishment—especially as a mother—evolved over time?
My daughters range in age now from 15 to 25, so their needs have evolved tremendously over the years. I’m transitioning into the stage of letting go, and I’ve really struggled with this phase! I’ve seen a lot of my friends struggle with it as well. It feels unnatural to say, “I love you so much that I’m going to instill as many skills as possible to help you live without me.” And it feels incredibly unnatural when they walk out that door without us. That being said, I’m extremely proud of who my daughters have become and the passion and strength they exude as they navigate adulthood.
What are the daily rituals or non-negotiables that help you feel most like yourself beyond “mom” and “CEO?”
Getting enough sleep is the foundation to my overall well-being. I’m almost savagely dedicated to making sure I get a good night’s sleep, as it sets the tone to how well I care for myself, my daughters, my friends, and my company. From there, I can keep up the mental enthusiasm I need to be brave in whatever I’m doing. I also use meditation to stay optimistic, focused, and grateful. Keeping daily contact with my friends and family is a real life support for me, and it reminds me how blessed I am.
Being a Latina founder in the beauty industry, how do you think your motherhood story adds dimension to the brand and how you show up publicly?
I am a mother fighting to make change in a highly unregulated and, sadly, toxic industry. I doubt I would be on this mission without my daughters there to inspire me. The product line was made for my daughters, and each of our formulas has the “For Sanford Sisters” stamp on the label, as well as the Made Safe certification. I want our consumers to know that it’s only good enough for them if it’s good enough to be put onto my girls’ bodies.
If your daughters were to build something of their own one day, what do you hope they take away from watching you lead Shimmer Chef?
Many of the things I’ve done as a mother and as a founder, I’ve done imperfectly. I hope that my girls see the sheer grit and faith and constant evolving that it’s taken to build Shimmer Chef, and I hope they find some peace in their own journey. A few shortcuts would be nice too, because as a mother I feel we have the common motivation to make it easier for our children than it was for us.
The Mother Chapter subscribers receive 20% off their purchase at Shimmer Chef with code SHIMMER20.
