As a teenager, Jennifer struggled with chronic cystic acne despite countless over-the-counter and prescription treatments. Relief came from a family salve rooted in traditional healing, passed down by her grandmother, Juanita Villegas. That experience shaped her belief that skin and health thrive in harmony with nature and planted the seed for Shimmer Chef.

Jennifer is a graduate of the Natural Gourmet Institute and a licensed esthetician. She draws on whole-food nutrition, clinical skin practice, and the restorative power of plant superfoods to rebalance and fortify the skin. During her time as a Health-Supportive Culinary Arts Chef at Provenance Meals, she explored how living foods nourish the body, then expanded that inquiry to how they can support the connection between skin and mind.

Her training includes 550 hours in yoga and meditation, with studies in Ayurveda. Together with the legacy recipes she inherited from her Mexican grandmother, these disciplines inform her fresh, preservative-free philosophy and the house’s modern rituals. Today, Jennifer unites culinary craft and esthetics in Shimmer Chef’s approach, culminating in formulations designed to deliver The Shimmer Effect™.

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 growing concern that the products touching her girls’ skin were not 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 build a beauty house inspired by her grandmother’s fresh, acne-soothing salve, powered by science, and grounded in maternal devotion. As a single mother of four daughters, her path is as textured as the products she creates, full of pivots, sacrifices, and quiet victories.

A portion of every purchase supports the Center for Hearing and Communication (CHC). This cause is deeply personal to the Sanford Family and to families everywhere living with profound hearing loss. CHC is a remarkable source of expertise, compassion, and community, helping people of all ages communicate, connect, and thrive. We are honored to stand with them.