When I met Marilu she was making natural skin care products using her own garden botanicals. I was fascinated. I had never thought about how these products were made. I always bought my facial products at a department store. Marilu gave me several jars of her products. As I began to use them, I noticed that my skin looked radiant!!

Some time after that, while undergoing treatment for breast cancer, I began to look at the ingredients in all the facial and body products that I had been using. I knew that whatever you put on your body was absorbed into your body. When I realized that my old products were made with harmful ingredients, some of which had been found in dissected breast cancer tissue, I was shocked.

That’s when it happened: something clicked inside my head. Why not embrace wellness and beauty by making all natural beauty products that performed as well as, if not better than, the expensive department store brands?

I knew what women wanted; after all, I was that customer.

I began to research natural ingredients. I became passionate about finding the best natural ingredients and that is when I became known as an Ingredient Geek!
Marilu taught me how to make creams and lotions. I started formulating my own creations in my kitchen. Batch after batch after batch went into the trash. My passion drove me. It had to work or I wasn’t going to sell it. It took almost two years to create my brand. I decided to name it Devera Naturals in memory of my beautiful mother, Devera Rose.

My products were so clean and pure that Devera Naturals began to sell to boutiques and hospital stores catering to cancer patients. And at the same time, women unaffected by cancer were coming in to buy my products. They all loved my products! And that is how this journey began.

I wasn’t an artist. My sister was an amazing painter. Not me.

But I became an artist of sorts after I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I had to wait for six weeks before surgery. I thought I would go crazy. I was angry that cancer was interfering with my life.

A few days later I was cutting back a bush in the backyard. I looked around and thought ‘this is a really ugly area’. I began to transform the yard. Everyday I brought home new plants and every day my husband remarked how nice the yard was looking. I began to think I needed Gardener’s Anonymous! Soon I was painting the area using flower colors in much the way my sister painted!

This became my space for meditation and inspiration. The beauty and scents of the flowers spoke to my heart. It was in this garden when I realized not just the beauty of the flowers but also the potential benefits of plants.

And it was here where I was inspired to create Devera Naturals.

My sister’s breast cancer diagnosis was shocking. There was no history of breast cancer in our family. After running the gamut of emotions, she decided that she would have “Optimal Health”. Meditation and positive visualization were her best allies. As she went through a lumpectomy and radiation, Cindy was an inspiration to me.

Eight months later I was diagnosed, however in my case the cancer was more extensive and required both breasts being removed. After the initial period of shock and fear, I decided that the surgeons were going to get all of the cancer and that was that. I was quite well endowed for a petite frame and had always wanted breast reduction surgery – wow, be careful what you wish for!

Cindy and I, in our own ways, wanted to help other women fighting the breast cancer battle. My mother introduced us to skin care products at an early age and I had used high end products ever since. When I went through surgery and chemo I looked into the ingredients in the products I had been using. That was a real eye opener! Finding toxic ingredients and known carcinogens in most skin care products was shocking; after all, what we put on our bodies and put in our bodies have the same effects. And why after being treated for cancer would you ever put those products on your skin?

And so I created Devera Naturals. I wanted safe products with all the bells and whistles of the expensive brands. I was the customer and they had to work on me. Cancer hospital stores and boutiques around the country embraced the products. People unaffected by cancer were also buying my products. And we proudly support the National Breast Cancer Foundation. NBCF provides women Help for Today…Hope for Tomorrow® through its National Mammography Program, Beyond The Shock®, Early Detection Plan, MyNBCF online support community, and breast cancer research programs. 

My sister, Cindy Paine, is an author, life-coach, speaker and workshop and retreat leader. She has been a cancer survivor for 13 years. When she was diagnosed, there was medical support for treating the cancer, but there was not much available in the way of mental and emotional support. She was inspired to use her life’s work of coaching and developed her Clear-Connect-Create Method and apply it to her own emotional healing. By using her own tools, techniques and visualizations, she was able to achieve her goal of Optimal Well-Being in the Face of Cancer. Cindy feels her life’s mission was to bring forth a new program to transform the mental and emotional experience of going through cancer and bring that support to everyone. She created the Optimal Well-Being in the Face of Cancer Program. She has been speaking to cancer survivor groups around the country.

Her dream is that every person going through this journey can achieve Optimal Well-Being! For the month of October, Cindy is offering one 30 minute coaching session. Her link is: www.optimalcancerjourney.com  

Contact via email: Cindy@cindypaine.com