Why I Started PlantLust: The Chemistry of Real Care
- Blair Butterfield
- Sep 4
- 4 min read
My children call me a snob when I read ingredient lists, when I pause before the soap dispenser in public bathrooms, when I choose the organic strawberries that cost twice as much but taste like soil and sun. What they don't see is the invisible map I carry—a mother's mental overlay of where synthetic chemicals hide, memorized like a survival route.
I do not relax when it comes to the chemical burden quietly handed to women and girls.
The Hidden Load We Carry
Women are exposed to nearly twice as many synthetic chemicals as men. This isn't conjecture—it's measurable, traceable in our blood, our breast milk, our cells. The exposure isn't random; it's structured. We are the ones marketed to for beauty, cleanliness, care. We layer on cosmetics, use cleaning products, follow rituals of femininity that turn our bodies into sites of accumulation.
Endocrine disruption sounds clinical, but it names something intimate: synthetic chemicals that mimic our hormones so precisely they can override millions of years of evolution. Our hormones regulate every rhythm of being alive—metabolism, reproduction, sleep, emotion. When chemicals interfere with these ancient messengers, our bodies become confused. They forget how to regulate, how to balance, how to heal.
My Journey from Toxins to Plants
When I was young, my relationship with my body was innocent. Bath & Body Works felt sophisticated—those candy-sweet scents, those promises of transformation through chemistry. I didn't know that "fragrance" was a legal loophole hiding hundreds of untested ingredients.
Pregnancy changed everything. Suddenly my body wasn't just mine—it was an environment for new life. I stripped away everything artificial and used almost nothing for years: olive oil, coconut oil, maybe aloe. My skin learned to breathe again.
But birth, breastfeeding, and years of Florida sun left their marks. I needed something more than neglect, but I also needed something I could trust completely. I was already studying herbalism for my children—elderberry, chamomile, calendula. It was time I turned that same attention to my own body's needs.
Learning the Language of Plants
Essential oils seemed promising, but that world was fraught with marketing schemes and questionable sourcing. I needed something more rigorous. In Peru, working with a rainforest NGO, I watched distillations of tropical plants in copper stills. I learned that extraction could be relationship—a conversation between water, heat, plant, and time.
Back in Vermont, I set up my own copper alembic still. It became a kind of altar where I learned what temperature linden needs to release her floral notes, that distillation is coaxing, not conquest. Every oil became a fingerprint of place and process.
Consulting for a regenerative essential oil company showed me what was possible when business was built on stewardship rather than exploitation. I met farmers who had been growing lavender for generations, women who harvested rose petals before dawn.
PlantLust: Where Science Meets Story
When COVID hit, everything crystallized. All the knowledge I'd gathered, all the formulations I'd perfected for my family and friends—why wasn't I offering them to the world? PlantLust was born from that pause. Not as just another skincare brand, but as a bridge between plants and people, between science and story, between the body I have and the world I want.
Every product began as something I needed. A solution to a question. A balm for a concern. I kept formulas simple and elemental. If I couldn't trace every ingredient to a farm, a plant, a process—I didn't use it. When possible, I grew it myself on our Cornish farm.
Stephen, my partner, helped plant the beds, harvest the herbs, build our market displays. His nose sharpened, his plant knowledge expanded. He became my favorite collaborator in this alchemy of care.
The Products That Started It All
Skin Potion No.1 emerged from my need for something that could repair sun damage while honoring my skin's natural intelligence. Formulated with carefully sourced botanicals that work with rather than against the skin's microbiome.
Buckuchi Revival a bio-retinol, was born from studying adaptogenic herbs that support the body's stress response. This blend helps the skin recover from environmental assault while supporting natural regeneration processes.
Every ingredient is chosen for purity and potency. Every supplier is vetted for ethical practices. Every batch is made in small quantities to ensure freshness and quality.
Care That Doesn't Harm
Five years in, we have customers who return season after season, who tell us our products make them feel safe, seen, whole. This isn't about fear—it's about fidelity. To the body. To the land. To the long, slow work of creating beauty that doesn't betray biology.
My children may still roll their eyes when I lecture about ingredients, but what they're seeing is a mother trying to rewrite the map. A map that doesn't just trace where toxins hide, but where healing grows. Where the chemistry of care is distilled from root, leaf, petal, and time.
This is not just about avoiding what harms. It's about creating what heals. It's about reclaiming the intimate, intelligent relationship between body and earth.
Ready to experience skincare that honors your body's wisdom? Explore our collection of plant-based formulations made with ingredients you can trust.
Made with love on our regenerative farm in Cornish, New Hampshire. Every product tells the story of plants, place, and the careful alchemy between them.
