Hi, I'm Terica, the owner and operator of Beautiful by Nature. I just wanted to tell you a little about myself and how Beautiful by Nature came to be.

I grew up (especially during my teenage years) eating a terrible diet. Nothing but fried, greasy food, processed food in boxes, cans, or something wrapped in plastic, and a whole lot of meat. Not to mention working at McDonald's from the time I was 14 till I was 18. By the time I had my first child at 22, my body was already showing signs of dis-ease. I began having digestive system issues, weight loss, and a lack of appetite (among other things that I won’t discuss here) when my son was just 3 months old. After months of a team of gastro-enterologist at Mt Sinai Hospital in Manhattan trying to figure out what was wrong with me, I was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease. It got so bad that I ended up taking 13 pills daily and having a nurse come to my house weekly to give me intravenous infusions of a medicine only available in IV form. Even with all those medicines, my condition only got worse, to the point where I couldn’t even work. I ended up in the hospital because my digestive tract was so damaged, I had to be fed through an IV tube as well. My body also seemed to be having lots of negative responses to all these medications and I began getting terrible acne and developing abscesses under my arms and in my groin area. It really was a terrible time in my life.

That’s when things shifted. A woman who worked at the hospital told me something that would change my life for the better. I don’t know her name and I can’t even remember what she looked like because I was so weak and out of it at the time. I don’t even know what her job was at the hospital, but she told me that maybe I should stop eating meat and dairy products. That’s really all I remember from our interaction, but as soon as I was well enough to go home, I stopped eating all meat and dairy products. Slowly but surely, I began to feel a little better. I was able to stop taking some of the medication, especially the IV infusion the nurse was giving at my home. I am eternally grateful for the lady from the hospital, whoever she is.

As life would have it, when I was well enough to go back to work, I made a new friend who knew a little about herbs. She told me about one named Echinacea and said it might help and that I should try it. So, I did a little research and saw that it could help my immune function and heal my inflamed, damaged digestive tract. So, I went to the local health food store and picked up a box of Echinacea teabags and began drinking a cup of it twice a day. Sure enough, the pain and griping in my stomach, as well as a few other symptoms, slowly subsided. I was even able to stop taking ALL the medication, and my face had even started clearing up a bit. I realized that I was feeling a lot better, just by eliminating certain foods from my diet and using one herb for about a month. I decided I needed to know more, a lot more, about diet, and the role it plays in determining my health, as well as herbs and how else they could help me.

I began researching while continuing my meat and dairy free diet. It was shocking and upsetting, but I basically learned that I wasn’t really eating food all along, and even though I had cut out meat and dairy, I still had a long way to go to. What I was eating resembled food, but was packed with preservatives, chemicals, and ingredients that cause cancer and other dis-eases, all in a bid to make the food look and taste a certain way, as well as have a long shelf life. I started reading the labels on the food I was eating and that was a huge wake up call. Half of the ingredients listed on the packaging I couldn’t even pronounce. My new habit of reading food labels also spilled over into reading skin and hair care product labels, and they were even worse! It really made me wondered if my body even knew what to do with those unnatural substances.

Thankfully, my research also led me to an online school that offered study courses and certifications for different types of natural health and wellness programs. I took their Master Herbalist Certification course and things have never been the same. I learned how to detoxify, repair, and rejuvenate my body, inside and out, using herbal preparations that I formulated and created. I combined my use of herbs with a diet that consisted of fresh fruits and vegetables, grains, nuts and seeds, so no ingredient labels necessary. Thanks to the changes I made and the things I learned about how to really take care of this body of mine, I haven’t taken any medication or had any issues with Crohn’s in 13 years.

The course I took also taught me how to make my own herbal infused oils, balms, and butters that had my hair growing and my skin glowing like crazy. It was truly amazing that the things I was making at home were more effective than anything I’d ever purchased at a store. And completely non-toxic! So, I started making products for my whole family. Everyone loved the products and before long, I was being encouraged to offer my products to the public. Eventually, in May 2016, I did and it’s one of the best decisions I've ever made, because Beautiful by Nature was born.