Pretty Ugly

A film about toxins hiding in our cosmetics

We Surpassed our Goal and Succeed with Flying Colors!

By Leave a Comment

We Did It!!

We raised 113% of our crowdfunding goal, surpassing our target by more than $1500! We were so excited to reach our full goal almost two days before the campaign even ended, and we were incredibly grateful that you continued to support us up to the final hours! On Wednesday at 12:15pm, we finished the campaign ecstatic, (slightly exhausted) and simply elated.

To celebrate, we made this fun infographic sharing a final snapshot of the campaign. ? Feel free to share it on social media and tag @prettyuglythefilm so all of your friends know how awesome you are and that you helped make the campaign a success! 

[Read more…]

Campaign Update: We are More Than Halfway There!

By Leave a Comment

Thanks to YOU, We Surpassed 50% of Our Campaign Goal! 

As of last night, we reached 54% of our campaign goal for PRETTY UGLY! Thank you, incredibly generous contributors, for helping us get past the halfway point of our crowdfunding campaign! 

We have raised $6,450 (AMAZING!), and now we have 12 days left to raise $3,000 or more in order to keep these contributions, by meeting our 80% minimum fundraising goal. We are SO close to successfully completing this campaign!

Please be sure to share this email with your friends and loved ones so they can learn about the film and partner with us, receive awesome thank you gifts and be history-makers just like YOU!

[Read more…]

Major Project Update!

By Leave a Comment

We’re launching a crowdfunding campaign NEXT WEEK for PRETTY UGLY through the film crowdfunding platform Seed & Spark! We wanted to be sure to give you advanced notice before we go live next week since followers of our blog have been such a champion of the project.

We have an amazing campaign planned starting the very moment we launch on August 24th. We’re hosting a virtual, kick-off cocktail hour, going live on Instagram with cast members, showing behind-the-scenes clips of the film and so much more! 

WHY WE’RE CROWDFUNDING
We’re conducting this campaign to raise our LAST ROUND of support, which will cover expenses to complete and release the film, known as finishing funds. This includes costs to edit the film footage and color correct it, as well as editing and mixing the audio. We’re also running the campaign to expand our audience so that we have a wide network of viewers excited and ready to watch the completed film when we premiere it in early 2021.
[Read more…]

Our Awesome Updates!

By Leave a Comment

We hope you are staying healthy and safe during the COVID-19 pandemic. We’re sending hugs, prayers and good vibes for a safe return to normalcy soon. During this time, we’ve stayed very busy making progress on the film. Here’s the latest: 

Our Latest Filming News

We journeyed up to New York to spend a day filming with LOLI Beauty founder Tina Hedges, whose products are organic, vegan, food-grade, sustainable, and Made in a Free World, ensuring no one is trafficked or exploited in their supply chain. Tina’s products are so clean, you can actually eat them! We had a blast with her as she shared all about her journey from big beauty executive working at two of the leading conventional beauty companies to now being a clean beauty alchemist, mixing her own magical products and sharing her formulas with the world. Check out pictures of Tina mixing ingredients just below!

[Read more…]

We’re Out In the Field and On The Road to Completion!

By Leave a Comment

Our all-female crew gathers footage of Dr. Patisaul in the lab.
Here’s the Scoop from the Field
We’ve been on the road in Raleigh and San Francisco meeting with incredible experts! We interviewed and spent a day in the lab with Dr. Heather Patisaul at NC State, who specializes in how endocrine disrupting chemicals affect the brain and behavioral. We then scooted over to Durham to interview Dr. Linda Birnbaum, the Director of both the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the National Toxicology Program at the National Institutes of Health to talk about the toxicity of ingredients like lead and formaldehyde.
[Read more…]

A Big Thank YOU and Happy Holidays!

By Leave a Comment

The Season of Cheer is Already Here!

We hope you and your loved ones are celebrating a very special holiday season. We have so much to be thankful for as we reflect back on this year. We raised more than $15,000 in cash and in-kind donations in 2018, thanks to your immense generosity! From big-hearted, individual donors to thoughtful givers who attended the teaser release party in June, to contemplative contributors at our recent Yoga for A Cause class, we have been blessed with very generous supporters. We are absolutely honored to have you by our side and grateful for each and everyone of you. Thank you for your generous giving!

[Read more…]

The Film Trailer Is Live! The Teaser Party Was A Hit!

By Leave a Comment

PRETTY UGLY FILM TRAILER DEBUT

We are thrilled to unveil the Pretty Ugly film trailer, which is now publicly available! You can find this two-minute sneak peak on our website, Facebook and Vimeo too. Please share it with your friends, family and colleagues and help us get the word out about the film!

 

UPCOMING YOGA FOR A CAUSE CLASS AND TEASER SCREENING

Since the big teaser party this summer (details below), we’ve been busy at work planning additional screenings and fundraising opportunities, including an upcoming event on Saturday, October 27th! Mind the Mat in Del Ray, Alexandria is graciously hosting a “Yoga for a Cause” class (the film!) and will be led by the amazing yoga instructor Olivia Sheldon.

[Read more…]

A Pretty Ugly Progress Report

By 2 Comments

January 2018 is almost over, and we can’t believe it! We are LONG overdue for an update, so without further adieu, please enjoy these production highlights from the past several months.

Many moons ago, we shared about the exciting teaser shoot we did with a great two-person crew in our April 2017 blog post. Since then, we filmed two additional interviews and B-roll at the fabulous Take Care Shop in Georgetown with Andrea behind the camera. Then, we finally had what we needed to begin the editing process of our teaser!

We transcribed our first eight interviews by hand and began writing our script. The world was our oyster, but we had one, “tiny” problem: an outdated laptop that couldn’t handle 4K video files on an old editing system.

[Read more…]

Field Production Has Begun!

By 1 Comment

Happy Spring! We’ve got so many great updates to share, so brace yourself for excitement and read on…

First off, Pretty Ugly has raised enough seed funding to begin field production. This is a huge accomplishment, and we couldn’t have done it without the amazing generosity of many supporters!

In March, we filmed two days in Washington, D.C., collecting three interviews and gathering stunning B-roll. Our interviewees included Nneka Leiba, M.Phil, MPH, Director of Healthy Living at the Environmental Working Group, a leading nonprofit helping consumers make healthy choices based on environmental health research and education, Ky Washington, professional green-beauty makeup artist, and last but not least, Alessandra Palombella (my mom!), two-time breast cancer survivor and the reason why we’re making this film. It was through her finding out about carcinogens in personal products that spurred me on to dig deeper into the topic, and that is where I found the inspiration to share this story with the world. [Read more…]

Our First Shoot – Colby College in Maine

By Leave a Comment

Screen Shot 2016-05-24 at 11.17.42 AMWe had a fantastic first shoot at Colby College in Waterville, Maine last month! Thanks to the amazing Dr. Gail Carlson, we went up to the college to speak with students about their thoughts on cosmetic ingredient safety, and we also sat down for an incredibly informative interview with Dr. Carlson.

Screen Shot 2016-05-24 at 11.33.51 AM
Dr. Carlson teaching

As the Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies at Colby, Dr. Carlson had so much to share about personal care product ingredients, regulation and who is ultimately responsible for consumer safety. Her interview challenged me to consider how the lack of government regulation of products allows potentially hazardous ingredients to make their way onto the shelves and ultimately into our bodies. She also helped us to breakdown the chemistry behind the ingredients and provide a clear explanation to the somewhat complex science behind personal care product ingredients. [Read more…]

Watch the Teaser
Contribute
Newsletter