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Hispanic Heritage Month is underway until October 15, and to celebrate, we’re excited to spotlight some of the top Latino-owned beauty and wellness brands represented on Faire. Brands like Jaboneria Marianella, La Parea Wellness, Life Elements, Saalt, and Albisa Candles are putting their unique stamps on the beauty and wellness space while demonstrating the great diversity of the Latino business community. Today, we’re sharing the stories of these five Latino-owned brands—and their owners—each making the world look and feel better while staying true to their visions and roots.
Jaboneria Marianella
Jaboneria Marianella was formed when fine artist and filmmaker David Foote decided to share his mother Marianella’s handcrafted soaps with a wider audience. Marianella had developed a family recipe over decades using Venezuelan-inspired ingredients and fragrances reminiscent of her travels and childhood memories of making soaps and beauty products in her grandmother’s kitchen. In 2007, David went into business with his mother to share her soaps with the world.
All of Jaboneria Marianella’s products—from skincare and hair care to fragrances—are made by hand in small batches using clean ingredients, such as the highly sustainable Kalahari melon oil. Jaboneria Marianella never uses any chemicals or animal testing, and all products are shipped in sustainable packaging from their flagship store in Brooklyn, New York.
La Parea Wellness
Samanta Moise founded La Parea Wellness in Ramsey, New Jersey, in 2016 with a dream of helping others create synergy in their daily lives through healing aromatherapy products. The Ecuadorian-born mother and former nurse was inspired by her experiences using aromatherapy to help ease migraines and menstrual cramping.
La Parea’s aromatherapy products are made using both traditional and innovative recipes designed to provide healing and relaxation. All of La Parea’s handcrafted creations—including aromatherapy candles, face and body mists, healing balms, body scrubs, and bath salts—are plant-based and ethically traded from Indigenous sources. Their relaxing Palo Santo Balm, for example, is made with plant-based ingredients as well as antioxidant-rich avocado oil, tea tree oil, peppermint oil, and hemp oil.
Life Elements
Life Elements is a woman-owned company based in Atascadero, California, along the state’s Central Coast. Owners Martha and Curt Van Inwegen wanted to share Martha’s passion for natural, plant-based skin and body care instilled by her grandmother. As a child, Martha would join her grandparents in collecting flowers from the hills and herbs from the garden in her small town in Mexico. She’d then help her grandparents make tinctures and medicines from the ingredients.
Martha founded Life Elements in 2006 out of her home kitchen. Today, the company has a larger facility where it develops and creates products in small batches using plant-based ingredients from as many local farms as possible. Its line of body- and skin-care products include balms, oils, soaps, sprays, and other healing solutions such as its bestselling Healing Honey Stick.
Saalt
Saalt started in Boise, Idaho, in 2018 after Cherie Hoeger had a vision to make cleaner, more sustainable period care accessible to everyone. She began by sourcing reusable menstrual pads for hundreds of friends and family in Venezuela, but quickly hit a roadblock when she tried to source menstrual cups in bulk. She couldn’t find any that fit her criteria for being created with environmentally friendly materials.
Cherie started sketching and designing her own menstrual cups, and after several iterations, she created the Saalt Cup. This launched her line of reusable products sold by Saalt today, all of which aim to be healthier for consumers and the planet. Saalt is also a Certified B Corp and allocates 2% of revenue to funding initiatives in menstrual health, girls’ education, and sustainability. Since its founding, Saalt has donated over 20,000 period cups to underprivileged women and girls in 35 countries.
Albisa Candles
Isabel Alvarez founded Albisa Candles with her husband, Albert, in Los Angeles in 2009. Since then, they’ve expanded their line to include handcrafted soaps, fragrances, and more. The first-generation Cuban Americans wanted to honor the sacrifices their parents made when they left their home country so their children could have a better life. This sense of nostalgia can be seen in products such as their Violetas soap, Cafetera coffee soap, and bestselling Cuban Bread Candle that help evoke warm memories. The pair celebrates their heritage by sharing their culture with others and bringing people together through their senses.
Read our previous spotlights from this year’s Hispanic Heritage Month on three Food and Drink brands and Siete Foods.
Shop these brands and more in our Latino-Owned Businesses Collection.
