Great Finds From Latinx-Founded Brands To Support This Hispanic Heritage Month — As Seen On CBS Austin
As a proud Latina, I love every opportunity to uplift, support, and celebrate all the talented and trailblazing creators and entrepreneurs in my community. This Hispanic Heritage Month, then, I amassed a carefully curated selection of must-have products from Latinx-owned fashion, beauty, food and beverage brands for CBS Austin’s “We Are Austin.” Trust me: you’ll want to support these brands all year long!
Watch the segment by clicking here and keep on reading for all the juicy details on the brands and products seen on air.
THIRTEEN LUNE
Want to support Latinx-founded beauty brands but don’t know where to start? Let Thirteen Lune guide you! Founded by first-generation Kenyan-American Nyakio Grieco, the mastermind behind skincare brands Nyakio and Relevant: Your Skin Seen, Thirteen Lune is a retail destination and an online platform dedicated to elevating the stories of black and brown founders within the beauty space. Since its launch in 2020, Thirteen Lune has become the go-to retail destination for discovering and supporting BIPOC-founded beauty brands. In fact, over the course of three years, Thirteen Lune has grown from its original assortment of 13 Black-founded skincare brands to an impressive portfolio of over 160 BIPOC-founded brands — including Black-owned, Indigenous-owned, Asian-owned, and Latinx-owned brands.
On ThirteenLune.com, you can shop an array of Latinx-founded brands such as Hyper! Skin, Rizos Curls, Joanna Vargas, Joaquina Botanica, Republica, and Chillhouse. Moreover, you can learn about each brand’s history and cultural roots. Rizos Curls, for instance, is the brainchild of Afro-Mexican entrepreneur Julissa Prado, and the brand offers hydrating and nourishing products for wavy, curly and coily strands. Joaquina Botanica, meanwhile, was founded by Colombiana Giovanna Campagna and specializes in luxurious skincare products formulated with nutrient-rich ingredients found in Latin America — among them maracuja, sacha inchi, and cacay oils.
Beyond being an e-commerce destination, Thirteen Lune provides a platform through which to create community, honoring the individual stories of brand creators and providing a vehicle for these brands to engage with a wider audience. Inclusivity, education, representation, and allyship are all part of Thirteen Lune’s DNA.
Visit ThirteenLune.com to learn more about these Latinx-founded brands. Thirteen Lune also has shop-in-shop locations within over 600 JCPenney stores nationwide.
SHIELDED BEAUTY
The skin’s microbiome is comprised of bacteria, fungi, viruses and other microorganisms that play an important role in supporting the skin’s barrier function, thereby protecting against toxins, environmental aggressors, and other harmful invaders. Without a balanced skin microbiome, a healthy and glowing complexion s a futile proposition.
That’s why Puerto Rican entrepreneur Sonia Summers developed Shielded Beauty, a clinically validated, clean, vegan, and cruelty-free skincare brand that’s focused on replenishing and safeguarding the skin microbiome.
All Shielded Beauty products feature a patent-pending Guardian Complex that combines skin-purifying natural actives with hydrating botanicals and powerful antioxidants that protect skin against environmental aggressors and blue light.
The Shielded Beauty Self Defense Super Charged Moisturizer ($48 on ShieldedBeauty.com) nourishes, rejuvenates and reenergizes skin while replenishing the microbiome. The lightweight formula contains ingredients like sodium hyaluronate to hydrate skin, marrubium vulgare extract to fight against visible and invisible pollution damage, copper ferment to promote cellular turnover and stimulate collagen production, and a blend of silver citrate, zeolite and citric acid to detoxify skin. I
And to supercharge your beauty sleep, reach for the Night Life “Live Probiotic” + HA Serum ($55 on ShieldedBeauty.com), which works as you sleep to restore the skin barrier and revitalize fatigued skin. The formula contains encapsulated live probiotics to restore a balanced microbiome, as well as sodium PCA, which acts as a moisture magnet so you can awake to bouncy, radiant skin.
THRIVE NATURAL CARE
Thrive Natural Care is a regenerative, effective, plant-based skincare company that’s on a mission to empower your skin and the planet naturally – without depleting or degrading communities or ecosystems. Thanks to Thrive’s regenerative farming approach, the team has improved the soil and biodiversity of degraded farmlands in Costa Rica while boosting farmers’ incomes and creating superb skincare products.
Founded in 2013 by CEO Alex McIntosh, head of research and development Laura Arce and head of regenerative operations Mario Garcia, Thrive Natural Care was created with the idea of revolutionizing both the skincare and business industries by manufacturing highly effective and gentle skincare products using natural ingredients — all while leaving the lands in which these ingredients were harvested healthier than they were before. And Thrive’s “leave it better” mission has come to fruition: its partner farms in Costa Rica are now 40% healthier than nearby conventional farms, and the team has helped to boost farmers’ incomes by 300%.
At the heart of Thrive’s products are three Costa Rican super plants with anti-inflammatory and skin-repairing benefits: juanilama, fierrillo, and coralillo. Not only do these plants have a long history in Costa Rican medicinal practices, but they also play a crucial role in Thrive’s regenerative farming practices, improving soil health, acting as natural pesticides, and so on.
Thrive’s hero product is best-selling Daily Defense Sunscreen Balm ($29.95 on Amazon), which launched at No. 1 on Amazon Beauty. This healthy mineral sunscreen for the face provides broad spectrum SPF 30 protection, plus it’s non-greasy and leaves no white residue behind.
Another star product is Thrive’s Skin Recovery Serum ($31.95 on Amazon), an all-natural serum that supports healthy-looking skim. It contains powerful antioxidants like goji extract, as well as hyaluronic acid to deliver deep hydration, glycogen to brighten and smooth skin, and backuchiol, which is a natural retinol alternative that minimizes fine lines and improves skin elasticity
You can Thrive Natural Care on ThriveCare.co, Amazon, and Grove.co.
BETTER NOT YOUNGER
Much like our skin, our hair changes with age. For women over 40, this can mean grappling with slower hair growth, more shedding, dryness, lack of volume, and more. But, until recently, most of the discussion regarding aging hair centered almost exclusively on graying strands. Venezuelan entrepreneur Sonsoles Gonzalez set out to change the discourse around aging hair with her haircare brand Better Not Younger, which specializes in providing effective solutions for common aging-related hair concerns.
The brand’s latest innovation tackles an issue that makes many women feel self-conscious: thinning along the hairline and temples. In fact, the new Better Not Younger Superpower Thickening Hairpatches, are the first and only hydrogel patches designed to target thinning along the hairline and temples. Much like the patches we apply to de-puff the under-eye area or plump parched lips, these hydrogel patches adhere to skin with ease, but they’re specifically infused with ingredients that promote denser, thicker-looking hair.
The main ingredient in the formula is Capixyl, a patented ingredient that combines acetyl tetrapeptide, dextran, and red clover flower extract and which has been clinically proven to address key hair loss causes. In tests, Capixyl has been shown to slow down the production of DHT, the hormone most closely linked to hair loss in both men and women, and to renew the extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins that anchor hair follicles, resulting in stronger and more resilient strands. Other ingredients include red ginseng to strengthen hair and energize the scalp, and Centella Asiatica to nourish and soothe the hair and scalp.
Each treatment takes just 15 minutes, and at least 4 treatments per week are recommended for ideal results.
A box with 14 pairs of hair patches retails for $79 on better-notyounger.com
JOY COSTUMES BY TERESITA ORILLAC
Playing dress-up with mom’s high heels and sunglasses can be fun, but it pales in comparison to slipping on a sparkly, twirl-ready, kid-sized frock — especially if it brings to mind storybook and fairy tale characters like Snow White, Elsa, Rapunzel, and Aurora. Unfortunately, many princess costumes are made using scratchy fabrics that can irritate kids’ delicate skin, ruining what should be a magical dress-up experience.
After noticing that most costumes were too itchy and irritating for her daughter Emma’s sensitive skin, Panama-born fashion designer Teresita Orillac decided to create Joy Costumes, a line of super soft, comfortable, and non-itchy princess and party dresses.
Made using soft and gentle fabrics like stretch velvet, these costumes boast a kid-friendly, slip-on design with no potentially perplexing or irritating zippers or tags. And here’s what will bring joy to mom’s heart: the pieces are machine washable and leave no glittery mess behind, so there’s no need to spot clean or vacuum after a long day of pretend play.
Prices range from $48 to $58 on JoyCostumes.com
MELINDA’S
Hot sauce isn’t just a condiment in our home — it’s the condiment. But when it comes to choosing a hot sauce, my husband and I both have pretty strict criteria, requiring an option that tastes fresh while also providing the spicy kick we seek. That’s why we’re both die-hard fans of Melinda’s, a craft pepper sauce company founded in 1989 by Belizean brothers Dave and Greg Figueroa.
The Figueroa brothers embarked on their business journey back when they were still in college. As spice lovers, they noticed that most hot sauces on the market were primarily made using vinegar and powders rather than fresh ingredients. They set out to offer a better, more flavorful hot sauce made using real, quality ingredients and, soon thereafter, Melinda’s Original Habanero Hot Sauce was born. At the time, Melinda’s was among the first brands to create a hot sauce using habanero peppers, which are 20 times hotter than jalapeños. Moreover, Melinda’s amassed legions of fans thanks to the freshness of its ingredients and its commitment to striking the perfect balance between flavor and heat.
Nowadays, Melinda’s has 32 craft pepper sauces — and freshness is at the heart of every single one. Made using the best chili peppers on the planet, Melinda’s sauces are a labor of love. Each Melinda’s sauce is a unique adventure, featuring a carefully crafted and truly innovative fusion of ingredients to tantalize taste buds.
If you love a kick, check out the Creamy Style Ghost Pepper Wing Sauce, featuring a fiery blend of ghost pepper, cayenne, and habanero pepper with carrots, onion, and lime. Not only is it great on chicken wings, but it works beautifully with everything from popcorn shrimp to sandwiches. For those who prefer a milder sauce, there’s the ultra-versatile Green Sauce, which features green tomatoes, jalapeños, spinach, cilantro, lime, and a hint of red habanero pepper. It’s great with tacos, tortilla soup, burrito bowls, carne asada, picadillo, and more. And for the perfect marriage of sweet and heat, there’s the Thai Sweet Chili Sauce, which pairs nicely with egg rolls and spring rolls.
You can find Melinda’s on Amazon and at Walmart, Target and H-E-B stores.
PICADAS
Growing up in Monterrey, Mexico, Picadas founder Hugo Martinez often reached for an agua fresca when he wanted a refreshing beverage. Prepared using fresh fruit, water, and sugar, aguas frescas have a storied history in Mexico that can be traced back to the Aztecs. Now, with Picadas, a line of spiked aguas frescas, Martinez is paying homage to traditional Mexican flavors while capturing the vivaciousness and energy of modern-day Mexico.
Martinez was inspired to create Picadas while pursuing his MBA at Stanford University in 2019. At the time, hard seltzers were exploding in popularity — and, while Martinez enjoyed the seltzers he tasted, he noticed that many of the flavors had a less-than-ideal artificial taste. Moreover, he kept coming across flavors like black cherry, cranberry, and blueberry — a far cry from the Latin American fruits he grew up savoring (think tamarind, mango, papaya and guava). He decided to fill the void in the marketplace by creating a line of hard aguas frescas that would incorporate rich and authentic Mexican flavors. After teaming up with Redbud Brands, Picadas was born.
Picadas are made in Mexico using real fruit — no artificial fruit flavorings — and contain 4.5 % alcohol by volume. They come in three delicious flavors: Limonada, Guava and Mango.
Each six-pack comes with some Chili Lime Salt to dress the rim of the can (or your glass of choice!), so you can get a spicy kick with each sip.
Not only are the drinks an homage to modern Mexico, but they’re packaged in stunning cans designed by David Gutierrez that resemble colorful murals, each featuring a unique detail that pertains to that unique flavor.
You can find Picadas at H-E-B stores, and look out for a variety pack which will be available at Buccee’s soon.
Visit DrinkPicadas.com for more details
