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Our Story

Our company story begins in the 1930's in Matanzas, Cuba; not with a movie star or beauty queen but with a young girl with great might that was afflicted with a mysterious skin illness; her name was Ileana.

 

Her skin was so fragile that it would break and bleed at the slightest touch, preventing her from even receiving the gentlest embrace. Her red, peeling skin left her almost disfigured causing her to hide in isolation for most of her late childhood. Nevertheless, Ileana was a warrior and a survivor. At that time there was no cure, no diagnosis, no idea about what was happening to her; let alone how to heal her. Her case was even brought up to a medical congress in Europe, but nothing would cure her.

She began to study under the tutelage of her father, a lawyer, a man of great intellect and heart because she could not attend school. For years, she devoted herself to studying and reading about the skin until she came to understand many of its secrets. This laid the foundation for our company today.

 

For Ileana there were no barriers. Ceilings were just there to be broken. She became Vice-President of one of the largest international cosmetics companies in Havana, Cuba at the age of 28 in 1957. A feat that was unheard of for women during that time anywhere let alone in a Latin American Country.

After fleeing a communist dictator, Ileana went on to open the first aesthetic clinics in Puerto Rico and created one of the first skin care lines for Latinx skin in the world. She shared her knowledge and her strength with thousands of people. She inspired them to take care of themselves, to become independent and to show them there are no limits, a true pioneer of feminism.

Now, almost 60 years after our company’s inception Ileana’s passion burns deep in our bones. Driving us to continue to help our Latinx community find their voice, their confidence, through skin care. Our line and treatment systems have been developed and perfected over our trajectory of over 50 years in the industry by the Irvine women. Now, in our third generation, we want to take our line of excellence and share it with everyone and inspire them to be their own kind of beautiful, every day.  

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Proud members of the Female Founder Collective

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