Glossy Paradise is a natural beauty oil company that sources its ingredients from the Amazon Rainforest in Peru. I traveled to the Amazon Rainforest on multiple occasions to learn about natural medicinal plants and how they can be used in skincare by the locals. I partnered with an Iquitos based non-profit to begin sourcing a superfruit oil called Aguaje from a small community in the remote Pacaya Samiria National Reserve. After extensive researching and sourcing, I developed the brand Glossy Paradise, with the mission to use natural superfood products to enhance natural beauty.

I initially sourced and met Awamaki in 2019 when I was looking for a social impact partnership for Andeana Hats. Awamaki is a US and Peruvian non-profit based in Ollantaytambo, Peru. High in the Andes mountains, indigenous Quechua women live in rural villages where they weave and farm. Many have never been to school. Most do not read, write, or speak Spanish. There are few economic opportunities in their villages. However, the women are highly skilled artisans. For generations the women in their families have produced incredibly complex woven textiles.

I’ve partnered with a women’s weaving artisan community in Guatemala to create woven intention hat bands for Andeana Hats. Tinte Maya is a collective of 25 weaving artisan women from San Juan La Laguna, a small community by Lake Atitlán, Guatemala, who use natural plant dye techniques and weaving traditions to design and create wearable art. Their craft and our collaboration allow them to earn a livelihood, be breadwinners in their homes, send their children to school, and to preserve their artisan traditions. Since Andeana Hats creates palm leaf straw hats in Guatemala, I wanted to ensure that there was a selection of Guatemalan woven bands included as well, to have a final product that is fully made in Guatemala through social impact partnerships.

In 2019, I co-founded Andeana Collective INC, PBC in Peru and the US. Andeana Hats was a social impact company from the very beginning, as its purpose has always been to preserve vanishing crafts through Artisan partnerships and empowerment. We started out in Peru, and have now grown to have additional Artisan partnerships in Guatemala, Bolivia and Mexico. We are also a registered Public Benefit Company.

I have recently completed a new website project for Laura Grier Travel Photography. Laura Grier is an adventure travel photojournalist and the recent addition to the Discovery Channel UK’s “20 Richest People in the World List”, people who are rich in life experiences that is.

Last week, we opened up our first Andeana Hats store in Santa Monica, Los Angeles. Partnered with CBRE and Water Garden for this exciting opportunity, we were able to give the Andeana Hats brands a physical presence where our customers can experience the true DNA of the brand. We hope this store becomes more than just a store, rather a creative community space where our customers can collaborate on preserving vanishing crafts, learn about the cultural importance of Andeana Hats and set their own personal intentions.