Speaker 1: Hello, everyone, Welcome in, Welcome back to this week's episode
Speaker 1: of Cheeky's and Chill. Today, I'm going to take you
Speaker 1: down memory lane all the way back to two thousand
Speaker 1: and nine, I was twenty three years old. But we'll
Speaker 1: get all into the nitty gritty right now. But this
Speaker 1: story might sound familiar to those of you who have
Speaker 1: read my books, but I want to expand on the
Speaker 1: story even more. Today. We're going to talk about the
Speaker 1: time my mom had me develop her first perfume. We're
Speaker 1: also going to get into the argument we got into
Speaker 1: before I left, and some things I learned while I
Speaker 1: was in China. So buckle up, here we go. You
Speaker 1: know what's crazy? For the past I want to say
Speaker 1: two months three months, I have felt so close to
Speaker 1: my mom. I feel like we've entered this new like
Speaker 1: era or new season of our relationship. I know it
Speaker 1: sounds weird because she's been gone physically for twelve years,
Speaker 1: but I've been connecting with her on a different level lately.
Speaker 1: So I also wanted to do this episode to kind
Speaker 1: of just remind myself of everything we went through and
Speaker 1: what a beautiful relationship we had, no matter how ugly
Speaker 1: it was at the end right before she passed, and
Speaker 1: how close we were in age, which caused a lot
Speaker 1: of friction. We were so alike in so many different
Speaker 1: ways and so different as well that it also caused bickering.
Speaker 1: But the love was real and we accomplished so much together, guys,
Speaker 1: and I should be proud of that. And I think
Speaker 1: because for so long I was focused on my career
Speaker 1: and focused on wanting to be seen as Cheeky's as
Speaker 1: my own person, I kind of put her to the
Speaker 1: side a little bit because I felt I needed to,
Speaker 1: and it got me through everything that I was doing.
Speaker 1: And again, I feel like I had been in her
Speaker 1: shadow a lot, and I kind of wanted to just
Speaker 1: show the world, Hey, I can do this, you know,
Speaker 1: and I'm not gonna lie. I've told you guys a
Speaker 1: lot here on the podcast. For a long time, I
Speaker 1: was upset with my mom because of how things ended
Speaker 1: between her and I, and I was disappointed in a
Speaker 1: lot of things. And every year it's a different feeling,
Speaker 1: and the more and more that I do things like
Speaker 1: this like this episode, it makes me just fall in
Speaker 1: love with her all over again. And I don't know,
Speaker 1: I feel like this is going to heal my heart
Speaker 1: and hopefully inspire you, guys. Because when I went to China, guys,
Speaker 1: I was twenty three years old and I had never
Speaker 1: gone to another country besides Mexico, right. I hadn't traveled
Speaker 1: a lot. And I was very busy back then with
Speaker 1: my mom, with the kids, with the house, with our businesses,
Speaker 1: and by then I had already helped my mom develop
Speaker 1: her skincare and her makeup line. We were like the Fionettas,
Speaker 1: the pioneers when it came to this whole influence and
Speaker 1: having your own business and everything. My mom and I
Speaker 1: we were a freaking a power team. Guys. My mom
Speaker 1: would tell me I want this, and I would execute it.
Speaker 1: I don't even know how I would do it half
Speaker 1: of the time because I was so young. I didn't
Speaker 1: go to college. I always figured things out because that's
Speaker 1: the way she taught me. And I'm so grateful that
Speaker 1: she kind of would just throw me in like kind
Speaker 1: of like a child that doesn't know how to swim,
Speaker 1: and she just kind of just throws you in the
Speaker 1: pool and then you have no other choice but to swim.
Speaker 1: It was like that, literally anyway, I had never been
Speaker 1: to another country besides Mexico, and I had only gone
Speaker 1: to Mexico a handful of times then, So going all
Speaker 1: the way to China, guys across the freaking globe, it
Speaker 1: was insane. Sometimes I think about it, I'm like, how
Speaker 1: did I do that? And I went by myself. I
Speaker 1: went alone, and her and I were in a huge argument.
Speaker 1: I don't even remember exactly what it was, but I
Speaker 1: know that it was a pretty big argument and she
Speaker 1: was pissed at me. So this trip was already planned,
Speaker 1: I'm sure, like a few weeks before, or maybe even
Speaker 1: a month, but we had gotten an argument and I
Speaker 1: don't remember again, I don't remember why, but it was
Speaker 1: pretty bad and we weren't talking, and I remember getting
Speaker 1: on that plane crying. I was crying because I was nervous,
Speaker 1: obviously that I was going to a different country where
Speaker 1: I don't know the language, I don't know anyone. I
Speaker 1: found someone online and I didn't even know what this
Speaker 1: person looked like. I just knew their name and they
Speaker 1: were going to have a little paper with my name
Speaker 1: on it. But dude, so mavine. I've always been a
Speaker 1: risk taker. I said, Okay, I'm going to figure this out.
Speaker 1: My mom wants to perfume. She gave me a budget.
Speaker 1: I can't get it done for that budget sixty thousand
Speaker 1: dollars in the States, I had looked and everything was
Speaker 1: crazy expensive. So I said, I have no other choice
Speaker 1: but to go to China. And again I did all
Speaker 1: my research, I figured it out. I met this lady.
Speaker 1: How we figured things out, I have no idea because
Speaker 1: she was barely learning English and I didn't know a
Speaker 1: lick of Chinese, of course. So it was an amazing experience.
Speaker 1: Three weeks in China by myself and I sit at
Speaker 1: a hotel alone. I visited so many different karaoke bars
Speaker 1: because Asians, especially in China, they love karaoke. So I
Speaker 1: did visit a lot of karaoke bars. I ate a
Speaker 1: lot of food, but the food in China, guys. I
Speaker 1: was in Guangzhou, so I was in the south of China,
Speaker 1: and it's more like the industrial side of China. So
Speaker 1: I was where all you know, imagine La downtown, La
Speaker 1: times ten, huge, a lot of people everywhere. It was
Speaker 1: very congested, but very beautiful. And of course I get
Speaker 1: there and I'm like, okay, well, where's the beef, broccoli
Speaker 1: and the orange chicken, and that does not exist over there.
Speaker 1: The Chinese food that we have here nothing like the
Speaker 1: Chinese food in China, like at all. It tastes very different.
Speaker 1: I had no idea what I was eating. I would
Speaker 1: just order or let the people that I had met
Speaker 1: there because we were doing business together. I would just
Speaker 1: let them order and I ate everything, and it was delicious,
Speaker 1: so I have to this day, I don't even know
Speaker 1: what I ate. I don't know if it was chicken
Speaker 1: or beef for pig or I don't know. It was
Speaker 1: just good. But they did not have any of the
Speaker 1: Chinese food that I was accustomed to. Also, another thing
Speaker 1: that I learned there was they don't really eat any
Speaker 1: ice cream, nothing cold, no ice water, no salads. Everything
Speaker 1: is warm. There is hot tea before, during, and after eating.
Speaker 1: Everything was warm. That's when I lost I feel like
Speaker 1: I lost so much weight out while I was out there,
Speaker 1: because I mean, I had no other choice but to
Speaker 1: eat the way that the people that I was eating ate.
Speaker 1: And I learned a lot, especially about the digestive system.
Speaker 1: And of course throughout the years I started forgetting everything.
Speaker 1: Because when I came back, I was very inspired and
Speaker 1: I'm like Okay, all I'm going to do is drink
Speaker 1: tea and no more cold stuff and all this. But
Speaker 1: life goes on and life happens, and I was young,
Speaker 1: and of course I forgot all about that until like now,
Speaker 1: where I'm like, oh my gosh. You know, there's like
Speaker 1: this crazy connection that I have with China because of
Speaker 1: that trip, but also because I always say I feel
Speaker 1: like I was Asian in a past life. I just
Speaker 1: love the culture. I love everything about the Asian culture.
Speaker 1: So AnyWho, my whole thing was develop this perfume. My
Speaker 1: mom and I weren't talking, but it also gave me
Speaker 1: that fire within me to show her. I am going
Speaker 1: to make her so proud. I'm going to kill this project.
Speaker 1: I'm going to freaking show her, and I did. I
Speaker 1: told her I needed to stay out there a little
Speaker 1: longer because I that's another thing. I didn't even know
Speaker 1: how long I was going to be out there. I
Speaker 1: just got a one way ticket because I wanted to
Speaker 1: come home with the finished product. So even before I
Speaker 1: get into the nitty gritty of how I developed the
Speaker 1: fragrance and the whole process, I was wondering because my
Speaker 1: mom and I think for like a week while I
Speaker 1: was out there, didn't really talk. It was just very business.
Speaker 1: She was still kind of upset with me for whatever reason.
Speaker 1: I wish I remembered, but AnyWho, I would handle everything.
Speaker 1: So the fact that I was gone for three weeks
Speaker 1: was a pretty big deal in my household, especially with Johnny.
Speaker 1: Johnny was eight years old, and I'm pretty sure he
Speaker 1: told me when I got back home. I mean, because
Speaker 1: him and I have always been so so close, he
Speaker 1: was probably freaking out without me. But of course, my mother,
Speaker 1: being a woman that's you know, in control, was never
Speaker 1: going to tell me that she needed me. But I'm
Speaker 1: pretty sure everything was kind of falling apart while I
Speaker 1: was gone. But I was so determined to show her
Speaker 1: that I could do this, and I was so proud
Speaker 1: of myself, so proud of myself, So getting into the
Speaker 1: whole production thing, I went to a chemist first. I
Speaker 1: wanted to get the sent down because I was super important.
Speaker 1: My mom was a huge fan of Trousaur, so that
Speaker 1: was the perfume that she wore every single day, and
Speaker 1: she wanted something very different from that because that's very
Speaker 1: The perfume that she wore was very warm, and you know, vanilla,
Speaker 1: so she wanted a little bit something, a little more daytime.
Speaker 1: So I just had that. I just knew what she wanted.
Speaker 1: She wanted a daytime perfume. She wanted a little citrusy,
Speaker 1: a little sweet, but more citrusy. Mind you had. There
Speaker 1: was no way that I was going to show her
Speaker 1: the set. I just needed to follow my intuition and
Speaker 1: her instructions and what she wanted and go with it.
Speaker 1: Because even sending it, like through airshipping or whatever you
Speaker 1: call it, it was going to take days. There was
Speaker 1: We had no time for that. So I developed it.
Speaker 1: That was the first thing. I went to a manufacturer
Speaker 1: and we got the oils, and I spilled so many
Speaker 1: different oils I think I went to three different factories
Speaker 1: and manufacturers for the actual fragrance until I found it.
Speaker 1: I mixed things together with the chemists and I said,
Speaker 1: this is what we want. We let it sit for
Speaker 1: a few days, and then we had the fragrance, which
Speaker 1: was the most important part. Then I went to a
Speaker 1: different manufacturer to find the bottle and the cap. And
Speaker 1: because again the budget wasn't a lot, I couldn't get
Speaker 1: like a specific mold made because at first she wanted
Speaker 1: like a whole, like her body and her silhouette. I
Speaker 1: was like, Mom, you got to chill a little bit
Speaker 1: because that's expensive. Just the mold. To make a mold,
Speaker 1: it's ten thousand dollars, okay. So I kind of got
Speaker 1: her off that and I went with a generic bottle
Speaker 1: and a generic cap. I was like, okay, I gotta
Speaker 1: make this look nice. The most important thing is making
Speaker 1: sure that the scent was top tier, and it absolutely was.
Speaker 1: Till this day. It is still the number one fragrance
Speaker 1: that is sold. It was the very first one, and
Speaker 1: that's the one people love the most. Of course, the
Speaker 1: other ones are great, but there's something special about that one, obviously,
Speaker 1: but it does sell very well still to this day.
Speaker 1: So that was that I got a generic bottle, something
Speaker 1: that they already had in stock because there was no time,
Speaker 1: and I wanted something very simple, and the name was
Speaker 1: just going to be her logo, and that's what it
Speaker 1: is to this day as well. It's just the logo
Speaker 1: that her and I developed together, which are her initials JR.
Speaker 1: And her little butterfly that I have tattooed on my foot,
Speaker 1: and that was it. It was very simple, and I
Speaker 1: wanted it to be not just a fragrance, but I
Speaker 1: put like a little gift set together. So it was
Speaker 1: the perfume and a lip gloss that had like little
Speaker 1: sparkles in it, and also a hand lotion because my
Speaker 1: mom loved the hand lotion and putting it in her purse.
Speaker 1: So I did the whole thing and it was the
Speaker 1: same scent the hand lotion. And I only made one
Speaker 1: thousand units and that was it because that's all we
Speaker 1: could afford. She gave me a sixty thousand dollars budget
Speaker 1: to make everything. You know, it adds up. So we
Speaker 1: did a thousand, remember a thousand units, and everything took time,
Speaker 1: so I had to wait for everything to be filled.
Speaker 1: I had to wait for the logos to be screen
Speaker 1: printed on the actual components. It was just a mission,
Speaker 1: which is why it took me three weeks, because I wanted.
Speaker 1: I said, I need to leave China with the finished
Speaker 1: product to show my mother exactly what it looks like,
Speaker 1: the sizes, how much it's going to weigh, so that
Speaker 1: we know how much we're going to spend on shipping.
Speaker 1: How I knew this at twenty three, I have no idea.
Speaker 1: Sometimes I feel like maybe because I had a little
Speaker 1: bit more space. Mentally, things just stuck and now I
Speaker 1: forget all these things. I'm like, oh my gosh, I
Speaker 1: did so much, and how honestly it was the grace
Speaker 1: of God. So what did I do? Because I think
Speaker 1: it's important you guys didn't know what I did while
Speaker 1: I was waiting. Once I got all the hard work
Speaker 1: and all like the footwork done with the fragrance, with
Speaker 1: the bottles, the components of packaging, all that stuff. While
Speaker 1: they were doing their thing putting it together, I had
Speaker 1: a lot of free time. So I was going again
Speaker 1: to the karaoke bars with my new Chinese friends that
Speaker 1: I met at the manufacturers, because they all knew I
Speaker 1: was there by myself. I stated, a very nice hotel.
Speaker 1: That's one thing. I was like, Mom, if I'm going
Speaker 1: over there by myself and you're sending me coach, because
Speaker 1: I was coach on the way there in the middle
Speaker 1: seat and I was sad, crying. I left La crying
Speaker 1: and I got to China crying. Fourteen hour flight. Guys,
Speaker 1: in the middle seat, it was insane. I will tell
Speaker 1: you this. I love garlic, but oh my gosh, smelling
Speaker 1: garlic the entire way there was crazy. I mean, it
Speaker 1: was insane, very tough. But I'm like, okay. So I
Speaker 1: told my mom. I said, one thing, fine, you're sending
Speaker 1: me coach, totally fine, mother, But I'm going to have
Speaker 1: a nice hotel room. And it was very inexpensive, but
Speaker 1: very nice. It was a beautiful hotel. And on television,
Speaker 1: everything was in Chinese. So what I did was I
Speaker 1: took all six seasons of Sex and the City with
Speaker 1: me on DVDs, and that's what I watched the entire
Speaker 1: time I was there. I watched all six seasons guys
Speaker 1: of Sex in the City. That's when I fell in
Speaker 1: love with Carrie and Samantha and just I was so
Speaker 1: into like Sex and the City. Oh. Also, I would
Speaker 1: go to the mall and I'm like, okay, well, I'm
Speaker 1: just going to walk around and go to the mall.
Speaker 1: And I remember this one time the lady she was
Speaker 1: trying to sell me something, some type of diet pill,
Speaker 1: and I remember her telling me that I needed to
Speaker 1: be smaller. She's like, you need a smaller smaller. She
Speaker 1: just kept telling me. And they would tell me you
Speaker 1: have such a pretty face, but you need to be thinner,
Speaker 1: like they would like, you know, you need to lose weight.
Speaker 1: So they were always trying to sell me something to
Speaker 1: lose weight, either a tea, a pill. It was just
Speaker 1: insane the amount of times that I got hit up to,
Speaker 1: like for me to lose weight, because I mean, I
Speaker 1: was a thick ass girl in China. Everyone's very small
Speaker 1: and here I am, you know, this thick girl walking
Speaker 1: around by myself. And that time I was at the
Speaker 1: and someone came up to me and they just said,
Speaker 1: you know, oh my god, we love your face, you know,
Speaker 1: and we want to take pictures. So I don't even
Speaker 1: know how and why I trusted these people because they
Speaker 1: could have taken me anywhere and I wouldn't be here.
Speaker 1: But everyone was so nice and I trusted and I
Speaker 1: went with this person. It was a guy and a girl,
Speaker 1: and I went to their studio and I took pictures.
Speaker 1: I have those pictures till this day. I was just
Speaker 1: looking at the album the other day and they put
Speaker 1: me in like one, two, three, like four different outfits.
Speaker 1: Didn't pay me anything. They fed me and I took
Speaker 1: the pictures because I didn't have anything else to do.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, okay, well just give me an album.
Speaker 1: They gave me this whole album to bring home. But
Speaker 1: they used those pictures guys in China. One was for
Speaker 1: like a skincare company, and of course I didn't know
Speaker 1: what I mean, I didn't know they were going to
Speaker 1: use them. I didn't know until like after like okay,
Speaker 1: you know I signed something. Of course, it was like, hey,
Speaker 1: we're going to use it for you know, a skincare
Speaker 1: and then they were going to sell the pictures. I know,
Speaker 1: it sounds crazy now, that would never happen to me
Speaker 1: now I know that side of the business. But it
Speaker 1: was fun. And I remember showing my mom the pictures
Speaker 1: when we got back and she's like, this is what
Speaker 1: you were doing, what you were out there? Like she
Speaker 1: kind of wanted to be mad at me, but I'm like, dude,
Speaker 1: I was waiting for like a week and a half
Speaker 1: to get the finished product. I needed to do something.
Speaker 1: So I learned a song out there too, the shingle
Speaker 1: Ing a ling song, that's what I call it. It
Speaker 1: was like the biggest hit in China. I heard it
Speaker 1: everywhere at the grocery store, I heard it at the mall,
Speaker 1: I heard it people were singing at the karaoke bar,
Speaker 1: like all the time. Anyway, so I learned the song
Speaker 1: out there. I do want to sing you, guys, a
Speaker 1: little piece of the song that I learned. And people
Speaker 1: have said now with TikTok and stuff, that it's not
Speaker 1: true that this song does not exist. But I promise you, guys,
Speaker 1: I was at the new shop one day and the
Speaker 1: song came on. And then I was at a full
Speaker 1: place and the song came on. Guys, like I'm not
Speaker 1: I swear to you, I'm not lying. The song exists,
Speaker 1: and I learned it because I was there for three
Speaker 1: weeks and it was the most popin song. So anyway,
Speaker 1: the song goes a little like this. It's a shingle
Speaker 1: ling gulling. It's a shing young young young. And again
Speaker 1: I don't even know if I'm saying anything, if I'm
Speaker 1: even singing Chinese, And it's in no way to disrespect anybody,
Speaker 1: because again I love the Asian culture so much, but
Speaker 1: I swear to you, I remember the chorus. That was
Speaker 1: the chorus, and again I'm probably not even singing anything
Speaker 1: in Chinese, but I remember it going like that. Everyone
Speaker 1: was on this song, guys. Everyone in the karaoke bar.
Speaker 1: Everyone wanted to sing the damn song, and I had
Speaker 1: to sing it a couple times, so I remember, next
Speaker 1: time I hear it somewhere, I promise you, I'm going
Speaker 1: to record it. I'm going to show you, guys, because
Speaker 1: I would not lie about something like that, and that's
Speaker 1: what I did. I just hung out. I went to
Speaker 1: the spot, I got massages, I ate a lot of
Speaker 1: cool food, and then I would just come home and
Speaker 1: get in the bathtub and watch Sex in the City
Speaker 1: for three weeks. Now moving forward to when I got
Speaker 1: back home and I had a finished product. I was
Speaker 1: so proud of myself when I got the finished product
Speaker 1: that I told my mom. I said, Mother, just FYI,
Speaker 1: I'm using the business card and I'm buying myself a
Speaker 1: first class ticket back. I feel I deserve it and
Speaker 1: I'm just going to do it. I just told her.
Speaker 1: I didn't even ask her permission. That was the first
Speaker 1: time I experienced first class, and I haven't been the
Speaker 1: same since they give me slippers. It was a laid
Speaker 1: down bed, Oh my god, night and day experience, guys,
Speaker 1: from going coach in the middle seat. It was a lot.
Speaker 1: I spent like an extra I don't know how much,
Speaker 1: over one thousand dollars on top of what I had
Speaker 1: already paid. Well, not me and my mom. So that's
Speaker 1: that I get home. My mom, by this time was
Speaker 1: a little happier with me. It took her like two
Speaker 1: weeks while I was out there to just warm up,
Speaker 1: and you know, I was kind of getting her excited
Speaker 1: with everything that I was doing. She was really happy.
Speaker 1: I remember walking into her office and she was sitting
Speaker 1: on her chair and I said, Mom, I'm back. Hi.
Speaker 1: She was very happy to see me. I was very
Speaker 1: happy to see her, and she's said, well, show me,
Speaker 1: show me what you brought. And I remember pulling it
Speaker 1: out and her face. Guys, the look on her face priceless.
Speaker 1: I lived lived to make my mom proud. Anytime I
Speaker 1: saw that face and then just that sparkle in her eye,
Speaker 1: it was just everything to me. And I'm getting emotional
Speaker 1: because I remember. I remember the day and she was
Speaker 1: so happy and so excited that she had her finished product.
Speaker 1: And it worked beautifully because it was going to take
Speaker 1: months before we got the shipment, you know, because everything
Speaker 1: was going to come by sea. So the fact that
Speaker 1: I stayed there to get a few made, because they
Speaker 1: didn't just make me one, they made me like ten.
Speaker 1: So we could take pictures and we can also show
Speaker 1: it to different stores, and WSS actually picked it up
Speaker 1: and we sold all the units to them, and we
Speaker 1: were selling it online. So it did very very well
Speaker 1: and that made me so happy. That was great. We
Speaker 1: were fine. But then a few weeks later comes the
Speaker 1: phone bill, and this is where it gets a little sticky,
Speaker 1: because I didn't turn off my data or data or
Speaker 1: whatever the roaming. Okay, guys, the phone bill that came
Speaker 1: was insane, six thousand dollars phone bill. My mom wanted
Speaker 1: to kill me. It was such an expensive trip. And
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh my god, I didn't know. I didn't
Speaker 1: I never turned off the roaming. I'm like, Mom, I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: We were on different time zones, like I needed to
Speaker 1: send a lot of emails, I mean, back and forth
Speaker 1: with the manufacturers with just everyone with her, and I
Speaker 1: was on a lot of phone calls, you know, and
Speaker 1: then I was talking to someone back then. So of
Speaker 1: course at night I was bored, I'm gonna get on
Speaker 1: the phone. Never did I think it was gonna be
Speaker 1: six thousand dollars. My mom was livid. Then she got
Speaker 1: over it because I was like Mom, It's okay. You know. Now,
Speaker 1: I'm like, damn it, my mother. I put her through
Speaker 1: some things. Anyway, she was upset, but then we got
Speaker 1: over it and I gave her a thousand dollars and
Speaker 1: that's when she told me. She's like, what do you
Speaker 1: want me to do with these thousand dollars? Roll them
Speaker 1: up and use them as a tampon. She told me that.
Speaker 1: I'm like what, I'm like, Mom, a thousand dollars is
Speaker 1: a thousand dollars. She's like, yeah, and you owe another
Speaker 1: five thousand. But anyway, it was nice. It was a
Speaker 1: beautiful experience. And I've grown out of this because I
Speaker 1: think for a long time I wanted her approval on everything.
Speaker 1: And it's also not healthy, you know, to live for
Speaker 1: someone's approval all the time. But I just I wanted
Speaker 1: to make her proud, you know. And I'm happy and
Speaker 1: I don't regret anything. But I'm glad that I also
Speaker 1: grew out of that and matured. I'm definitely grateful that
Speaker 1: I was able to experience everything that I did, and
Speaker 1: my mom trusted me as much as she did to
Speaker 1: get things done. And again, we did a lot together.
Speaker 1: I mean, we started the skincare and the makeup line
Speaker 1: we did, the perfume, we did a tequila business together,
Speaker 1: her genes as well. Like I learned everything really because
Speaker 1: of her, because she threw me into everything and I
Speaker 1: had no other choice but to figure it out and
Speaker 1: look into everything and do my research and learn the
Speaker 1: hard way. But it's helped me out a lot with
Speaker 1: everything that I do now, So I wouldn't change a thing.
Speaker 1: It was a very tough trip, but also everything that
Speaker 1: I learned and what I was able to accomplish was priceless,
Speaker 1: and I would do it all over again, even if
Speaker 1: that meant her and I fighting on the way there.
Speaker 1: It just because again it gave me that like motivation
Speaker 1: to like, I'm going to show her and I'm glad
Speaker 1: because I did, and I'll never forget her face. I
Speaker 1: would go again to Gwanho. I want to go to Shanghai.
Speaker 1: I've never heard beautiful things about Shanghai. That's in the
Speaker 1: north of China. But my fragrance is made here, guys,
Speaker 1: in the US. Not that there's anything wrong with manufacturing
Speaker 1: anything in China, but I did want my perfume, my
Speaker 1: personal perfume to be developed here in the US. It
Speaker 1: is Raina and it was definitely inspired by that experience
Speaker 1: in China and everything that I learned there. So I'm
Speaker 1: very grateful and I love wearing perfume. I wear my
Speaker 1: perfume every single day. It's the only perfume I wear.
Speaker 1: And I wanted to make something very because I have
Speaker 1: expensive taste. I do. Even the chemist that made my
Speaker 1: perfume told me that, she said, you have very expensive taste.
Speaker 1: And that's why I'm like, Okay, this is exactly why
Speaker 1: I want to create my own fragrance. Because the fragrance
Speaker 1: that I used to use was a three hundred dollar bottle, okay,
Speaker 1: And when people would ask me at my meet and
Speaker 1: greet's like, Chikie, you smell so good. What perfume is it?
Speaker 1: I almost felt embarrassed because I was like, what am
Speaker 1: I doing spending three hundred, five hundred dollars on a
Speaker 1: freaking fragrance? Anyway, Like if you can do that, more
Speaker 1: power to you. But it was I started kind of like,
Speaker 1: I'm like, I know how much it costs to make
Speaker 1: these things, Like I know, and that's why I wanted
Speaker 1: to make my perfume. And that's why Reina is in
Speaker 1: such a generic bottle, because again, I'm all about not
Speaker 1: being worried so much about what it looks like on
Speaker 1: the outside. Of course I want it to look nice,
Speaker 1: but when you're first starting out, like you need to
Speaker 1: get components or you know, things that are already in stock,
Speaker 1: so you don't spend so much on that. When things
Speaker 1: start being custom made, that's where it gets really expensive.
Speaker 1: And I wanted to focus more on what's inside the bottles.
Speaker 1: Like with my skincare, when we first started, the bottles
Speaker 1: were very inexpensive because that's what they had in stock.
Speaker 1: But I really wanted my product, what's inside, what you
Speaker 1: use on your face, on your body, for that to
Speaker 1: be the most expensive thing and what I invested in.
Speaker 1: So that's what I did with my perfume as well.
Speaker 1: I got a generic bottle, a generic cap. I wanted
Speaker 1: to be very simple, very straight to the point, because
Speaker 1: of course I would like to just go all out.
Speaker 1: Now I can do that. Now something's coming like a
Speaker 1: different bottle with like a custom made cap that cost
Speaker 1: a lot. But again because you have to be smart,
Speaker 1: and I saved some money and I said, okay, I'm
Speaker 1: going to save X amount to make a more custom bottle.
Speaker 1: But when I first started again, I didn't want to
Speaker 1: spend that much on the bottle. So when people ask
Speaker 1: me that, like okay, where are your bottles this? And
Speaker 1: your bottles that? Because I got a lot of like
Speaker 1: criticism at first with my skincare because of it, and
Speaker 1: I had to explain this to people. I'm like, you guys,
Speaker 1: it's expensive to make a freaking product, you know, and
Speaker 1: I'd rather you guys pay for what's inside. And then
Speaker 1: people when I told them that and they fell in
Speaker 1: love with the actual product, then they understood. But anyway,
Speaker 1: that's a whole you know, that's here nor there. I
Speaker 1: just wanted to explain that. And there is another perfume
Speaker 1: that's coming. It's a unisex perfume and it's going to
Speaker 1: be called Michentthe So that'll be coming out around my birthday.
Speaker 1: It is unisex, and I'm excited because soon I have
Speaker 1: to find a date to make a whole video to
Speaker 1: present it. So this will be my second perfume. I mean,
Speaker 1: I've had Raina for years now, I want to say
Speaker 1: at least five years, six years now, and people love
Speaker 1: it and they come back for more, so that makes
Speaker 1: me really excited. But now this one's gonna be very different.
Speaker 1: It's gonna smell different. It's more citrusy, a little musky,
Speaker 1: but completely different from Raina. So look forward to that.
Speaker 1: And yeah, I just that's it, I think. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's all I really wanted to share and kind of
Speaker 1: just take you guys down memory lane and take myself
Speaker 1: there and appreciate more everything that I went through with
Speaker 1: my mom and all the beautiful moments that we live together,
Speaker 1: because there were a lot, you know, So that's basically
Speaker 1: what I'm doing. So you'll hear a lot more stories,
Speaker 1: I think here on this season because I'm in that
Speaker 1: mode in that like I want to connect with my
Speaker 1: mom in a different way. Now. I will catch you
Speaker 1: here on the next episode of Cheeks and Chill. Let's
Speaker 1: getro mucho e. Yeah, make sure you share the podcast
Speaker 1: with the people that you love, Okay, all right bye.
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