We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Melissa Castro. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Melissa below.

Alright, Melissa thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

My mission is to help anyone who has either lost themselves or are still figuring out who they are. Creating this skincare line is what helped me discover who I was. Not just a passion I never knew existed but how broken I was. It helped me to focus on what I was doing wrong and why I was feeling the way I was feeling even though sometimes I couldn’t express those feelings. It has made me look at myself, past who I saw in the mirror, and really look at who I was. What I wanted to share, what I wanted to help people with and mostly what I want to make people feel. I want people to learn to love themselves. I want them to take the time to do it even if they feel like it’s taking time away from their family or their job or even their hobbies. I want people to take the time to really get to know and understand themselves because we are all deeper than the surface allows. I want people to find inner peace and true self love.

Melissa , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I started my brand after having my second child. I was very insecure about my body and had been diving into natural ingredients since having my first. I had a ton of stretch marks that I felt at the time were so bad that I didn’t even want my husband to see them. I used everything under the sun to try to get them to fade but nothing worked. So I ended up doing a ton of research on natural ingredients and created Love Your Body Body Butter. It really helped diminish the appearance of them but what it did more for me was help me find my passion. I truly enjoyed the entire process of creating this beautiful product that just made me feel so good and truly helped me to love my body, something I had never felt before. Ever since then, I have been creating plant based natural skincare and body care products with the intention of helping people learn to take time to not only love on themselves and make themselves feel good on the outside but to also really connect with themselves on the inside.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

A lesson I had to unlearn was that your product/business doesn’t have to appeal to everyone. It is important to find your target audience. Find the people who resonate with your message and who need it. That is who you need to connect with. I struggled with this for so long because I had such a variety of people that I often was trying to please them all which made me make decisions that were not following with my message.

Okay – so how did you figure out the manufacturing part? Did you have prior experience?

Every single product is handmade by me (and sometimes my husband). I purchase the ingredients, I make the product, I package the product and I label the product all by hand. I took several courses on formulating and constantly made a ton of testers so there was always a lot of trial and error.

I spent over a year looking for top quality ingredients that are pure and natural, our current packaging supplier and also our label supplier. Our labels were designed by a very good friend who is incredibly talented and also myself and my husband.

I learned that not all ingredients are the same. A lot of ingredients are cut and have fillers/preservatives already in them. It is very important to me that I am using 100% pure natural ingredients with no additives. I want to ensure I am giving everyone what they deserve. Pure and high quality ingredients.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.jusmia.com
• Instagram: jusmiashop
• Other: TikTok: @Jusmiashop

Image Credits
Michael Devaney Joslyn Devaney Sarasota Photo Studio