We recently connected with Reyna De La Cruz and have shared our conversation below.

Reyna , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Almost every entrepreneur we know has considered donating a portion of their sales to an organization or cause – how did you make the decision of whether to donate? We’d love to hear the backstory if you’re open to sharing the details.

Sirena’s Secret deeply believes in giving onto others; resources, love, & hope. Since the launch of Sirena’s Secret back in 2020, we have been working to build a charity with the aim to support women, men and children in the rural locations of Dominican Republic. Why the Dominican Republic? The Dominican Republic is the birth place of our ancestry, the birthplace of our herbal medicine, the richness of our vegetation and the go-getter attitude of our beautiful country.

Working closely with volunteers in the DR such as pastors and first responders, Sirena’s Secret has been able to conduct two mission trips that have changed the lives of over 100 families.

Ten percent of all transactions made at our business, helps to deliver basic personal care items such as sanitary pads, diapers and baby bottles to postpartum mothers at the maternity hospital of Higüey, Dominican Republic. As well as bringing underwear, clothing and shoes to families in the sugarcane settlements with ages ranging from infants to the elderly. We are now trying to connect with some education institutions to see how we are able to support them as we know, an educated mind is a free mind.

It’s a beautiful feeling to know you have the power to help someone, and an even sweeter feeling to know it has been done.

Reyna , 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?

My story begins as a young teenager bombarded by Eurocentric beauty standards. Everywhere I went people would tell me “péinate esa greña” , “put a comb through that fro”. I grew to hate my hair so much that I decided to bleach and straighten every coil until I removed the blackness, the texture and the history of my hair. It wasn’t until the natural movement came around and the curly girls encouraged what is the big chop. So I cut off all of my hair and decided to go natural. Even though I was natural, I still didn’t know how to take care of my hair.

That was, until I went to college and my roommate sat me down and taught me how to take care of my own hair. Flash forward I’m in my sophomore year of college studying education and we get sent home for what seemed like forever in March 2020. Like many others, I had time to reflect and I made a decision, possibly the biggest nightmare for immigrant parents, I dropped out of college as a first generation student. I always knew I wanted to teach others, but maybe school just was not the route.

I started researching herbal medicine from the Dominican Republic and began making tik toks of homemade hair growth recipes and people absolutely loved it. As my grandfather always asks, “Como van los inventos?”… the inventions were actually doing pretty well.

My community insisted that I bottle the product and sell it, and so that’s exactly what I did. My mom said “ Ponte Las Pilas”, “ put your batteries on”, so I put my batteries on and got to work. One year later as a college drop out and many long nights in my brother’s kitchen, I made $20,000 and Sirena’s Secret became my life.

At Sirena’s Secret, we believe that in order for business to flourish, “Hay que tenor valores”, “We have to have values”. So what do we stand for?

Sirena’s Secret caters to the natural community seeking luxurious wellness products, who are constantly dissatisfied with the inadequate selections in the market. Our brand takes a mindful and transparent approach to bring healing through ethically sourced and clean ingredients. Our aim is to support your person transformation while keeping true to sustainable practices.

We have a variety of products that focus on creating a healthy scalp environment for hair to grow, as well as strenthening the hair follicle & shaft to reduce hair loss and breakage. We also carry a collection of butters and oils that work to heal and nurture the skin while encouraging the regeneration of cells at a molecular level.

Whether you are dealing with postpartum hair loss, cracked skin from eczema or are looking to grow a fabulous beard, we are here to help you.

We are here to dismantle the uncomfortable feelings that arise when our human vessel goes through different transformations.

We are here to help you accept yourself including all of the skin conditions, scalp issues and hormonal imbalances that happen as we mature throughout this thing called life.

For us, “el amor es todo”,”Its all about the love” We are here to help you love yourself a bit more every day.

Have you ever had to pivot?

The word pivot has definitely been a theme as we approached our three year anniversary of this entrepreneurial journey. Let’s just say, you will always need to pivot. You will always need to stay on your toes especially when dealing with a niche market. You have to question, as a consumer, what do people need? What do I need? How do I turn something from a want to have to a need to have?

These are some of the questions that we asked ourselves as we started focusing in on what we want our brand, mission and purpose to look like. After deep analysis of who is Sirena’s Secret, it became very simple. We are at the intersection of where nature meets healing.

When launching Sirena’s Secret, we had the vision of being a curly girl’s household item. You know, that shampoo, curling cream & gel that you just can’t live without? We thought we wanted to be part of the revolution of ethnic hair care that was taking the world by storm.

We had launched with our two best sellers, the Sirena Serum and the Sirena Smoothie. The Sirena Serum is an intensive anti-loss and pro-growth treatment formulated to not only to stimulate hair growth in a natural, chemical free manner but also aid hair loss by revitalizing the hair follicle. The serum works to stimulate new hair growth, it also promotes scalp health, enhances blood circulation, strengthens hair follicles, and nourishes the hair shaft. A carefully selected set of herbs, seeds and roots such as rosemary, fenugreek and neem meet with a combination of rich oils such as safflower and olive, to bring you the ultimate scalp treatment.

The Sirena Smoothie Intensive Masque is formulated to restore and reconstruct hair by providing deep hydration and moisture, while working to repair hair texture. This chemical-free hair mask treatment is infused with rich natural ingredients such as rice, rosemary and honey which promote the growth of hair while penetrating moisture deep into the hair shaft.

Through the research of the many herbs, oils and other natural ingredients that help with hair, we also became curious as to what they would be able to do for the rest of our body? Most modern medicine is derived from plants, Aspirin comes from Spiraea, a biological genus of shrubs. Paclitaxel (Taxol), for example, one of the most commonly used chemotherapy drugs, was derived from the bark of the Pacific yew tree. Opium is a highly addictive non-synthetic narcotic that is extracted from the poppy plant, Papaver somniferum. The opium poppy is the key source for many narcotics, including morphine, codeine, and heroin.

Trust, this was news to us too! During this research it became very apparent to us that we’re not interested in making pleasant smelling soaps or edge controls that hold for 24 hours, or so they say, but we’re interested in making medicine, plant medicine that is! We want to shift the way the world looks at herbal medicine and instead of offering cures, we offer prevention solutions to diseases such as diabetes, arthritis and irritable bowel syndrome.

With the help of herbalism courses as well as conducting extensive research into plant medicine, we hope to be able to bring the Sirena’s Secret community on a road to health and wellness through natural practices.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Let’s just be straight up and say it, social media is hard. Remembering to schedule posts, keeping up with algorithms and consistently being active with your online community can definitely take a toll on your mental health. But, the stronger your presence, the more trust you can build with your audience before developing a direct relationship beyond this marketing channel. We’ve found a few strategies that have helped us along the way:

Number one, you need to have a brand image and feel. When someones stumbles upon your page, is it aesthetically pleasing, relatable in terms of content, or is it messy and makes you want to run away from the follow button? Your social media page should represent the feeling your brand wants to give the consumer. Some of these feelings include the desire of obtaining that specific lifestyle or the excitement that comes from seeing someone that looks like you on a platform. Both of these feelings that the brand delivers, will ensure longevity from your targeted customer audience.

Number two, you have to be active on multiple platforms! We have various channels where you can check out Sirena’s Secret and all of the magic it has to offer. Using social media platforms including Instagram, Tiktok, Twitter, LinkedIn as well as Youtube, will help you gain even more exposure and momentum. Using tools that help schedule your posts over many channels such as Hootsuite, takes the stress away from forgetting to post on holidays, sale dates & even product campaigns.

Finally, number three. YOU HAVE TO BE YOURSELF. Being yourself sells. Authenticity sells. Relatability sells. Too often, we want to be what everyone else wants us to be. Forgetting that we are individuals with dreams, creativity, and extraordinary personalities. Most times, people don’t just want to see a product. They want to see the person behind the product. They want to know that the person they are gaining information from or buying a product from, is a faithful person to their very own brand image. So always be yourself, because it’s the easiest thing to be!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.sirenassecret.com
• Instagram: @SirenasSecret
• Facebook: Sirena’s Secret
• Linkedin: Sirena’s Secret
• Twitter: @sirenassecret
• Youtube: Sirena’s Secret

Image Credits
@aricksonperalta_photography @bmoretheartist @j.lstudios @reynadelacruz