We were lucky to catch up with Sandra Velasquez recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Sandra thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?

Nopalera is the name of the cactus plant when it’s still in the ground. Once you cut off the “pencas” or pads to eat, they are referred to as nopales. They are one of the most resilient, regenerative, and versatile crops in the world. We use them for food, body care, and textiles like vegan leather. What other plant does that?

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

For the majority of my life I was a musician. I was the leader of the Latin band Pistolera, which toured internationally and released several albums. I used music as my platform to tell the stories of my culture. My mission hasn’t changed. Now I celebrate my culture through Nopalera.

I noticed a lack of high-end brands in the beauty and bath & body space that spoke directly to Latinas. Since we are the largest minority group in the country and the largest consumer of beauty products, it didn’t make sense to me why we weren’t reflected on the shelves.

Nopalera is a Chicana-owned clean collection of bath and body products made from the Nopal cactus, an ancient symbol of Mexican heritage and one of the most nourishing plants in the world. The nutrients it produces have been used for centuries to hydrate hair, moisturize the body, and guard against skin damage from environmental stressors. Today, this native Mexican powerhouse – popularly known as the “prickly pear cactus” – is the star ingredient in every product we create. From our body moisture balancing Cactus Bar Soap to our awakening Cactus Flower Exfoliant, our mission is to transform your everyday routine into a bolder body experience.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

No one in my family has money. No one in my family is an entrepreneur. I did not have a savings account and I had no outside funding. So, I started small, making batches of 100 soaps because that’s all I could afford to do.

It took me a year to launch because I had to pay for things in increments and I was working three day jobs. It was a very intense period of hustle, but I needed the money to pay off credit card debt so I could order ingredients. And then I got creative, like I did a payment plan with my designer, and it was worth every penny

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I thought that I was put on earth to be a performer and songwriter. I’ve been playing piano since the age of five, and I moved to New York to pursue my music career. I had no idea that I would be here in this moment running a bath and body line. But what I realized is that even when I was leading my band, Pistolera, when I was singing in Spanish, I was celebrating my culture and telling our stories. And now I’m continuing that mission but just with a different paint brush. So, it sounds like I jumped into a totally new career but really I just carried the mission over of honoring my culture and elevating our stories but through Nopalera

Contact Info:

• Website: www.nopalera.co
• Instagram: nopalera.co
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nopalera.co/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/nopalera
• Other: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-nopalera-podcast/id1617704293

Image Credits
https://www.amandalopezphoto.com