Rising Stars: Meet Terrie Velazquez-Owen

Today we’d like to introduce you to Terrie Velazquez-Owen.

Hi Terrie, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
During the pandemic isolation, I found myself like so many others, inspired to do some passion projects I’d always wanted to. One being, bring a product to market I felt good about and exploring alternatives to the single-use plastic waste problem we have in the world.

I started to think about what people did before plastic bottles became ubiquitous… people used glass and they refilled the bottles. These systems were in place at one time and grocery stores helped facilitate it.

I remember taking soda bottles back to the grocery store and returning for refills, even before my time, Milk was delivered in glass bottles and returned for refills.

As well, I began to think about what product would be most useful during the pandemic and something I had always used in my professional life, was sanitizer for my hands, tools and surfaces.

I made a sanitizer with a blend of the most anti-microbial essential oils, glycerin to not dry out the skin and natural bristle hair brushes and tools, and hydrogen peroxide and alcohol, the original recipe for the sanitizer base I got from the CDC website, and then did research on the most effective essential oils to fight germs and Germaphobe was born! I decided to name my little backyard studio where I hand poured and blended Germaphobe, “Sana.Sana. Apothecary”. After a Spanish saying, my mother and grandmother would say to me my brothers and sister when we fell or got hurt: Sana Sana colita de rana, si no sana’s hoy, sanaras manana.

I loved this as a way to honor my Mexican heritage. And help the world heal a little bit. Germaphobe is made in a reusable glass bottle, I encourage folks to reuse the glass bottle even if they decide to not refill it with Germaphobe Santizer.

Even tho I do make larger sizes available for refills. I hope to have in the future capacities to take back the bottles I put out in the world to reduce waste and refill since we now know a very low percentage of single-use plastic cosmetic bottles are actually recycled. We need to rethink, reuse and refill.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I am growing this business very slowly as I do work as a film and TV production Hairstylist and that does take up lots of my time. I have long shooting days on set with actors, designing looks for characters and traveling. I love my job and the amazing people I’ve GOTTEN to work with, but it does keep me from growing the brand and looking for investment to be in more stores.

At the moment, I’m only in two LA BASED BEAUTY SUPPLY SHOPS. NIGELS BEAUTY AND FRIENDS BEAUTY SUPPLY. THEY ARE THE BEAUTY SUPPLIES STORES THAT SUPPLY TO THE ENTERTAINMENT PROS WHO WORK ON SETS, PHOTO SHOOTS AND RED CARPET. I WOULD OVE TO SPREAD THE MESSAGE OF REFILLING TO REDUCE.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’m a film and tv hair stylist I work on set and collaborate with directors, actors, costume designers, and makeup artists. I design hairstyles, and haircuts, for characters the raw materials available to me from the actor..ie their own hair, but oftentimes helped along with hair extensions, hair color, wigs and toupees.

I am most proud of the films I’ve done where I get to recreate real and historical people and bring them to life, Julia Roberts to Martha Mitchell, Dakota Fanning and Kristen Stewart to rocker chicks Joan Jett and Cherie Currie .and Jennifer Lopez to the legend Selena!

How do you define success?
Being able to balance work life with family life, many men and women in my industry get so busy having careers they forget to have a home life, have kids, pets relationships, etc., being able to connect with family and friends is very important to me. Sometimes having children has made it very difficult for me to take certain jobs…but the jobs will always be there and your kid’s childhood will not. It’s a difficult balance that I think all women in many businesses grapple with that.it’s hard to have it all, but with the support of my husband I’m able to balance it, not always but we try! And when I can, then that’s a success.

Pricing:

• A 4oz bottle of Germaphobe is 15.00
• Refill 16oz 25.00
• Refill 32 oz 39.99

Contact Info:

• Website: www.SanaSana.love
• Instagram: Sana.Sana.love
• Other: www.terrievowen.com

Image Credits
Photo by Soona Studios