Our Story

 Over the years, people were always telling me how nice my skin was and always asked what it was I did.  I couldn’t really tell them, as I never did anything special.  I always did what my Mom did.  Mom would always say “make sure you have a clean face and keep it moist”.    Even though people told me I had nice skin I never believed them.  As an adult, I would break out here and there with acne and I always thought my skin looked a little dull and my pores too big.  However, because I was an adult, I stopped using what Mom used.   I went out and bought department store cleansers, moisturizers or whatever the latest and greatest product was at the time because now I could afford it.   It wasn’t until I reached my forties I began thinking; Mom never used any of this stuff and her skin always looked beautiful up until the day she died.    As a matter of fact, when my Mom died, the funeral director said to us "I have never worked on anyone with skin as beautiful as your mother’s before" and embarrassingly apologized for making this comment during our time of grief .  What was it she did to keep her skin so beautiful?         

What my mom did and did for us as kids was use natural products but not the kind you buy.  You see, we were extremely poor growing up.  As a family six, we lived on my father’s pay as a private in the navy.  My mom didn’t work because there were four of us to take care of.  The four of us kids would share one bedroom.  I remember them telling us stories about how bad it was financially at times that my parents wouldn’t eat so we could.  I thank them now for never allowing us to feel what they did.  Mom who also grew up very poor herself in the depression, never used anything from the department stores because she just couldn’t afford it.  So, she used things from the kitchen.  Washed her face with lemon or orange.  Moisturized with olive oil.  My Dad, who grew up in the Philippines, would wash us with sea salt at bath time, which is something he did in his own country.   But no matter how poor we were, my Mom always did her hair and cleaned her face and made sure all four kids had hair and faces just as clean.

So, I grew up using natural products all my life.  Nevertheless, I couldn’t wait to afford to go out and buy “real” stuff.  Little did I know that the true “real” stuff was the ingredients my mom used in our kitchen!  Little did I know that even though I still continued to get compliments on my skin, it wasn’t the department store products that did it?  It was a lifetime of using the ingredients Mother Nature gave us here on earth.  As I said, I never broke out in acne until I became an adult.

So, I began to think… after spending a  good part of my life, (over 20 years to be exact) in the health and fitness industry helping to make people look and feel better, why don’t I help them with their skin?  Why don’t I teach them what my mom always taught us to do with our skin.  Keep it clean and keep it moist and do it with the things mother nature provides you.

This lead me to work with a master herbalist whose expertise helped lead to the creation of Bonita Botanicals... Of course Bonita Botanicals has a few extra yummy ingredients that you may not have in your cupboard, but all of Bonita Botanicals ingredients are organic, natural and chemical free.

So, do what my Mom says:  “keep your face clean and keep it moist” and you will sure to Be Beautiful, Be Bonita