Written by: Alissa Flores
For Elyse Baltodano, junior business administration and public relations major at Southern Adventist University, launching a skincare and cosmetics line isn’t just the start of a new business, but the realization of a dream she’s nurtured for years. Driven by her passion for sharing natural and clean skincare, Baltodano said she set out to create a brand that captures a woman’s natural elegance and simple beauty.
Baltodano’s interest in skincare and cosmetics developed at a young age when she often found herself admiring the beauty products and DIY soap kits belonging to her older sister, Elani Baltodano. Later, she received her own lip balm kit, which sparked an experimentation phase in which she made her own products by following YouTube tutorials.
Her interests were always deeply involved with beauty and fashion. To her, it was natural; it was girlhood. Now, with her brand, Claribella Beauty, she is trying to make that dream a reality by offering carefully sourced, all-natural products.
“I was really into science and chemistry, or just beauty in general,” Baltodano said in an interview with the Accent. Yet, simply making these products at her home wasn’t enough. “All throughout my life, I always knew that I wanted to start my own business,” she said.
At 15, shortly after moving to Cleveland, Tenn., from Naples, Florida, Baltodano began making her first official products. After researching different ingredients, benefits, creation processes, and applications, she started her first brand, Freckles and Sunshine, which offered only one product.
“I made a vanilla body butter, and I feel the only thing I did wrong was not marketing it well, because I didn’t know what I was doing,” Baltodano said. “I knew I wanted to make products, but I didn’t know how to go about selling those products.”
Shortly after starting, Freckles and Sunshine ceased production due to her inexperience in marketing, and she pushed the idea out of her mind for a while—until the summer of 2024. Now, at 19 and a junior in college, Baltodano feels more equipped to start a business.
“I missed making the products, and I knew what I had was good,” Baltodano said. “I kind of wanted to expand and just see what the possibilities are, so this time I decided to take a different approach.”
Since her family lineage goes back to Spain and Italy, Baltodano wanted to have some of her heritage in the name of her new brand. In Spanish and Italian, Claribella Beauty means “clear” and “beauty” combined.
Baltodano wants the brand to focus on creating natural products that allow women to feel beautiful in their natural skin and embrace femininity. She aims to boost their confidence through her products.
She created her all-natural body butter products out of interest and previous experience. This product also reflected her own personal skincare journey. Baltodano said that she had always struggled with dry and flaky skin. She created her all-natural body butter because she wanted a safe moisturizer that did its job, thoroughly clearing her “crocodile” skin. Her new endeavor is the lip and cheek tint.
“I just love blush and lipstick in general. You don’t really need much for [a good makeup look]. You can do something simple, like everyday makeup,” Baltodano said.
Furthermore, she explained how makeup doesn’t benefit skin and the maintenance of its health in some cases, saying that it sometimes even causes more rapid skin aging. This inspired her to create makeup products with skincare benefits.
To make her products and kits, Baltodano orders the ingredients online and creates them at home, where she uses her own recipes. She melts down the solid materials, mixes them with natural oils and then sometimes adds scents and natural colorants to complete the final product. After this, she tackles packaging and eventually marketing, which she plans to work on this fall.
One of the major challenges Baltodano faced while kick-starting her brand was finding packaging that complimented her idea of a simple and minimalistic routine to provide easy application.
“Finding packaging that actually allows that has been difficult. So far, I’ve only found one manufacturer that does that, and I have to get a quote. I’m still waiting to hear back,” Baltodano said.
Now, busy with college and student life, Baltodano is involved in Enactus, Public Relations Student Society of America, SAU News, choir and an internship at It Is Written. Her absence at Southern’s 423 Night Market, a popular event for student-led businesses to start out and get traction, also affected her plan to advance Claribella Beauty’s business.
She was unable to return to Collegedale in time to run her own booth since she was part of a group of students picked for an academic competition in Orlando, Florida. To compensate, she plans to hold pop-up booths at local Chattanooga markets and accept product ordering online through direct messaging on Instagram.
In bringing Claribella Beauty to life, Baltodano isn’t just creating skincare products, but crafting a brand that reflects her lifelong passion for natural beauty and personal growth. As she navigates this endeavor, Baltodano seeks to empower women in everyday life to feel confident and embrace their elegance.
