Women in Business: Adriana Green turns to nature for 'skin health' business

What goes on the outside can make a difference inside. That’s what led Adriana Green to create “skinhealth” products through her company, Estelí, named after a town in Nicaragua that is home to a nature preserve. The brand is based in Greenville and launched at a street fair in San Francisco in 2016. 

Green had been suffering from inflammation-related symptoms when she started a quest to change her health.  

“All these things that were going berserk with my body and I didn't know why,” she says. “It was very scary. I started looking at the foods I was eating, and I started thinking about beauty products, because I'm such a beauty product lover. I've been using them since preteens.” 

Green says she used everything from drugstore favorites to high-end luxury cosmetics.  

“My mentality back then was all the stuff on the front of the beauty product is what I was interested in – this is going to make you have shiny hair, clear skin,” she says. “I didn't really care about the ingredient list. It was basically another language to me.” 

Then Green started Googling every ingredient in the products she used on her skin. At first, she was angry at what she found. 

“So many red flags,” she says.  

But that anger spurred her to action. She looked for products with natural ingredients and started studying botanicals. Soon, she was making a rosewater product for herself, and then her friends and family. Like so many entrepreneurs, demand for her organic, small-batch products led to the creation of her business. Green’s previous work as a graphic designer is evident in the beauty of her packaging, right down to the emerald glass bottles.  

Estelí isn’t immune to the struggles of all small businesses, but Green feels that she has found a purpose.  

“Beauty products are a daily ritual or a daily component of our lives,” she says. “And we won't be able to eliminate all the harms, but at least this is a big impact. I love that support that complete strangers give me when I'm feeling down, like when this is a challenge. I will get an order pop up where someone is reordering and paying for express shipping, and those little things are very meaningful to me.” 

Learn more at estelibody.com.