Every woman deserves to be ‘fine, fun & fabulous’

There are no ugly women. Only lazy ones.

I heard this line from a movie before where the scene talked about women’s search for beauty. When I recently talked to beauteous Jen Gerodias-Diaz — that particular interview was lovingly arranged by our common friend, the  affable Resty Vergara, who had a peaceful crossover last Wednesday — I was reminded again that a woman’s beauty regimen is a conscious effort. It doesn’t have to be tedious or regimented a regimen. A simple washing of the face can spell a difference.

Well, it also helps a thousand times that a woman has the right beauty products in her arsenal.

Jen is the woman behind Snoe, a three-year-old cosmetics brand that has more than 200 products including fragrances, soaps, lotion, lip balm, hair spray, makeup and “anything and everything under the sun for beauty.”  

“We have four store outlets all around Metro Manila. We’re the No. 1 online store in Shopinas (under Air21). We are the No. 1 beauty company that’s selling online,” Jen proudly says, adding that in a span of three years, Snoe now has 24 outlets around the Philippines including Cebu, General Santos City and Bohol.

“Our more than 200 products cater to anyone and everyone who’s into beauty because we believe that every woman is different, so we have a lot of different varieties,” says Jen.

Snoe, she says, came about by accident. In November 2009, businesswoman Jen, who operates several gas stations around the city, stumbled upon a soap factory that was right across one of her stations. She entered the soap factory and found Christmas gift items for her friends. The recipients of her gifts fell in love with the soap that they asked if they could order from her. This encouraged Jen to make her own soap, so she looked for a manufacturer who could custom-made the products according to her specification. She personally attended to her BFAD certification and license from the BIR. In 2010, when everything was set and ready, Snoe was born.

“Our company does not manufacture the products. We tie up with seven different labs in the country for the production. But the research comes from me and my team,” says Jen who finished Human Resource Management from De La Salle-College of St. Benilde. She also has an MBA from the Ateneo and she also took up Fine Arts at the Academy of Arts in San Francisco. Every Saturday, she goes to St. Benilde where she is currently taking up Professional Retail Management.

“We come out with ingredients that are not available here in the local market. So we import our ingredients. We use natural ingredients but not 100 percent natural only because we do not want to limit ourselves when it comes to cosmetics technology,” Jen admits. Snoe, she observes, is more popular to the 16 to 24 age bracket. This is the same group that is very active in the social media, the domain where Snoe is also popular, Jen says.

“It’s exciting. Snoe is very young because we follow our tag line: ‘Fine, fun and fabulous.’ We believe that cosmetics should be fun. It shouldn’t be so clinical; it shouldn’t be so serious. That’s why we came out with product names that are fun. We call our lip balm the ‘Beso Balm’ because it has a built-in breath freshener. We have a pore-minimizing kit called ‘Awesome Poresome.’ We are inspired by everything that happens around us every day. For example, our hair products ‘Hair Heroes’ were conceptualized during the time of the movie The Avengers,” Jen happily notes.

Jen personally attends to the development of every product that Snoe has. She says her every product has personal meaning to her.

“It’s personal in a sense that even ‘Snoe’ came from the word ‘Noe,’ which is the name of my daughter. Snoe was conceptualized during the time when my daughter was into Snow White,” says Jen, the loving wife of businessman Noel Diaz and doting mother of their two precocious children Noe, six, and Andes, four.

Her hectic schedule notwithstanding, Jen knows how to be her family’s “Miss Balance.” “There are only 24 hours in a day but I manage to have time for everything. I have time for work, for my husband, for my two young kids and my eldest Gabe, who is now 17. I also find time for my emotional and mental growth. Most importantly, I have time for God.”

Jen reveals that Snoe is under MMG Corp., a family business where her eldest brother Jardine is the president. They have two other sisters, Jill and Jenilee, who help them manage the family business started by their parents Emmanuel and Marissa Gerodias. MMG is a trucking, warehousing and logistics firm. Aside from Snoe, the corporation also has Manang’s Chicken, pawnshops, gas stations, financing company and an archive company called Primo.

“Our parents taught us to work — to do hard work,” Jen admits. She recalls that when she and her other siblings were very young, their summer vacations would be spent in their office in San Pedro, Laguna. They were asked to photocopy documents or do other errands. They even served food to their drivers and construction workers in the field.

Jen takes pride that she is good at “collections and account receivables” because her parents exposed her to that kind of job early on. “Magaling akong maningil ng utang!” she laughs.

But the best lesson she learned from her mom is financial literacy. “My mom keeps repeating this, ‘It’s not what you earn, it’s what you save.’ She also taught us to be humble.”

“My dad taught us to dream. My parents weren’t born rich but they made sure that they would achieve their dreams. Dad taught us to never stop dreaming, to always have a goal. He taught us that hard work pays off when you stick to your goal,” she remembers.

She adds, “Dad told us that not everybody crosses the finish line but we must cross it. He always reminds us that it doesn’t matter how long we reach the finish line for as long as we cross it.”

Hard work, perseverance and her simple faith that everything will work out just fine are the ingredients that make up Jen’s personal and business philosophy.

In Jen’s heart, these are the same ingredients that make Snoe the cosmetics brand that it is today. She surely knows that she has the ingredients that will make women happy and beautiful.

(E-mail me at bumbaki@yahoo.com. I’m also on Twitter @bum_tenorio. Have a blessed Sunday!)