Developing My Mom’s First Perfume in China

time my mom had me develop her first perfume. We're also going to get into the argument we got into before I left, and some things I learned while I was in China. So buckle up, here we go. You know what's crazy? For the past I want to say two months three months, I have felt so close to my mom. I feel like we've entered this new like

era or new season of our relationship. I know it sounds weird because she's been gone physically for twelve years, but I've been connecting with her on a different level lately. So I also wanted to do this episode to kind of just remind myself of everything we went through and what a beautiful relationship we had, no matter how ugly it was at the end right before she passed, and how close we were in age, which caused a lot

of friction. We were so alike in so many different ways and so different as well that it also caused bickering. But the love was real and we accomplished so much together, guys, and I should be proud of that. And I think because for so long I was focused on my career and focused on wanting to be seen as Cheeky's as my own person, I kind of put her to the side a little bit because I felt I needed to, and it got me through everything that I was doing.

And again, I feel like I had been in her shadow a lot, and I kind of wanted to just show the world, Hey, I can do this, you know, and I'm not gonna lie. I've told you guys a lot here on the podcast. For a long time, I was upset with my mom because of how things ended between her and I, and I was disappointed in a lot of things. And every year it's a different feeling, and the more and more that I do things like this like this episode, it makes me just fall in

love with her all over again. And I don't know, I feel like this is going to heal my heart and hopefully inspire you, guys. Because when I went to China, guys, I was twenty three years old and I had never gone to another country besides Mexico, right. I hadn't traveled a lot. And I was very busy back then with my mom, with the kids, with the house, with our businesses, and by then I had already helped my mom develop

her skincare and her makeup line. We were like the Fionettas, the pioneers when it came to this whole influence and having your own business and everything. My mom and I we were a freaking a power team. Guys. My mom would tell me I want this, and I would execute it. I don't even know how I would do it half of the time because I was so young. I didn't go to college. I always figured things out because that's

the way she taught me. And I'm so grateful that she kind of would just throw me in like kind of like a child that doesn't know how to swim, and she just kind of just throws you in the pool and then you have no other choice but to swim. It was like that, literally anyway, I had never been to another country besides Mexico, and I had only gone to Mexico a handful of times then, So going all the way to China, guys across the freaking globe, it was insane. Sometimes I think about it, I'm like, how

did I do that? And I went by myself. I went alone, and her and I were in a huge argument. I don't even remember exactly what it was, but I know that it was a pretty big argument and she was pissed at me. So this trip was already planned, I'm sure, like a few weeks before, or maybe even a month, but we had gotten an argument and I don't remember again, I don't remember why, but it was pretty bad and we weren't talking, and I remember getting

on that plane crying. I was crying because I was nervous, obviously that I was going to a different country where I don't know the language, I don't know anyone. I found someone online and I didn't even know what this person looked like. I just knew their name and they were going to have a little paper with my name on it. But dude, so mavine. I've always been a risk taker. I said, Okay, I'm going to figure this out. My mom wants to perfume. She gave me a budget.

I can't get it done for that budget sixty thousand dollars in the States, I had looked and everything was crazy expensive. So I said, I have no other choice but to go to China. And again I did all my research, I figured it out. I met this lady. How we figured things out, I have no idea because she was barely learning English and I didn't know a lick of Chinese, of course. So it was an amazing experience. Three weeks in China by myself and I sit at

a hotel alone. I visited so many different karaoke bars because Asians, especially in China, they love karaoke. So I did visit a lot of karaoke bars. I ate a lot of food, but the food in China, guys. I was in Guangzhou, so I was in the south of China, and it's more like the industrial side of China. So I was where all you know, imagine La downtown, La times ten, huge, a lot of people everywhere. It was

very congested, but very beautiful. And of course I get there and I'm like, okay, well, where's the beef, broccoli and the orange chicken, and that does not exist over there. The Chinese food that we have here nothing like the Chinese food in China, like at all. It tastes very different. I had no idea what I was eating. I would just order or let the people that I had met

there because we were doing business together. I would just let them order and I ate everything, and it was delicious, so I have to this day, I don't even know what I ate. I don't know if it was chicken or beef for pig or I don't know. It was just good. But they did not have any of the Chinese food that I was accustomed to. Also, another thing that I learned there was they don't really eat any ice cream, nothing cold, no ice water, no salads. Everything

is warm. There is hot tea before, during, and after eating. Everything was warm. That's when I lost I feel like I lost so much weight out while I was out there, because I mean, I had no other choice but to eat the way that the people that I was eating ate. And I learned a lot, especially about the digestive system. And of course throughout the years I started forgetting everything. Because when I came back, I was very inspired and I'm like Okay, all I'm going to do is drink

tea and no more cold stuff and all this. But life goes on and life happens, and I was young, and of course I forgot all about that until like now, where I'm like, oh my gosh. You know, there's like this crazy connection that I have with China because of that trip, but also because I always say I feel like I was Asian in a past life. I just love the culture. I love everything about the Asian culture.

So AnyWho, my whole thing was develop this perfume. My mom and I weren't talking, but it also gave me that fire within me to show her. I am going to make her so proud. I'm going to kill this project. I'm going to freaking show her, and I did. I told her I needed to stay out there a little longer because I that's another thing. I didn't even know how long I was going to be out there. I just got a one way ticket because I wanted to

come home with the finished product. So even before I get into the nitty gritty of how I developed the fragrance and the whole process, I was wondering because my mom and I think for like a week while I was out there, didn't really talk. It was just very business. She was still kind of upset with me for whatever reason. I wish I remembered, but AnyWho, I would handle everything. So the fact that I was gone for three weeks was a pretty big deal in my household, especially with Johnny.

Johnny was eight years old, and I'm pretty sure he told me when I got back home. I mean, because him and I have always been so so close, he was probably freaking out without me. But of course, my mother, being a woman that's you know, in control, was never going to tell me that she needed me. But I'm pretty sure everything was kind of falling apart while I was gone. But I was so determined to show her that I could do this, and I was so proud of myself, so proud of myself, So getting into the

whole production thing, I went to a chemist first. I wanted to get the sent down because I was super important. My mom was a huge fan of Trousaur, so that was the perfume that she wore every single day, and she wanted something very different from that because that's very The perfume that she wore was very warm, and you know, vanilla, so she wanted a little bit something, a little more daytime. So I just had that. I just knew what she wanted.

She wanted a daytime perfume. She wanted a little citrusy, a little sweet, but more citrusy. Mind you had. There was no way that I was going to show her the set. I just needed to follow my intuition and her instructions and what she wanted and go with it. Because even sending it, like through airshipping or whatever you call it, it was going to take days. There was We had no time for that. So I developed it.

That was the first thing. I went to a manufacturer and we got the oils, and I spilled so many different oils I think I went to three different factories and manufacturers for the actual fragrance until I found it. I mixed things together with the chemists and I said, this is what we want. We let it sit for a few days, and then we had the fragrance, which was the most important part. Then I went to a

different manufacturer to find the bottle and the cap. And because again the budget wasn't a lot, I couldn't get like a specific mold made because at first she wanted like a whole, like her body and her silhouette. I was like, Mom, you got to chill a little bit because that's expensive. Just the mold. To make a mold, it's ten thousand dollars, okay. So I kind of got her off that and I went with a generic bottle and a generic cap. I was like, okay, I gotta

make this look nice. The most important thing is making sure that the scent was top tier, and it absolutely was. Till this day. It is still the number one fragrance that is sold. It was the very first one, and that's the one people love the most. Of course, the other ones are great, but there's something special about that one, obviously, but it does sell very well still to this day.

So that was that I got a generic bottle, something that they already had in stock because there was no time, and I wanted something very simple, and the name was just going to be her logo, and that's what it is to this day as well. It's just the logo that her and I developed together, which are her initials JR. And her little butterfly that I have tattooed on my foot, and that was it. It was very simple, and I wanted it to be not just a fragrance, but I

put like a little gift set together. So it was the perfume and a lip gloss that had like little sparkles in it, and also a hand lotion because my mom loved the hand lotion and putting it in her purse. So I did the whole thing and it was the same scent the hand lotion. And I only made one thousand units and that was it because that's all we could afford. She gave me a sixty thousand dollars budget

to make everything. You know, it adds up. So we did a thousand, remember a thousand units, and everything took time, so I had to wait for everything to be filled. I had to wait for the logos to be screen printed on the actual components. It was just a mission, which is why it took me three weeks, because I wanted.

I said, I need to leave China with the finished product to show my mother exactly what it looks like, the sizes, how much it's going to weigh, so that we know how much we're going to spend on shipping. How I knew this at twenty three, I have no idea. Sometimes I feel like maybe because I had a little bit more space. Mentally, things just stuck and now I forget all these things. I'm like, oh my gosh, I did so much, and how honestly it was the grace

of God. So what did I do? Because I think it's important you guys didn't know what I did while I was waiting. Once I got all the hard work and all like the footwork done with the fragrance, with the bottles, the components of packaging, all that stuff. While they were doing their thing putting it together, I had a lot of free time. So I was going again to the karaoke bars with my new Chinese friends that I met at the manufacturers, because they all knew I

was there by myself. I stated, a very nice hotel. That's one thing. I was like, Mom, if I'm going over there by myself and you're sending me coach, because I was coach on the way there in the middle seat and I was sad, crying. I left La crying and I got to China crying. Fourteen hour flight. Guys, in the middle seat, it was insane. I will tell you this. I love garlic, but oh my gosh, smelling garlic the entire way there was crazy. I mean, it was insane, very tough. But I'm like, okay. So I

told my mom. I said, one thing, fine, you're sending me coach, totally fine, mother, But I'm going to have a nice hotel room. And it was very inexpensive, but very nice. It was a beautiful hotel. And on television, everything was in Chinese. So what I did was I took all six seasons of Sex and the City with me on DVDs, and that's what I watched the entire time I was there. I watched all six seasons guys of Sex in the City. That's when I fell in love with Carrie and Samantha and just I was so

into like Sex and the City. Oh. Also, I would go to the mall and I'm like, okay, well, I'm just going to walk around and go to the mall. And I remember this one time the lady she was trying to sell me something, some type of diet pill, and I remember her telling me that I needed to be smaller. She's like, you need a smaller smaller. She just kept telling me. And they would tell me you have such a pretty face, but you need to be thinner, like they would like, you know, you need to lose weight.

So they were always trying to sell me something to lose weight, either a tea, a pill. It was just insane the amount of times that I got hit up to, like for me to lose weight, because I mean, I was a thick ass girl in China. Everyone's very small and here I am, you know, this thick girl walking around by myself. And that time I was at the and someone came up to me and they just said, you know, oh my god, we love your face, you know,

and we want to take pictures. So I don't even know how and why I trusted these people because they could have taken me anywhere and I wouldn't be here. But everyone was so nice and I trusted and I went with this person. It was a guy and a girl, and I went to their studio and I took pictures. I have those pictures till this day. I was just looking at the album the other day and they put me in like one, two, three, like four different outfits.

Didn't pay me anything. They fed me and I took the pictures because I didn't have anything else to do. And I'm like, okay, well just give me an album. They gave me this whole album to bring home. But they used those pictures guys in China. One was for like a skincare company, and of course I didn't know what I mean, I didn't know they were going to use them. I didn't know until like after like okay,

you know I signed something. Of course, it was like, hey, we're going to use it for you know, a skincare and then they were going to sell the pictures. I know, it sounds crazy now, that would never happen to me now I know that side of the business. But it was fun. And I remember showing my mom the pictures when we got back and she's like, this is what you were doing, what you were out there? Like she kind of wanted to be mad at me, but I'm like, dude, I was waiting for like a week and a half

to get the finished product. I needed to do something. So I learned a song out there too, the shingle Ing a ling song, that's what I call it. It was like the biggest hit in China. I heard it everywhere at the grocery store, I heard it at the mall, I heard it people were singing at the karaoke bar, like all the time. Anyway, so I learned the song out there. I do want to sing you, guys, a little piece of the song that I learned. And people have said now with TikTok and stuff, that it's not

true that this song does not exist. But I promise you, guys, I was at the new shop one day and the song came on. And then I was at a full place and the song came on. Guys, like I'm not I swear to you, I'm not lying. The song exists, and I learned it because I was there for three weeks and it was the most popin song. So anyway, the song goes a little like this. It's a shingle

ling gulling. It's a shing young young young. And again I don't even know if I'm saying anything, if I'm even singing Chinese, And it's in no way to disrespect anybody, because again I love the Asian culture so much, but I swear to you, I remember the chorus. That was the chorus, and again I'm probably not even singing anything in Chinese, but I remember it going like that. Everyone was on this song, guys. Everyone in the karaoke bar.

Everyone wanted to sing the damn song, and I had to sing it a couple times, so I remember, next time I hear it somewhere, I promise you, I'm going to record it. I'm going to show you, guys, because I would not lie about something like that, and that's what I did. I just hung out. I went to the spot, I got massages, I ate a lot of cool food, and then I would just come home and get in the bathtub and watch Sex in the City for three weeks. Now moving forward to when I got

back home and I had a finished product. I was so proud of myself when I got the finished product that I told my mom. I said, Mother, just FYI, I'm using the business card and I'm buying myself a first class ticket back. I feel I deserve it and I'm just going to do it. I just told her. I didn't even ask her permission. That was the first time I experienced first class, and I haven't been the same since they give me slippers. It was a laid down bed, Oh my god, night and day experience, guys,

from going coach in the middle seat. It was a lot. I spent like an extra I don't know how much, over one thousand dollars on top of what I had already paid. Well, not me and my mom. So that's that I get home. My mom, by this time was a little happier with me. It took her like two weeks while I was out there to just warm up, and you know, I was kind of getting her excited with everything that I was doing. She was really happy. I remember walking into her office and she was sitting

on her chair and I said, Mom, I'm back. Hi. She was very happy to see me. I was very happy to see her, and she's said, well, show me, show me what you brought. And I remember pulling it out and her face. Guys, the look on her face priceless. I lived lived to make my mom proud. Anytime I saw that face and then just that sparkle in her eye, it was just everything to me. And I'm getting emotional

because I remember. I remember the day and she was so happy and so excited that she had her finished product. And it worked beautifully because it was going to take months before we got the shipment, you know, because everything was going to come by sea. So the fact that I stayed there to get a few made, because they didn't just make me one, they made me like ten.

So we could take pictures and we can also show it to different stores, and WSS actually picked it up and we sold all the units to them, and we were selling it online. So it did very very well and that made me so happy. That was great. We were fine. But then a few weeks later comes the phone bill, and this is where it gets a little sticky, because I didn't turn off my data or data or whatever the roaming. Okay, guys, the phone bill that came

was insane, six thousand dollars phone bill. My mom wanted to kill me. It was such an expensive trip. And I'm like, oh my god, I didn't know. I didn't I never turned off the roaming. I'm like, Mom, I'm sorry. We were on different time zones, like I needed to send a lot of emails, I mean, back and forth with the manufacturers with just everyone with her, and I was on a lot of phone calls, you know, and then I was talking to someone back then. So of course at night I was bored, I'm gonna get on

the phone. Never did I think it was gonna be six thousand dollars. My mom was livid. Then she got over it because I was like Mom, It's okay. You know. Now, I'm like, damn it, my mother. I put her through some things. Anyway, she was upset, but then we got over it and I gave her a thousand dollars and that's when she told me. She's like, what do you want me to do with these thousand dollars? Roll them up and use them as a tampon. She told me that.

I'm like what, I'm like, Mom, a thousand dollars is a thousand dollars. She's like, yeah, and you owe another five thousand. But anyway, it was nice. It was a beautiful experience. And I've grown out of this because I think for a long time I wanted her approval on everything. And it's also not healthy, you know, to live for someone's approval all the time. But I just I wanted to make her proud, you know. And I'm happy and I don't regret anything. But I'm glad that I also

grew out of that and matured. I'm definitely grateful that I was able to experience everything that I did, and my mom trusted me as much as she did to get things done. And again, we did a lot together. I mean, we started the skincare and the makeup line we did, the perfume, we did a tequila business together,

her genes as well. Like I learned everything really because of her, because she threw me into everything and I had no other choice but to figure it out and look into everything and do my research and learn the hard way. But it's helped me out a lot with everything that I do now, So I wouldn't change a thing.

It was a very tough trip, but also everything that I learned and what I was able to accomplish was priceless, and I would do it all over again, even if that meant her and I fighting on the way there. It just because again it gave me that like motivation to like, I'm going to show her and I'm glad because I did, and I'll never forget her face. I would go again to Gwanho. I want to go to Shanghai. I've never heard beautiful things about Shanghai. That's in the

north of China. But my fragrance is made here, guys, in the US. Not that there's anything wrong with manufacturing anything in China, but I did want my perfume, my personal perfume to be developed here in the US. It is Raina and it was definitely inspired by that experience in China and everything that I learned there. So I'm very grateful and I love wearing perfume. I wear my perfume every single day. It's the only perfume I wear. And I wanted to make something very because I have

expensive taste. I do. Even the chemist that made my perfume told me that, she said, you have very expensive taste. And that's why I'm like, Okay, this is exactly why I want to create my own fragrance. Because the fragrance that I used to use was a three hundred dollar bottle, okay, And when people would ask me at my meet and greet's like, Chikie, you smell so good. What perfume is it? I almost felt embarrassed because I was like, what am I doing spending three hundred, five hundred dollars on a

freaking fragrance? Anyway, Like if you can do that, more power to you. But it was I started kind of like, I'm like, I know how much it costs to make these things, Like I know, and that's why I wanted to make my perfume. And that's why Reina is in such a generic bottle, because again, I'm all about not being worried so much about what it looks like on

the outside. Of course I want it to look nice, but when you're first starting out, like you need to get components or you know, things that are already in stock, so you don't spend so much on that. When things start being custom made, that's where it gets really expensive. And I wanted to focus more on what's inside the bottles. Like with my skincare, when we first started, the bottles were very inexpensive because that's what they had in stock.

But I really wanted my product, what's inside, what you use on your face, on your body, for that to be the most expensive thing and what I invested in. So that's what I did with my perfume as well. I got a generic bottle, a generic cap. I wanted to be very simple, very straight to the point, because of course I would like to just go all out. Now I can do that. Now something's coming like a different bottle with like a custom made cap that cost

a lot. But again because you have to be smart, and I saved some money and I said, okay, I'm going to save X amount to make a more custom bottle. But when I first started again, I didn't want to spend that much on the bottle. So when people ask me that, like okay, where are your bottles this? And your bottles that? Because I got a lot of like criticism at first with my skincare because of it, and

I had to explain this to people. I'm like, you guys, it's expensive to make a freaking product, you know, and I'd rather you guys pay for what's inside. And then people when I told them that and they fell in love with the actual product, then they understood. But anyway, that's a whole you know, that's here nor there. I just wanted to explain that. And there is another perfume that's coming. It's a unisex perfume and it's going to be called Michentthe So that'll be coming out around my birthday.

It is unisex, and I'm excited because soon I have to find a date to make a whole video to present it. So this will be my second perfume. I mean, I've had Raina for years now, I want to say at least five years, six years now, and people love it and they come back for more, so that makes me really excited. But now this one's gonna be very different. It's gonna smell different. It's more citrusy, a little musky, but completely different from Raina. So look forward to that.

And yeah, I just that's it, I think. I mean, that's all I really wanted to share and kind of just take you guys down memory lane and take myself there and appreciate more everything that I went through with my mom and all the beautiful moments that we live together, because there were a lot, you know, So that's basically what I'm doing. So you'll hear a lot more stories, I think here on this season because I'm in that mode in that like I want to connect with my

mom in a different way. Now. I will catch you here on the next episode of Cheeks and Chill. Let's getro mucho e. Yeah, make sure you share the podcast with the people that you love, Okay, all right bye. This is a production of iHeartRadio and the My Podcast Network.

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