Originally published in San Antonio Magazine
As a 20-something, Carmen Rocio Tellez remembers feeling like her acne was probably the only thing people noticed. Her brother had taken a prescription to deal with his skin, but it negatively impacted his kidneys. “I was appalled about that and really wanted to take a more holistic approach,” she says. Her obsession with finding the right skincare regimen followed her into college, where she studied biology. When she was looking to make some extra money without distracting from her studies, Tellez turned her passion into a side gig and began formulating and selling skincare products, focusing on plant-based ingredients. After graduation, the Laredo native enrolled in Aveda’s esthetician program in San Antonio and continued working on her products, which she sold at local farmers and makers markets. Last fall, she and esthetician Aponi Balderas opened Dewy Skin Studio downtown, providing facials and other services to locals and tourists. Tellez continues to sell her own products under the Dewy Skin brand and she’s now working with a local lab to formulate a toner, reishi and rose generating gel cleanser and more using plant-based ingredients like prickly pear cactus and shiitake mushroom extracts. “It wouldn’t
