Ceremonia / Unsplash / Byrdie
It’s a picture-perfect day in Los Cabos, Mexico. The sky’s the perfect shade of blue, a soft breeze is coming off the ocean, and not a single cloud threatens to block the sun. I’m sitting at a poolside table across from Babba Rivera, founder of haircare brand Ceremonia. While it is not the typical setting for a beauty interview, our location is very intentional. Rivera chose Las Ventanas Al Paraiso, a Rosewood resort, to be the home of her brand’s very first spa collaboration. To celebrate this milestone, she has invited Byrdie to explore all that this beautiful property has to offer.
Tucked away at the tip of the Baja peninsula, the five-star resort is home to several restaurants, oceanfront villas, and one of the most beautiful spas I've ever seen. "Mexico is my go-to spot when I want to get my cultural fix because Chile is such a trek," she shares. "Rosewood hotels have impeccable spa experiences, but I also wanted to bring this experience to a Latin American destination."
Rivera launched her brand in 2020 with just one product, the Aceite de Moska Hair Oil. "I used to bring my hair oil to every spa and give my massage therapist a crash course on scalp care," she explains. Now, during the next several weeks, guests of Las Ventanas can add a complimentary scalp massage with the Ceremonia oil to any spa treatment.
However, spa culture was engrained in Ceremonia long before this collaboration came to fruition. Ever since the brand's inception, Rivera has set out to create haircare products that bring a spa-like experience into her customers' homes. Over breakfast, Rivera walks me through the evolution of Ceremonia, the latest product innovations, and her definition of hair wellness.
Ceremonia
Founded: Babba Rivera, 2020
Based in: New York, NY
Pricing: $$
Best Known For: Founded by Babba Rivera, Ceremonia is a hair care brand rooted in Latinx heritage. The brand is carbon neutral, only uses 100% PCR bottles, and gives 1% of its revenue to the non-profit 1% For The Planet.
Most Popular Products: Aceite de Moska Hair Oil, Papaya Scalp Scrub, and Guava Shampoo
Fun Fact: Rivera uses skincare analogies for all of her haircare products. For example, she calls The Rescue Spray a primer, The Guava Leave-In Conditioner a moisturizer, and the Hair Oil Mist with Aloe Vera the step that seals it all together.
How the Brand Started
Growing up, beauty—specifically anything about hair—was a family affair for Rivera. "My father was a hairdresser back in Chile," Rivera says. "When he immigrated to Sweden, he could never get a job in the field due to the language barrier. Instead, he practiced on anyone who would let him, and I was an easy target. We had a hairdresser chair in our apartment. I would come down in the morning, and he would spend hours braiding my hair using little oil tinctures he had from his grandma's backyard. I grew up thinking every kid had this relationship with their dad."
Similarly, Rivera’s mother, who she refers to as an unapologetic self-care queen, taught her to prioritize taking a moment for herself through beauty from a young age. “I attribute my self-care approach to my mother because she modeled that self-care is not a luxury; it’s a necessity. In my household, washing your hair was a ritual. It was something to look forward to, and it was done as a social activity. I had a beautiful relationship with beauty at home, but then I became a teenager.”
Like many of us, Rivera became influenced by outside standards once she reached her teens. "I was desperately trying to fit in by reading beauty magazines and looking for a solution to be considered beautiful," she explains. "In Sweden, most people did not look like me. So, the beauty standards that I grew up with were blonde, straight hair. I spent over a decade frantically damaging my hair. I thought I wasn't professional or put together enough if I wore my natural hair. It got to the point where I had to chop all my hair off from how damaged it was."
Rivera tells me reaching this breaking point planted the first seed for Ceremonia. "I wanted to get the best version of my natural hair back," she says. "It became a beautiful journey for me to reconnect with my heritage. For the longest time, I had been running away from my culture. The journey of building Ceremonia was the first step in really reconnecting with my heritage. And through that, I got the download from my family members about all these natural ingredients."
Defining "Hair Wellness"
Throughout our conversation, there was one phrase that Rivera kept repeating—"hair wellness." You might assume it simply means taking an elevated approach to caring for your hair. But I learned that it is a two-pronged mantra. "It's wellness for your body and the planet," she explains. "Ingredient transparency is at the core of everything we do. We treat our formulas the same way you would treat food. If you want to know what you're putting in your body, you should know what you're putting on your body as well."
The second part refers to your relationship with yourself. For Ceremonia, that all starts by creating sensorial products that mimic a spa-like experience. "As a mom of four, I don't have time to get treatments like I used to," Rivera says. "So, for me, if it's going to happen, it has to be simple. It's about upgrading my products and turning them into impactful and joyful experiences."
Below, discover the best-selling Ceremonia products, from the original hair oil to a luxurious scalp scrub.
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The Spaliday Kit
Sephora
$49 at Sephora
Ahead of the 2024 holiday season, Ceremonia created the ultimate giftable set called The Spaliday Kit. It includes a guava pink headband, the best-selling Guava Hair Mask, and the Guava Leave-In Conditioner. “We have done a lot of good product pairings in the past, but this kit hit the mark on all levels,” Rivera says. “I wanted to create something extremely aesthetically pleasing but still affordable. The biggest concern we hear from our consumers is dryness and frizz due to damage. So, I wanted to create a duo that was the perfect gift. These two products are my favorites and are meant to give you that sense of spa at home.”
There are many ways to use the kit, but Rivera suggests using the Guava Hair Mask instead of a conditioner once or twice a week. Leave it on your hair for a few minutes, then rinse it off. Finally, reach for the Guava Leave-In Conditioner on damp hair, pull your strands back into a braid, and let it air dry.
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Aceite de Moska Pre-Shampoo Scalp & Hair Oil
Sephora
$32 at Sephora
Aceite de Moska was the first launch from Ceremonia and is central to the brand's collaboration with Las Ventanas Al Paraiso. In trying to introduce the notion of hair wellness to her community, she knew she wanted to start at the scalp. "I wanted to create a scalp ritual that was attainable and easy to add to any hair routine you already had going," Rivera explains. "By launching Aceite de Moska, I suggested people add this step before washing their hair. It's a heritage remedy derived from the Dominican Republic that we reimagined with clinically backed ingredients. The formula contains 99% natural ingredients, and it's super concentrated yet lightweight."
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Guava Rescue Hair Heat Protectant Spray
Sephora
$24 at Sephora
Anyone who uses a hot tool on their hair knows they should use a heat protectant to avoid damage. But many of the options on the market offer little to no additional benefits, making it an easy step to forget. Rivera wanted the Rescue Spray to be a product consumers would intentionally reach for. “We set out to create a super spray,” she says. “The Guava Rescue Spray is a detangler that is also clinically proven to protect your hair from heat tools and UV rays. It has 96% natural ingredients, so creating such a natural formula with clinically backed results was a big milestone for us.”
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Papaya Scalp Scrub
Sephora
$34 at Sephora
It's very common for people to view washing their hair as a chore. Rivera found herself experiencing the same feelings at certain times in her life. Instead of accepting this, she turned it into an opportunity. "I thought, What if we can turn that experience into a spa-like moment? " Rivera says. "That's why I talk a lot about sensorial products. I want to upgrade people's everyday experience with their haircare."
The perfect example? The Papaya Scalp Scrub. It's a shampoo treatment that Rivera recommends using once a week instead of a regular shampoo. "The number of people who send me DMs saying that they feel like they just left the spa after washing their hair with the scrub is exactly the purpose of it all."
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Guava Shampoo for Damaged and Color Treated Hair
Sephora
$22 at Sephora
As the Ceremonia community grew, shampoo and conditioner became highly requested launches. “People would ask me what shampoo and conditioner I would use, and I was like, ‘Well, I use my own samples’ because we had already been working on creating one,” Rivera says. “My biggest pet peeve with sulfate-free shampoos was that they didn’t lather. People need that sensorial cue. So I wanted to create a shampoo that was sulfate and silicone-free, but that still had lather. [Sure enough] our bestseller is the Guava Shampoo.”
