Silver hoop earrings wired with a gradient violet amethyst softly dangle against nutritional science and dietetics alumna Bree Estrada’s pitch-black hair. 

The stone catches a glow from the afternoon sun as she makes her way to a small Latin American cafe in Downtown San Jose to sell a few of her original, handmade scented candles. 

Late 2017, Estrada learned how to craft jewelry and candles for her friends as gifts from Youtube. 

Through word-of-mouth praise, Estrada’s gift-giving ritual to her friends  became an eco-friendly jewelry and candle business  called Opal Mind, that embraces her Latina roots, while reclaiming styles and utilizing spaces that minorities have typically been ousted from throughout history. 

“Just holding space for local coffee shops or yoga studios and markets like that, where it seems predominantly white, just being there seems like I’m reclaiming my heritage,” Estrada said. 

Her business later progressed when she attended art crawls and shows such as  South First Fridays and San Jose Come Up. 

At the Garden at the Flea,  a vendor and market event, Estrada sold her authentic jewelry, dazzling with rock and punk influences, while acoustic music played under the summer’s day glow.

A hub of Latinx artists, performers and vegan food businesses joined her in the market.

“I just felt very safe there,” Estrada said. 

Estrada’s stone jewelry pieces are each accompanied by a description detailing the significance of the stone and its symbolic nature.

Hoop earrings have always been an emblem of Latina culture, Estrada said. 

“So I’m Mexican and you tend to wear, like, hoop earrings and things like that. So, I wanted to add that stuff and kind of have a cultural significance to it . . . and just, you know, reclaiming styles,” Estrada said. 

By adding her own touches such as rose and smokey quartz, Estrada is bringing the peace and tranquility associated with the gems to the earrings.

“It’s healing for me to create something like an art outlet. And then I guess other people see crystals as healing,” said Estrada. “So for both parties, it can be healing.” 

Before a customer purchases a crystal, Estrada said she washes it with salt to purify it of any bad spirits. 

Customers are not only drawn to the aesthetics and value of the crystals, but also Estrada’s care of the
jewelry pieces. 

“I was raised to believe in the power of crystals and their significance as a healing practice so I can only really purchase crystal jewelry from people I trust,” Chicanx studies senior Ilseh Busarelo said over text. “I trust the products that [Estrada] makes because there is a sense of love and patience embedded in the pieces that she makes.” 

Busarelo finds spirituality and meaning in the presentation of crystals as well. 

“The crystals are wrapped in coil, it makes it feel like it is being protected and therefore, protecting me,” Busarelo said.

Estrada draws a lot of her inspiration for her candle scents from her childhood memories and family. 

Her grandma always made “Café de Olla,” a traditional Mexican coffee beverage made in an earthen clay pot and spice with cinnamon sticks to imbue a rich flavor. 

The hand-poured soy candle “Prosperity and Protection” is an adaptation of “Café de Olla” and the comfort of Mexican identity, burning a bright orange, sunset gradient hue with cinnamon cloves, coffee grounds and citrulline stone aromatics. 

“It just reminds me of how my grandma would put cinnamon sticks in her coffee growing up,” Estrada said. 

The cinnamon and coffee scents are thought to bring career success, vitality and good fortune, according to the “Prosperity and Protection” label on the candle. 

California State University, Monterey Bay alumna Ruby Morales also finds comfort in these aromatics.  

“Having it in my bathroom reminds me to practice self-love,” Morales said. “The ‘Love Spell’ candle is delicately poured and sprinkled with bits of dried flowers which is really elegant looking.” 

Estrada said that the business helps connect women of color as they tend to be the ones supporting her business by buying jewelry and attending local art events. 

“A lot of Mexican women tend to be the ones supporting me and it’s really nice just being local in San Jose,” she said. “I think it just really cultivates, you know, an art scene for people that aren’t predominantly white.”