Lizeth Cuara: The entrepreneur bringing Mexican postpartum tradition to the mainstream

Lizeth Cuara, a Mexican-American entrepreneur based successful Los Angeles, is the unit down Misty Phases, a multimillion-dollar e-commerce marque specializing successful postpartum shapewear. Her products gully inspiration from la cuarentena, the accepted 40-day Mexican postpartum play focused connected maternal healing and recovery. But Cuara’s way to occurrence was thing but conventional.

From hustle to healing

Raised successful Compton, California, by a azygous mother, Cuara grew up facing fiscal hardship. She ne'er finished precocious school, and a decennary ago, she was stuck successful an entry-level job, struggling to marque ends meet. Looking for a mode to alteration her circumstances, she took a leap into e-commerce, experimenting with flipping Amazon instrumentality pallets. With US $10,000 successful savings, she invested successful 2 $5,000 pallets, past turned to YouTube to thatch herself however to database and merchantability the items connected eBay.

(Lizeth Cuara)

Mastering shipping and pricing was her adjacent challenge, but she rapidly realized a elemental formula: the much she listed, the much she sold. Within a month, she had made backmost her archetypal investment. Encouraged by her aboriginal success, she discontinue her occupation to absorption connected the concern full-time.

While the pallet resale concern was profitable, it was unpredictable— immoderate shipments turned a beardown profit, portion others hardly broke even. After 8 months, Cuara started looking for a much sustainable and scalable venture. Drawing connected her experience, she identified a increasing marketplace for products similar lotions, teas, waist trainers and sauna belts. Confident successful the demand, she hired a selling agency, leveraged Facebook ads and tapped into influencer promotions. Soon, her products gained traction, landing features connected Univision and CBS.

The acquisition gave her captious insights into pricing, user behaviour and branding—lessons that laid the instauration for Misty Phases, which she launched successful 2022. Named for the “fog” that often follows childbirth, the marque offers a cautiously curated postulation of postpartum essentials, including girdles, underwear, bras, leggings, shorts, herbal baths, oils and creams. The request is truthful precocious that the marque operates chiefly connected a pre-order basis, often selling out.

A concern calved from trauma

“Misty Phases was calved retired of a profoundly idiosyncratic and traumatic experience,” Cuara recalls. “I astir died giving commencement to my girl owed to an incorrectly administered epidural, which led to an incredibly hard recovery.”

Women of colour and their children are astatine accrued hazard of obstetric unit successful the United States. (DepositPhotos)

Cuara was sent location with a caller baby, stitches and terrible symptom from the mismanaged epidural— but small to nary guidance connected however to attraction for herself. As her wellness deteriorated, she became truthful anemic that she could hardly locomotion oregon clasp her baby. Desperate for answers, she returned to the hospital, lone to beryllium dismissed. The doctor’s advice? That she was simply “stressed” and should debar carrying her baby.

That infinitesimal was a turning point. Cuara realized however small postpartum attraction was disposable successful the United States, particularly for women of color, who look importantly higher risks of complications and maternal mortality successful the country. Studies amusement that college-educated Black women are inactive much apt to acquisition terrible gestation and childbirth complications than achromatic women who ne'er graduated precocious school.

Determined to alteration that, Cuara created Misty Phases not conscionable to supply postpartum enactment but to advocator for maternal wellness equity. “Misty Phases was truly astir creating products to enactment women done postpartum recovery, drafting from our Mexican practice and the contented of the cuarentena. I modernized ancestral practices to marque them accessible and casual to use, bringing consciousness to what our grandmothers and great-grandmothers did aft childbirth.”

Years successful the making

Unlike galore e-commerce entrepreneurs focused connected quick-turnaround products, Cuara dedicated 4 years to researching and processing her postpartum enactment earlier launching Misty Phases. She consulted with midwives, gynecologists and doulas to guarantee her products honored accepted postpartum practices portion gathering modern aesculapian standards. 

(Misty Phases)

Her travel wasn’t easy: galore suppliers refused to enactment with Cuara, dismissing her tiny archetypal orders and the analyzable method specifications required for her designs. But her persistence paid off. She secured some U.S. and planetary patents, ensuring that Misty Phases stood retired successful an manufacture often dominated by generic mass-market products.

In its archetypal year, Misty Phases generated implicit US $1 cardinal successful sales, tripling that fig successful its 2nd year. TikTok has played a immense relation successful the brand’s expansion, not lone driving planetary income but besides fostering a supportive online assemblage wherever mothers stock commencement stories and postpartum advice.

But beyond concern success, Cuara’s remains committed to uplifting underserved mothers. Through Misty Phases, she donates postpartum kits — including belly binders, nursing bras and postpartum underwear — to stateless and exile mothers successful need. What started arsenic a idiosyncratic conflict has go a movement, proving that postpartum attraction isn’t a luxury but a necessity.

Bringing Misty Phases to Mexico

“My extremity was to service Latinas and women of colour successful the U.S., but to my surprise, I recovered customers successful Mexico arsenic well,” Cuara recalls. Soon, she realized that Mexican mothers were consenting to wage implicit $65 successful shipping fees conscionable to entree her postpartum products. Seeing the increasing demand, she knew it was clip to expand. In 2023, she officially launched Misty Phases successful Mexico.

Expanding internationally was some humbling and challenging. Cuara rapidly learned that doing concern successful Mexico was thing similar successful the United States. Her concern slope relationship was closed 3 times, and she discovered that her Spanglish wasn’t cutting it successful high-level concern discussions. Determined to succeed, she hired an interpreter and began moving connected improving her concern Spanish.

Reflecting connected the differences of doing concern successful Mexico and the U.S., Cuara says that conducting concern successful the U.S. has a casual and transactional attack portion successful Mexico, it’s narration and trust-driven. Even if you amusement up to a concern gathering successful Mexico, you are expected to walk the archetypal 10 minutes chatting and getting to cognize your counterparts versus diving close into concern similar is the norm betwixt Americans. 

Mexican customers besides prosecute with Misty Phases successful a profoundly idiosyncratic way. Unlike successful the U.S., wherever customers chiefly travel marque recommendations, Cuara recovered that Mexican mothers actively stock their ain postpartum knowledge— offering tips, stories and feedback that person helped her refine and amended her products. “Doing concern successful Mexico has taught maine to pb with much humanity alternatively than dainty everything arsenic a transaction,” she reflects. Now, she makes definite to commencement each gathering by genuinely asking however the different idiosyncratic is doing, a tiny but meaningful displacement successful her approach.

More than a brand

Today, Misty Phases has a increasing beingness crossed the U.S., Mexico and Latin America. In 2024, the institution surpassed US $5 cardinal successful sales, and projections for the Mexican marketplace unsocial transcend $1 cardinal for 2025. Beyond the numbers, Cuara’s travel is impervious that postpartum attraction isn’t conscionable a niche— it’s a necessity.

What started arsenic a idiosyncratic struggle, past a broadside hustle, has grown into a planetary question empowering mothers done tradition, innovation and community. By blending the contented of past generations with modern postpartum care, Misty Phases is changing the mode women retrieve aft childbirth, 1 parent astatine a time.

Rocio is based successful Mexico City and is the creator of CDMX iykyk, a newsletter designed to support expats, integer nomads and the Mexican diaspora successful the loop. The monthly dispatches diagnostic apical news, taste highlights, upcoming CDMX events and section recommendations. For your dose of must-know quality astir Mexico, subscribe here.