November 2025 Startup Grant Awarded to Piel de Miel

Video Transcript

Marcia: Welcome to a chat today with our startup grant winner for November 2025, Raquel Glottman of Piel de Miel. The Startup grant is for entrepreneurs in the idea phase or the early stage of building their business who haven’t yet hit $10,000 in total sales. 

I’m Marcia Layton Turner, and I’m a member of the WomensNet advisory board, and I have the great opportunity to speak with our winners every other month. Thank you, Raquel, for making time to chat with me today. 

Could you tell everybody a little bit about your company and where the idea came from to start it? 

Raquel: Okay, all right. Well, thank you so much, and I’m very excited to be here. So, Piel de Miel, which stands for “honey skin,” evokes skin and something natural and something that feels very comfortable and sensual. Piel de Miel started actually with a personal health concern, a personal breast health concern. 

I had for many, many years pain in my breast. And even though I have a very healthy lifestyle, I couldn’t understand why that was. And it was only until I came across some information and some books that I realized that there is, in fact, a relationship between what we wear on our breasts every day, all day, our whole lives, and our breast health.

And basically, the information was very clear to me. When we block our lymphatic system, usually traditional bras are made with a tight synthetic band underneath or even underwires, and you can even see the line that is left on the skin after you take them off, the red line. So, that’s usually showing where the blood and the circulation is being blocked. And what we have here is our lymphatic system, which depends on movement and circulation for that lymphatic flow, which is in charge of releasing toxins from the body to stay healthy.

So, I understood that the bras were actually compressing and blocking my lymphatic flow and that mostly they’re made from synthetic fabrics which tend to make the skin heat up, the pores open, sweat, and we also absorb toxins from the bras from what we wear, sport bras, and whatnot, so I understood that. I put all of that together, and I said, “Okay, I got it. This is my path to my personal healing.”

But when I went on to research what was available on the market, I found two very surprising things: one that women don’t know this information and, two, that there really wasn’t anything in the market out there which was exactly what I was dreaming of and what I wanted to wear, which basically I want it to be natural, of course no elastics, no bands to feel like a glove and made with really soft fabrics. So, that’s the root of where everything started for me and it’s been a long journey since then. And I now have a fabulous product, so I’m really excited to bring it forward now. Thank you.

Marcia: Excellent. It’s so interesting. 

So, let’s talk now about, as you were getting started, or even as you’ve learned along the way, what was a resource that you found really helpful in starting your business? 

Raquel: Yes, absolutely. Well, “Entrepreneurs On Fire” is a podcast I love listening to when I’m working out every morning, and that always gives me a boost. There’s always a takeaway, so I think he’s great. 

And as I mentioned, my business actually started with a book, with information that I found in a book, Dressed to Kill. So, this book is written by a couple, and both of them are medical anthropologists. which means they study the effect of culture on our health. And they are the ones who explain everything. They actually did a survey with over 5,000 women in the U.S., and they also did studies in cultures where there is no bra. There was no breast cancer. As soon as the bra was introduced, I think they mentioned the Philippines, when the culture kind of started to get influenced by Western culture, and that’s when they started having breast health issues.

So, they are the ones that very boldly start to talk about the subject because, as it turns out, this is a very delicate and taboo subject, and only experts in the field can actually go into explaining it and talking about it with confidence in what they’re talking about. But I got all my information from here, all my inspiration. And, it takes away a little bit of the mystery surrounding breast health issues and breast cancer, because usually there’s this helplessness, and we don’t know why it’s caused. And nobody, kind of, wants to point out the fact that there are, in fact, things that we can do to lessen our risk factors.

So, this book was a great inspiration for me. And of course, as soon as I had my first prototypes and samples ready, I sent it to them. I reached out to them, and I now have a really nice relationship with them. When I reached out to them, they said, “We’ve been receiving from many people options and alternatives to better solutions for the traditional bras, and really, this one is the one that actually addresses the issue, and we recommend the one that you’re making.” So, I have a beautiful relationship with them, and this is the book that inspired me. And I really encourage women to just dig into the subject a little bit because it pertains to all of us and our health. 

Marcia: Let’s talk a little bit about marketing, because that’s really one topic that small business owners, men, women, everybody, they are always trying to get better at marketing. Has there been a particular marketing strategy or tactic that you found really works for your business and that you might recommend other business owners look into?

Raquel: Well, as you know, we are a startup, but there are a few ideas that we’re going to implement, and we already started working on as far as our campaigns. One thing is that we’re going to be including in all of our sales this little booklet that is adorable. It’s an adorable representation of, again, a serious subject done in a very sweet way. 

And this is where we’re going to go into different tips of how we can keep our breasts…how we can reduce risk factors. So, this is one of them that we’ve included. 

And then also, we want to have with Piel de Miel a very real, authentic voice. And so there’s a campaign that we already started recording a few of them, which is called The Breast Monologues. And basically, it’s four questions, and we are recording a video of women, but it’s anonymous. So, we record from here to here [indicating shoulder to stomach], only the breast, and we ask four specific questions. 

So, the questions are: one, how do you feel about your breasts? That already says a lot. Two, if your breasts could talk, what would they say? Three, do you have any anecdotes or any insights that you’d like to share? And four, have you ever had any breast health concerns? 

And just on those four questions, I’ve had the most diverse, kind of, answers and stories. And so our voice is going to be real, it’s going to be authentic. So, we’re going to share a lot of videos in a very real, authentic way, and keep it human. Yeah, that’s, kind of, what we’re going for marketing. 

Marcia: I love hearing these stories. So, to wrap up, what is one thing that the WomensNet community could do to show support for your business from afar? 

Raquel: Okay, so Piel de Miel will be launching by the end of February 2026. And yes, and of course [we’d love applicants for] The Boob Monologues. You know, I would love to know who’s in for answering four questions. And of course they’ll be wearing a Piel de Miel when they do so. 

Besides that, please follow us. We’ll be out by February, and that is pieldemiel.co. It’s the same for our Instagram or for our webpage. And always happy to do a little Boob Monologue with any woman that’s ready for it. So, I invite all of you, open invitation.

Marcia: Excellent. Well, thank you so much for sharing your amazing and intriguing story with us. And congratulations again on being our November startup grant winner.