Checking her Google form, she starts working on her new orders of bracelets. Picking out the proper colors and length, she gets started on the time consuming process she loves. Bouncing between drill team and AP classes, sophomore Brantley Ibañez balances her own company on top of it all. RORO, a body/lip scrub and friendship bracelet brand, was created by Ibañez in late 2018 for her to make a little extra money doing something she already loved doing. 

“I learned how to make sugar scrubs through my home [economics class] and I couldn’t stop making it because it was fun,” Ibañez said. “Over the summer I was on TikTok and learned how to make friendship bracelets and [thought] why not sell those too? I’m making way too much, it’s fun to make them, so why not?”

From beaded and loose bracelets to lip scrubs, Ibañez offers a selection for less than $5. She caters to a wide range of audiences with body scrubs in scents like sandalwood or peppermint and bracelets with lettered beads to spell out anything the buyer wants. With an easy to fill out online form, buyers can click the boxes of what they want and pay in person or through Venmo.

“You could just see [Ibañez’s influence] on her brand’s Instagram,” sophomore Mia Herrerah said. “You can directly tell her which [product] you want and she’ll bring it to you.”

To make herself jump out from the competition, Ibañez takes an extra step with her packaging. With small pots for the lip scrubs, mason jars for body scrubs and ribbons tied around her packages, she personalizes what she sends out as much as she can. 

“I really like her packaging,” sophomore Cristine Nguyen said. “Most people just throw it together but [Ibañez] takes time. She puts ribbons and ties it and writes your name on it.”

The scrubs themselves also show Ibañez’s attention to detail that she wants to represent her shop. Herrerah, a buyer of RORO, enjoys the quality without a marked up price.

“I ended up buying [the scrub] because I liked how it felt,” Herrerah said. “They’re softer on the skin. They’re not as harsh as some of the ones you’d buy at the store; I enjoy her’s more.”

RORO is a shop which friends and clients believe could become well-known by others in the future. With its wide range of scents, scrubs and bracelets and extra time spent making personalized packages, RoRo is on the way to becoming bigger, as Ibanez hopes.

“I’d be nice to have [RORO] be a bit bigger and more people to know about it,” Ibañez said. “At the same time it’s [nerve-wracking] for me to really put it out there [because] sometimes I feel ashamed to have [the company], but at the same time it’s making me happy.”