Letter from Puerto Rico
Vacationing in the Land of Liminality
Thank you for reading Venus of the Mind, a publication for those who like to look good & think deep.🌀✨
This newsletter — dedicated to lovers of beauty and culture — features insights plus deep dives from a recovering academic turned facialist.
Mark your calendar bookish beauties! Our book club for paid subscribers will meet Tuesday, January 20, 3:30pm to 4:20pm EST via Zoom. We’ll be exploring The House of Beauty: Lessons From the Image Industry and are so lucky to be welcoming author Arabelle Sicardi who will join us live (online) in conversation about their book!
Dear Newsletter Hottie,
I bring gifts from Puerto Rico!
No Antillean shell was left unturned so grab your fave warm drink, find a chill spot, and get comfy.
This newsletter is for the ones who enjoy depth and range. The structure moves sequentially from skincare, to food, then art, and geopolitics.
LET’S GO.
La Misión: Puro Glow
Vanity Can be a Virtue
When micro-dosed it is a wonderful catalyst for consistency and consistency is the key to a successful routine.
On average, adult skin renews itself around 28 to 30-32 days. This is one of the reasons why I practice lunar living because adult human skin cycles through an infradian rhythm that aligns nicely with moon time.
I began to consciously skin-prep for Puerto Rico at the start of a New Moon on Thursday, July 24. This put me at three weeks before my sisters and I were going to see Benito at his Coliseo residency. My skin had to be clear, fresh, effervescent. I have a literal license to glow so there would be no excuses! It did not matter that my menstrual cycle was due to start while on this trip. I.Would.Win.
My skin prep was built around the fact that 1) skin is an organ and 2) my luteal phase would peak right before vacation. This meant that days before flying out my estrogen levels would be low and progesterone levels would be high which would increase the potential for inflammatory responses in my skin. With all of this in mind my skin prep began in the kitchen.
The gut-skin connection is a thing (first link is a medical journal here’s the tldr version). I eschewed eating foods that I knew would potentiate eczema or acne flares. I focused on eating in a manner that works for me when it comes to staying satiated and energized, with blood sugar levels steady most of the time. This was done fully knowing that it would all go out the window the minute my vacation started because indulgence can also be a virtue whereas constant circumscription is most definitely a sin.
I Did Not Try Any New Products in the Lead Up
Remember fellow Newsletter Hottie: when prepping for an important event the time to figure out new products and tweak a routine is ideally six months prior to the event. Why? Because it can take between a day and two weeks to make sure a product is not negatively affecting the skin. Once that has been established it takes about three skin cycles to see results from a tailored routine.
By the time you are three months out from your event, you want to be locked into a routine flow with some wiggle room for adjusting as needed yes, but you do not want to still be figuring out the main formula. After that, what matters is consistency over perfection.
Now if it’s a wedding and you’re the one getting married then six months is the minimum to start prepping but ideally that prep has begun 12 to 18 months out. Factoring in both tailored home-care and consistent professional treatments.
My Product List
As of this writing, my routine had been adapted to the transition from autumn to winter. Plus, I am now testing out new products for my private studio’s backbar so my current product list has been switched up. What follows is the core of my routine product line-up in the weeks leading up to Puerto Rico this past summer.
While the conscious prepping began one moon-cycle out from vacation, the foundation had already been set for sometime so that the core of my routine was on auto-pilot. This framework is the foundational skeleton of my routine year round and I switch out products as needed while keeping the foundation.
My rotation of actives for skin-cycling:
Differin (Adaplene) Gel 0.1% - over the counter.
Every client of mine starting a retinoid journey gets the above “skin-cycling” link sent to them in a follow-up email. What I’m saying is, if you’re remotely curious about incorporating a retinoid into your nighttime routine you need the above link. Bookmark it. You’re welcome.
Perfect Derma’s Perfect B Brightening Complex.
Low dose hydroquinone I was using under medical supervision. I have since switched over from hydroquinone to tranexamic acid as the former is not recommended for longterm use when managing hyperpigmentation.
Goldfaden MD Fresh-a-Peel or Skinbetter Science AlphaRet Exfoliating Peel Pads
Daytime basics for cleansing, extrinsic delivery of antioxidants to the skin, and protection from UV-damage:
Cleanse with Dermalogica’s Ultra Calming Cleanser after coming in from walking my Scorpio Son (pun-intended and my son is a canine). Or, Dr. Loretta’s Gentle Hydrating Cleanser if I was sweaty from a morning workout.
Indie Lee CoQ10 Toner
Skinbetter Science Alto Defense Serum
Black Girl Sunscreen SPF 30. This sunscreen is so good that I have clients of different backgrounds using it.
Nighttime double cleanse, antioxidants for overnight repair, moisturizer basics:
First cleanse, oil based. I have a few cleansers that I like to use based on how grimy my skin is from the day’s activities, how much SPF I have reapplied throughout the day, whatever conditions I may be managing at the moment (if any), and going by the how my skin is looking/feeling; skin talks and I interpret it.
One Love Organics Botanical B Cleansing Oil, Mara Algae Enzyme Cleansing Oil, Pai Lightwork Cleanser, Every Mood Botanical Cleansing Oil from IN GROOV (Shani Hillian is on my bucket list of estheticians to get a facial with!).
Second cleanse, water based. Based on the same selection criteria as above and if I am going to follow up with an active or not.
Same daytime options plus the CeraVe Hydrating Facial Cleanser, Prequel Glycerin Cleanser, Prequel Salicylic Cleanser, Image Restoring Facial Cleanser.
Indie Lee CoQ10 Toner (on non-active night).
Skinbetter Science Alto Defense Serum (on non-active night).
Avene Xeracalm Lipid-replenishing Balm (creamy consistency despite the name) or Dieux Skin Instant Angel (a stateside brand that is so values aligned I’m obsessed).
While none of my day or night variations go beyond five steps, sometimes I deal with la depre plus comorbidities and can’t be bothered with all of the above.
In those moments my baseline nighttime routine is two steps:
Oil cleanser
Massaged in for two minutes, emulsified for two minutes, and a warm towel over my face for one minute before wiping it all off.
The intentional massage is grounding and is a way to communicate to myself that I will be ok even if I don’t believe it in that moment.
Deep breathing under the darkness of the towel feels good, like a mini-therapeutic sensory deprivation session. And no, five minutes is not a longtime, click here to see the light on cleansing right.
Avene Xeracalm Lipid-replenishing Balm
Baseline daytime routine, also two steps:
Splash with cold water - to feel something, anything!
Black Girl Sunscreen SPF 30
I stay at baseline until I remember that the more effort I give myself the better I feel.
Key-word is Intentional
I stopped exfoliating and using a retinoid two weeks before flying in preparation for going all in with a double exfoliation one week before flying out. Because I am eczema-prone, my skin is easily sensitized so I stopped a week before I planned to dermaplane and chemically exfoliate once again with my usual lactic acid + fruit enzyme blend.
As established above, I knew that a week before flying out I wanted to dermaplane myself then do a no-downtime chemical exfoliation right after. Dermaplaning right before a chemical exfoliation leads to maximum absorption and optimal resurfacing but it can also lead to irritation so I was intentional about stopping retinoid usage a week beforehand which means I stopped my retinoid and exfoliant for a total of two weeks before Puerto Rico. Whether it is three days, five days, one week, or two weeks prior, per your skin’s tolerance stop all actives before doing a double exfoliation. Otherwise, your face may fall off.
I was on day two of menstruating when I landed but my skin was calm and the Caribbean light was bouncing off of me as if I were a disco ball.
Eat well, hydrate, sleep (sort of) decently, consistent skincare routine, repeat = I WON.
A moment dedicated to concert outfit details.
NooWorks is a woman-owned small business based out of California. The team crafts textiles for all bodies. Boots were on sale at DSW ages ago. I also wore them to see María Victoria in Boston summer 2024, Raúl at El Choli back in December 2023, and Benito twice in 2022 first in Charlotte, NC then in D.C. These boots were made for more than walking, they’re perreo-proof!
How to Survive a Heat Rash
I was winning until I wasn’t.
Hubris was to blame.
Four days in, I began to sense that my skin was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. After reviewing my daily skincare tracker and doing some cursory research as to possible contributing factors, I accepted defeat.
A heat rash had befallen me. The climate was having its way my skin. My ego in shambles, I asked the Island, “is this your way of calling me gringa?”
I say hubris was to blame because in my confidence with skin-prep before the trip, I forgot all about accounting for skin-adaptation during said trip. I made a rookie travel mistake and brought all of my products chosen for heat of the Mid-Atlantic. Nothing was packed with consideration to Caribbean heat. I’ve had a passport since middle school and I’m a licensed master esthetician, I knew better!
Another major mistake was made: over reliance on face wipes one too many times instead of a proper evening cleanse. *Cries in Human Error.* While researching, I also learned that hormonal changes - like experiencing one’s period - can also lead to a heat rash. That’s the kind of information that should be included in a womb-owner’s manual.
Once I figured out what was going on, a quick trip to a drugstore down the strip of Condado beach resulted in some quality finds for clearing, calming, and soothing my skin. Pictured below is everything that worked to calm things down.
Funnily enough, while the hyaluronic acid serum’s cosmetic formulation was perfect for keeping me lightly moisturized without suffocating my skin in Puerto Rico, as soon as I was back in Virginia it did nothing for me. Similarly with the arnica gel - which I applied to my skin first (before the serum) after a quick gentle wash-down with the SA Cleanser Bar - the gel was perfect for the island climate, yet as soon as I was stateside it felt tacky and would pill on my skin. Skincare too, is informed by geography, climate, and seasonality!
Beyond the “GLOW”
Below I will highlight my top seven experiences from eating and drinking around San Juan. These locations came from meticulously combing through Alicia Kennedy’s archives and maps, recommendations from my own contacts on the island, and recommendations that my sisters scoped out personally.
This newsletter will then flow into art-talks followed by reflections on navigating the island’s colonial matrices. To round-out the travelogue, a playlist at the end will transport you not just to Puerto Rico but to all of the Circum-Caribbean.
Newsletter Hotties, your holiday giveaway is right after the playlist.
¡A Comer!
Some of the best meals I’ve had all year were in San Juan; as 2025 wraps up, I am still reminiscing over them. Links for every spot embedded in location names.
Pío Pío
151 Calle de San Francisco, San Juan, PR 00901 - in Viejo San Juan.
Starting with our first night over dinner at Pío-Pío where I was ready to shed tears over how delightful everything was, from the wine to the food and the service. Was the food that good or was I just googly-eyed over the waitress who mentioned an interest in somellier studies? Both! She was so charming that we were roped into the a full-course tasting plus drink-pairing menu before we’d even been fully seated.
Every bite was unique, flavorful, seasonal, and locally sourced. I somehow managed to take decent pictures of our drinks but not our food, though trust when I say, each plate was 1000/10. My absolute favorite was the crudo, a zingy mix of watermelon, mezcal, aguachile, cucumbers, and salsa macha. In my realtime notes from the dinner I wrote, “I could eat a whole bowl of whatever we just had.” It was the crudo.
Café Regina
1705 Calle Loiza, San Juan, Puerto Rico 00911
I will always remember Café Regina for three things.
An unexpectedly heavy “Madre Patría” presence. When we first stepped into the café, we were overwhelmed by a wave of Castellano which threw me for a loop. Where were the blended Circum-Caribbean inflections, the Rs pronounced as Ls, and the aspirated Ss? I turned to one of my sisters and wondered out loud why everyone looked and sounded like they were fresh off a boat from Spain. Turns out, many of them were in fact freshly arrived from Spain. That was not on my bingo card! It’s like spotting French tourists in Haiti. It will never not be silly.
My first real celebrity sighting! I saw Paopao duck into the shop and make a phone call while shiftily waiting for what I assume was her ride to whisk her away from us plebeians. Casí perdí la cordura, to the point where my sisters wondered if I was ok. But everyone in the shop seemed unfazed by Paopao’s presence so I calmed myself and played along. I later messaged a friend who is from the island and she confirmed that considering we were in Condado, I probably did see who I thought I saw. ELATION.
A robust cortado and a scrumptious calabacín sandwich. My verbatim note-to-self from Café Regina, “I need to know the mayo or butter(?), or whatever spread was used on this bread.”
Café con C
1765 Calle Loíza, San Juan, PR 00911 - there is another location on Calle Cerra also in San Juan.
A couple blocks further down Calle Loíza, this spot is cozy reprieve from the fluorescently-lit intensity of Café Regina. There’s a fun community wall that gives a run-down of every artsy event going on in San Juan, along with cute sketches and love-notes left by patrons. There’s also a vending machine outside of the café where instead of snacks or drinks for sale, there’s prints from local artists! The neighborhood cats also like to lounge there and that gives a business a special kind of legitimacy when it’s frequented mainly by locals and street cats instead of tourists and tax-evaders.
Wild Culture Mushrooms
1054 Ave Ponce de Leon, San Juan PR 00907 - this is Santurce, there’s also an Aguada location.
I am by no means a mycophile but I do consider myself to be mushroom-lover adjacent for several reasons. Two wonderful friends of mine are into all things mycelial and I’ve learned a lot from them by osmosis. Once, while wandering with Rey (aforementioned canine child) I happened upon chicken of the woods and another time I crossed paths with wood ear! I made nuggets out of the first forage and a gravy with the second for a sandwich. Finally, I prefer psilocybin over Vyvanse for collaborating with ADHD - yes collaborate.
All of this is context for why I was transfixed when we stumbled upon this shop while walking around after lunch at Leña Eh (included in this list too).
The design is very Willy-Wonka if he was into mushrooms over chocolate. All coffees, teas, and pastries are infused with mushroom tinctures! Wild Culture Mushrooms also has a token street cat that the staff cares for.
Aside from the novelty of it all, the coffee goes done smoothly with a rich flavor profile. I recommend the chagaccino, a myco-latte of espresso, cacao, and chaga mushroom.
Leña Eh
1006 Ave Ponce de Leon, San Juan, PR 00925-2906 - inside Miramar Food Truck Park.
First, a moment for the setting: location, location, location!
Lunch at this food-truck and dinner at Los Chamos (listed below) were my favorite meals of the whole week. Similar to my experience in Richmond, this meal in Miramar had me thinking about what I referred to in Richmond as an “abundance of refusal.” There’s so much culinary creativity to be enjoyed when meat isn’t hogging the show and this meal at Leña Eh was a perfect example of that. Berenjena asada y garbanzos con arroz, simple yet vibrant, smokey and seasoned. MORE PLEASE.
Chef Rubén Guzman, a recent James Beard Award semifinalist, was in his element orchestrating this dish and it was fun to observe while we waited.
Los Chamos Arepas
Av Isla Verde, Carolina, PR 00973 - just keep driving until you see it.
From the music of Rawayana, to Juan Carlos López Quintero (lead curator at Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico), to Los Chamos and more, Venezuela está PRESENTE en PR. Pictured below: cachapa con platáno, queso fresco, caraotas negras, aguacate, salsa verde, y salsa de ajo. Not pictured but definitely enjoyed, tequeños de queso y guayaba. Highly recommend getting those too.
Hermanos Lucca
322 Ave. Jose de Diego, Santurce, Puerto Rico
Both Pío-Pío and Hermanos Lucca are featured in this culture piece from Wine Enthusiast which made its way into my research as our itinerary was taking shape. After a long day all around the city, this natural wine bar was the perfect place to settle into for a cozy tapas style meal with a solid bottle of red from La Morella.
De la Calle a la Gallería
Beneath the conventional image, the kind one sees developed - or summarized - in publicity films in the United States or Japan, the luxuriously fatal image for selling a country (“The Antilles Cheap”), beneath this insipid facade, we rediscover the ardor of a land. I see the mockery of the image, and I do not see it. I catch the quivering of this beach by surprise, this beach where visitors exclaim how beautiful! how typical! and I see that it is burning.
Poetics of Relation by Èdouard Glissant
There are two kinds of tourists, those who go for the photo-op and those who go to disappear. I love a good photo as much as the next chronically online babe but I also love to disappear.
It helps to speak the predominant language without a traceable Anglo-American accent. Even better to be a fluent heritage speaker who is visibly Black. Beyond the Anglo-American bubble, people show their true colors when they read you as Black and assume that you could be from anywhere except Anglo-America. Disappearing this way, into the fabric of a place even momentarily makes for memorable eavesdropping.
During our second visit to Café Regina, my sisters and I were seated next to two Galician gals and two Chicago bros. We seemed to have arrived in the middle of what had already been a long conversation. The midwestern bros joked about wanting to hire the women for Spanish lessons and the españolas giggled profusely as they commented back about how it felt like they’d already known each other for years despite only just meeting. As we settled next to them at an open table we asked them in Spanish if the leftover plates at the table were theirs to which they said no and carried on in English with the bros occasionally showcasing what they remembered from their high school Spanish days. A showcase which the women seemed to find endearing no matter how grating.
The conversation continued on with complaints about how boring Puerto Rico was after having seen Bad Bunny earlier in the week. The Chicago bros couldn’t figure out what else to do on this island that wasn’t living up to all its hype. One Galician suggested El Yunque, the other reminded them that there’s so many beautiful beaches in PR, one of the bros replied that Ibiza (heavy on the IbiTHa) was better for sure and that they should all go together, the women laughed.
Their boredom with Puerto Rico now that Bad Bunny was no longer entertaining them gave way to complaints about other places that had left them disappointed. Paris for example, according to one of the Spaniards, had been too rough for her. Too many immigrants, too many homeless people, no one is actually French in France anymore she lamented. Chicago bro said that New York was exactly the same, no one in New York is actually from New York and it’s gotten too international. Chicago was still beautiful though, if one knows where to go, and San Diego too, it hasn't been overrun by the wrong kind of people yet.
One Galician gal commented that she’d never been to Chicago or San Diego (where one of the bros travels to regularly for business), to which the bros replied they should all get in a group chat and start planning. The women could show them around their Galician hometowns and then they’d all go to Madrid (where the Galicianas are now based) before hitting up Ibiza. In return, the Galician gals could visit Chicago and the bros would show them around the U.S. - but only the good parts, so it would be a short trip.
Finished with our lunch, I got up to drop off our plates while my sisters gathered their things. As I returned to our shared table another friend of the bros had walked up and was pulling my seat away before realizing that I’d been there, with his ear-curdling Spanish he tried to ascertain if that was still my seat, confirming what I’d assumed, that they hadn’t registered us as English speakers. Mission accomplished, we’d heard the real them in all their ugliness.
Their conversation echoed in my mind while I made my way through Mar Adentro/Out to Sea, an exhibit at Puerto Rico’s Museum of Contemporary Art (MAC). It was as though the vestiges of Spanish colonialism and the spirit of ongoing American imperialism had possessed them while they fell into lust with each other over un buen cafecito. But they were not possessed, that’s simply who they were. Four individuals raised on opposite sides of the Atlantic yet still able to bond over a shared lack of imagination, entitlement, and a simple-minded view of the world.
Livin’la Vida Liminal
How unfortunate that the linear concept of time is the default when teaching classroom history. History is not a series of sequential events that happened with a beginning, middle, and end. History is always happening. It unfolds, overlaps, circles back, rebounds, and reflects. Current events are patterns. The state of the world is a call and response. The news is a reckoning.
Ball and chained to the United States while simultaneously adrift in centuries of continued extraction, Puerto Rico is one of those places where the wounds of history unfold in realtime and in plain sight.
The wound is present in learning from Puerto Rico Plural - an exhibit at el Museo de Art de Puerto Rico (MAPR) - that the aging descendants of Puerto Rico’s dwindling yet powerful Criollo class were complicit in building out the foundation for the island’s colonial limbo today.
The wound is present in how the cashier at the museum gift shop tells us her thoughts on the aforementioned exhibit, “Puerto Rico tiene que levantarse…” her tone equal parts assertive and wistful.
The wound is present in conversation with visibly Afro-descendant Puerto Ricans who make a point to distance themselves from belonging to a Black diaspora.
The wound is present when a white security guard at el Choli giggles while enthusiastically running her hands through my sisters’ hair and then my own as she claims it is to make sure we are not hiding anything in our hair. She then says, “Mi hijo también se molesta cuando le toco su afro.” This was not our first time at el Choli but it was our first time encountering this additional layer of so-called security. We noticed that others who were not visibly black but had varying degrees of much longer and thicker textured hair were not patted down.
The wound is present in walking by whole swaths of San Juan up for sale at prices tailored to tax-evading plutocrats.
The wound is present in the irony of our bed and breakfast host having to rely on Tesla generators because the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) is a joke.
The wound is present in how our guide at San Juan Artisan Distillers explained the logistical minefield of selling their sumptuously crafted rum outside of the island while being mired in doublespeak policies for doing business from inside an “Associated Free State.”
But maybe from within the wound there is also medicine. The longer I observed the social spaces around me, I could sense a potentiality for another kind of world on the island. These glimmers were especially potent outside of San Juan. As we visited Vega Alta and then drove into Vega Baja, I was reminded of the following three passages from Naomi Klein’s The Battle for Paradise: Puerto Rico Takes on the Disaster Capitalists.
But there is a flip side to these painful revelations. Puerto Ricans now know, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that there is no government that has their interests at heart, not in the governor’s mansion, not on the unelected fiscal control board (which many Puerto Ricans welcomed at first, convinced it would root out corruption), and certainly not in Washington…
Mónica Flores, a graduate student in environmental sciences at the University of of Puerto Rico who has been working with communities on renewable energy projects, told me that truly democratic resource management is the island’s best hope. People need to have a sense, she said, “that this is our energy. This is our water, and this is how we manage it because we believe in this process, and we respect our culture, our nature, everything that is supporting us.”
And many Puerto Ricans have also been building their future world in miniature, on those islands of sovereignty hidden throughout the territory…Elizabeth Yeampierre, who attended the Mariana summit, believes that despite all the devastation being visited on Puerto Rico, her people have the fortitude for the battles ahead. “I see a level of resistance and support that I didn’t imagine was going to be possible,” she said. “And it reminds me that these are the descendants of colonization and slavery, and they are strong.”
America América
Because of the community that I grew-up in, my geo-political consciousness has always been oriented southward towards América Latina. While I was born and raised in Virginia, what makes me truly southern is that all my roots stretch deep into the Global South. Those roots weave towards Venezuela, Panamá, Jamaica, and Barbados. They loop up into Southern Europe, and down to North Africa, rooting through West Africa and weaving back around to the Circum-Caribbean. My North-South/South-South orientation is immune to the straitjacket of nationhood. I belong to the world.
All my life I have seen the imprint of hemispheric history around me, at church, at school, at the grocery store and more. All my life I have been perplexed by the disconnect between these two worlds, the multilingual world of my Virginia upbringing, where it is so clear that the entire fate of this region is inextricably linked, and the monolingual Anglo-world of the United States. A sphere where the proverbial chickens of imperialism are always coming home to roost in all kinds of ways yet most Americans are seemingly unaware. As though our present doesn’t link back to centuries of plunder that pre-date 1776. As though current waves of migration are not directly linked to ongoing practices of material extraction and labor abuse. As though the criminal failure in response to Katrina did not foreshadow the criminal failure in response to María which was then repeated during Helene. As though, as though, as though. The mirroring is unending.
This imprint was with me everyday in Puerto Rico. I felt its shadow on the streets, in restaurants, and in gallery corridors. It both haunted and guided me, as this kind of knowing tends to do. Like gazing at an oil painting and being able to see the umber wash laid as the canvas’ underpainting, along with all the subsequent layers of illusion brushed overtop.
P.S.
A playlist for you 💖. What it feels like to disappear into the land of liminality. *Do not shuffle the first time.*
The way you write is enchanting!
Stunning. You really seeeee Puerto Rico. Leña Eh is everyone’s favorite and I’m so glad!!!