Beautypreneur PH | Standing Tall Together | Tessa Prieto – Blessed with so many empowered and com­pas­sion­ate women on my side, I have sailed smoothly through the toughest waters in my life jour­ney. With a super mom, Marixi Pri­eto, and my only sis­ter Sandy Pri­eto-Romu­aldez in my fam­ily, all struggles and chal­lenges these past years have not been a bur­den because I am sup­por­ted by these strong and dig­ni­fied women who con­stantly steer me to the right path.

This March has been all about women empower­ment. It’s a time to recog­nize women’s achieve­ments, raise aware­ness about women’s rights, and pro­mote gender equal­ity. In the Phil­ip­pines, women struggle with eco­nomic empower­ment and lead­er­ship devel­op­ment. We need to give women tools, resources and sup­port to reach their full poten­tial.

Lead­ing Women

This year, I joined the Women Lead Con­fer­ence 2026 at Dusit Thani Manila. The Italian Cham­ber of Com­merce in the Phil­ip­pines, Inc. in part­ner­ship with Con­nec­ted Women, Phil­ip­pine Young Entre­pren­eurs Asso­ci­ation of the Phil­ip­pines, and the Phil­ip­pine Busi­ness Coali­tion for Women Empower­ment spear­headed a one-ofa-kind and exclus­ive event to cel­eb­rate Inter­na­tional Women’s Day. It was sponsored by Cathay Pacific, SSI Group, Inc., Secur­ity Bank, MX3, Dusit Thani Manila, and CRIF. I was happy to get giveaways from DMark Beauty, Tevi­ant, For Keeps Clean Beauty, and Vogue and TAG Media.

The Lead­er­ship panel brought together influ­en­tial women who are lead­ing organ­iz­a­tions, shap­ing indus­tries, and rede­fin­ing what lead­er­ship looks like in today’s evolving world. With back­grounds span­ning edu­ca­tion, design, con­struc­tion, and cor­por­ate lead­er­ship, this dis­cus­sion high­lighted how women are driv­ing impact through vis­ion, expert­ise, and pur­pose.

In this ses­sion, pan­el­ists shared their lead­er­ship jour­neys, how they rose to pos­i­tions of influ­ence, the chal­lenges they encountered along the way, and the val­ues that guide their decision-mak­ing. The con­ver­sa­tion explored what effect­ive lead­er­ship means today, how women can cul­tiv­ate con­fid­ence and author­ity in their roles, and how lead­ers can inspire the next gen­er­a­tion.

Shar­ing her exper­i­ences in her suc­cess­ful career in the beauty industry, DMark Beauty CEO Nikki Tang learned that lead­er­ship often begins before con­fid­ence does. Some of the most import­ant growth in lead­er­ship hap­pens when we accept respons­ib­il­ity even while we are still learn­ing. Nikki has indeed proved her cred­ib­il­ity in a space that is still largely male-dom­in­ated.

Lead­er­ship is about build­ing cred­ib­il­ity through con­sist­ency. It is about show­ing up. Doing the work. Deliv­er­ing res­ults. And build­ing trust over time.

Our panel was mod­er­ated by Nikki together with other speak­ers Dr. Marie Castro Paz, dean at De La Salle-Col­lege of St. Benilde; Apple Ros­ales, CCO of Tevi­ant; and Les­ley Vil­lanueva, pres­id­ent of DATEM. Per­son­ally, I felt like a comic relief to be with these suc­cess­ful and enga­ging women lead­ing and chan­ging lives in their respect­ively fields.

At the Health and Well­ness panel, Bikram yoga teacher and stu­dio owner Ollay Anin­ion talked about the import­ance of move­ment and align­ment as women age. We need to keep our energy flow­ing and Bikram yoga is an excel­lent way to stay fit at any age and phys­ical fit­ness level. Together in the panel with Ollay was Beverly Archangel who recently opened All-Time Mas­sage, an excel­lent premium home mas­sage ser­vice.

The Women in Pro­fes­sion and Careers panel of Women LEAD 2026 included my cousin Atty. Amanda Carpo, co-founder and chief legal coun­sel of KMC. She shared that build­ing a busi­ness is tough espe­cially with man­aging a team. But it is also the greatest part where she is able to nur­ture tal­ent, foster growth, and build a cul­ture where every­one thrives. Other younger women who are mak­ing the future brighter are Nikki Huang of SSI Group Inc. and Kerry Tinga of Life­style Asia.

Up Close with Gabby

After that excit­ing con­fer­ence, I enjoyed a relax­ing and enter­tain­ing even­ing with more dynamic women to watch the iconic Gabby Con­cep­cion. I was shocked to see so many scream­ing fans of Gabby at his spe­cial per­form­ance at City of Dreams. We even went on stage with GMA big boss Annette Gozon-Valdes and per­formed with this local show­biz legend.

The Spirit of Resort Liv­ing

This week­end, shop at Resort by ArteFino 2026, the first install­ment in a series of cel­eb­ra­tions mark­ing a dec­ade of cham­pi­on­ing Filipino design, craft, and com­munity—set­ting the stage for a year that hon­ors the design­ers, artis­ans, and cre­at­ive voices shap­ing Filipino style today.

ArteFino is foun­ded in 2017 by amaz­ing women who sup­port local artists and crafts­men and cur­ate the most exclus­ive finds all over the coun­try. They are Cedie Var­gas, Mar­imel Fran­cisco, Mar­it­ess Pineda, Mita Rufino, and Susie Quiros.

With a com­munity that has grown more dis­cern­ing and design-aware over time, the cur­a­tion for 2026 reflects a deeper under­stand­ing of the ArteFino audi­ence—high­light­ing brands that not only cap­ture the spirit of resort liv­ing but also embody the plat­form’s ethos of craft, sus­tain­ab­il­ity, and cul­tural storytelling. This year’s edi­tion brings together a tightly edited selec­tion of design­ers whose work reflects the evolving lan­guage of Filipino resort style. The fair is hap­pen­ing all week­end at the Power Plant Rock­well.

This March also includes my legal battles and I am lucky to have my Assump­tion BFF Tessa Alindogan in my sup­port team. With the New Moon in Pisces and the ret­ro­grade over, the rest of the month will be more aus­pi­cious for all! Let’s all har­ness this pos­it­ive energy!

To learn more about Beautypreneur PH, check out Ms. Nikki Tang.