From Me to You

Everything in SHIMA COSMETICS is rooted in love — for my mother, for my people, and for the stories that shaped us.

I want you to know: Navajo stories are rarely ever written down. Our language, Diné Bizaad, only became a written language in the 1930s. Before that — and even now — our stories live inside us, passed from mouth to ear, from heart to heart.

For thousands of years, Diné Bizaad — the Navajo language — lived only in the breath of our people. It was spoken by our elders, carried in our songs, woven into prayers, and shared in the firelight of our hogans. Words were alive, sacred, and not meant to be trapped on paper. They were meant to move with the wind, echo in the canyons, and pass from one generation to the next.

But the world began to change. Outsiders came and wanted our language in books, in schools, in their churches. Missionaries tried to shape Diné Bizaad with their own alphabet so they could translate their Bibles. For the first time, our words — once only oral — were given written forms.

Then came the boarding schools, where our children were punished for speaking the language of their ancestors. At the same time, scholars and linguists began to study our words, trying to capture their rhythm and sound on paper. Some of these writings were not for us, but against us — another way to silence our tongue.

Yet, even in hardship, our language showed its strength. During World War II, Diné Bizaad became the unbreakable code that saved lives. The Navajo Code Talkers proved to the world that our language was not only powerful but essential. After the war, the desire to protect and preserve it grew even stronger.

By the 1940s and 1960s, with the help of Navajo elders and linguists like Robert Young and William Morgan, a written system was born — one that used the English alphabet but carried our sounds, our tones, and our beauty. This wasn’t to replace the oral tradition, but to safeguard it, so future generations could read, write, and keep Diné Bizaad alive in every form.

Now, our language walks in two worlds — spoken and written. It still dances in our ceremonies and prayers, but it also lives on paper, in classrooms, in books, and on the internet. What was once only carried in the voice is now carried by ink too.

Diné Bizaad became a written language not because it was weak, but because it was strong. Too strong to disappear. Too sacred to be forgotten.

And that is the spirit I carry into SHIMA COSMETICS. Our products also walk in two worlds — blending ancestral teachings with modern beauty. Just as Diné Bizaad found a way to live in both the sacred oral tradition and on the written page, SHIMA COSMETICS lives in both the old ways and new dreams.

I want you to break the normal standards of European beauty. My memories hold strong of the face paint in ceremonies, of the pow wow arena, of the colors that spoke louder than words. Beauty is not just lashes and gloss — it is prayer, it is song, it is survival. SHIMA COSMETICS is here to remind you that Indigenous beauty is not behind, it is ahead — alive, powerful, and unstoppable.

I am from the Navajo tribe. My clans are Honágháahnii and Kinyaa'áanii. As I tell you my story and the story of my people, you may see that other tribes are included or that similarities appear in my words. That is just the way it is — there is no hard line for me. When other tribes visit, we often pick up habits from one another that blend naturally into our customs, weaving us together in ways that can’t always be separated.

Because our land is so vast — the Navajo Nation is the largest tribal land in the U.S. — stories shift depending on where you are and who is telling them. The sacred spirits, the heroes, the lessons — they flow like rivers, changing with each family and generation.

The pieces I share through SHIMA COSMETICS come from the stories I grew up with, the ones my family carried. They are not the only way they are told, but they are ours. I share them with love, respect, and deep gratitude.

Thank you for seeing us, for honoring us, and for carrying a piece of that spirit with you.

Always,
your rez girl