Mrs. Noemia Diomena was born on August 12th, 1923 in a small village bordering the Amazon region of Northeast Brazil. From an early age, she was taught about the health and healing benefits of the Amazon flora and fauna around her. By the age of thirteen, while helping to care for local children, she began exploring the healing powers of regional plant extracts, vitamins, and oils. She first created her own ‘pastes’ and 'creams' to heal small wounds. Her parents died while she was still a teenager and she married at a young age. At the age of 33, Noemia moved to Sao Paulo and her entire life changed.

By now, Noemia was both a wife and mother. To help provide for the family, she worked in a beauty salon in Sao Paulo and as part of her job visited local laboratories and factories to purchase products used for the various treatments. She befriended a number of the doctors on staff at the local labs and soaked up as much knowledge as possible regarding human anatomy, nature's effects on hair and skin and the ingredients the labs were both testing and using to counteract aging. She also began formulating her own idea of how to apply the natural ingredients she had been using for years. During this time, Noemia's husband would give her money to buy meat for the family, but she would parse off a little bit each time to purchase ingredients for her 'formulas'. Her first truly successful formula was a paste she applied to hair. Local women would travel miles, bypassing dozens of salons, simply to have their hair treated with Noemia's hair cream.

As time passed, Noemia became close friends with a young chemist, Dr. Carnero, who specialized in skin care and was employed by a large, multinational health care company in Sao Paulo. They formed an enduring friendship that lasted over forty years, until his death. Dr. Carnero enlightened Noemia with clinical studies, production facilities and further taught her about why certain ingredients work. For example, how glycolic acid reacts with the upper layer of the epidermis, weakening the binding properties of the lipids that hold the dead skin cells together, thus allowing the outer skin to dissolve, revealing the underlying skin. While Noemia had experienced firsthand the astounding results of her initial formulas, she had no clinical understanding of why these effects occurred until she started sharing both the ingredients and the results with her friend.

At the age of 49, Noemia began to experiment with a formula for an anti-aging product she and her friends could use to maintain the health of their skin during the harsh Brazilian summers. Sixteen years had passed since she began applying the plants, vitamins and oils that existed in her native Amazon together with the clinical education she had received studying for years with local doctors. She spent nearly three years making both formulaic and process adjustments before documenting her anti-aging product called 'Creme da Vovó' (“Grandmother’s Cream”). Initially she produced small quantities for a privileged group of friends and family. However, as stories of the cream’s revolutionary effects spread, she was prodded into producing Creme da Vovó for local distribution.

Noemia’s miraculous formula has since been passed along to her granddaughters, Sandra and Katia Ribeiro, who today produce the handmade cream under Noemia’s (now 86) watchful eye. And, for the first time, the cream is now made available in limited quantities outside of Brazil.