Truly Blessed Jewels founder Lisa Valenzuela says the brand’s second store is a homecoming she has looked forward to since starting her business as a self-taught jewelry designer.
Valenzuela now lives in Arizona but was born and raised in Southern California—where Truly Blessed Jewels celebrated a grand opening in Newport Beach on Nov. 22. The jewelry Valenzuela designs for Truly Blessed tends to represent her life as a “California girl meets desert goddess,” she says.
Located at 216 Marine Ave., the new boutique features on-site engraving and piercing, a well-stocked charm bar, and several permanent-jewelry stations, just like Truly Blessed’s first store, in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Prior to opening the Newport Beach shop, Valenzuela had done local pop-ups when she came home to visit family. The area gets a lot of tourists, and Valenzuela says that making sure visitors and newcomers as well as longtime residents feel like they’re part of Truly Blessed Jewels will be key to the new location’s success.
“I focus on customer service—people want to know that you know who they are,” she says. “We make sure everyone who comes in feels welcome. Every time someone checks out, we talk to them, get to know them. Everyone should have a memorable experience. If they’re in just for the weekend, we want them to come back again.”
The new boutique was designed to reflect its location, Valenzuela says. It has a lot of light colors and wood tones, so it fits into the California lifestyle and offers an organic, oceanside ambience. The furnishings are plush, especially the comfortable chairs where customers sit to get permanent jewelry put on. Shelves and mirrors are curvy, giving the space a fun, playful feel, she says.
Both Truly Blessed shops, in Newport Beach and Scottsdale, set a tone and customer experience that Valenzuela hopes to replicate at additional locations opening in 2025 or later. She founded the company in 2012 when she decided to turn jewelry into a full-time career, after holding jobs ranging from dance teacher to caterer to event sales manager, and she focuses on classic chains, charms, and pendants in her collections.
To some degree, Valenzuela is surprised how fast Truly Blessed Jewels has grown over the past 12 years, she says. The brand exploded after adding permanent jewelry—her social media team posted a video of a couple getting forever bracelets together, and appointments for permanent chains at the Arizona store took off.
Valenzuela says she did not have a business plan when she began Truly Blessed, but she had an idea of what the future could hold. It’s a similar approach to how she makes jewelry, she says.
“When I’m ready to start designing, I never have a plan. I put my hair up, put my music on loud, and unleash all the sparkly components onto the dining room table,” says Valenzuela. “I start at all I have bought, and it’s like putting together the prettiest puzzle. The pieces kind of speak to me.”
As far as a philosophy on jewelry, Valenzuela says she tells her staff and her customers to be original, to play with pieces, and to wear exactly what they want when they want.
“Don’t be a cut-and-paste girl,” she says. “You never want to show up to prom in the same dress. Why? Because it’s embarrassing.”
Top: Truly Blessed Jewels just opened in Newport Beach, Calif., its second store, after Scottsdale, Ariz. (Photos courtesy of Truly Blessed Jewels)
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