After years of interviewing celebrities, covering entertainment and bringing other people’s stories to television audiences, MJ Marfori is stepping into a different role—this time as an entrepreneur with a story of her own to build.

The entertainment journalist and television host is one of the four personalities behind GUTTA GLOW, a new Filipino functional beverage brand that hopes to make wellness a more practical and enjoyable part of everyday life.

For Marfori, entering the wellness business represents unfamiliar but exciting territory. Her career has largely revolved around newsrooms, television studios, red carpets and interviews. With GUTTA GLOW, she now finds herself on the other side of the conversation, helping develop and introduce a product rather than simply reporting about one.

“I’m used to telling other people’s stories, but this time, the four of us are building our own,” Marfori said.

She shares the venture with former TV5 co-anchor, commercial model and entrepreneur Marga Arenas Vargas; executive and reality show winner JR Marfori; and businessman and luxury real estate broker Mikee Arenas.

Their different experiences in media, business, fitness, lifestyle, hospitality and wellness became the foundation for a project that was more than a year in development.

At the heart of GUTTA GLOW is an uncomplicated proposition: healthier choices should not necessarily feel like another demanding responsibility.

“GUTTA GLOW is about taking care of yourself without making wellness feel like a chore,” Marfori explained. “We wanted it to be something you can actually enjoy while navigating work, family, travel and everyday life.”

That approach led the founders to develop beverages based on flavors already familiar to many Filipino consumers.

The initial collection consists of Honey Lemon Iced Tea, French Vanilla Coffee and Spanish Latte. Depending on the drink, formulations include ingredients such as inulin, green tea and green coffee extracts, L-carnitine, garcinia cambogia, berberine extract, IMMUSE® LP20, hydrolyzed collagen, reduced L-glutathione, skim milk, whey protein and stevia extracts.

Rather than asking consumers to dramatically overhaul their lifestyles, the brand hopes to incorporate functional ingredients into something as ordinary as enjoying iced tea or a cup of coffee.

For Vargas, that meant resisting the temptation to enter the category simply because wellness has become a booming consumer trend.

“We didn’t want to create something just because wellness is trending,” she said. “We wanted to create something that we would actually want to drink and make part of our own daily routine.”

According to Vargas, the founders spent over a year learning about the category, developing the beverages and refining their products before bringing them to market.

The company says its products are FDA-approved and Halal-certified, while GUTTA GLOW has also received recognition from Superbrands Philippines.

The founders are looking beyond their first three drinks, viewing the launch as an entry point into a larger wellness business rather than a one-time product release.

GUTTA GLOW officially launched on September 16 at Palm Grove & Garden at The Rockwell Club through a coffee-rave-inspired gathering attended by media personalities, creators, business partners and guests.

Its products are being made available through Shopee, Facebook and TikTok Shop, while the company is also opening opportunities for resellers and distributors as it builds its market presence.

For Marfori, however, the bigger story may be the personal transition behind the business. After spending much of her professional life documenting other people’s milestones, she is now experiencing the risks and excitement that come with creating something herself.

And for the four founders, their wellness philosophy remains deliberately realistic: meaningful changes do not always have to begin with dramatic transformations.

As JR Marfori put it, “We’re not trying to tell people to completely change their lives overnight.”

Sometimes, the founders believe, a new routine can begin with something as familiar as choosing what to drink.