The beauty products with the black labels, displayed in the center of the Loft Salon in Escondido, look as sleek and stylish as any designed by a top fashion house. Rows of bottles rim the edge of the carousel, tempting clients to twist off the tops, sniff, and dab a finger into the scented creams.

But looks can be deceptive.

At work here is something much more meaningful than simple vanity. It is beauty with a purpose.

"This is so not about lotions and potions and profits," said Hope Baca, creator of the product line called Now There's Hope. "Sure, I did my part to make a good product. The stuff works and that's great -- but what I wanted to do was acknowledge the need."

Baca, who does pedicures and manicures at the salon, has field-tested beauty products for 15 years. She started her new line of products for women and men in November, promising to donate 5 percent of the profits to programs for foster children across San Diego County.

According to Voices for Children, a San Diego advocacy group for foster children, each month 200 children enter the foster care system. There are now more than 7,500 children in foster care in San Diego County.

Baca is also donating what she calls a survival pack -- a large quilted bag with bottles of her products. It's certain, she says, to make any children in foster care feel better about themselves.

"You're always being told you're worthless and ugly," she said, "and I want to tell them they can do this and that someone cares."

She knows what it is like to feel unloved and unwanted.

The sixth of seventh children born to an American Indian mother and a Latino father in the poor rural town of Farmington, N.M., she was abandoned by her parents when she was only 8 years old. After the three youngest Baca girls had been left home alone for more than a week, a neighbor notified the authorities, and Hope and two of her sisters were put into the foster care system.

One of her first placements, she said, was to a place called Childhaven. "I hated it," she said, and she ran away, calling an older sister to come pick her up at a bus station. But that didn't last, and before Hope was finally emancipated at 17, she had lived in 13 different placements.

"I was the only one (of her siblings) to finish high school," she said, adding that she thinks education and giving foster children the tools to be productive members of society is paramount.

"These kids are our future. They are going to be your neighbors and work next to you. In a couple of years, they will be on their own. Don't get me wrong -- I'm grateful, and there are a lot of wonderful people out there and social workers who are trying their best," she said. "But the system is failing."

When her two children were younger, Baca volunteered at Serenity House, a local rehabilitiation center for addicts, and the assisted living residence Redwood Terrace in Escondido. But it was not until her children were grown that she felt able to devote herself to her new venture.

"I feel like this is an opportunity to start my own healing process," she said. "I didn't put my head up for 20 years. I was very strict with my kids. I have clients, these ladies, who heard me talking on the phone every afternoon to my kids and asking them, 'Did you get your homework done?'"

Being abandoned by her parents and moving from one foster home to another, she said, affected her deeply. "It's very shameful and blameful. This is making me deal with a lot of things, too. I never felt pretty or wanted."

Ten beautifully quilted bags have been donated to Baca for her first batch of survival packs for foster children. "Here is a journal, shampoo, conditioner, body butter …" she explains. "And the bags are not see-through, because I know what it is like to have all your belongings in plastic bags."

Baca said that it was very important that the survival packs she is donating are of high quality. "I want to target the 10- to 11-year-olds," she said. "The babies are held and loved, but the older kids know they're probably not going to be adopted."

When Baca went to a chemist to design the product line, she was armed with ideas. "I told them I wanted the bath gel to suds up like Dawn (dishwashing liquid)," she said. "A client said she had to empty out her Jacuzzi four times because of all of the bubbles, and I thought that was the biggest compliment."

She also wanted a little pull tab over each label that would reveal an inspirational phrase, but it turned out to be too expensive. Instead, she has put phrases on the labels saying that she cares about the users, and encouraging them to relax and treat themselves well. Each label also sports a handprint that is from an actual foster child.

"I can't tell you his name," she said of the handprint's owner, "but when I make my first $500, I will give him the money for an educational scholarship."

Now There's Hope products are sold online (www.nowthereshope.com) as well as at The Loft and at Med-Rx Drugs, a pharmacy on East Valley Parkway in Escondido.

"She's a survivor," said Shawna Cruise, owner of the Loft who has been a friend of Baca's for more than 15 years. "The fact that she has used the circumstances of her life to help other people experiencing the same thing is inspiring."

Contact staff writer Ruth Marvin Webster at (760) 740-3527 or rwebster@nctimes.com. Comment at nctimes.com.

Info Box:

WHAT: Now There's HOPE beauty and well-being products

Women's products include: Lime-ginger bath gel, plumeria bath gel, body butter, chocolate body lotion, chocolate massage oil, revitalizing lime-ginger body lotion, shimmering body souffle, soaking bath crystals, sports rub.

Men's products: Face it shaving cream, after-shave stick, exfoliant, sports rub, moisturizing lip balm.

WHERE: available at the Loft Hair Design and Skin Care, 106 W. Grand Ave., Escondido; (760) 741-LOFT (5638)

Also: Now There's Hope for Your Dog: Pet care products include ShamPooch, Dogodorant, Don't Bug My Dog insect repellant and Detangle Fur Conditioner.

Now There's Hope for Your dog will be available at the Paws in the Park event to benefit Escondido Humane Society from 8 a.m. to noon on March 25 at Kit Carson Park, Escondido.

CONTACT: (760) 855-1870; www.nowthereshope.com