Martha’s Body Bueno

Does the name sound familiar to some of you? It just might! Martha Doster opened Body Bueno in 1975. She had a brick and mortar in Nob Hill for 32 years, which became known as Martha’s Body Bueno Shop.

 She started this business with natural skin products. She put extensive research into products and concocted her own amazing line of skin care and she bottled and labeled everything by hand.

 She was so successful she expanded several times, offering not just organic skin care in the shop. She had a line of 150 scents you were able to personalize your skin care with, lingerie, jewelry, fun greeting cards, and so much more.

 After 32 years, she decided to retire and close shop in 2008.

However, loyal customers who recognized her would rave about how much they missed her products. So she started delivering to her customers at parking lots or wherever they decided to meet. I jokingly said “so you’ve been dealing in the streets?” She then replied “it’s funny you say that, because I delivered everything in a brown paper bag!”

 Because of her many devoted customers, she is still selling her products today! She has an online shop and has some of her products in my office as well. Her customers trust her in-depth knowledge in skin care and her carefully-chosen ingredients for each of her products.

Side Note: We have been collaborating since I started my business in 2016 and, if you have not noticed, I have her products at my office as well.

Introducing Martha Doster to you! I hope you get to try her amazing products, if you haven’t already. Here is her story directly from Martha herself…

I was so naïve!

I opened the Body Bueno storefront not knowing anything about retail or skincare! I had moved to New Mexico from Key West, Florida, where I was a bartender at night so I could be on the beach every day.

In just 2 months, at age 25, I went from the Keys to New Mexico, then to Alaska, and then back to New Mexico to settle down with the guy who had convinced me to move to the Rockies. He was instrumental in my transition from beach hippie to learning about retail in the ”trial by fire” method. Three months after my arrival in my new home, Body Bueno was a reality.

We borrowed $1200 from a friend, opened a tiny shop on Central Ave. near the University, and began the Body Bueno adventure. Who knew it would last so long?

My interest in natural skin care had developed when I realized my body was rebelling at the extremities of climate I was inflicting on it! I really needed to find a decent way to soothe my skin, but in 1975 there was… nothing. Nothing but mis-leading hype, decent ingredients in junk bases, and scary additives – yuk! (There’s still a lot of that today, but now we have lots of better choices!)

So, there I was, with a few pre-bottled “natural” products we had found while traveling, and 21 perfume oils, and no idea we were at the forefront of a revolution in skincare. “Better Living Through Chemistry” morphed into my line “Believe in Better Skin”.

I just knew I believed in the possibility of safe skincare, and within a couple of years that gave me courage to package my own creations, and to educate everyone walking through my door. I believe we can all make better choices if we have the information needed to do so. One by one, I got people to understand why clean & pure skin-care is so important.

Picture taken from Alibi, published in 2/28, 2008. You can read that article here: https://alibi.com/news/martha-calls-it-a-day/

And while talking with customers, it became my mission to remind and encourage women to take better care of themselves. Of the many ways there are to do that, skin care is an easy one!

Luckily – as we all know –the best advertising is word-of-mouth, and that, along with perseverance, grew Body Bueno into a popular business, along with Nob Hill also growing into a premiere shopping area . (All the extras of that era is another story!)

It was an adventure. It was good timing. It was hard work. It was my version of capitalism with a conscience. And I loved it. But 30 years in retail was enough, so I closed the store and moved into e-commerce. And then along came Cat!