Roots and Remedies: Alambique Skincare Entrepreneur Monique Montoya

Cosmetics entrepreneur Monique Montoya, founder of The Alambique Skincare Company in Taos, New Mexico, talks about how travel, family heritage, and New Mexico’s botanical traditions shaped her path from Albuquerque athlete to international marketing work in Spain and ultimately cosmetic formulation. After studying at UNM, living in New Orleans and Austria, and working in Spain with DJs and a record label, Monique returned to Taos, joined an organic manufacturing facility, and shifted from marketing to formulating—drawing on family curandera traditions and vendor chemist support. Following a buyout and a later job loss, she used severance to fund Alambique, traveling to meet farmers and sourcing raw materials first, emphasizing traceability, supplier stories and sustainability. “Having a science brain is helpful,” she says, discussing the chemistry of hydrosols and essential oils, ethical bee-venom sourcing, and the magic of “disrupting the machine of speed and greed.”   To contact Monique and for more information:   The Alambique https://thealambique.com     Mentioned in the episode: Josefa Baca New Mexico Historic Women Marker Program https://www.nmhistoricwomen.org/new-mexico-historic-women/josefa-baca/   USDA Organic INTEGRITY Database https://organic.ams.usda.gov/integrity/Default   Timestamps 00:00 Introduction to Monique Montoya 02:36 A Giant Adventure: Traveling as a Child 05:06 Monique the Track Star 05:54 A Bit of a Troublemaker 07:45 Seeing the Magic in Everything Unfortunate 09:13  "Elevating me to be a bigger version of myself" 11:08 Journey to Spain 13:15 B.B. King Gets a Tamale 15:00 The Secret Language 15:53 The Cosmetics World 18:13 Having a Science Brain Is Always Helpful 19:26 The Kick in the Tuchus I Needed 21:00 Founding Alambique 21:36 The Farm First: Developing New Skincare Products 23:57 Alambique Customers 25:14 Serving Local Markets 25:53 Josefa Baca 26:41 Building a Network of Wholesalers and Mom-and-Pop Shops 27:51 Windfall Peaches 29:06 Scaling Up: Driving Revenue Through Soul 30:11 Disrupting the Machine of Speed and Greed 30:58 Meeting Farmers in Italy and Sardinia 31:48 Discovering New Farms 33:24 Bee Venom 37:18 For a Runner with Bad Knees...Bee Venom Salve 38:37 Alambique's Inventory of Products 39:07 Hydrosols and Essential Oils 40:12 Monique's Garden in Taos 40:49 How to Contact Monique Montoya and the Alambique **CREDITS** Host and creator: Christi Cassidy Contact: [christi@movingalongpodcast.com](mailto:christi@movingalongpodcast.com) Artwork by Phyllis Busell Music by Eve’s Blue. Post-production help from Auphonic.com. Show notes written with assistance from Descript and Claude.ai. **LINKS**: More information and to listen to past episodes: https://movingalongpodcast.com Past episodes are here too: https://moving-along.simplecast.com/ Tag and like Moving Along episodes on Facebook and Instagram