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
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
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
