CORTLAND, Ohio – A friend once gave a card to Heidi Goldberg, owner of BodyGoodies, and she still follows its advice: “Leap and the net will appear.”
“That’s one of the things I took on board in the business,” Goldberg says. “Just do what I want to do and hope for the best. It’s going to happen.”
And if it doesn’t happen, she makes it happen.
A longtime staple in Liberty Township, BodyGoodies, a skin care business focused on clean, good-for-your skin ingredients, moved in mid-February to 312 S. Mecca St., in Cortland, formerly the Centerra Country Store building. Goldberg makes most of the products.
It’s not bigger, but the layout at the new location makes it feel larger, Goldberg says, adding that “it just seems more welcoming and open.”
In Liberty, she was in a separate, enclosed room making her products while shoppers browsed. Now customers can see her in action.
“I was the only one over there,” Goldberg says. “I was making everything in my peace and quiet. And then, when I finished, I would come over to the retail side.”
But Goldberg says the BodyGoodies new location just fits the energy of the business better.
“It’s really relaxed,” she says. “It’s got this awesome porch we can’t wait for people to start sitting on and having their coffees and bringing their dogs. [We’ve] got a really cool osprey nest right here that we can watch these big birds all day long. The whole place just fits the business and fits us.”
History
Throughout the years, Goldberg’s line of products have expanded from soaps she developed into a long list of skin pampering products.
She began creating products after an allergic reaction. She almost died of anaphylactic shock, which she later learned was due to walnuts she had eaten. However, the natural latex protein in shea butter causes a similar reaction for her so she doesn’t use it in products she makes.
An artist who loved working with clay, Goldberg found she also loved creating bars of soaps, and the science of developing new combinations.
Goldberg found herself fascinated by what makes good skin care products and what doesn’t. She became a licensed esthetician, garnering knowledge about products that should be beneficial for a variety of skin ailments and which chemicals commonly found in skin care products are potentially bad for a person’s health.
“I’m also a perfectionist,” Goldberg says of what sets her apart from others who peddle soaps and skin care products. “So if something isn’t 1,000% right to me that I make, I’m like, nope and that’s going in the trash or it’s going somewhere, but it’s not going out for sale.”
Goldberg says measurements have to be precise. Too many inexperienced soap makers do not recognize when their formula is wrong and could burn someone.
Early on, after Goldberg gave her soaps to a couple friends to try, her sister ordered some for her employees, who loved it. Goldberg claims she was “tricked” into creating a business when her sister ordered a whole batch and put them up on Etsy, where she found she could make extra money. To fund the businesses she ended up selling to Whole Foods Markets for a while, which required Goldberg to find a location outside her home to manufacture.
She moved into a garage and soon found demand overwhelming. Soaps cure for a month and after getting some media attention, she found she was selling out quickly and unable to stock her Whole Foods orders.
So nine months after the garage, Goldberg opened a retail space in Liberty. Nine years later, she found she needed double the space and took a second unit in that retail plaza.
But last year, problems with that building’s condition led Goldberg to look for a new space.
The last bar soap she made at the old location was Sweeties Garden, a lavender oil soap that honored her late mother. The first bar made at the new location was Homestead, a vanilla orange scented beef tallow, honey and goat’s milk soap.
Other popular soap bars include the original Spa Bar, created with extra butter and creamy coconut milk for a silky feel; Crud, which is packed with mineral-rich mud and dead sea salt recommended for acne, eczema and other skin irritations; and Monster Chunk Mint, created as a moisturizing shaving bar, but used for many purposes.
Many of her products include essential oils and other healthy ingredients. Goldberg makes some seasonal items as well.
For those who love to try new things, Goldberg has a Bar of the Month club, where a surprise soap comes each month.
Butter bricks are very popular, according to Goldberg, which are velvety smooth, solid lotion that can be used anywhere.
Another popular product is the bug spray that is ready to protect customers for those warm evenings to come.
Goldberg also makes lip balms, beard balms, hand sanitizers, body sprays, body whips, laundry soap, stain sticks, sugar scrubs and simmer pots.
Location Advantage
Goldberg admits she was nervous about making the move to Cortland, but now feels it is an ideal location with Cleveland only 40 minutes away and Canfield 35 minutes away.
“It’s this nice central spot,” Goldberg says. “But what we’ve noticed with our customers, first of all they’re not minding the trip to get their favorite soap still. But there’s other things to do here that weren’t in Liberty. We’ve got the lake right behind us. We’ve got this really cool little town with great shops and coffees and bakeries and cool little places to check out that you wouldn’t necessarily know about.”
As warmer months approach, Goldberg is planning vendors’ markets with the first planned for May 23. The new location will allow them more space to showcase local vendors and parking for food trucks.
Goldberg wants to partner with local vendors – people like her.
“That’s something that is personal to me,” Goldberg says, “and something I’m passionate about… really embracing those people and giving them the same opportunity that I had.”
There have been times Goldberg says she truly questioned if her soap business would make it, although she said she always had the drive and love for the business, along with the belief that what she was doing was helping other people.
“Whether it was from people in my life or just opportunities that came to be, it seemed like every time we reached our rough point, something happened,” Goldberg said, adding she learned to embrace it and not try to control everything.
Last year, price hikes in ingredients and tariffs drove up her costs. One key ingredient went from $39 per pound to $200, she says, which is too steep to pass onto the customer.
Goldberg’s daughter, Maddie Graham, grew up in the business and remembers there were tough times when they struggled financially, including when she told her mom it was going to be okay if they lost their home.
“I think any sacrifice we needed to make as I was younger and she was a single mom, I think it really did pay off and we are able to give back to people and give them good skin care,” Graham says.
She believed in what her mom was doing and that it was helping a lot of people.
“It’s been a lot of growing pains and learning as we go,” Graham says. “And now I feel like we finally felt a little bit of stability and success being in this location. That’s really brought us a lot of support and just love from our community.”
Graham now operates the retail and customer service side. She handles the online store and stays on top of inventory and supplies.
Graham’s efforts allow Goldberg to focus on the creative side of making new products.
Goldberg credits her daughter with being the calm one even when there is chaos.
The Future
The new location also includes space to offer products made by others.
As far as what’s next, Goldberg knows she is not getting any younger and standing on concrete floors making soaps for 16 hours a day in 30 years is not her plan.
“So I have to switch gears a little and make this something that [Maddie] could continue to offer to anybody who wants BodyGoodies,” Goldberg says.
Other considerations include possibly expanding back into wholesale, teaching someone how to make her products.
Graham says she likes to keep her personal product use to a minimum and uses Fij, a soap formulated with muds, clays and patchouli mint essential oils, for both her face and body. But she also loves the solid lotion pucks and the base serum, which she uses as her daily face moisturizer.
“I couldn’t live without them,” Graham says. “They have really minimal ingredients. They’re all natural. They’re only essential oils, so I can really trust what I’m using on my body.”
Graham acknowledges women in her generation are concerned about the types of products they are using.
“It’s probably a wave among our generation to care for your skin a lot more in your younger years and hope that it pays off in our later years,” Graham says. “We probably are trying to invest a little bit more in what we use, be more conscientious of the ingredients in them.”
The store is open 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.
Pictured at top: Heidi Goldberg, owner of BodyGoodies, and her daughter Maddie Graham continue to grow the family-run skin care business built on clean ingredients, hands-on production and a close connection to the community.
