You can’t miss the sky-blue mural with puffy white clouds on the shop’s façade. Mariah Kegler is a new retail shopkeeper in the Elmwood village, eager to welcome customers to her space on Breckinridge behind Ró at 732 Elmwood Avenue. When you walk in, her warm welcome feels like a ray of sunshine.
Mariah grew up in a creators’ environment, coming from a big family of artists and makers. This business has been many years in the making and began as a single product skincare company she and her sister Lydia started in 2018. Their product, now Mariah’s signature balm, was modeled after a lotion that her mother, Juliet Bice, made while she and her sisters were growing up. It contained beeswax and healing oils, and a jar of this magical homemade lotion was always on the ready to rub on hands, lips, baby bottoms, or boo-boos. Pure enough to eat, this lotion could not only do no harm, it also had many healing properties as well.
Later during Mariah’s training as a massage therapist, her interest in healing herbs and the science of the body, grew. She and Lydia started testing ingredients and making recipes to come up with the perfect healing salve. They received advice and encouragement from Michelle Macey, owner of Beauty Organix, a local organic skin care shop in East Aurora. They called the product Honey Balm and when people started asking for more, the sisters created an online shop. In 2020, Lydia stepped out of the business and Mariah expanded the product line. Bolstered by customer feedback, she began looking into how she could serve more customers in a sustainable way. The timing was perfect as a small space behind Ró Home Shop became available, and Mariah signed on as a subtenant of Hayley Carrow, owner of Ró.
The space was an empty room, so Mariah went to work on the renovation, creating an environment that could serve as both a retail as well as a studio space for creating her products.
A visit to RIAH is an opportunity to enter an artist’s studio. When we were there last weekend, Mariah was finishing up the wooden puzzles she made before putting them on the shelf to sell. In addition to the RIAH skincare product line, Mariah has introduced upcycled clothing to the store including baby clothing and adult hoodies printed with Mariah’s hand drawn designs. She is also starting a line of children’s toys, including hand-painted puzzles and wooden toys. They are beautiful pieces that could stand alone as art when not being played with. The product assortment is continually expanding; it is worth going there to see what is new.
One customer who purchased the balm at Wild Things a few years ago, Valerie Fahey, noted: “… as a lifelong skincare junkie, RIAH balm was a marvelous find. The short list of organic ingredients including beeswax and avocado oil, protects and moisturizes during the coldest of Buffalo winters yet also serves as a lovely summer cream for the skin. Its texture is neither too heavy nor too light. It is worth every penny for a local handmade organic great smelling, long lasting potion in your medicine cabinet.”
Although the store has been open for only a few weeks, the balm has a proven track record offering a product that is healthy for humans and the planet. In Mariah’s words, “The human body is a reflection of our planet. Each one of us is a full ecosystem, equipped to exist in perfect health if given the proper nutrients and environment to do so”.
Visit www.riahbody.com for more information.