Meet Miami’s Favorite CBD Brand, Vital Tonics

Growing up, Natalie Bustamante was told repeatedly by doctors that cannabis was a dangerous drug while writing her prescriptions for omeprazole, Lyrica, Ambien and a litany of other pharmaceuticals to help her deal with chronic health conditions—some of which were side effects of the medications she was taking. Like many people, it was at college when she first tried what some of her doctors had called “the devil’s lettuce” and for the first time in her life felt side-effect-free relief. She shares, “I felt relief with my stomach particularly. I didn’t feel all the drowsiness, I wasn’t a zombie and I wasn’t sleeping through six alarm clocks,” which was a result of the Ambien she was prescribed.

“The thing that saved my life was cannabis. I no longer had to drug myself for my sleep issues because I had insomnia from chronic pain. Cannabis is an analgesic, so is CBD. CBD helped my mind, but it also helped with inflammation, which reduced my physical pain and helped me sleep at night. I was like, ‘This is magical.’”

When the Miami native moved back to her hometown after years of post-college travel, she got to work on building her own CBD beauty and wellness brand, Vital Tonics.

Bustamante debuted Vital Tonics with its hero product, The Tonic tincture, on February 28, 2020. She says the timing—two weeks before the nationwide shutdown—was a net positive for the brand: she sold out of her first batch in six months. “Everybody was stuck at home,” she says. “Everybody was anxious and everybody wanted to support small businesses.” 

The Tonic formulation was a labor of love that took the entrepreneur over a year to finish, in large part due to it containing a water soluble, nano-emulsified CBD oil. Bustamante states that the CBD molecules found in the oil-based tinctures that dominate the market range in size from 500 to 1,000 nanometers, whereas nano-emulsified CBD molecules are around 25 nanometers. That tiny size means that the CBD is many times bioavailable, bypassing digestion and allowing users to feel the effects almost immediately. The Tonic is the foundation for the entire Vital Tonics range, which includes The Mask cellulose face mask, $20; The Bar solid body cleanser, $24 and The Treats CBD dog treats, $32 for a 50-ct. bag.

As she was perfecting the formula and finding manufacturing partners that would work with her, she was handing samples out across Miami. By the time she launched, she says, “people were hooked” and The Tonic sold out. 

Even with a successful product seeding initiative, those robust sales were not a foregone conclusion thanks to The Tonic’s premium price point. The one ounce bottle, containing 600 milligrams of nano CBD, retails for $120. Similar oil-based tinctures with 3,000 milligrams of non-nano CBD can be bought for $80. The onus has been on Bustamante to educate consumers on how not all CBD is created equal. Hence, The Tonic’s hefty price tag.

“Even if I tell you that it lasts two months’ worth of doses, or at least 40 days, I still have to sit there and for some people have to explain what CBD is and what CBD isn’t,” she laments. “I legally can’t make any claims, but verbally I’ll tell you that my product works in seven minutes or less. We don’t make that claim on our website, we just say it’s fast acting. Regular CBD oil brands that I talked to, their recommended doses are 20 to 50 milligrams. Our recommended dose is 10, but I have some customers that take five. That’s because, again, you’re not wasting any of that dose.”

Surprisingly, the nano CBD evangelist’s next launch will be a traditional oil CBD pill. It was through her conversations with the community she’s fostered around the brand that she discovered the demand for a non-tincture format. 

Before launching any new products, Bustamante takes to social media to query her community about whether they’re suffering from symptoms CBD has been known to help with. When she asked if anyone had trouble sleeping, she was met with a deluge of messages, many of which were on behalf of people’s parents. “A lot of my friends’ parents are having trouble sleeping,” she details. “A lot of them tried to get their parents to try the tincture and the parents just couldn’t commit to it. For the older generation, the simplicity of popping a pill is for them. They feel weird about tinctures. I fought it for a long time. The tincture works better. It’s faster, it’s the next generation of CBD. They don’t care that the pills take 30 to 90 minutes for effects. Who am I to fight them?”

She continues, “If I can offer them a product that makes them happy and still works at a better price point and they don’t mind waiting, let’s do it.” She reports she’s had over 60 people test the forthcoming capsules. For The Tonic, over 100 people tested it pre-launch.

Bustamante estimates that she spent about $80,000 to get Vital Tonics off the ground. Some of that money was a loan from her father, which she has since paid back. Currently she is a team of two: herself and her creative director.

All of Vital Tonic’s growth has been organic through grassroots efforts like local events. At one point she spent thousands of dollars on digital advertising that “did nothing.” Now, she sticks to IRL efforts. Bustamante says she hosts weekly wellness events like yoga classes where she invites hospitality staff and offers product samples and free mocktails that contain The Tonic. 

Around Miami, Vital Tonics is carried in spas and skincare studios like Flawless Fox and Sana Skin Studio, as well as clothing and lifestyle boutiques, like all three Atkin Studio locations and hotels. The brand can be found at the Life House and Freehand hotels. Outside of Florida, the brand is sold in one store in D.C., one in New York and is launching in Michigan this summer. 

The brand is also on the menu of several restaurants and coffee shops across the city, including all Panther Coffee locations. At popular restaurant Offsite, The Tonic is featured in three specialty mocktails infused with a bevy of functional ingredients.

“The restaurants do it as an upsell that you can add,” Bustamante explains. “Some of them have us as an add-on they put it in when you get a coffee or a smoothie. They’ll put a shot of collagen, a shot of protein and then they’ll add the CBD on that. When you grow, people want you to give them a more definitive answer about where you’re carried. And I’m like, ‘My web is wide.’ And I think it makes us kind of interesting and unique. I think it’s a positive.”