Pleasure Doing Business: Beach N' Body Boutique

The Beach N' Body Boutique might look like just a bath and body shop, but it holds a lot more than meets the eye.

The Beach N' Body Boutique is located on Beach Boulevard near Yummy's and Java Nirvana.

Owner Rebbeca Park Totilo started out with most of her inventory coming off of etsy.com, a website marketplace for artists to sell their home-made goods.

“I tried to stay consistent with getting specialty items. Stuff that you wouldn't find at Walmart or Target,” Totilo said.

Beach N' Body opened it's doors almost two years ago, but it wasn't at the same location, Totilo said. When it first opened, the boutique was next door to their current storefront. When they opportunity came about to move into the store next door, Totilo jumped on it because of the tiki look the store already had that fit her vision for the shop.

Totilo has a lot of healthy bath and body supplies, bath salts and bombs. There's a bath salt bin that allows customers to pick and choose the fragrances that they like so everyone can create a unique mixture for their bath.

While the main theme of the shop started out with just bath goods, it has since grown into a marketplace for local artists, Totilo said. Currently, around a quarter of all the goods in the shop are from local artists in Gulfport.

“I'm adding more artists every day. I'm getting local artists from Gulfport. I want it to be a local art village again,” Totilo said.

Beach N' Body has started carrying gourmet salts for food as well, Totilo said. The salt mixtures aren't ones that you'd find in the local grocery store and include a black Hawaiian black lava salt with traces of charcoal that helps pull toxins out of the body.

Besides running the store, Totilo is also an author and has written 37 books including devotionals, health and children's books.

“Right now, my focus is on my “Heal with Essential Oil” book because I want people to know there's an alternative to the Walgreen's drugs,” Totilo said.

Totilo also is a speaker and lifecoach and travels nationally and internationally to try to help people live healthier.

Currently, Totilo is looking to move the business to a bigger location. With the amount of local artists selling things in her shop, she wants to expand so she can carry more items from the community. There are currently a couple of storefronts she's looking at currently in Gulfport.

I'm hoping to stay in Gulfport. I like this place and am enjoying getting to know people. It's kind of like Maybury with a twist,” Totilo said.

The Beach N' Body Boutique is open monday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.