By Sophie Sadler
After recognising the plight of artisans during the pandemic, Tomorrow magazine set up an online Christmas market in December 2020. Now to help these businesses get back on their feet, we are establishing a “Craft Corner” for artisans to showcase their works, talent and survival stories.
Snoffie is an example of a business that was born in the pandemic. Its founder Debbie Cumming had always been a fanatical crafter and has dabbled with baking, cake decorating, and knitting over the years. A full-time job, firstly as a Policewoman and then a Sales and Training Manager, plus children, meant that she was never able to turn her hobby into a career.
As her children grew up, she started creating soaps and bath bombs which she sold at county shows. In 2017, she invested in a printer and hot press with the aim to start making personalised photo gifts.
Then a change in circumstances meant she was able to move from Berkshire, England to Silves in January 2019, where she found her soap recipes didn’t work in the Algarve climate.
COVID-19 was positive in that it made her focus on the new part of the business, developing it and dreaming up new designs to create the brand she had always dreamt of. “It just makes you refocus. Things literally couldn’t get worse as I didn’t have a clear way of selling my products without the markets. Not only did I make my sales there, but people would often see the product then contact me later when they had a birthday.”
Homemade Bath Bomb
Debbie shares the recipe for a bath bomb you can make at home. A simple bath bomb requires 200gms of dry ingredients:
- Bicarbonate of soda 100gms
- Citric acid 50gms
- Cornflower 25gms
- Epsom salts 25gms
- (I like to reduce the Epsom and put in a milk powder as this made a softer bath bomb.)
For colour, I always used Mica powder, but food colouring can be used.
Add 20-25 drops of a carrier oil eg. sunflower, coconut, olive oil.
Add 5 drops of essential oil/fragrance.
Water.
Mix all dry ingredients, add the oils and mix. Then gradually spritz (a short squirt) the mixture with water until it comes together like wet sand and press into moulds. Leave for at least 24hrs to dry.
This is for personal use only; please check personal allergens. To sell bath bombs, you must have a Cosmetic Safety Report.
