A BARNSLEY business owner who started off making beauty products in her kitchen has been nominated for a national award.
Artisan bath, body and home fragrance store Marshmallow Blends in The Glass Works is one of the businesses nominated in a national UK’s Favourite Local Business competition.
Nicoletta Rocchiccioli founded her business 16 years ago with a mission of bringing handmade bath and body products to Barnsley and said: “The business is Barnsley born and bred. I started making products when my youngest son was a baby, and he’s 16 now, because I wanted to create something a bit different. There weren’t a lot of handmade bath and body products available at the time, so I’d experiment making them in the kitchen at night, when the boys were asleep. I then started having an open house once a week to sell products and it just grew from there.
“We’ve got the best customers at Marshmallow Blends who’ve been with me from the start and I’ve been able to ask them what they want from their products. I remember opening the shop in Wombwell and being so shocked to see people queuing outside when we opened. I then opened in The Victorian Arcade and ran the two shops, before securing our current place in The Glassworks.
“After 15 years of building up the business, I have an amazing team of eight local women, and we make all of our products by hand in Barnsley. The team goes out of their way to make shopping with us a fantastic experience. We encourage customers to pick up the products and try them. You just can’t get that experience online. One of my favourite products is the gingerbread wax melt – we only offer it at Christmas and customers stock up so they can use it all year!”
