REIDVILLE, N.L. — Nicole Glover has an interest in mental health, wellness, and self-care. So, it’s no surprise both the businesses the Reidville woman operates have a connection to all those things.
Glover owns The Blue Bathtub, making bath bombs, and Black Feather Equine, an equestrian centre from her family’s small farm in Reidville.
Managing the two business, carrying for the animals on the farm, being a mom to four-year-old Kaleya Cook and helping her husband, Scott Cook, with his business keeps Glover pretty busy.
The good thing about her businesses is she can run them on a seasonal basis.
This time of the year her focus is on The Blue Bathtub. Glover has been making bath bombs for about six years and got into it as a hobby partially out of necessity.
While living in Ontario she became very fond of bath bombs and regularly purchased them from places like Lush and Bath and Body Works.
“And I used to spend so much money on these products. Like a small fortune on these products.”
When she moved back to this area she didn’t have as easy access to stores that carried bath bombs and missed them. She would order them online, but the shipping was expensive.
Then one day she was about to place an order and thought ‘I bet I could make that.’
And it went from there. She started out making the typical round bath bomb.
“Once I mastered those round bath bombs I got really bored with it.”
So, she turned to finding different shapes and figuring out how she could use them.
And there’s a lot that goes into making the products.
“They’re so tedious and you have to have even the right humidity in the air to get them not to activate.”
Her research has shown so many of the products people put on their skin are made with chemicals.
“Like formaldehyde is in so many body lotions and makeup.”
In sourcing supplies she looks for products that are unrefined and organic.
“That have the least amount of chemical processing.”
She turned her bath bomb making from a hobby to business about two years ago after friends suggested she should sell her products which come in all types of styles, colours, and holiday themes.
Even though it is a business, Glover said she still enjoys the work the same as anybody who enjoys their hobby.
“It’s just an enjoyable process. It’s almost like a therapeutic thing for them. They get to sit down and relax, concentrate, take their mind off the stressors of the world.
“So, I think that’s my favourite thing, that I just get to kind of chill out and put my focus into something, to creating something, instead of worrying about COVID.”
She also enjoys knowing the products she provides give her customers — women and men — an opportunity to relax and focus on themselves.
“It also has that self-care, mental health thing to them which I really love. That kind of makes me feel good.”
Once the winter passes Glover will turn her attention more to Black Feather Equine.
She said she’s always been a horse lover and is certified in equine assisted personal development by Equine Assisted Learning Canada. The focus of her centre is mental health oriented.
“My focus and my love is teaching people what horses can do for them other than just being something that they can enjoy, that they can use to just go out on a trail ride.”
Horses are very intuitive and will react differently to different people. They can sense worry or nervousness in a person and even if someone has a disability.
“The life skills that you learn from having a bond with an animal that responds to your facial expression and your mood that day, it runs deeper than jumping on a horse’s back and going for a half-hour ride.
“And those small things can transfer over into life skills and how you would approach somebody in a workplace, or how you deal with conflict with your family or your friends. How your actions can influence the people around you or the environment,” she said.
“What I see and what I get out of it and how I see how it helps people, that’s just the tip of the iceberg.”
Both The Blue Bathtub and Black Feather Equine can be found on Facebook.
Diane Crocker reports on west coast news.
