Bubbly Babes in the Bay

Big Buzz - March 2023

A mother-daughter team launched Bubbly Babes in late November of last year, a Main Street gift shop featuring their all-natural, hand-made bath and body essentials.
 
- By Kim Ranjbar

Echo Bond relaxes inside her new shop, Bubbly Babes.

The next time you're doing a little shopping along Main Street, follow the bubbles and you'll discover Bubbly Babes, a whimsical new gift shop that's sure to tickle you pink. Owner Echo Bond and her daughter Ferris opened the doors only a few months ago, but their holistic bath and body products and charming gift selection have already won repeat customers in the community.
 
With a background in marketing and design, Bond was working for an ad agency in Biloxi when she began making her own beauty products. “I did a lot of research after spending money on products and just throwing them away,” says Bond. “I am definitely living my dream right now. I never knew what that was like until I opened this store. ”
 

 
Born and raised in Florida, Bond swore she would once again live near the beach. “That's where I belong,” she said. When Bond and her husband, Benjamin, were on vacation visiting New Orleans and towns along the Gulf Coast, they discovered Bay St. Louis. “I absolutely loved it,” she said. “This is where I want to live, right here.” Although the couple bought a home in 2012 a half-hour away in Gulfport, Bond still had her eye out for the perfect spot in BSL.
 
When the space on Main Street became available, Bond knew it would be the perfect spot for Bubbly Babes, and she leapt at the opportunity.  “I love it here,” says Bond. “It's small, it's quaint. I can walk anywhere I need to go, and I feel safe.” After Bond and her 20-year-old daughter, Ferris, spent a few months getting the shop ready, with its pretty pink design and a fabulously furry door, they opened the doors and let the bubbles fly.
 

 
Bubbly Babes sells lots of home goods and gifts such as beautifully designed stainless steel water bottles, wine totes, uniquely decorated Bento lunch boxes and tea towels, throw pillows and shower curtains. Where their shop really shines, however, is in their hand-crafted bath and body products.
 
Bond’s all-natural, holistic body butters, oils, soaps and scrubs are the shop’s signature offerings. “There’s a nurse whose parents came in and bought some body butter for his hands; they were so chapped from washing. He told them it was the best body butter he’s ever used!” says Bond. “It makes you feel good that you’re actually helping somebody.”
 

 
Although customers can currently walk into the shop and scent their own scrubs, Bond has plans to open a back room to offer an even more personalized experience with all her popular bath and body products. “To me there’s a three-step system: you wash, you polish and then you gloss,” says Bond. “I want people to be able to scent all of that themselves.” With up to 45 different scents available to create your own scrubs, Bond hopes to eventually expand that personalization to bath salts, body butters and oils.
 
Bond's daughter, Ferris, is helping her mother run the shop and has already created a little niche of her own. “Ferris is really creative,” says Bond. “She has already designed some products that sold out, but she’s producing her own line of face and hair products.” All of Bubbly Babes’ bath and body products are made in small batches, so if a product you love happens to run out, all you have to do is ask.  “If someone comes to me and says, ‘Hey, can you do this?’ I am probably going to say yes,” says Bond. “That’s just how I am.” They also offer personalized party, wedding, and bridesmaids’ gifts. “I enjoy working with clients to get the design they want.”
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As any great gift shop should, Bubbly Babes stays seasonal. Recently they’ve offered holiday-themed products from butter bomb and “Bubble Doh!” stocking-stuffers for kids, to king cake scented foaming sugar scrubs for Mardi Gras. Bond is excited about her new Easter products, which are already on the shelves. “I’m going to have Peeps bath bombs and [others shaped like] chickens in a little egg that’s cracked, and pillar candles with pretty designs.”
 
Visit Bubbly Babes in person at 212 Main Street, Suite C in Bay St. Louis, or online at shopbubblybabes.com. You can also follow them to see the latest products on Instagram @bubblybabes.bsl.  

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