East Windsor Top Business Nominee: Cindy's Soap Cottage

EAST WINDSOR, CT — Recently, Windsor Locks-East Windsor Patch asked readers to nominate their favorite local business for Business of the Year. Many area businesses have managed to navigate the turbulence of 2020 with steadfast determination and an unwavering commitment to the clients they serve.

Cindy's Soap Cottage opened April 1, 2015 at Waterside Village in Windsor Locks, then opened on April 1, 2017 at 27 South Main Street in East Windsor. Owner Cindy Liquori makes handmade artisan soaps, CBD topicals and tinctures, bath bombs, body luxuries, candles and much more.

During the coronavirus pandemic, Liquori has adapted to the needs of customers, producing high-quality masks and hand sanitizer.

"The last eight months have been very busy and stressful," Liquori told Patch. "When the pandemic started, I wanted to ensure that my store was essential, so I hired about 15 people to make masks. To date, we have sold over 16,000 handmade local quality masks, which I’m very proud of. We worked our tails off to get them out quickly at a great price. We also sold over 8,000 bottles of hand sanitizer. We had great difficulty procuring many supplies, and I pretty much overpaid for everything, but we really had no choice. Even now in December, supplies are still limited and overpriced - but we move on. My main priority has always been to offer people an outstanding product at a very reasonable price. We also offer our customers custom orders on pretty much anything that we sell. Everything in the shop is handmade by myself, or someone local. It is extremely satisfying to sell something to someone that you made yourself or that a local person has made and have them like it so much. I see a movement in this country to shop local and I really hope that it picks up and more people start to do so. There are so many companies across the United States who have gone out of business due to this pandemic and will never come back. It really is heartbreaking to me, because I know how much money, time and effort it takes to build a business. The business actually becomes who you are and I can sympathize with those who are devastated by losing theirs. It really is a tragedy."

A sampling of what some customers had to say follows:

• "Cindy’s rose to the COVID challenge by changing her manufacturing from soap to hand sanitizer and also hired several local artisans to make face masks. During the beginning days of the pandemic, Cindy’s provided much-needed hand sanitizer to other local businesses to make it more readily available to the public." - JoAnn MacDougald
• "Cindy's Soap Cottage has always been a quaint little soap shop that started in Windsor Locks; she quickly grew and moved her business to East Windsor in Pasco Commons. Since the pandemic, she has worked tirelessly making hand sanitizer; even with short supply of necessary ingredients, she made sure she got what was needed. She also had people she knew make facemasks. From custom to stock, these facemasks are handmade by people Cindy is related to or friends with. Cindy puts a lot of time and care into all her house-made products. Her customers come first, and she has always made sure they are satisfied." - Candi Motuzick
• "Cindy came to the rescue by shifting her focus from making and selling products to wash away germs to actually learning to make hand sanitizer to keep germs at bay and giving us access to masks early on when the fear of COVID-19 first became realized. Her store was the only place you could find hand sanitizer and masks for several different time periods during this pandemic. Now she has quite a selection of both products always available and very good quality to boot. Her hand sanitizer is the best, its consistency and choice of scents exceeds any other sanitizer I have seen anywhere thus far." - Barb Seaha

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