Simon Babycat Soap Co. Brings Small-Batch Soapmaking From Cambridge to Local Markets

On the Eastern Shore, some of the best local businesses are easy to recognize by sight before you ever read the label: a booth at a market, a table full of handmade goods, a maker answering questions from neighbors, and products that feel more personal than anything pulled from a big-box shelf.

Simon Babycat Soap Co. fits that pattern. Based in Cambridge, Maryland, the small business is known for handmade soaps and bath products, including bar soaps, scrubs, lotions, massage bars, and gift-ready items. The company’s public presence points to a business built around small-batch production, local vending, and a creative identity shaped by art, design, and a fondness for animals — especially cats.

The maker behind the company is Camilla Lewis, often known as Cammy. Her roots are local: she was born in Maryland, with family connections to Andrews and Hoopers Island, and she is tied to Cambridge and South Dorchester. Before soap became her best-known public work, Cammy built a broad creative background in painting, hot glass, printmaking, design, bookmaking as art, and metalsmithing and jewelry-making.

That background helps explain Simon Babycat Soap Co. The soap is not simply a product line; in Cammy’s own framing, it is an extension of her glass, acrylic, and design work. A bar of soap becomes a small piece of functional art — affordable, scented, visual, and meant to be used. It is the kind of handmade item a person can take home from a booth, give as a gift, or work into daily life.

Cammy’s formal arts path included an Associate of Arts degree in liberal fine arts from Chesapeake College, studio art study at Salisbury State College in 1997–1998, and later study at San Diego State in printmaking, bookmaking, metalsmithing, and jewelry-making. She later returned to Salisbury University, where she completed a bachelor’s degree in 2015 with a focus in hot glass after printmaking was not available as the path she had hoped to follow.

Many small businesses begin with a practical need or a market opportunity. Simon Babycat Soap Co. feels more like the continuation of an artist’s practice in a different form. The materials changed, but the habit of making remained. Soap gave Cammy a way to bring color, scent, design, and usefulness together in a product people could afford and enjoy.

That local connection matters. Buying a bar of soap at a booth is different from clicking through a national brand. Customers can ask about scents, ingredients, seasonal items, gift baskets, and what is new on the table. Makers like Cammy also help give local markets their character, filling them with the kind of small, personal businesses that make a community event feel rooted in place.

Simon Babycat Soap Co. products have appeared in local and regional vendor settings, including holiday markets and Dorchester County-area events. A 2021 vendor list for Layton’s Chance Winery’s Old Fashion Christmas Market included Simon Babycat Soap Co. with “handmade soaps, beauty products, lotions, body scrubs, novelty soaps.” Public posts and search results also point to local availability through places such as The Market at Church Creek and past appearances or mentions tied to farmers markets, pop-ups, and showcase-style events.

Cammy’s creative work also remains connected to the local arts world. Dorchester Center for the Arts lists Camilla Lewis among the featured artists in its Studioworks Artisan Gift Shop, and she has been working on an acrylic painting planned for a member exhibit at the center in June. That overlap — art center, market booth, handmade goods, and functional products — is part of what makes Simon Babycat Soap Co. a local creative story rather than just a shopping listing.

For shoppers trying to find Cammy’s booth, the best path is to check Simon Babycat Soap Co.’s current social channels before heading out. The company maintains an Instagram presence at @simonbabycatsoapcompany, along with Facebook and other social links through its Linktree. Those channels are where small makers typically post restocks, booth dates, seasonal soaps, and last-minute changes.

The company also sells online through its Etsy shop, SimonBabycatSoapCo, which gives customers a way to order when there is not a nearby market date on the calendar.

For LifeOnTheShore readers, Simon Babycat Soap Co. is part of a wider Eastern Shore story: the persistence of local makers, artists, and market vendors who keep small-scale commerce visible and personal. Whether someone is looking for a gift, a favorite scent, or just a reason to stop at a local booth and talk with the maker, Cammy’s soap company is one more reminder that the Shore’s small businesses are often built one handmade item at a time.