11-year-old starts eastern Idaho's first pop-up 'slime bar'

AMMON, Idaho — A girl from eastern Idaho has started the region's first pop-up station dedicated to selling a unique product that she makes herself.

Eleven-year-old Peyton Martin, of Ammon, is the owner of Cloud Nine Slime, which she started in May with the help of her mother, Alyssa Martin. After only operating for a summer, the mother-daughter duo has taken the business to multiple farmers' markets and craft fairs, where they've sold their own homemade "slime."

Peyton said there's no one right way to play with the slime.

"You (can) just stretch it and pull it in your own way," Peyton said. "I just sit down sometimes and will just play with it, and I'm like, 'I've never seen this done before. Like, I've never done that before.' (With) slime, you can just do so many things with it."

Slime is a pliable, sensory toy that users can bend and stretch in any way they like. Peyton first recalls being introduced to the toy at her aunt's house, where she saw her cousins playing with slime.

"I (was) like, 'What is this?'" Peyton said. "And then they started teaching me how to make it, and I just have loved it ever since."

After that, Peyton began to make it on her own, practicing so much that she filled up "a whole entire cabinet just full of slime."

"She started making slime since she was 7, or maybe longer," Alyssa said. "She's so good at it now... She has a recipe down

And even before that, Peyton and her friends had attempted to sell different products in their neighborhood, like bracelets and lemonade.

"We would never ever sell a lot because the road we live on is not busy. So we would just keep trying and trying, and it would never really work, but I've tried to sell stuff for so long," Peyton said.

Eventually, Peyton asked her mom to help her turn her passion for slime into a business. Alyssa agreed and secured Peyton a spot in the Iona Farmers Market.

"Let's just try it. What could be the worst thing that happens, right?" Alyssa recalled thinking at the time.

As it turned out, the problem wasn't that Peyton couldn't sell all of her slime. Rather, she didn't have enough to keep up with demand.

"We sold out the first market ... and it kind of just took off," Alyssa said.

Since that first market, Peyton has brought Cloud Nine Slime around eastern Idaho, including events in Pocatello and Island Park, as well as Summer Market Days at the Mountain America Center.

When people come up to the Cloud Nine Slime pop-up cart, Peyton gives them options.

"When you come up to the booth, you get to pick whatever slime color or scent you want, and then you add toppings to it," Peyton said.

Peyton told East Idaho News that a single 10-ounce container of slime costs $14, and two containers cost $25. Cloud Nine Slime also offers party packages, with a "classic party" costing $200 and an "ultimate party" costing $300.

Although the Martins are still working on setting up a website, they can do custom orders if people message them through their Facebook or Instagram pages.

In the long term, Peyton doesn't know exactly what she wants to be when she grows up since she is "always trying to do new stuff." The way she sees it, the experience she's gotten from working on Cloud Nine Slime could help her in her future endeavors.

"If I ever owned my own business, I would probably have a (leg) up, because I would know all the business stuff from when I was little," Peyton said.

But whatever Peyton decides to do in the future, Alyssa is proud of her in the present.

"She's a busy girl, and she puts in 110% into everything she does," Alyssa said. "So I'm just proud of her and all the effort she puts into everything."

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