In 2017, a then 12-year-old Tommy Jimenez was at school one day in South Lake Tahoe when one of his classmates brought in some fluffy slime. Noticing that it was trending among kids and adults alike — playing with slime is oddly relaxing and fun — Jimenez went on YouTube and started looking up tutorials and he tried making it at home. After a bit of experimenting, he came up with a viable product and posted his first Slime by Tommy product in March 2017 to Snapchat and Instagram. Soon after, inquiries about where to buy it started pouring in.
“The first slime I posted was a basic contact glue with shaving cream in it,” Jimenez says.
Tommy Jimenez has made more than 500 slimes since that first fluffy slime, experimenting with textures, scents and names such as Cotton Candy Milk, Banana Cloud, Churro Bread and Pineapple Cream Cheese.
I have to admit, watching his videos of him playing with the slime are comforting in itself. His slimes act like the modern-day stress balls that give people the opportunity to play with nonedible food.
Jimenez has made more than 500 slimes since that first fluffy slime, experimenting with textures, scents and names such as Cotton Candy Milk, Pool Party, Banana Cloud, Fanta Slushee, Strawberry Soda, Churro Bread and Pineapple Cream Cheese. Jimenez says it took him about a year to find a good contact solution and master the process, along with creating the packaging and brand to start selling it.
In 2018, Jimenez started selling restocks, which feature weekly batches of new slimes. His holiday collections, especially Halloween slimes, have been the most popular.
“I would go on Google or Amazon to find scents and essential oils and find different slimers on Instagram that I’d follow and get new scents through them,” Jimenez says.
He explained that in the beginning the most challenging part of making slime was the time it took mixing it by hand. In 2018, when he started selling at Ski Run Farmers Market and more orders started coming in, he upgraded to a kitchen mixer to make the process go a bit faster. A batch of slime that fills four or five 8-ounce containers takes about 20 minutes to make.
His favorite products include Butter Slimes because they are particularly fun to play with.
“If you use the right amount of contact solution, then it inflates and gets bubbles that you can pop and then it goes back to normal size,” he says.
In March, he saw a type of crazy candy come on the market through social media that was growing in popularity. As he did with the slime, instead of buying dulce locos candy through Instagram, he researched and went out and bought the ingredients and learned how to make the candy himself.
“Last fall, I wasn’t selling any slime anymore and I wanted to improve my business. I saw a person on Instagram doing this and started making the candies and over the summer the Dulces Locos side of the business has grown,” Jimenez says, adding that he’s sold between 200 and 300 bags of candy over the last few months.
He makes and sells eight different varieties of Dulces Locos including Skittles Enchilados, Gushers Enchilados, Sour Patch Kids Watermelon Enchilados and others.
“The coating is spicy and sour, but the actual candy is sweet,” says Jimenez.
Along with selling his slime and sweets through social media, Jimenez opened an online Etsy shop where both products are featured.
“My goal is to post more to Instagram for my followers and engage my customers so that they’ll buy more and then I can expand my product line.”
Nowadays, people can find and engage with his products through his Instagram handles slime.by.tommy and dulceslocos20 or by buying his products online. | DulcesLocos on Etsy
