Finally!

Resurface challenge – Follow up

So how did you do with the challenge? I fell off the Resurface wagon five days into the challenge. My dearest cat, Rasmus, got very sick and I had to tend to him every two hours during daytime. Add a 10 month old little girl to that and there was hardly time to brush my teeth. A week later Rasmus passed away, so I have not been in the mood to do much anything but mope around and miss him (I really miss him!!!). This is also the reason there was no Fabulous Friday last week, because it was not a fabulous day at all!

But I did notice after day five that I got one spot on my chin, which I think was impurities trying to get out, so I just dabbed on a little bit of Cucumber chamomile face mask and left it over night. Two days after it was gone.

Well, I hope you did better than I did! I will pick it up again when I am feeling better. I did however discover another trick, and that will be the Skincare Tip o’ the Week this week! If you keep our Cucumber & Aloe Toner in the fridge it will feel amazingly cool and refreshing on a face that has cried a lot. Even better is to pour it over two cotton pads, press out any excess, lay over eyes and lay down and rest for 10 minutes or so. Much less puffy!

Fabulous Friday – Cleansing Milk with Geranium

The Cleansing Milk is my most favorite skincare product, it’s the Earl Gray of my routine… the one I always go back to and the one I never get tired of. It is thick, creamy, non-oily and so so mild. Many cleansers sting my eyes, or you feel that you have to rinse and rinse and you still have a sticky feeling on your skin. But not with the Cleansing Milk! It is also perfect for removing eye makeup, especially since it’s so thick (it will not seep into your eyes). How you remove the Cleansing Milk is up to you: You can just wipe it off with a tissue, you can rinse it off, or you can use a face cloth.

And let me share my favorite way to use it:
I fill my sink with warm water and a couple of drops of our Pure Balance essential oil blend, I dip a face cloth in the water, wring it out and put over my face for 30 seconds or so to open the pores and prepare my skin for cleansing. Then I massage in the cleansing milk, wring out the face cloth in the warm water again and wipe of the cleanser. I really like this routine! It’s like having a cup of warm milk before bed, very relaxing 🙂

If you want to try (or stock up on) our Cleansing Milk, this is the time to do it! This weekend you will get 25% off, and there is no limit to how many you can purchase!

If you have a favourite product you want to share with the rest of our Tvål family, email me a little write up about it (why you like it, how you use it, etc). If I choose your write up for a Fabulous Friday newsletter, I will send you a $30 gift certificate to use online or in one of our shops. Send your letter to: anna@tvalskincare.com

Take the Resurface challenge with me!

It is time to do something about three months of neglect! As you may know I was in Sweden all summer, and we spent every free moment painting, wall papering, scraping, painting, weeding, and some more painting. The house we bought hadn’t been renovated since the 60s and the people living there for more than 20 years before us were chain smokers. Needless to say there was a lot to do, so my skincare routine shrunk down to about 5 seconds a day (a quick splash of water while I was taking a shower).

Ever since I got pregnant my skin has gotten a lot better. If I had treated my skin like this a couple of years ago I would be covered in zits, but now it’s not that bad thankfully. Still, there are some impurities, little bumps and redness. SO, I am officially taking the resurface challenge! Are you with me? Even if you’ve been much better at looking after you skin, the fall is a great time to kickstart your skincare routine as the change in weather can take a toll on your skin.

Here is the routine (it needs to be quick, not much time with a 9 month old 🙂

1. Apply cleansing milk over the eye area to remove mascara
2. Wet face
3. Blend one pump of cleansing milk with a blob of resurface. Massage into skin using curricular motion and a very light hand.
4. Rinse off with a face cloth (I have discovered that baby wash cloths, the terrycloth type, works great! They’re cheap, take up little space and I just toss it in the laundry bin when I’m done)
5. Blend one drop of golden olive serum with a squirt oil-free lotion. Apply. The serum will deeply hydrate and nourish my skin and the oil-free lotion will keep it clear (the salicylic acid) and tine down redness (the aloe).

Repeat every night for 14 days. If you have very sensitive skin, use more of the cleansing milk and less resurface. I don’t use the raspberry toner during this time as I get enough exfoliation from the scrub. You could use it in the morning if you wish (I am using our Green Apple Toner right now).

Are you in? 🙂 Let me know how it works for you and if you have any questions!

Update: You can now purchase all the products you need in a kit, with a great discount! You can find it here.

Fabulous Friday – Cucumber Chamomile Face Mask

This face mask is my new favorite, so soothing while still giving you a nice deep clean. It is made with French green clay that will draw out any impurities, cucumber extract that will cool and tone your skin and chamomille extract that will heal inflammatories. So if you have tendencies to break-out, like I do, this is the bee’s knees!

My favorite way of using the mask is to blend a half teaspoon full with a couple of pumps of the cleansing milk. I massage it in and leave it on while brushing my teeth. Perfect when you don’t have a lot of time! You can also blend it with water, green tea, yogurt or whatever inspires you at the moment! The liquid you choose will also add benefits to the mask, so go ahead.. Be a mad scientist! You may very well discover something that works wonders for your skin! 🙂

Cherry or Bakeapple?

Now that is the question…. when we made the two new scents this spring, our intention was to have Cherry Tart as our limited edition for the summer and bring in Bakeapple Cheesecake as a replacement for Banana Cream Pie (our least selling scent of 2009). But Cherry Tart has been selling so well that we wanted to check with you guys before making a decision. Should we keep Cherry Tart in our regular line, and make Bakeapple Cheesecake the limited scent for summer? Or the other way around? Let us know what you think!

What new Smoothie scent should we keep?

(polls)