Fabulous Friday – Straight Up 2-in-1 Shower Gel & Shampoo

It’s Fabulous Friday! This weekend I wanted to share one of Jason’s favorite products!

No fuzz, just a really good and mild cleanser for both hair and skin (you can even use this on your face). Great both in the shower and in the gym bag. It is scented with pure essential oils, and you can choose between Peppermint & Patchouli and Cedarwood & Eucalyptus. Both equally refreshing.

This weekend you can get it for 25% off, so this is the perfect time to try it (or stock up if it is a favorite already). Regular price is $12, but now it’s only $9.

Click here to pick one up.

Have a fantastic weekend!

Product spotlight and review – Strawberry Vanilla Hair Mask

This is a new weekly feature here on our blog! I will pick a review that has been posted during the week and share it here. The author of the review I pick gets $15 in points to spend either online or in the shop, and the featured product gets to bask in the spotlight for a little while

This week the winning review was from Melissa, who wrote the following about our Strawberry Vanilla Hair Mask:

I love the idea of this product and it works REALLY well for those people who have dyed/permed/ straightened their hair on a regular basis, or who have thick/curly hair (I ended up giving my mask to a friend with dyed curly hair who straightens it every day, lol)

I have really fine, straight as a whip hair, and it’s its natural colour is blonde (I’ve never dyed it) and I found the mask too heavy for my hair and weighed it down and made my hair look darker.

Love the smell though! 🙂 Great product, just not for everyone. 🙂

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What a helpful review! Thanks Melissa!

You can find the Strawberry Vanilla Hair Mask {HERE}.  And don’t forget to post your own reviews for a chance to win!

Until next time,

Warm Hearts

Warm Hearts is a campaign for Iris Kirby House in St. John’s, a shelter for women and children. In December, Telegram arts and lifestyles reporter Tara Bradbury visited the shelter as part of her three-part series “Violence at Home,” and felt compelled to try to help in some way.

Through Warm Hearts, The Telegram is collecting pyjamas, blankets, underwear, socks, slippers, housecoats, hats, scarves and mittens in various sizes for women and children (new items only, please), and gift certificates to local coffee shops — all things the shelter can use to provide warmth to its residents this winter. We’re also collecting personal care items like shampoo, soap, toothbrushes and toothpaste.

“Republic of Doyle” actress Lynda Boyd is the official patron of the Warm Hearts campaign and today we can see her in The Telegram, with some of the donations readers have contributed to the campaign so far. Doesn’t she look fabulous?! We are proud to say that she is wearing Smink mineral makeup and that our own Bobby did her makeup for this shoot! 🙂

Here is how Bobby describes it: I used Blow Me Down and a bit of Switchel as a crease color and Blow Me Down as a lower liner, with a bit of Lassy to deepen it. I used Duff as a base and lid color, and Nish and Winterton as a brow highlight. For blush I used Lamanche and Lushes Bight, and then L’uh on the lips, but she had a bright pink lip stain on already that wouldn’t come off so it changed the color on her lips quite a bit.

On Feb 24 The Telegram presents “Stars for Warm Hearts” at the St. John’s Arts and Culture Centre,  with all proceeds going to Iris Kirby House. You should go! It will be fantastic with stars such as The Novaks, Chris Kirby and the Marquee, Ian Foster, Jerry Stamp, Kim Wempe, The Long Distance Runners and Mary Barry as well as electro-pop-rock band Repartee, comedian John Sheehan — also known as the bayman in Capital Mitsubishi’s “Townie vs Bayman” ads — and The Neighbourhood Strays gypsy-style bellydance troupe (Tval LOVES the Strays! Loves!!)

*Sigh* I wish I was in St. John’s….

Current Pinterest Favorites – Nails

Clear with gold glitter tips

Source: instagr.am via Anna on Pinterest

 

Polka dots!

Source: victoriac7.tumblr.com via Anna on Pinterest

 

Silver tips

Source: chloesnails.blogspot.com via Anna on Pinterest

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Fabulous Friday – Pink Cotton Candy Shimmering Body Butter

Fabulous Friday is finally back! And this weekend I picked a product I thought would be splendid for Valentine’s: it smells heavenly, it shimmers and it’s pink! Could it be any better?! 🙂

Like all our Body Butters the Pink Cotton Candy Shimmering Body Butter is extremely rich in shea butter, so it will deeply hydrate your skin without feeling greasy. The scent is light compared to our Skin Smoothies, but it’s still noticeable enough for you to catch yourself sniffing your arm throughout the day!

This body butter has the addition of golden mica (even though the cream itself is pink), which will give your skin a light kiss of golden shimmer. The key word here is light, and it will appear more in sunlight so it is perfect to wear on arms and legs. The light scent of Pink Cotton Candy is perfect for Valentine’s, sweet but with a hint of musk.So delicious!

As you can tell, I think it’s really quite fabulous and this weekend you can get it for 25% off! Regular price is $16, but now it’s only $12.

Click here to pick one up.

Product spotlight and review – Bakeapple Cheesecake Skin Smoothie

We will have a new weekly feature here on our blog! I will pick a review that has been posted during the week and share it here. The author of the review I pick gets $15 in points to spend either online or in the shop, and the featured product gets to bask in the spotlight for a little while 🙂

Speaking of reviews, first I feel that I have to tell you about one thing that bothered me to death about the review system we got installed. It had “upvote” and “downvote” buttons for each review, you know the usual “Did you find this review helpful? yes/no”. Neat idea, BUT it turned out that those web crawlers that search engines send out to crawl the web follows all kinds of links, including the “yes” and “no” links. So all of our reviews started getting both upvotes and downvotes that wasn’t from real people. I got the programmers that developed the review system to remove the upvote/downvote system because I know that I would be VERY disappointed if I had written a review and then thought that some people didn’t find it helpful. So there we go. If you noticed, and it made you lie sleepless at night, now you know that it wasn’t people at all but just silly little web spiders! With that out of the way, let’s proceed to the winning review! 🙂

This week the winning review was from Letitia, who wrote the following about out Bakeapple Cheesecake Skin Smoothie:

I’ve never heard of Cloudberries before, but I’m glad I gave it a try. It’s a wonderful nectar sweet smell. I can’t stop smelling my hands. The great thing is that this lotion is so light weight and absorbs so quickly, but leaves my dry skin so soft.

You can find this delicious Skin Smoothie –>here<–.  And don’t forget to post your own reviews for a chance to win!

Until next time,

 

Makeup Wednesday – The year of the dragon

We got a little inspired by the Chinese New Year (and by “we” I mean that I told Bobby “Do something inspired by the year of the dragon!” 🙂 ), so here is a makeup look to celebrate the new year of the dragon! The model this week is our newest addition to the family: Melissa! Say hi to Melissa everyone!

The colours used on the eyes were Red Tea Box and Gold Flurry, with a little Golden Bay under the brows. Rouge Lip Glaze on the lips. On her cheeks Bobby came up with a new trick: he mixed the Red Tea Box on a tissue with Melissa’s foundation to soften it before applying – good one, eh?

Here is a really good deal if you want to try this look yourself: you can order the set of both Red Tea Box and Gold Flurry for only $10 (regular price $14). Sweet!

I hope you enjoyed this look, and please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any special request for Bobby! 🙂

Toners, what are they for?

Yikes! I missed a whole week of posting. I am so sorry about that! A teething 2-year old makes for very little sleep for her mama, and that makes for a very foggy brain on said mama. It is so hard to formulate whole sentences when you don’t get any sleep, don’t you find? Anyways, I will just stretch out the skincare month into February instead! 🙂

Today I wanted to talk about toners, and what they are good for! When I moved to Canada I realized that toners are more common in Europe than they are in North America. Toners are not a necessary step in your skincare regimen, but they are a nice treat and they will have added benefits for your skin. A toner will remove any traces of cleanser, refresh and prepare your skin for the next step (serum and/or moisturizer). Your skin will be slightly damp from the toner, and that will help spread out the serum or cream and make it sink into your skin easier.

Depending on the toner you choose you will get other benefits too of course! The Cucumber Aloe Toner is mild, soothing, hydrating and cooling. Perfect for sensitive skin, but is also suitable for all skin types. I love to keep mine in the fridge and mist over my face in summer when it’s hot and humid. The Raspberry Exfoliating Toner is made with both salicylic and glycolic acid, two exfoliants that will keep your skin clear and glowing.

Toners are also good for lazy people like me. Many times I realize way too late that it’s time to go to bed, and the last thing I want to do then is to start washing my face. But a little toner on a cotton pad is super quick and gets rid of most of the dirt before my face hit the pillow.
Let me know if you have any questions about toners! You can post them here or email them to anna AT tvalskincare.com

DIY cleansers/masks

Every once in a while it can be fun to make a special treat for yourself, and it’s easier than you think! Perhaps you have some cranberries left from the Holidays? Use them in a cleanser! Try this:

10 fresh cranberries
4 tbsp plain yogurt (as fat as you can get! :))
2 tbsp finely powdered oats (ground them up in a food processor, you can make a big batch and keep on hand)
2 drops Rose essential oil (optional)
1 tbsp clay (optional)

Put all ingredients in a food processor and whizz until smooth. If it feels a bit thick, add more yogurt, and if it feels a bit runny, add more oats.

To use, massage into damp skin and leave on for 5 minutes. Rinse off. The cranberries are astringent and extremely rich in Vitamin C. The yogurt is soothing and the oats are nourishing. If you add clay you get a bit more of a deep cleaning, and the rose oil smells heavenly!

Store left overs in the fridge. As long as it looks and smells good you can use it!

 

 

Cleansing – How to make it more fun!

Did you find a suitable cleanser? While having a simple routine in place is the best thing, sprucing it up and making it a little bit more pampering is fun some times. Variety is the spice of life, after all 🙂

You could add a drop or two of an essential oil to your cleanser to give it an instant “spa” feel. Try lavender (relaxing), rose (soothing), mandarin (uplifting) or our Pure Balance essential oil blend with lavender, tea tree, geranium and chamomile.

If you want a little bit of scrub, the best thing to add is a teaspoon or less of baking soda. Yep, it’s true! The crystals are so fine and even that they will not scratch your skin, but they are scrubby enough to give you an effective exfoliation. I got this tip from the “Cosmetic Cop” and it inspired our super popular scrub Resurface.

For an extra bit of deep cleansing, try adding some clay to the cleanser (this works best with the Cleansing Milk, actually.. I have only tried it with the Cleansing Milk so do let me know if you try it with another cleanser!:)). You can for instance use our Cucumber chamomile Face Mask. It’s a powder mask with green clays, cucumber extract and dried chamomile. The clays will draw out any impurities, the cucumber will cool and tone while the chamomile will heal. Great stuff! But you can use any clay of course. Rhassoul would be wonderful.

Honey will be a wonderful, although a bit sticky, addition to your cleanser. It is hydrating and anti-inflammatory. Add just half a teaspoon or so (this would probably work best in the Cleansing Milk and Cleansing Gel).

These ideas should hopefully keep you busy for a little bit! 🙂 Tomorrow I will share some DIY cleansers for when you feel creative!