Reviewed: Blyss Hair Salon

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Recently I was offered the pleasure to  visit  Blyss hair salon for a complimentary treatment. Blyss hair salon in Yorkville at  25 Bellair Street was just joined by  Exit Hair salon, together the two businesses bring together  over  25 years of experience and an amazing team. I got the pleasure to  have my cut done by the lovely Carla who convinced me to do a little something different to my hair to bring out its natural wave. Here is the before:

Here is the after:


So what do you think? I love it because my hair is lighter and I learned to bring out the natural wave with simply my fingers, a  little oil and a round brush. Carla was careful to teach me new tricks and ways to make my hair be something I would love and I am  so happy with the transformation. Blyss is a sure place to visit, just ask for Carla and you’ll be taken care of!

Inspired: DIY Chocolate Covered Pretzels

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Recently I attended a surprise birthday party of a friend’s wife and I felt inspired to take some birthday treats to the party for the lovely birthday girl. I decided to take decorated chocolate covered pretzel rods, I had seen a co-worker the past Christmas bring them in for our team and I asked her if they were difficult to make.

She said they were messy, but not hard so when I saw the  pretzel rods at Michael’s I jumped at the chance. Check out the delicious finished product above.  For the rods to turn out the  ingredients are  quite simple, you need a  bag of  pretzel rods, chocolate to melt down, and  items to decorate the rods with such as nuts, coloured sugar and sprinkles.

This was my haul for decorating the  pretzel rods. For the chocolate I used white chocolate  Candy Melts which I purchased from Michael’s and  Milk Chocolate chips. The  white chocolate was the base for the  pretzels, while  the chocolate chips I used as a marble drizzle. Here are the  steps to making these pretzels, taken from  a TLC recipe:

1. Begin by melting down  the  chocolate melts in the package of the chocolate melts in the microwave.  Once the chocolate is fully melted dip about  three-quarters of the pretzel rod into the bowl covering it  fully with chocolate. Then roll the pretzel back and fourth over the bowl to get rid of the extra stuff. Here comes the fun part….

2. Next using a plate underneath, decorate the pretzel with coloured sugars, sprinkles or chocolate nuts. The melted chocolate will allow the sprinkles to stuck to the surface.  The plate above is the leftovers of what didn’t stick on the pretzels.

Tip: Another way to decorate the pretzels as you can see above is to use  milk chocolate drizzle over the top. Create a drizzle using a spoon and slowly rotating the pretzel rod back and forth.

3. Continue steps  1 and  2 with each pretzel rod until you complete the entire bag of rods. As you  go along be sure to place each  complete rod on a wire rack to cool.   Let the pretzels dry for several hours outside, four hours should do the trick.

4. Place the  rods either in a mug and wrap in cellophane if it’s a gift or simple place in a beautiful bowl lines with colourful tissue paper for a fun touch. Serve them to your guests, they’ll love these sweet-salty treats for sure!

Inspired: Exploring the Self with LUSH’s Emotional Brilliance

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When putting on makeup, what do you think about? Maybe you think about how the look you will create will complement your outfit, or perhaps you want to play up a feature that channels the season.  But with LUSH’s new Emotional Brilliance makeup collection its more than just matching and playing up features,  creating a makeup look is about channeling the inner self.

Creators of LUSH’s line  Rowena Bird  with colour psychologist Lady Kennedy and  Strategic Behavioural Therapist to  devise the concept of line.  Each colour in the line is associated with a word that channels a quality of one’s inner self when chosen at the colour wheel. Users of the line choose colours based on how they are feeling, reaching deep inside after doing a colour reading that shows their current state of mind.

I paid a visit to Square One’s LUSH story to experience the line first hand.

LUSH’s David Owen (pictured below) allowed me to  experience the colour reading first hand:

Now you may ask yourself what is a colour reading? Well that’s what these two are doing here. You get a personal consultation with a LUSH consultant who  asks you to sit at the LUSH colour wheel, which is a wooden wheel that feature the line’s complete colour variety; and  drain out your mind of everything, close your eyes and concentrate solely on  how you are feeling just that moment.

The attendant spins the colour wheel for you  (seen below) and when it stops spinning you open your eyes and select the three colours you are drawn to most. I was drawn to these three, a bright green, a deep maroon and an iridescent bronze:

The first colour you pick represents your strength, since I chose the green also called “Healthy” I was told my lifestyle is healthy in terms of taking care of myself and the strong personal relationships I have in my life, which is something others admire in me.

The second colour representative of something one needs to grasp on to and is a subconscious need was “Confidence.” David mentioned that it doesn’t mean I am not confident, but that its something I need to work on fully embodying to realise my full potential with all the changes in my life at the moment, quite insightful.

Finally, the third colour is the quality in yourself you need to channel in order to fully embody your subconscious need to put one’s best sense of self forward. My third colour was called “Happiness,” so to show through my full confident self I need to channel my happiness. Based on how I was feeling that particular day and all of the life changes I am going through now in my personal and professional life the reading was right on the mark.

But most of all the line also looks good when put on, the picture above with myself and David shows me wearing “Healthy” as liner on my eyes and  ”Happiness” on my cheeks, on my lips I played around with a refresh summer fushcia called “Believe.”

The collection’s concept is not the only thing that makes it special, since its created by LUSH, Emotional Brilliance is 100% Vegan line, great for those who make conscientious choices with their makeup. Plus the line’s packaging is environmentally friendly with each colour being encased in a glass bottle, one of the most enviro-friendly materials. Finally the tops that hold the applicators are made of recycled LUSH containers from the makeup line’s  recycling program (for every 5 empty LUSH pots you bring into the  store you get a free product).

Finally when I applied the makeup the applicators were very simple to use and precise (I’m not the best with liquid liner and I didn’t struggle here). The pigments encourage you to play around with colour as they are easily blendable and are infused with ingredients that make your skin healthier including the essential oil Jojoba, candelita wax and rose wax, both natural botanical  extracts from plants. In my opinion what isn’t there to like about this line, it’s so much fun to wear and a great experience as you get a window into your  inner thoughts of the day.

Here’s the refreshing look I created at home with my three colours, beautiful shades! The lip colour is definitely one I love as bold lips are a personal favourite and although the brightness of the green seems daunting it looks quite stunning, but subtle when applied to the lips. Here “Happiness” was used as a shadow all over the lid.

Feeling like you want to have your own colour reading, check out the colour wheel on the Emotional Brilliance feature page on LUSH’s  website!

Do you think you’d like to try the Emotional Brilliance line?

Written: Cruelty Free Beauty Feature

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Last month in the Summer issue of Anokhi Magazine, my first issue after I stepped down from the role as Beauty Editor I wrote a freelance feature  article on cruelty free beauty brands that celebrated cosmetic companies working to end the fight against animal testing. It had been a while since I had flexed my feature muscles so I was  really happy with the way the story turned out.

As a beauty junkie I do try to support green and cruelty fee companies, but as I mention in the article like many others it’s not a priority. But since I learned the tons of brands who are cruelty free I buy with a more informed sense of purchase and where I can I am making an effort to switch.

What I loved about writing this piece is that I learned that if more companies  begin to follow suit of brands such as  LUSH and Smashbox,  I’ll be glad to make the switch. Already the selection in cruelty free brands is quite high as you’ll know if you read the article.  I also wonder what the consequences will be in 2013 when UK  takes all exported brands with animal tested formulas off the shelves in addition to their state ban of animal testing in their country.

What do you think will happen? How do you feel about this issue? Read the article now. 

Inspired: The Art of Baking in High Heels in Toronto

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Recently I have been baking, I’ve always loved to cook and bake…

Here’s PROOF! Vanilla Buttermilk cupcakes from scratch…

…and chocolate coated decorated pretzels made by yours truly (this is a sneak peek at an upcoming how-to post).

…so when I was invited to this event taking place in Toronto called Baking in High Heels I was quite excited. Taking place at Dish Cooking School, the event is open to the public with tickets priced at $120. Attendees must wear their best pair of heels and will be challenged to a bake off as they are dressed in their best.

But get this, the  best baker who masters the art in her heels wins a pair of fancy heels values at $650! So if  cake pops, martinis and fancy shoes are your kind of thing be sure to check out this event taking place in Toronto on August  16, 2012 at the Dish Cooking School.

Inspired: Olympic Shellac Nails from CND Try It!

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With the craze for nail art running high it’s no coincidence that even Olympic athletes are getting into the spirit by sporting Olympic themed nail art in London. Creative Nail Design (CND) who are the creators of Shellac nail polish, a nail polish that stays on for up to  4 weeks and needs to be applied by a professional technician,  provided athletes with complementary manicures and pedicures last week by some of London’s top nail technicians and UK’s beauty  distributor Sweet Square to celebrate the games.

The two official looks that CND revealed are the lovely Olympic Gold, which is a beautiful red manicure with red Olympic rings and  a sparkly gold tip; and Olympic Spirit  that details the colourful Olympic rings with some abstract art in the official colours as the background.

But guess  what? I got the inside scoop from CND so you can take these tips to your nearest Shellac nail technician and get these commemorative Olympic manis and pedis done for yourself! That’s right I look after my readers.

Here are the tips for you to print off and take to your nearest Shellac technician, ENJOY!

Olympic Spirit How to Steps:


The easiest way to use CND Additives is straight out of the jar, burnished into CND Shellac™ Power Polish™! Additives and Shellac offer unique, one-of-a kind looks that are so easy and quick to create.

  • STEP 1: P.E.P. the natural nail (for details see our CND Shellac Step-by-Steps).
  • STEP 2: Apply a thin layer of Shellac Base Coat and cure for 10 seconds in the CND UV Lamp.
  • STEP 3: Apply two thin layers of Shellac Cream Puff. Cure each layer for two minutes.
  • STEP 4: Dip the tip of a dry oval brush into Additives Yellow and burnish it into the sticky Shellac on the side of the nail, creating the desired background design. Repeat with red and blue.
  • STEP 5: Mix Additives with a small amount of Isopropyl Alcohol (to create a watercolor paste) on a mixing tray.
  • STEP 6: Dip the end of a piece of ⅛” rubber tubing into the Additives Blue paste and stamp a circle onto the nail. Perfect the circle by dipping a detail brush into the Additive paste to fill in the lines as needed. Lock for 10 seconds.
  • STEP 7: Clean the tubing with IPA, and repeat with the rest of the colors until you create the Olympic ring design. Cure for two minutes.
  • STEP 8: Apply a thin layer of Shellac Top Coat and cure for two minutes.
  • STEP 9: Wipe with 99% Isopropyl Alcohol to remove top film.

PRODUCTS REQUIRED

CND Shellac Base Coat

CND Shellac Cream Puff

CND Shellac Top Coat

CND Additives: Yellow Pigment, Cerulean Blue

Pigment Effect, Bright Red Pigment, Black Pigment

CND ProSeries Gel Flat Oval #6 Brush

CND UV Lamp

ART SUPPLIES

99% Isopropyl Alcohol

⅛” Rubber Tubing

Olympic Gold How-to Steps:

The easiest way to use CND Additives is straight out of the jar, burnished into CND Shellac™ Power Polish™ Additives and Shellac offer unique, one-of-a kind looks that are so easy and quick to create.

  • STEP 1: P.E.P. the natural nail (for details see our CND Shellac Step-by-Steps).
  • STEP 2: Apply a thin layer of Shellac Base Coat and cure for 10 seconds in the CND UV Lamp.
  • STEP 3: Apply one thin layer of Shellac Iced Cappuccino. Cure for two minutes.
  • STEP 4: Dip the tip of a dry gel oval brush lightly moistened with Isopropyl Alcohol into gold glitter and brush a thin layer over the entire nail.
  • STEP 5: Apply one thin layer of Shellac Clearly Pink and cure for two minutes.
  • STEP 6: Apply one thin layer of Shellac Decadence to zones two and three creating a smile line. Perfect as needed with a brush lightly moistened with isopropyl alcohol. Cure for two minutes.
  • STEP 7: Mix Additives Bright Red with a small amount of Isopropyl Alcohol (to create a watercolor paste) on a mixing tray.
  • STEP 8: Dip the end of a piece of ⅛” rubber tubing into the Additives Red paste and stamp a circle onto the nail. Perfect the circle by dipping a detail brush into the Additive paste to fill in the lines as needed. Lock for 10 seconds.
  • STEP 9: Clean the tubing with IPA, and repeat Step 8 until the Olympic ring design is complete. Cure for two minutes.
  • STEP 10: Apply a thin layer of Shellac Top Coat and cure for two minutes.
  • STEP 11: Wipe with 99% Isopropyl Alcohol to remove top film.

PRODUCTS REQUIRED

CND Shellac Base Coat

CND Shellac: Iced Cappuccino, Clearly Pink,

Decadence

CND Additives: Bright Red Pigment

CND Shellac Top Coat

CND ProSeries Gel Flat Oval #6 Brush

CND UV Lamp

ART SUPPLIES

Martha Stewart Gold Glitter

99% Isopropyl Alcohol

⅛” Rubber Tubing

Do you think you’ll try out an Olympic themed Shellac mani to celebrate the games?

*How to Steps provided by CND and High View Communications.

Reviewed: Weekend Hair-do with Goody Glam’s Summer Accessories

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I cut my hair short this past winter, which I love. But sometimes with my bob I get bored because apart from doing my hair curly or straight there aren’t many hairdo’s I can try with a bob-length cut. To compensate for the lack of hairstyles though, I love trying hair accessories whether they are clips, headbands or pins.

Recently I got to try out some great accessories from Goody’s GLAM Summer collection. The collection is available at Wal-Mart and is quite affordable, anywhere from $4.99 to $6.99 depending on the hair accessory. I love the summer collection because it uses a variety of fabric textures from a heavier felt to sheer prints in a variety of styles including barrettes and  hair bands.  Hair bands are my personal favourite because you can turn either a do of short curly hair or straight hair into a convenient new look.

A really easy style that I love though is wearing a flower in my hair in a soft bun,  it’s trendy but  also classic without looking like you’re  trying too hard to imitate a crazy runway do. Pictured below with my long coral skirt the flower Goody Glam hair band makes for a perfect Bohemian look. Thank you Goody!

What do you think, would you wear one of the Goody Glam accessories?

Read: The Jane Austen Marriage Manual, By Kim Izzo

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So if you follow my blog or my Twitter feed you’ll know that recently I have been reading more than one book because I’ve had trouble finding the right one. Of the 5 books I read The Jane Austen Marriage Manual was one of them. So here’s my review as promised!

Why I chose the book:

The cover is pretty (yes sometimes this does influence me, I say it’s because I’m trained in book publishing), it seemed like a fun and relaxing read, many people in the media industry have been talking about it, Jane Austen is in the title (I love reading 19th century anything specifically Jane Austen novels), and the main character in the book Kim Shaw is an Acting Beauty Editor at Haute, a fashion magazine who gets let go because her contract it up. The reasons for reading this book were endless, after all I love relaxing reads, my Master’s degree had quite a focus on Victorian fiction and I was a Beauty Editor at a women’s fashion magazine up until this past spring when I left to pursue other opportunities.

Why I love the book:

The book is funny and moving at the same time. At times the book is a bit outlandish and far-fetched but it never fails to bring you a laugh so it makes it okay. The fun element continues with the many references to designer clothing throughout the book (fine I don’t own designer clothing but I can read about it) and the fact the hotel The Breakers is in the novel, I just stayed there for a few days on a family vacation! Finally it shows how someone with real life problems: someone who is broke, without a job and has family issues can get through what life has dealt them and keep going. It’s relevant to real life and shows you life doesn’t have to be perfect.

What I hate about the book:

There is a tendency for it to be over contrived when it comes to the Jane Austen tie in, I for one love Jane Austen so I didn’t mind it but the coincidences of the room paint in Kate Shaw’s bedroom and the fact that her editor gets her to write an article about the Jane Austen way of life, while she tries to play the rich Lady Kate gets to a bit irritating sometimes. I almost contemplated not reading the book when it got too much and she was simply chasing rich men for money and trying to play off her life as a big farce pretending to act like an aristocrat.

If I think I will get around to FINISHING the book:

The answer to this is obvious, I am already finished the book. Although for the first quarter of The Jane Austen Marriage Manual it was a slower start, the book was a bit heavier in content, the main character goes through a lot of hard times and to be honest I found it a bit depressing although moving, so I read it slowly at the beginning. When I past the 50% point, I read this on my iPad using the Kobo app, though I flew through to the end of the book as the freelancer beauty writer goes through a real life escapade to determine if its possible to marry for status and love as in Austen’s time and be happy as a woman in her 40′s.

I would rate this book an 8 out of 10. If you love fashion, funny novels and want to read about a woman going through a tough time in her life and how she deals with it I’d definitely recommend this book for you.

Related Posts:  

Read: My Current Flip Through List

Seen: Neon Nails and Essie Weingarten in Toronto

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When you see Essie and hear her talk you see a woman with an elaborate persona and someone who knows what it means to be glam, work hard and take care of herself. Essie, a salon  quality nail polish brand created by Essie Weingarten herself. As a brand the polish is 30 years old and has always been connected to fashion week. Vogue’s Anna Wintour says that “Essie calls the trends better than anyone else.” At this past  Toronto Fashion week Essie  covered  7 shows including Pavoni, Pink Tartan and Chloe, Chanel, McQueen and the Alexander and Missoni shows. Partnered with Tips Nail Bar they created some  amazing trend loving looks.

This Spring and Summer Essie launched three new nail polish collections: One includes the Bridal collection  which came out in April called Love and Acceptance, pictured below:

Poppy-Razzi, which came out in May, is a collection of   daring shades of neons that catch people’s attention and are either for the younger or more experimental woman. This is the neon half-moon mani I got done from the pop-up nail bar by the lovely women at Tips at the event later that week:

“Doesn’t matter what the topic is, the conversation will end up about the nails.”

– Essie on women and their nail polish colour selection.

TIP: The trick to getting the neon colour to come out  extra bold is to layer underneath the colour a full coat of white so it stands out in full and goes on opaque. Wait two minutes between each coat.

 

Then there is the Summer line  called Bikini So Tini with  colours such as Summer Love and  The Hampton’s, a refreshing colour palette, my favourite is  the bright parrot green Mojito Madness shade that is pictured in the  summer issue of The Kit among other mags, I don’t have any pics of this line, sorry peeps!

But aside from the great new colours, this launch was a special one as Essie Weingarten herself came out to meet the bloggers and writers gathered.  With her brand Essie gave women a complete palette of nail polish shades to  choose from by  creating shades not ordinarily sold in salons. As a young child she took her own nail polish to the  beauty parlor on Saturday morning where her mother would take her as a  treat and that is where her passion started: “It was  where a dream came true,” exclaimed Weingarten smiling at the crowd of us.

“nails have a connection with women and  make us all feel good. You are all loving an American Dream, ” Yes that’s right, Essie as a brand begun simply as a salon exclusive brand in Las Vegas where Essie hand delivered her first shades of polish herself. Then when the women returned home back to their respective American cities they called the salons to ask where the polishes were available outside Vegas. That’s how the craze began, before she knew it Essie was distributing polishes all over the country and her love for polish became a successful business, talk about a little girl’s dream becoming a power woman’s reality!

Note: Essie nail lacquers are sold at Shoppers and participating salons and retail for about $9.99 CDN. 

“A woman is not fully dressed if she goes out with bare nails.”

-  Essie on nails as accessories to outfits.

Read: My Current Flip Through List

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So recently I’ve been bored, usually when bored I  find easy ways to fill up my time that I love. Recently I’ve gotten in touch with a lot of my hobbies I love including cooking, baking, making jewellery and even some artistic contemporary sketching – that makes it sound fancy but really it’s a bunch of squigglies.  Anyhow, at the moment my reading list keeps growing as I am  getting back in touch with my various interests and I am finding I can’t stick to one book. So instead of reviewing one book and telling you how much I LOVE each one of them I am going to tell you why I can’t stick to one with a short list of the various books I have read in the last few weeks.  I’m having a book crisis because all the books are so different and I love all for different reasons so I keep switching back and forth because I haven’t gotten GLUED to one yet (this is very strange for me).

First off I would like to say that I am a lit  graduate,  so to say it right I take my reading a bit too seriously sometimes, so often I have a hard time with myself when I am not reading a classic, that being said over the last year or so as I’ve been working on developing my media career and my marriage I find easier reads and lifestyle books tend to tickle my fancy better because I get to finish them faster.

Anyhow so as a result here’s what I’ve been reading people, this is the list, stay tuned for posts on each book. They’ll begin with Why I Chose the Book, Why I Love the book, What I Hate About the Book and If I think I will get around to FINISHING the Book.

Needless to say, these are all just my opinions, at the end of the day you can only choose a book based on your own experience, opinions are all really relative. Here’s the PREVIEW, stay tuned for more deets over the upcoming weeks!

1. Anna Karenina – By Leo Tolstoy

2. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest –  By Stieg Larrson

3. Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes – By  Martha Stewart

4. The Jane Austen Marriage Manual – By Kim Izzo

5. The Book of Awesome – By Neil Pasricha