When was the last time you went to a mall? Did you happen to go inside Sephora? How about Tory Burch?
I uploaded my first shopping haul last night and I’m going to be completely honest with my readers. I was super nervous! Now that it’s over and out there on the world wide web, I wish I had done this when I was a busy bee being a professional make-up artist, entrepreneur and going to all those awesome beauty and fashion events. But you know what, it really is never too late!
It’s about time I crawled out of my safe zone and did something that involves all of my talents. Technology, beauty, fashion, social media and marketing, to mention a few. Feels weird even saying that, but a good pat on your back once in awhile feels good.
Here’s the video:
Stay humble and thank you so much for watching! xo
Fashion Art Toronto, where Fashion and Art collide.
(April 22-26th)
I have never attended a Fashion Art Toronto Show before, so I had no idea what to expect other then the usual runway. I went for 2 nights as my schedule didn’t allow me to squeeze in more days. In my opinion I think I choose the best days to go! Click here for the week schedule. I’m trying something different and instead of only pictures, I have some videos from the show.
Let’s start from the beginning.
The venue was Daniels Spectrum. Upon entering there’s a piano that is open to the public to use. Everytime I passed by that piano someone was there with music sheets practising and learning how to play the piano. What a great way to give back to the community!
There was a lounge area for people to relax and wait for the show to start or closer to the entrance of the runway floor was an exhibit of 5-8 exhibits.
There was one exhibit where clothes were made out of old leather shoes. The shoes were stripped apart, and layed flat to create the clothing.
There there was the live exhibit where a lady and a man sat in front of mirrors which seemed like the environment surrounding them was a bedroom. They just sat and looked at themselves in the mirror, stood up a few times to fix their hair and stretch. They never made eye contact with their audience as if we weren’t there and we were peering into their bedrooms and watching their every move. Awkwaaardd.
After I took in all of the exhibits, I made my way to the runway floor to find my seat. I was fortunate enough to sit in the second row, where the view of the show was just perfect.
Here’s Tuesdays line -up of designers that I watched:
Wallace Playford had a funky east meets west approach to designs for this show. Honestly, reminded me of the Chanel show where there were pearls and turbans as well.
All in all this was a great show. Different from the shows I’ve went to before. My favourite was Atelier, partly because he worked closely with Alexander McQueen and I love his designs.
It’s been an incredible week of appointments, photo shoots and filming! I’m happy to say I’ll be uploading one of my YouTube videos this weekend. Okay, don’t expect something totally amazing. My videos are just me, being me. Hope you’ll enjoy them and subscribe! Hehe. Have a great long weekend everyone!
So here are my friday faves from this week to take you through the weekend:
Fave Quote
As soon as I saw this I thought of my hubby. In my eyes he is perfection. He is my rock on days when I’m ornery and my partner in laugher when I’m silly. Also it helps to shed light on things that parents, brothers, significant others do for us that show they love and care. Often overlooked or taken for granted.
Fave Video
This is incredible!
Fave Tweet
The courage that went into this selfie!
Mothers Day, the weather was beautiful and the city was alive with events galore!
I had a baseball game to attend with friends from IBM and GNC later in the afternoon, so I planned to surprise her with flowers and cake first. I got to the door and just as I was adjusting my purse to knock on the door, my mom opens the door, on her way out to run some errands. I was caught off guard so I barely made it to saying..“Su su su SURPRISE!”
My mom’s reaction, shocked, “Oh wow!! How did you get here?!”
I love moments like this. When everything lines up beautifully, to bring a smile to someone’s face.
I immediately noticed her outfit and guided her back into the house, telling her she needs to get ready for her special day! Moms are always busy taking care and doing things for others that frequently they forget themselves. It’s their children, family and friends’ job to remind them to either look after themselves or to just do it for them. That’s love.
After some giggles and catch up time with my family and a moment to enjoy this perfect pre-game snack..
I made my way to the Rogers Center.
On this lovely day every women who attended the game received a pink rose, to mark Mother’s Day! They also had a section where they were giving free manicures, pedicures and more.
We had seats in the TD Comfort Clubhouse area and I enjoyed taking a break and moving to seats in the dining area for lunch. We could still see the field from our table. The lunch was great! The desserts were impeccable. They had s’mores bread pudding (insert drool)
Close to the end of the game a ball came flying towards our section, and as much as I would love to say I caught it (so cliché) it fell into our section and no one had any idea where it rolled too. So I checked under my seat and there it was! Rolled and stopped right under me. Meant to be!
After the game I made my way back to my mama’s place, spent time with our family and then was on my way, bearing gifts, to see my other mom (my mother in-law). Whom I love so much with all my heart!
Share your Mother’s Day story in the comments below :”)
Blazer – H&M (Made from recycled water bottles)
Tank – Forever 21
Jeans – ONLY (Bought in Egypt)
Shoes – Tory Burch Spring 2014
Purse/Satchel – French Connection
Necklace – Handmade from Varadero, Cuba
I love spending time downtown. There’s never a dull moment. So much to do, so much to see.
One of my favourite places is the new pedestrian bridge, Puente de Luz. This bridge connects the CityPlace condos with a short cut to popular streets like King and Queen St. Where you can pretty much find anything.
I often shy away from wearing everything white. It’s so easy to get your whites dirty if you’re walking everywhere. Which makes it even more special when you do choose this look. There’s something risky and pristine about this style. When shopping for whites, make sure you test the clothing for transparency. Do the light and hand test. Ask to see it outside or put your hand behind the fabric. If you already own items that are too see through, don’t worry. Wear a neutral or white tank top underneath the blouse or layer some tanks like I did. I love layering! For pants, it’s best you test them out first.
Wearing everything white with pops of colour in accessories or shoes, brings more attention to them. For an example, take a canvas and splash 1 or 2 colours of paint on it. They stand out right? Add any more colour and it’s just a colourful painting. Avoid wearing white shoes and go for metallics, brights or nude. I chose pastel and soft colours to go with my white ootd (outfit of the day). During the day I like to go for more neutral or pastel colours and flats! Unless I’m going to an event or in the evening when I need to bring out the gems and metallic heels.
Have you ever looked back at your pictures and thought “whoa! What’s up with that uni-brow?!” or noticed your overly plucked eyebrows?
Our eyebrows go through their own changes either based on lack of attention or too much attention. Always keep in mind that the shape and look of your eyebrows play a big role in framing your eyes and enhancing your appearance.
It was evident that if you had thick eyebrows, you may have to tweeze/wax them. If they were thin, you would need to fill them in. Today the rule of thumb is that they can be thick and still look hot. Just like one of my favourite models Cara Delevingne. She is known for her power brows.
Sorry ladies, the over plucked look is not “in fashion”. Good news! There’s hope! If you have made that mistake and can’t get them back to their fuller days, you can fill them in and fake it. There are so many options for fillers, hair growing formulas and pencils galore. I used an eye shadow occasionally to fill my own and on my clients. Hands down, the best products I have ever used were from Benefit and I haven’t used anything since I was introduced to it in my make-up artist days.
That being said, the beautiful ladies at Benefit booked me an appointment at the Yorkdale Benefit Brow Bar inside Sephora. I have to be honest, I was expecting an entire store of only Benefit products, maybe because I’ve seen the one in California and it was beautiful. Pink, everything. I can’t wait for those stand alone stores to come here! They would do amazing. Not to mention that the one inside this Sephora was so busy. Fully booked for the weekend and during my appointment 4 people asked at different times if they could go next.
To my surprise the brow expert was someone I knew from my very first cosmetics role! How wild is that?! I have known Kelly Correia for over a decade and she is still the beautiful person inside and out that I first met years ago. I always thought she had the most perfect eyebrows. There isn’t anyone else that I would trust my brows with but her.
Here is the breakdown of how Kelly did my brows at the Benefit Brow Bar:
1. She first started with a brow tint. Which made my brows look naturally fuller and a bit darker.
2. Then she did some brow mapping using my nose as a guide to get the perfect shape for my face. She drew guidelines on my brows using the product called brow zings.
3. She then showed me my brows to see if I approved of the shape.
4. Waxed the middle of my brows first and continued to wax and tweeze one brow at a time.
5. Once I had seen the shape and loved it, she showed me some products to fill in my brows and taught me the technique.
The brow pencil that was used on me was the insta brow-dark colour. And then the med/deep gimme brow on top to look fuller. Below are the products I use to fill my brows. When I’m in a rush, I use Gimme Brow. Love it!
I love these products so much that I just had to share them with you, so I did a giveaway on my Facebook and Instagram pages. I am ecstatic to announce the lucky winner who will be receiving a Benefit gift bag of BrowsWOWed goodies! Congratulations to @m_mila_sd!
Fashion Night was an exclusive and invite-only event that took place on Friday, October 25th at The Windsor Arms Hotel in Toronto during the final night of the 2013 Toronto Fashion Week.
It was a cold day and one hour before the Fashion Night show started at 9:30pm it was chaos outside the Windsor Arms doors. People who had invitations were patiently waiting to go inside, until news passed around that they were at max capacity. Worried and eager to get inside the pushing to get to the front commenced and I was lucky enough to get inside and be in the third row!
The show was hosted by Canada’s Next Top Model judge Stacey McKenzie, and co-hosted by celebrity hair extraordinaire, Jie Matar. The fashion show featured Canadian designers Evan Biddell and Whitney Linen. For worldwide designers there was China’s Han Couture, Italy’s Tosca Delfino, and Royalz Clothing. Toronto’s local star DJ Fizza, and superstar violinist Eugene Draw aka Dr. Draw entertained the audience with an amazing performance on the catwalk.
Toronto’s hip hop artist from back in the day, Choclair took the stage and performed a few of his songs. All in all it was a great event and I can’t wait for the next one!
I am actually sick with a fever. Toronto’s winter weather hasn’t been nice to us this time around.-30 weather, snow in March and Leafs keep losing. Irrelevant to the weather, but I thought I’d throw that in there. Regardless of all that, throughout the week there were some things that made me laugh, motivated or sparked an idea!
Fave Video: I uploaded this video back in 2006 and totally forgot about it. This was my cat Maya’s first day at the house and I placed her for a second on my desk and wanted to record a video to send to a friend of mine, when something unexpectedly happens…to this day when I watch this video, it still makes me go “OU!”
Fave Pin:
I am in love with these John Galliano – Resort Shoes for 2014. The pop of yellow and the design is just impeccable.
Fave Quote:
Last year was a busy year but didn’t have too much time to create my brand and work on my projects. I have been very goals oriented this year and have so many things I’d love to accomplish very soon. Stumbling upon this quote was perfect timing.
Fave Purchase:
I was at the mall looking for something unique to add to the gifts I was getting for a special baby’s birthday, when I found this at Indigo. It is perfect! I love things that make a child’s imagination go wild, makes them excited and of course puts them into giggles. A tickle monster book box with tickle monster gloves included! It’s actually cheaper to purchase it online.
Happy Friday everyone and have a wonderful weekend!
Back in the day when I was behind the scenes putting together Fashion Shows or one of the head make-up artists, it was very different. I blame those experiences for my high expectations of a show.
“I love seeing the runway come to life. Not just models walking down the runway, but the whole theme that wraps and showcases around the beautiful designs, that designers put their hearts and sweat into making.”
Speaking of beautiful designs, on the second day of Toronto Fashion Week, David Dixon introduced his White Label bridal collection.
I had the pleasure of sitting and meeting with Sharadha Ramjit (@Sharadha_Ra), Producer and wearer of many hats at Corus Entertainment, CP24‘s Patricia Jaggernauth (@Patricia_J), Cristina Tenaglia, Reporter for CP24 (@cristina_CP24) and of course Stacey Mackenzie, who I’ve seen and spoken to at other shows.
The show begins with a short film about love. Rose petals fall on screen and then wedding bells start to ring. A model in a modern wedding dress appears, ready for the catwalk.
Most of the models wore short, tucked away hair or rather low bun hairstyles. Simple, soft, natural makeup and a romantic red lip, was the hair and make-up theme for this modern take on wedding attire.
Dixon’s White Label Collection consisted of pastel white, pink and peach designs.
Let’s face it, we all love our hair and have tried Pantene Pro-V products at least once before.
I’ve tried many brands of hair products, from the high end to the low end and honestly, I believe in changing up your hair products anywhere from 3-6 months. Whether it is a whole new brand or within the brand.
Just like our face and every other part of our body and lives, everything changes over time. I remember about 8 years ago I had really curly wavy hair. I would wash my hair, air dry and POOF! curls and waves galore! Now it’s different. Air drying gets me minimal volume and waves. Just the natural evolution of hair.
Feb 13th, a day before Valentine’s Day, I was invited to the Pantene Pro-V product launch on King street, downtown Toronto to be pampered. If you’re familiar with Toronto you’ll know this venue. Right across from Shoppers Drug Mart at King & Peter and was used for marketing TIFF, Toronto International Film Festival.
Upon entering, I was approached to have my coat taken and my information. Everyone invited, had registered ahead for an allotted time to be treated to their ‘Pantene Beautiful Hair Bar’ services. The venue had a pristine ambiance. Furniture, tables, counters, make-up station and the waiting lounge were all white, to fit the salon look and feel.
Here’s a vine I made on the day of:
While you wait in the lounge, you’re welcomed to do your nails at the nail bar, help yourself to treats and Starbucks hot drinks; all complimentary.
The lounge:
The blow dry bar was set up with 6 stations and had a featured chalkboard wall, where guests left positive, uplifting notes of their beautiful hair experience.
My hairstylist, talented Matthew Lill from Shagg salon in Yorkville styled my hair.
First, he went through a questionnaire to find out what hair solutions I was looking for and then matched my needs to Pantene products. We both agreed that the Ultimate 10 all in one Pantene line was perfect.
My finished look thanks to Matthew was wavy, bouncy curls, all done with a straightener. I loved the result!
The products I went home with:
I’ve been using these products for about a month now to write an honest review and love them!
Here’s a list of the Ultimate 10‘s solutions:
• Repair for Rough Hair
• Strength Against Damage
• Silky Softness
• Brilliant Shine
• Smoothing
• Moisture
• Frizz Control
• Gentle Cleaning
• Manageability
• Detangling
The only solution I’m unsure about is Frizz Control. However, because of our unforgiving cold weather this winter, I suspect nothing would be able to battle the frizz I had to deal with.
