To make sure I stay hydrated, I decided to have an alternative besides water in my fridge. Sometimes, I switch up my water bottle with Iced Tea - and what better, then to visit David's Tea to grab some tea. I picked up the packages above which were 5 for $20 (no tax) - each packet makes 2L, but I stretch it out by making an extra litre to drink the day of. The other 2L I store in the fridge, to enjoy at home or to just fill my water bottle when I go out. I also sometimes like to throw a tsp of Chia Seeds in it and let it soak, so I can enjoy all the goodness of Chia seeds (we all know I've been on a Chia Seed craze lately).

3. Caramel Corn
4. Mango Fruit Punch - contains mango, pineapple and tangerine pieces.
5. Strawberry Rhubarb Parfait

What's great about these teas is that I don't have to add any sugar, they taste great on their own. However, for those of you wanting to add some sweetness, you can always add some agave nectar or honey to the tea right after you brew it, and then chill it, that way the honey or agave will be incorporated properly and you won't get chunks of floating honey chunks lol.....

Hope you are all enjoying this lovely weather!!

XO - M.

Hey Everyone!!

I hope that all of you are enjoying the amazing summer weather today! The sun is shining and it finally feels like SUMMER!! *time to get my tan on!*

When I created this blog, I wanted to focus on networking and reviewing/sharing Canadian based companies to the rest of social media (to the best of my abilities at least). I find that it is extremely important, to recognize and purchase from our local businesses, especially small businesses (by that I mean not those big-boxed, franchised businesses that are all run by some big corporate entity)... one of my loves is to always tour farmers markets, especially when I'm up North, or to visit little stores here and there, looking for local artisans and to make a conscious effort to purchase locally.

Recently, I had the opportunity to meet Brian, a truly amazing artisan, he is kind hearted, generous and super friendly. He really takes the time to get to know you, hear you out and answer all of your questions. All of his candles are smokeless and drip-less, they are hand poured, hand-dipped and then finally handcrafted by Brian - which means that each product receives the ultimate quality control. The candles are made with the highest quality 100% pure Canadian beeswax cappings.

A little excerpt from Brian's site:

What Is Cappings Grade Beeswax? 
First we need to know where wax comes from. Honeybees produce hundreds of thousands of freshly minted sheets of beeswax throughout the honey season. The hard, white sheets of wax are extruded from small glands on the belly of the female bees. After being chewed and softened, they are ready for use to build their honeycomb palace. 
Now, get this. After filling each hexagonal honeycomb cell with liquid honey, the bees seal it with a protective wax cap created solely from the newly produced sheets of wax. We call this wax cap its capping. Every capping is crafted by the bees using these tiny and freshly minted beeswax sheets. Cappings grade beeswax is gathered by the beekeeper throughout the year and kept separate from older sources of beeswax which are darker in color and of comparably poor quality. This is why cappings grade beeswax is so much better than any other grade. It is new and it is clean.

I only harvest a couple pounds of cappings grade beeswax from each hive per year. Unfortunately, I simply do not have enough hives to produce the amount of beeswax that I sell every year. I purchase the remainder of our wax from other beekeepers and clean it myself, in-house.

My wax is perfectly clean and and burns beautifully. But, not all wax is the same. Avoid purchasing brownish beeswax or beeswax candles at all costs. Brown beeswax does not come from buckwheat honey or any other exotic honey. I have personally had my bees feed on fields of buckwheat. Believe me, buckwheat honey is black, but the wax is orange, once it is cleaned by me. Brown and black bees waxes are low quality waxes that make very low quality candles. Brown wax can only come from three possible situations or sources:
1. Dirty old black brood comb containing dozens (possibly hundreds) of chemicals,
2. Beeswax that has been burnt due to poor processing,
3. Or by staining, which is the result of using iron equipment to improperly process the wax.

As you can see in the image above, when the candle is lit, it is burning clear, there's no black drippings or black smoke. The best part is, the smell of the sweet fragrant honey that fills the room - it's so heavenly. There's nothing more that I hate when burning a candle, is to smell that plastic or waxy smell, or even worse - artificial fragrance/perfume smells - those give me headaches!!

I really hope that you will all visit Brian's store on Etsy:
https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/EpicBeeswax

All of his products are so beautifully handcrafted and most of all, for all the work that is put into making these candles, the prices really are reasonable. You're getting quality here people :)

I will definitely be purchasing these candles on a continued basis once I'm done these :)

XO-M

Price: $9 approx - I picked mine up 2 years ago at Walmart around that price (not sure about now, sorry!)

Polish: China Glaze - Lotus Begin $7.95

Finish: Dries to a matte lilac purple shade

Collection: City Flourish Collection (Spring 2014)

Applied here is 2 coats with a base and the Nails Inc Caviar quick drying top coat. It is a cream polish, but I found it quite easy to use, it is not streaky at all. I love this color for summer, it's the perfect lilac/pink color :)

- XO, M

Empties this month:

1. Pantene - Dry Shampoo - $4.96 approx @ Walmart

2. Rene Furterer - Dry Shampoo with absorbent clay. $27 approx @ Sephora

3. Clinique Spot Treatment Gel $20 approx depending on which size @ Sephora

4. Bobbi Brown Corrector - Light Peach $30 @ Sephora

Thoughts:

Pantene vs. Rene Furterer - both dry shampoos the Pantene one is tapioca starch based and the Rene one is clay based - generally I'd like to say that they both work similar enough for me to just grab the Pantene bottle next time. However, I have had the Rene bottle for 1 year and it finally ran out - where as the Pantene one  I had for 3 months and it's out. I feel like the tapioca powder of the Pantene product requires alot more product to absorb the oils on the scalp, vs the clay which required only 1-2 spritzes. Also, the Pantene one - the quality of the spray bottle is alot cheaper, the nozzle cap broke after a few uses. Finally, the scent of the Pantene one is much stronger than the Rene one which is more of a herbally lighter scent (which I prefer).

So I guess it's up to personal preference -- one bottle of Rene can get about 6 bottles of the Pantene, so if it's something you'd want to splurge on, by all means...

Clinique Spot Treatment Gel - my holy grail acne spot clearing treatment!  I have recommended this to so many of my friends and they absolutely love it .. my hubby uses it too -- just squeeze the gel onto your pimple or any baby ones that look like they are about to erupt and you'll see it dry out the next day - I can't live without this.

Bobbi Brown Corrector - I use this to even out and cancel my dark panda circles on my eyes before applying concealer - Bobbi Brown is one of the leaders in the industry for correctors and I can totally see the difference between using it and not using it. I am definitely going to be repurchasing this.

http://www.whenicomeclean.com

Absolutely amazing drugstore find!!

I've been hearing so much about Milani products on Youtube and other makeup forums and I've been on an active hunt for them. Milani is in most drugstores in the U.S., unlike in Canada where we don't have such a great selection, nor such a great pricepoint.. boo....

Anyways, the hunt is over! I found these amazing lipglosses at.... LOBLAWS SUPERSTORE... yah. LOBLAWS, of all places... this one in particular is the one at Scarborough Town Center.

Price - $4.99 each... great pigmentation, not sticky at all. Slight hint of a vanilla scent...mmm..

The two colors featured are: Pink Lady (the light baby pink) and Ravish Raspberry (fuscia one).

I love these lipsticks and at that price, you really can't find any better. I'm definately going to pick more up!

- XO, M

Saturdays @ Thomson Park

Bentley got to meet another Shih Tzu on Saturday, he was all white though - name: Beanie, weight: 20pds (heavy for a shihtzu!)

It was too cute, a group of small dogs came along and they had a really nice time playing together. Some of the dogs we got to meet were: Grissom (named after CSI Las Vegas), Hershey, Howard and.... I forget...lol

We all said that we'd try to meet back at the park on Saturdays, if the weather is nice, to have another playdate...

- XO, M