Each year in September, Toronto hosts the Toronto International Film Festival, an event that is open equally to the public and to the celebrities. This year, I was invited to the TIFF Boutique held by Shoppers Drug Mart/Phyto Paris and I thought I'd share my lovely experience with my readers. Needless to say, it was one of the most luxurious events I've been to and I was pampered and spoiled. I even left the event with an amazing gift bag filled with lots of goodies I've been wanting to try, and also contains alot of brands I already love!








My afternoon started with a manicure from the beautiful and fun Melissa - Nail Artist at Tips Nail Bar - Instagram: MANIMELISSA if you want to check out her lovely nail art. I gave her complete creative freedom on my nails, and she painted them a light turquoise blue color and did a gradient polka-dot pattern from the tips down with a darker contrasting green.









Next, I was led to the Phyto Paris area and had my hair styled and blown-out. The stylist asked me what I had wanted, and what my typical hair concerns are. I had explained that I had really fine hair - and although it grew fast, it did not necessarily give me the volume I wanted. She added some root lifting spray to my roots, took a round brush and hair dryer and proceeded to add some OOMPF! to my hair. Next, she took the Hot Tools curling iron and added some loose waves. I also told her that typically, my hair did not stay curled when I had used a curling iron, and she taught me the following tip:

Most people like to curl their hair from the ends of the hair and up. She explained that the ends of the hair is the most fragile and damaged and would therefore require the least amount of heat. You should start at the upper mid area of your hair, and continuously monitor the heat of the curling iron when curling your hair to make sure you do not burn it. Make sure you use a strong, yet flexible, hair spray to lock in all your hard work.


I only chose to have my hair and manicure done that day, however, there was a bevy of other services offered including makeup applications from Stila Cosmetics, eye-lash applications from DUO Professional Eyelashes, spray-tans from St. Tropez and mini facials by Rodial. Finally, Jocelyn Teng from WALL9 was also there on Friday and Saturday to create live beauty fashion illustrations for those who wanted to get a drawing of them made.







I have always wanted to try whitening my teeth at home but was never able to quite get used to using those whitening strips. For some reason, they were quite abrasive. When speaking with Luster White, they had told me the reasoning to my sensitivity was due to the fact that whitening strips seldomly fit the person's teeth to a T. This means that most of the strip will be touching your gums, causing sensitivity.

With Luster White, you brush the solution onto your teeth from a bottle, resembling nail polish, and you take the device to your teeth for two minutes. If you are looking to whiten your teeth for a specific event, the maximum times you can use it for is 3 times in a row. Otherwise, she recommends that you just use it once or twice a week to regularly upkeep and maintain the whitening process. I'll definitely be trying this out as this came in the gift bag :) Yay! You can purchase this kit at Shoppers (I'll do a review of this device in a few weeks to let you know how it works - please come back to check it out!).