Lifestyle

Surely you have heard of BB Creams by now. Beauty Balms which have changed the beauty routine of women around the world. They took over South Korea by storm in 2007: Men and women celebrities alike used it to flaunt flawless skin. By 2010, the Asian continent had been revolutionized by BB creams. Marcelle launched the first Canadian-made BB Cream over a year ago already and currently offers the widest selection of BB products: BB Concealer, BB Cream-To-Powder, BB Cleanser, BB Cream Anti-Aging formula with SPF 25 and BB Cream Gold. It was a delight to find out the beauty industry had been an inspiration for Kusmi Tea, a Parisian house of tea. BB, From BB Cream to Beauty Beverage
Tea, in general, is known for its many virtues: therapeutic, soothing, antioxidant, thirst-quenching; it offers slimming properties and delights a few of our senses. In many countries and cultures, it is also famous for all the rituals around it. It is known to be a moment shared with loved ones and a way to welcome guests in a home. Serving tea is a comforting, amicable and peaceful gesture. There are many varieties of tea and their properties vary depending on what their are created with: green tea, black tea, white tea, read tea (rooibos), oolong, and flavoured teas.

Kusmi Tea recently created a wellness line and their most recent innovation is the BB Detox, the very first BB Tea! We like the idea of a beauty beverage. It sounds lovely and enchanting! BB Detox is a beauty beverage with green tea, maté and a hint of grapefruit for radiant skin. "Since detox courses, green tea and beauty go together hand in glove, Kusmi Tea has drawn inspiration from its now famous Detox tea by inventing a beauty tea in the shape of BB Detox, the very first BB tea! Kusmi Tea has decided to retain Detox tea’swonderfully wholesome, healthy core ingredients of mate and green tea, unveiled its ‘beautiful skin’ version: an all-in-one beauty tea. Following the example of BB creams, this Beauty Beverage caters to all your skin’s daily needs. BB Detox offers three ways to a more beautiful you: it gets rid of toxins and protects and moisturizes the skin – all topped off by the deliciously subtle taste of grapefruit."

What's in the BB Detox Tea to make it a beauty beverage?
1) Detox - Say goodbye to dull skin!
The perfect combination of mate and green tea has an effect on the body's capacity to eliminate excess fluids, thus stimulating the elimination of toxins. Skin finds itself more radiant and complexion is enhanced when toxins are eliminated efficiently.

2) Protection
Some skincare comes with SPF, however; almost all skincare is formulated with antioxidants. It protects your skin from the harmfull effects of the elements (such as pollution and free radicals), and also protects your skin cells. Antioxidants maintain skin cells healthier and younger for greater skin in time. In the BB Detox Tea, green tea (also used in cosmetic formulations and already famous for its antioxidants properties) contributes to skin protection, along with dandelion and rooibos, which add great value to the taste of the fruity beverage.

3) Moisturizing
Hydrating your skin morning and evening will keep it feeling soft, supple and will delay the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, among its main purposes. We already know we should be drinking 2 liters of water each day to help keep our body hydrated inside out, but also to maintain good health and stay alert.  Dehydration can be the culprit of fatigue, memory loss and lack of concentration. Savoring a cup of BB Detox Tea can certainly help your daily water intake, especially because we think you will love its taste! Guarana, a plant found in its concoction, is stimulating and apparently also known to improve memory retention. Just another reason to drink this beauty beverage!

"This delicious blend of maté, green tea and rooibos, flavoured with a subtle hint of grapefruit, may be enjoyed hot or iced at any time of day." Shall we call tea time right about now? I'm in the mood for some warm detoxifying beauty in a cup!

For more information about Kusmi Tea and their products in Canada, please follow these links: Kusmi Tea Canada Website, Kusmi Tea Canada on Facebook, Kusmi Tea
Canada on Twitter.

It's official Fall is here - you can feel the change in the weather, see all the warm clothes in the stores and very likely see the after-effects the past season has left on your body! Luckily it's easy enough to reverse most of the damage you've done with a few easy beauty routines...

Exfoliate the hell out of yourself

If you are anything like me, you are a big, scaly snake-like mess right now and you need to shed some skin! If you're feeling flush, get yourself to the spa and have some microdermabrasion or a chemical peel. Don't have the time or money - exfoliate at home with a scrub - you can buy great ones for your face and body or in a pinch, use a homemade combo of oatmeal or sugar mixed with a bit of honey!

Moisturize with abandon

Now that you've sloughed off all the old dead crap the shiny new stuff underneath would like an uninterrupted drink! Body oils are great for this and you can even get a friend to help!

For your face you might want to take a look at what you've been using for the past few months and decide if it's time for a seasonal change as many people like to amp up their moisturizer when temperatures drop.

If you have dry to very dry skin it's easy to  just trade up to a thicker cream that will be more comfortable for you skin. It's a little trickier for oily and combo skins. I find when I use a heavier moisturizer it just ends up clogging my pores and feels like it's just sitting on the top of my skin. On the other hand my usual lightweight moisturizer leaves my skin feeling like it's not enough and my skin would still enjoy some more moisture. I solve this problem by layering a moisturizing serum under my regular moisturizer - serums are nice and light so they don't add the heavy feeling that creams can and add a nice boost of moisture - I like to just use the serum in any drier areas avoiding the oily ones for perfectly balanced skin!

Don't forget your hair

Between the summer sun, wind and pollution, add to that the dryness brought on by the weather change, your  hair could be looking pretty dull and lifeless about now! A clarifying shampoo for a week or two will have it looking lots better as will a deep conditioning mask twice a week. For super results once you apply the mask, pop a plastic bag on your head and wrap a towel around it and let it sit for 20-30 minutes to really help it soak in. Learn from my mistakes though and don't fall asleep like that or you will have a terrible hard mess come morning!

As well, applying a semi-permanent colour will actually make your hair look shiny and healthier or if you are a non-colour-er, a glaze treatment will give you the same effect without any colour change.

I know you probably miss the sun now that the cold weather is here to stay, but there is an upside - now that your legs won't be seeing daylight for a few more months you can stop shaving them, you won't have to choose between poutine or wearing a bikini and let's not forget all the wonderful, glorious fall boots - now go kick some leaves my friends!

 

Aren't the Holidays the most wonderful time of the year!? But, it's also a time when we tend to neglect ourselves trying to be every bit of the perfect Martha Stewart host. Honestly, I don't know how she does it (maybe she has a couple of little elves helping her out?). But for every other woman out there, juggling all this holiday madness can get quite overwhelming!

Who can claim to have mastered the art of cleaning the house, while baking a few dozen assorted christmas cookies, wrapping presents perfectly (after having found the time to actually go out looking for THE perfect gift for everyone) and helping out the kids make homemade ornaments? Oh, and let's not forget the meal planning and of course...making snowflakes out of construction paper to hang in the windows!

We figured it was time to give all women a little break.

Enter: Marcelle Beauty Gift Sets.

 

All four gift sets come with a luxurious sequined clutch for a little holiday sparkle!  Simply choose your favorite colour (or get all four!).

 

 

Giving beauty products is basically a no-brainer - everybody loves them. And gift sets are perfect because they are almost always a steal! So, whether you decide on a gift from you to you to reward yourself for another perfectly executed holiday juggling act, or if you opt to gift these to a few lucky women in your life to cut yourself some slack during the holiday shopping frenzy, you will love our Holiday Beauty Gift Sets.

And best of all, no wrapping necessary, as they already come packaged up with a cute silver clutch. Simply add a bow (yes, on yours too) and brighten up someone's day this holiday season.

Make-up - As a professional make-up artist, I am first in line to spread the word about the sometimes unbelievable results that properly applied make-up can achieve.  Make-up can hide an array of facial imperfections, from dark circles to blemishes, red splotches, acne scars – you name it!  But here’s the thing: make-up can disguise, but ideally, you shouldn’t want it to.  Make-up is far better used to enhance your features; to bring out the color and shape of your eyes, contour the angles of your face, add color to your cheeks and fullness to your lips.  You get the picture.  The best results are achieved when make-up is applied to a ‘clean slate’, a complexion that is clean, glowing and healthy.

A properly cleansed face is just as important, if not more important, that the makeup you apply to it daily.  Having a ‘clean slate’, will not only improve the look of your makeup once applied, but you will have a beautiful complexion even without the need for make-up – which as a make-up artist, is sort of paradoxical for me to admit to.  But there you have it – your first order of business: get that face glowing! It’s a lot easier than you may think.  You don’t need to spend a lot of money on expensive facials or creams, nor will you need to spend a lot of time – what you will need to do is start a daily routine, that will only take about ten minutes a day.

 

Let’s begin with the morning routine that will have your skin make-up ready and have you feeling refreshed and revitalized. Here’s the run-through in 4 easy steps:

Step 1 – Cleansing

Open your pores by splashing warm water on your face, then apply your cleansing product in gentle upwards strokes. Rinse thoroughly with warm water (never hot).

Your final rinse should be with cold water to close your pores.

Step 2 – Toner – apply toner to even out your skin tone, it will revitalize your skin and wipe away any excess cleanser that may have been left behind.

Step 3 – Moisturize using a DAY cream or serum.  Apply your facial moisturizer in a gentle upwards motion.

Step 4 – Eye Cream

When applying your eye cream, I suggest you use your ring fingers in a dabbing motion.

Apply the cream in a half moon pattern from right under your tear duct to the point where your eyebrows end.  Repeat a few times, until you feel that the product has been absorbed.

And Voilà! That’s it.  Your face is now make-up ready, should you choose to apply it.

This same morning process should be repeated at night with one addition: removing your make-up (an absolute MUST).  Although I intended to focus on the importance of prepping your skin for make-up application in the morning, you must incorporate a nightly cleansing routine to achieve a dewy, fresh complexion.  By the way, the nightly routine is included in the 10 minutes a day.

A few rules to live by:

Never, never, never (did I mention never) leave your makeup on overnight! This can cause clogged pores which lead to blackheads, breakouts and an overall dull and pasty looking skin. Now, I must admit, I have on occasion left my makeup on overnight ( no need to go into the details of why) and have woken up to regret it. My mascara inevitably had irritated my eyes, my face felt oily and dirty and need I mention the state of my pillowcase! I am adamant about going to bed with a fresh face; your skin will love you for it and your thanks will be a beautiful, radiant complexion.

So, your first new step for your nightly routine is:

Step 1: Make-up Remover

I recommend first using an eye makeup remover followed by an overall facial makeup remover product such as: Marcelle Essential Cleansing Cloths, Marcelle Cleansing Cream, Marcelle Essentials Cleansing Milk, or Marcelle Cleansing Water.  As you can see, there are many products to choose from, so no excuses! Use the one that feels best for you.

The rest of the steps are exactly the same as the morning routine, with the exception of applying a ‘night’ as opposed to a day cream.

*It’s important to incorporate an exfoliating scrub or mask into your routine once a week, preferably at night (especially for exfoliating), thereby avoiding a ‘pink’ face before applying your makeup.

Happy New Year! Party's over; time to hit the office. Regardless if you're going back to work on January 3rd, 5th or 10th, you know you have to go back someday! The thought of returning behind the desk after a vacation can be a tad stressful for some people. The voice mail and email counts can rank pretty high sometimes. How should we tackle it?