Thursday, January 14, 2010
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Bad Blogger
I think I need my blogging licence revoked!
Hopefully I will back to normal(whatever that is?) and blogging weekly like I am supposed to. My next blog? All about the day in the life of me, and how crazy things can really get when you are a mom, an enterpreneur and all the things in between during the Holiday season. For now, I have to get some sleep. Happy Thanksgiving to all you US fans too! ;)
Hopefully I will back to normal(whatever that is?) and blogging weekly like I am supposed to. My next blog? All about the day in the life of me, and how crazy things can really get when you are a mom, an enterpreneur and all the things in between during the Holiday season. For now, I have to get some sleep. Happy Thanksgiving to all you US fans too! ;)
3 years
3 years ago today my beloved Mummy died after a long, long 5 years with cancer, chemo and all the horrors that go with that. There but for the grace of God..... but anyone who reads my infrequent blogging knows that I am still here... alive and kicking. But today's blog is not really about me.
Because I live in the house she spent her last days in I see her in everything and life has thrown me some curve balls lately so she is closer than ever.
My dearest Mummy, I have you with me with every stir of a pot, with every thread in a needle, with every clank of a glass. Your words spring from my mouth and my son looks at me like I am crazy, just like I must have to you....I have collected people in my life who say canny, and besom and twee and my chip pan is full of lard. My dishes aren't done, and I work too much but the food is good and I am teaching Luke to cook. Now because of a strange but neccesary turn of events in my business I will be following in the footsteps of Grump(my Mum's Dad for those readers who don't know), Uncle Gordon and you and with your old black hairdressing scissors in my hand I'll be cutting hair. There are lots of moments I wish you were here. There are lots of moments I know you are here and with every snip I have a feeling I will know more and more....
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Hey Curly !! This event is for you!!!
Dear CurlFriends, Curls in Disguise, Chemo Curly's & WavyCurls too,
I am so crazily excited to tell you about this event I can barely type! My Friend, Curly Mentor, the original DevaCurl Angel Lorraine Massey is coming to see us at our boutique in Dundas! On October 25th Lorraine & her amazing staff "Curl-Man" David will regale us with curly tales, tips & tricks to help you live frizz free no matter how curly or wavy you are! Bring us your curls, whirls, nappyness and all & we'll teach you the magic of the Deva! Leave your blowfryers and your troubles at the door, we'll spoil you with curly deals & a refreshment or three!
Bring a canned good to donate to the local food bank & we'll trade you for one of our favourite bathing treats.
I cannot wait to see you & all your smiling faces to greet our guests! More details and RSVP contact below... Yours as always, Noëlle
Want to reserve your free spot at the CurlyCon?
You choose- October 25th 1:00pm or 3:30pm to reserve by phone 905 627 9379 or email ellenoire@ellenoire.com or use this link to the website...
Watch this video for more info on DevaCurl!
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Take the ellënoire 14 Day challenge and help your dry skin get back on track!
The weather is starting to get a little cooler, the humidity is dipping a lot lower and the dry skin issues are starting to rear
their ugly cuticles…!
Even I, a person who preaches daily about the huge impact of exfoliating and moisturizing has become a wee bit lazy over the summer and have noticed that the skin flaking has started already. Nothing like a cold bit of weather to remind us to restart the routine of sloughing off the dead dry skin and slathering on creams to add moisture. What’s that Australian sunscreen slogan? Wiki says it goes like this: Slip-Slop-Slap is the name of a health campaign in Australia exhorting people to "slip on a shirt, slop on sunscreen, and slap on a hat". Let’s take that for your chemical free skin care routine and get you to slop-slough-and-slather with ellënoire, to keep your skin soft and perfect, chemical free, all winter long.
Can you imagine? Perfect skin all winter long, with no flaking, no itchiness, and no cracked fingers? It’s actually quite easy. You just have to commit. Let’s try to commit for 14 days shall we? I know I know, you’re busy. I hear your voice now, in the store in January with your cracked bleeding hands and your flaky itchy legs… I hear it every season. So let’s start now and save you the PAIN and the ITCH.
Me: “Put your shea butter (chemical free by-the-way) next to your bed and use it every night on your hand, lips face and as often as you can put it on your feet too”
Customer “I never remember” “ I don’t have time”
Me: “Well, then you’ll have dry cracked hands all the time then unless you sleep with shea butter, or any other rich butter on your hands with gloves on”
Customer: “I wish I had nice skin like yours”
Me: “well I put shea butter on my hands, lips and face every night.. and on my feet when I remember… you might wanna try that and see how nice your skin can be”
This one is a good, in the dead of winter scene in my store:
Me: “Where are your gloves”
Customer: “I forgot them at home”
Me: “You need a spare pair at work and in the car so your hands don’t get dried out. Hey, when was the last time you cleaned the snow off the car with no gloves on?”
Customer: “This morning, I was in a hurry, it wasn’t THAT cold”
Me: “Can you imagine anyone from Florida saying snow was not THAT cold? Stop that!”
Or with the men…
Male customer: “my legs are bleeding they are so itchy and dry”
Me: “What do you moisturize with?”
Male Customer: “Nothing”
Me: “Well there’s the problem. Winter skin is like a piece of unfinished wood that needs sanding and finishing, scrub off the rough flaky stuff, add a little oil and wax and it’s soft, shiny and healthier looking”
Male Customer: Light Bulb going off look in his eyes
Having no time is not a valid excuse. Like so many things it takes more time (and more OUCH!) to get things fixed than it does to take the steps towards prevention, AND this is another easy way to start out on our 90/10 rule. MAKE THE TIME!!! Or, your skin will not be as good as it could be. Here’s another way to “work it in” -to your life
My one shower per week treatment trick:
For me, this happens on Sunday mornings before I have to work. Pick a time that fits into your life to take care of your skin for these 3 things: slop-slough-slather
Get in the shower put the plug in the tub to soak your feet(yes, in a second you will know why), get your head and body wet and then:
1) Slop -Deep condition your hair once per week (only do the ends if your hair is really fine) put this on first, then do the exfoliation treatment on your skin.
2) Slough- Exfoliate head to toe at least once per week (twice in winter if you can) then scrub your body with one of our scrubs or a face cloth, then scrub your feet with something more aggressive.
3) Slather- Get out of the shower and slather a heavier moisturizer (like shea, or
body butter) onto wet skin once a week (or twice in the winter) head to toe. Don’t forget your hands! Finish by putting on your favorite robe on to let all that moisture soak in.
In your other baths or showers you can use a lighter lotion because your skin will be soooo awesome from the once or twice weekly deeper treatments. At bedtime, get a rich lotion or butter on your hands and lips EVERY NIGHT before they crack and bleed.
Seriously! If millions of people can commit to a challenge to eat yogurt for 2 weeks to “regulate digestion” or eat bran cereal because Captain Kirk does… can’t you commit to the ellënoire 14 day challenge to better skin?
We’ve even put it in a kit for you: try the ellënoire 14 day challenge skin care kit right here, or buy the separate pieces.
I can help, just ask!
Christmassy Scents?
What do you all think?
I am thinking about doing a line of just Christmas fragrances for room fragrances, powder rooms and things like that... Do you have any favourite Holiday fragrances?
Would a chemical free room spray fit in with your holiday house?
I want to know!
I am thinking about doing a line of just Christmas fragrances for room fragrances, powder rooms and things like that... Do you have any favourite Holiday fragrances?
Would a chemical free room spray fit in with your holiday house?
I want to know!
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Why is it important to be chemical free?
It’s funny that I am completing this blog today given the work I had to do to calm a customer down a few moments ago. She had just read an article which directed her to a website that made her panic about all the “ingredients that cause cancer” in her cosmetic and household cleaning products. She told me the story of how she wept over throwing out all kinds of favourite products as she was terrified for her life and the lives of her children. She dumped a pile of products on my counter and begged for help so she could understand what she had to throw away.
I did manage to calm her down, and taught her a little about how to read labels, and offered better websites to look at and sent her on her way with some organic shower gel, unscented shea butter and some custom scented blood orange lotion to get her started with some simpler things.
In 1993 when I was making the plans to start a bath product company I was pretty naïve. I never thought much about the things that companies put in bath products; I was all in this for the fragrances. If I liked the scent, I liked the product. When I started manufacturing I got lucky and my first suppliers of raw materials were chemical free. I became aware of going chemical free early enough that lots of people thought I was bananas for researching it and insisting on it.
As soon as I started to import products from small companies like TerraNova (the original USA Body Shop until 1989) Lather and Virginia’s Soap I learned more and more about good ingredients and company integrity. The words “all natural” had only just started to be used and were mostly only used in small stores. I had been a Body Shop product lover since the early 80’s when it was already in Canada when we made the pilgrimage to the Toronto Eaton Centre to buy chunks of hand cut Glycerin soap and Banana Shampoo(The Body Shop did not come to the USA until 1989) so I knew that “no testing on animals” and natural ingredients were something that appealed to me. Little did I know many of the companies were not telling us the whole truth about the “natural” ingredients they were using.
The first step in becoming chemical free is to learn to read labels and ask questions, but as we should learn from the woman here this morning DON'T PANIC!
Over the years I have developed a list of chemicals that are on my avoid list(note I said avoid, not freak out and throw everything you own with these ingredients into a landfill, just don’t buy much more unless it falls into your 10% category):
Petroleum and all its other names and derivatives: Mineral oil, petrolatum etc- are pretty much useless for the skin and hair and come from non renewable resources. I prefer Shea Butter based body moisturizers like my
Double Rich Body Butter and vegetable oil based lip balms like the Badger Balm Lip balms to replace your petroleum based stuff.
Animal Fats –For most of history soap has been made with animal fat. It was cheap & readily available on the family farm, but with all the processing meat goes through and the hormones often injected into the animals not to mention the pore clogging behaviour of the animal fat (yes, pore CLOGGING) I would rather avoid using it to make my skin care. Vegetable Based soap is a good choice, Vermont soap is my favourite. Watch for my personally handmade soap in the store on occasion too!
Silicones –A man made chemical in many skin and hair products. Mostly useless for skin in a similar way as petroleum is, and especially useless for hair. A little in your makeup won’t hurt you, but man made chemicals should be avoided as much as possible.
For hair, the newest Deva product called Mirror Curls is the most awesome silicone shine product substitute I can imagine!
Parabens- preservatives that have been loosely linked to breast cancer, although the studies are inconclusive. But better safe than sorry (I already had Breast Cancer, I don’t wanna go there again) as a precaution many companies like ours have decided to avoid them in their products. Use products that use alternative preservatives like our ellënoire Boutique Brand Lotions or ask me about products that need no preservatives!
Sulfates – cheap detergents found in shampoo, toothpaste, bodywash, bubble bath, dish soap, and engine degreasers. Frankly, anything used in engine degreasers really shouldn’t be in the bulk of your skin care products. Did you know these harsh detergents dry your skin/scalp out so much you could have a skin condition that would never have existed 100 years ago? You should try a soap or shampoo that actually hydrates as it cleans, or at least leaves natural, vegetable based moisture behind that the skin can absorb. The occasional bubble bath is fine and falls into my 90/10 rule of product and ingredient choices. Try a Deva Hair and Scalp Cleanser (not just for curly hair, just ask me for more info) like NoPoo or LowPoo, and an Organic Shower Gel
I hope this helps, I know this is all kind of hard to understand. Trust me, I have to do my research all the time to make sure I know what I am talking to you about and sometimes I still cannot believe that companies that want us to trust them are using ingredients that could be harmful, or cause skin reactions just because they are cheap... but skin care is a huge industry and you have to do your best to find companies you can go to to ask questions so you can decide who to trust.
I will always be here to help, just ask...
I did manage to calm her down, and taught her a little about how to read labels, and offered better websites to look at and sent her on her way with some organic shower gel, unscented shea butter and some custom scented blood orange lotion to get her started with some simpler things.
In 1993 when I was making the plans to start a bath product company I was pretty naïve. I never thought much about the things that companies put in bath products; I was all in this for the fragrances. If I liked the scent, I liked the product. When I started manufacturing I got lucky and my first suppliers of raw materials were chemical free. I became aware of going chemical free early enough that lots of people thought I was bananas for researching it and insisting on it.
As soon as I started to import products from small companies like TerraNova (the original USA Body Shop until 1989) Lather and Virginia’s Soap I learned more and more about good ingredients and company integrity. The words “all natural” had only just started to be used and were mostly only used in small stores. I had been a Body Shop product lover since the early 80’s when it was already in Canada when we made the pilgrimage to the Toronto Eaton Centre to buy chunks of hand cut Glycerin soap and Banana Shampoo(The Body Shop did not come to the USA until 1989) so I knew that “no testing on animals” and natural ingredients were something that appealed to me. Little did I know many of the companies were not telling us the whole truth about the “natural” ingredients they were using.
The first step in becoming chemical free is to learn to read labels and ask questions, but as we should learn from the woman here this morning DON'T PANIC!
Over the years I have developed a list of chemicals that are on my avoid list(note I said avoid, not freak out and throw everything you own with these ingredients into a landfill, just don’t buy much more unless it falls into your 10% category):
Petroleum and all its other names and derivatives: Mineral oil, petrolatum etc- are pretty much useless for the skin and hair and come from non renewable resources. I prefer Shea Butter based body moisturizers like my
Double Rich Body Butter and vegetable oil based lip balms like the Badger Balm Lip balms to replace your petroleum based stuff.
Animal Fats –For most of history soap has been made with animal fat. It was cheap & readily available on the family farm, but with all the processing meat goes through and the hormones often injected into the animals not to mention the pore clogging behaviour of the animal fat (yes, pore CLOGGING) I would rather avoid using it to make my skin care. Vegetable Based soap is a good choice, Vermont soap is my favourite. Watch for my personally handmade soap in the store on occasion too!
Silicones –A man made chemical in many skin and hair products. Mostly useless for skin in a similar way as petroleum is, and especially useless for hair. A little in your makeup won’t hurt you, but man made chemicals should be avoided as much as possible.
For hair, the newest Deva product called Mirror Curls is the most awesome silicone shine product substitute I can imagine!
Parabens- preservatives that have been loosely linked to breast cancer, although the studies are inconclusive. But better safe than sorry (I already had Breast Cancer, I don’t wanna go there again) as a precaution many companies like ours have decided to avoid them in their products. Use products that use alternative preservatives like our ellënoire Boutique Brand Lotions or ask me about products that need no preservatives!
Sulfates – cheap detergents found in shampoo, toothpaste, bodywash, bubble bath, dish soap, and engine degreasers. Frankly, anything used in engine degreasers really shouldn’t be in the bulk of your skin care products. Did you know these harsh detergents dry your skin/scalp out so much you could have a skin condition that would never have existed 100 years ago? You should try a soap or shampoo that actually hydrates as it cleans, or at least leaves natural, vegetable based moisture behind that the skin can absorb. The occasional bubble bath is fine and falls into my 90/10 rule of product and ingredient choices. Try a Deva Hair and Scalp Cleanser (not just for curly hair, just ask me for more info) like NoPoo or LowPoo, and an Organic Shower Gel
I hope this helps, I know this is all kind of hard to understand. Trust me, I have to do my research all the time to make sure I know what I am talking to you about and sometimes I still cannot believe that companies that want us to trust them are using ingredients that could be harmful, or cause skin reactions just because they are cheap... but skin care is a huge industry and you have to do your best to find companies you can go to to ask questions so you can decide who to trust.
I will always be here to help, just ask...
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