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Beauty Bloggers

Beauty Blogs I Stalk: Emily Loves

July 20, 2011 By Lena

As a stay at home mom, I take my fashion cues from… oh hell, I’m not going to lie. I don’t have fashion cues. My trendiest outfit at the moment consists of my new yoga pants and my favourite black tank top. Pathetic, I know.

But I do take fashion hints – and I take them from a gal who makes ordinary clothes seem extraordinary with her impeccable taste, impossible beauty, and her “Impractical Shoe Fridays.” I’m talking about Emily Loves, of course!

“I am a 24 year old French teacher who fell into the world of beauty blogging by accident. In high school I never used to wear any makeup, but once I started getting into it there was no going back! I started my blog a few years ago as a place to share all about the things I love: beauty, fashion, travel, shoes, photography. . . basically anything that tickles my fancy!”

Emily models the clothes I would like to wear, swatches the beauty trends I’d like to hear more about, and most important, she connects on a level that makes sense to me – no frou frou $600 shoes (unless they’re really, really worth it).

She also happens to be another local gal, and I had a chance to hang out with her at the last Toronto Beauty Bloggers meet up. All I can say is, this girl is fashion inspiration on 5-inch platforms.

Some of my favourite posts from Emily Loves:

Black Eye
Impractical Shoe Friday (Look for Less Edition)
Light My Tiki (Torch)

If you’re looking for girlicious tips on how to be more fabulous, let Emily share her loves with you! And let me just put it on record – Lena Loves… Emily Loves!

Click here to visit Emily Loves.

Filed Under: Beauty Tagged With: Beauty Bloggers, blog love, Emily Loves, GTA, Summer Beauty and Fashion Guide

Faces By Farah: Kim Kardashian Giveaway!

October 14, 2010 By Lena

Um, no… she’s NOT giving away Kim Kardashian (my husband would be up all night entering THAT contest), but Farah is offering a pretty sweet prize –

Perfumania has teamed up with Kim Kardashian to feature her new fragrance in all of its 370+ stores! To celebrate, both Perfumania and Kim will be appearing on an upcoming episode of NBC’s The Apprentice on Thursday, November 11.

Perfumania.com has been newly-designed and to celebrate they want one lucky reader of FacesByFarah.com to win an amazing prize pack.

Enter for your chance to win Kim Kardashian’s new fragrance, a chic travel bag & a $25 gift card to Perfumania!  (Total prize value $133.50)



Click here to enter the giveaway.

If you live in the GTA you can also meet Kim in person – 

MEET KIM KARDASHIAN – TUESDAY OCT. 19th

Kim Kardashian, the face of FUSIONBEAUTY’s Illumifill and LipFusion, will make a special Personal Appearance at Sherway Gardens Tuesday, Oct. 19 from 4:30pm – 6pm in Sherway Square. The first 200 clients to purchase $38 or more from the FUSIONBEAUTY collection at Shoppers Drug Mart (Sherway location only) will be eligible to meet Kim Kardashian and receive an autographed photo. For more information, visit Shoppers Drug Mart Sherway store located at Door 7.

Whew! October 19th makes 5 years to the day that my husband and I had our first date, so there’s no way he’d punk me to go catch a glimpse of KK. Right? Riiight?

Filed Under: Beauty Tagged With: Beauty Bloggers, contest, Faces by Farah, Kim Kardashian

Deals Galore!

August 18, 2010 By Lena

A ton of new deals are up on Canadian Daily Deals this morning – stop by to take a look!

I just realized that while I introduced you to the site, we didn’t really chat about the blogging brains behind it – Justine.

She’s a fellow deal seeker who is originally from Toronto but now resides in Southwestern Ontario. And – I actually came across her posts via Justine’s beauty blog: PRODUCTRATER! Yes, she is a bona fide makeup junkie and reviews just about every product on the shelf, provides tips and techniques, and, of course, loves showing off her hauls via NOTD’s and FOTD’s. (That’s Nail of the Day and Face of Day for those not immersed in the beauty blogging world.)

You’ll know from my previous post entitled “Changes” that I’ve been reducing the number of deals I post, but I can honestly say that every sweet deal out there is picked up by Justine on Canadian Daily Deals. And trust me – she gets them first!

Today I’m loving Danier’s latest promotion – take $50 off every $150 that you spend until August 31st. Sa-weet!

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Beauty Bloggers, Canadian Daily Deals

Faces By Farah: Cargo Cosmetics Giveaway!

August 11, 2010 By Lena

Fellow Toronto Beauty Blogger and super amazing gal Farah is holding a sa-weet giveaway on her blog, Faces By Farah.

Up for grabs – Cargo’s Contour Palette in Malibu, Water Resistant Bronzer, Color Palette in Los Angeles and Lip Gloss Quad in Oceania. A total value of $115!

I’ve got the Lip Gloss Quad in Oceania and it’s absolutely amazing. Super moisturizing with a high shine finish, it’s perfect for day or night. Since I’m all about being fabulous, the fuchsia quad is completely used :)

Click here to enter the giveaway.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Beauty Bloggers, Cargo Cosmetics, contest, Faces by Farah

Balmshell: True Inspiration

April 21, 2010 By Lena

As part of the Toronto Beauty Bloggers Network, I enjoy fabulous invitations to some of the coolest beauty events happening in and around the city. Unfortunately, being very pregnant and juggling family life, I haven’t been able to take part in many of the recent events (though I’m hoping that will change once I welcome the little guy and restore some balance).

One event that I was really sad to miss was the Balmshell Beauty Bloggers event. Balmshell, a Canadian company, was created by identical twin sisters Jennifer and Fiona Lees.

With no experience in the cosmetic industry and only the love of lip-gloss on their side, the sisters decided to take on the industry and with determination, hard work and a lot of style they turned their dream into a reality.

These self-described “cosmetic junkies”, followed their passion and entrepreneurial instinct and developed what they considered to be the perfect lip-gloss. After years of working with a cosmetic manufacturer they developed a formula using only the finest ingredients to produce a high-shine, moisturizing lip-gloss. It looks and feels fabulous.

One of my favourite beauty bloggers, Anjali Handa of Rock that Look, sat down with the sisters for a fabulous interview about the company, their products, and celebrity following! Of course, Balmshell lip glosses are all about the packaging –

The Balmshell glosses are not only non-sticky and extra moisturizing, but they come in the cutest packaging I’ve ever seen! These ladies truly hit the unique mark by incorporating fun and girly float art into their packaging. Check out their line of lip glosses on the Balmshell lip gloss page and click on the product of your choice to see the float art in action! The best part is each gloss comes with a key chain attachment – you can keep your float art even after the gloss is finished – genius!

To read her entire interview, click here.

I wanted to highlight my very favourite Q&A – one that provides oodles of inspiration, regardless of what industry you’re in, walk of life, or stage in your career. Check it out…

Anjali: To date, what has been Balmshell’s proudest moment?

Jenny: We have many, but this is a story that we always remember from the beginning.

“You only get in life what you have the courage to ask for”. Remember that quote. I was watching an Oprah Winfrey show and one audience member stood up and asked if Oprah would come and visit her small hometown. Everyone in the audience laughed because they assumed there was no way that Oprah would go. Two months later, Oprah dedicated a full show on visiting that small town. The woman was so shocked when Oprah arrived at her door with a TV crew. When asked why she obliged that audience member’s request, Oprah said “You only get in life what you have the courage to ask for.” I always remembered that.

A year after seeing that show, Fiona and I were in the process of deciding what our brand name would be. Fiona was reading an article about Gwyneth Paltrow titled “The Blonde Bombshell”. Starring at the name, we realized we could change the spelling to BALM (as in lip balm), and there it was, BALMSHELL, the perfect name for a cosmetic line. We went to trademark our perfect name, thinking it was not being used. To much disappointment, we learned that REVLON owned the name. Our lawyer was quick to advise us to think of another name. We had fallen in love with the name Balmshell. I started researching the U.S. trademark database and found that the trademark was going to expire in 6 months. I was so excited when I told my lawyer the fantastic news. However, he informed me that after the six months, Revlon still had an additional six month grace period. I was so upset. There was no way we could wait for a whole year for the name.

That’s when it dawned on me, “Why not just ask Revlon to drop the name?” Our lawyer laughed at me and said he could write a letter, but it would probably sit on a desk, never get opened, and it would be expensive to assemble (not to mention how much Revlon would charge, if they decided to give us the name). We wanted that name so badly. Then Fiona and I were reminded of that episode of the Oprah show and that quote that spoke so strongly to us. I decided to take matter in to my own hands, and call the Revlon trademark lawyer in New York, directly. I left a message explaining the situation. Two weeks went by and I had heard nothing. Then, one day while at work I got a call from John O’Shea (I will never forget his name). I gave him all the information and politely asked if Revlon would drop the name. He said he would look into it. Two days later, he called back. “Okay” he said, “Revlon will drop the name but it is going to cost you.” I held my breath and asked “How much?” He answered: “$100 US to transfer the name over.”

Two days later Revlon ended up dropping the trademark for us and we picked it up without spending a cent. Right away we went to register www.balmshell.com and of course it was taken. I called the owner, determined to not give up. I told the woman on the phone that we wanted the unused URL. She said that she was going to start a lip balm company, and that once the trademark had expired from Relvon she was going to pick it up. I explained to her that we now owned the name. She quickly looked it up the U.S. database and saw that we did indeed now own it. She then asked, “How did you get it?” I simply told her “I just asked”. So she handed over the website address.

“You only get in life what you have the courage to ask for.” It is important to understand that we didn’t own the name “Balmshell” in the beginning. If Revlon said “no”, it didn’t matter as we had nothing to lose.

What a truly inspiring story! So the question is… what are YOU going to ask for today?

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Balmshell, Beauty Bloggers, Canadian Pride, makeup

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Lena Almeida

Toronto Blogger, Social Media Strategist for Listen to Lena Inc. Television & Radio Personality, Columnist and Speaker. Family Travel Expert. Star Wars Fanatic. Perfecting the Art of Conversuasion. Read More…

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