Essential scents: Escents comes to Winnipeg’s Polo Park Mall

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Ever wanted to create your own scent?

I feel like every celebrity and their dog (for the record, my dog Ziggy has a Cesar Millan dog scent – no joke, they sell it at Canadian Tire) has their own scent. I feel like for any beauty fanatic, creating your own special scent has to be on your bucket list.

Well, thanks to B.C.-based Escents, you totally can.

I was invited to Escent’s media preview in honour of their first Manitoba location opening up in Polo Park Mall yesterday to hear all about the products and to create my own scent at their blending bar. If you’ve never heard of Escents, they are a Vancouver-based company with 13 retail stores in Canada and over 40 in Asia, as well as an e-commerce site. The company was founded on the idea that nature has the power to provide for all our needs. Using essential oils and other plant-based ingredients their products include a wide range of bath, body, wellness and home fragrance items (in fact, there’s over 200 products total).

Diffusers Shelves Reaching

Most of the items we saw in store were essential oils, which are 100 per cent natural and are a pure therapeutic grade sourced from all over the world with blending done locally here in Canada.

After checking out the store and learning all about the products, including the super-popular aroma diffusers (I need one of these in my life stat), we were taken over to the blending bar where we got to create our own unique roll on and body lotion.

We chatted with Silvia Enescu, who is a scent specialist with Escents from Vancouver, who walked us through each aroma and consulted what exactly we were looking for. It was tough nailing down a few scents that would actually go good together.  I really wanted to use their rose oil but then I smelled the vanilla and fell in love. Silvia recommend bergamot instead and then we chose one more to get a nice floral sweet smell. For the lotion I wanted to do something stress relieving (which they have a scent for already which consists of neroli and bergamot) and then I did some vanilla in there to sweeten it up and give a twist on it.  The process of creating the scent and lotion was an experience also, since they just take unscented lotion, body butter or perfume in a roller-ball form, and then you add a certain number of drops to the product. We started with either 10 or 20 drops and then went from there. What was too overpowering? What did we need more of? It was a really interesting process.

Pouring Oils

I think this is such a cool concept and totally unlike anything else I have seen here in the city. I know of other essential oil shops but none that let you create a unique scent, special to you. Not only was it a blast do it, but hey, if you are looking for a great gift, this would be it (this smell totally reminds me of you…)

The official opening for Winnipeg’s Polo Park location is tomorrow, October 3 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and you’re definitely going to want to stop by. The first 100 guests will receive a complimentary gift and there will be free gift bags all day when you spend $60 or more.

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In celebration of Winnipeg’s first Escents store, I teamed up with them to give away an Essential Oil Starter Kit. Enter via the Rafflecopter below; Canadian residents only! Contest closes on October 17, 2015.  Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Have you been to an Escents store? 

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Black & white: Elizabeth & James Nirvana fragrance collection

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I still remember the first time I smelled Nirvana Black.

It was given to me at the checkouts in Sephora; just one of those little spray bottles that they often toss in your bag. I receive a million of those and very rarely do I ever run out to buy the scent because I love it so much (it’s really only happened with Viva La Juicy). But then I tried it and soon had to ration it because I loved it so much.

Elizabeth and James’ Nirvana Black is one of those scents where once you spray it, you need it in your life.  In fact, two of my friends soon purchased it after they gave it a whiff; it’s that good. So naturally I picked it up during a VIB sale since I got 20 per cent off it.

That was about a year ago. Since that time, MK+A has since released other Nirvana products to add to the collection. And obviously, I just need every single one of them.

I’ve since built up my collection of Nirvana products since the time I bought the fragrance.  Although I only own Nirvana Black in the actual eau de toilette, I have a few of the Nirvana White products as well.

If you can’t just settle for the eau de toilette, here are other ways you can wear it…

oils

Pure Perfume Oil

Looking for something more subtle?  This concentrated pure perfume oil is applied via the use of a dropper. Apply this to pulse points and experience how the product naturally seeps into the skin to harmonize with your body chemistry. The perfume oil also promotes hydration and radiance, with an alcohol-free formula, thus making it more natural for your skin.

If you are a fan of both scents, you can also mix and match them together for a completely different scent.  Best of all, these retail for way less than the eau de toilette (although you get considerably less product) at C$42 for 0.47 ounces.  Still though, it’s a great way to experience Nirvana.

Dropper Lotion and oils

Nirvana Body Oils

I believe this is new for the season, but if you are looking for a different kind of oil format and something more subtle, the body oil is enriched with argan, soybean, and moringa oils to replenish skin, leaving it silky and radiant. Massage into dry or damp skin for a subtle scent of Nirvana.

Nirvana White and Black Body Oils retail for C$72 each for 3.4 ounces. I’ve also used both the perfume oils and body oils in my hair as well (lightly run it through) to make my locks smell like Nirvana as well, and it’s a nice way to also incorporate the scent.

Nirvana Hand Cream

I feel like body lotions are typical additions to any scent line, so it’s a no-brainer that they came out with a hand cream that you can just toss in your bag and go. These lotions are enriched with aloe and vitamin E and are extremely lightweight.  They hydrate and protect skin, and best of all, is not greasy.

Retails for C$18 for 1.7 ounces.

If you can’t tell, I’m kinda obsessed with Nirvana.  Although I’ve always been a huge fan (read: obsessed) of Nirvana Black, there’s always a time and place for Nirvana White as well. I often wear Nirvana Black on a weekend night with the girls or on a date night. It’s just so sexy and sultry.

If by chance you need more ways to wear it, they also offer a dry shampoo (I CANNOT wait to get my hands – and hair – on this), a rollerball and a perfume solid. Because, you know, you can never get enough Nirvana.

What’s your favourite way to wear Elizabeth and James’ Nirvana?

Please note, I was sent the oils and hand cream by PR.  I bought the perfume with my own money because I am that obsessed with it.

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Matte about you: Kat Von D Everlasting Liquid Lipstick

Title Matte lips are like, totally in right now.

You know what’s also hot? Dark, vampy lips (hello fall).

Last Thursday I went to my best friend’s fundraiser event and was totally feeling dark, gothic makeup to go with my charcoal dress and black faux-leather moto jacket.  So I went easy on the eyes and dark on the lips.  And by dark, I mean black.  And then I snapped a photo of my look and my Snapchat exploded with people commenting that they loved my black lipstick.  A different best friend even screenshotted it and texted me that she wants to wear that shade when we see Madonna in Vancouver next month.

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The lipstick? Kat Von D’s Everlasting Liquid Lipstick in Witches. I received four of these guys earlier this month and although I just about died when I saw Witches and Echo, a dark navy, I figured these colours may be hard to pull off for everyday wear (just like that blue Lime Crime lipstick I blogged about last week).

In case you haven’t see Kat Von D’s Everlasting Liquid Lipsticks in real life, they are available in 25 different shades and are a long-wearing full-coverage liquid lipstick with a smooth, matte finish.  They apply as a gloss and then dry to a matte finish that last for a very long time. Each shade is infused with natural comfort-enhancing ingredients, including vitamin E and sunflower seed, thus making them comfortable on the lips (however, they do give you a bit of that dry-matte feel).

swatch Requiem Mother swatch Mother Echo swatch Echo Witches swatch Witches

I received two everyday-wear shades, Requiem (a soft lilac) and Mother (a dusty mauve pink), as well as two darker shades, Witches (black) and Echo (navy). Out of the four, my favourite would probably have to be Requiem, since it’s so flattering and wearable for all four seasons.  I really love Witches and Echo as well.  Mother was alright, but it would probably be better on someone with a darker skin tone than myself.

I feel like this particular formulation is very popular right now, as Kat Von D isn’t the only one to introduce a liquid lipstick that dries to a matte. With that being said, these are a great product.  They do last a long time (although be ready for touch ups near the opening of the mouth if you are eating and drinking), and they do have the tendency to feel a little dry (I used one of the Maybelline Baby Lips Glosses overtop of Requiem, which gave me some moisture and the colour some shine, but it’s certainly not as bad as other products on the market in terms of dryness. Also, the pigmentation is amazing on these, what you see is what you get.  Just make sure to clean it up before it sets, because once it’s on, it’s on.

Have you tried Kat Von D’s Everlasting Liquid Lipstick?

Please note, product sent by PR, all opinions are my own.

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