Soy Candle How-To

Alright guys, so I've gotten a lot of "What? You made your candles?  How do you make candles?!" since bringing out my Soy Candles for holiday (which you guys loved as much as I did since they totally sold out - yay!).  After reading a TON of information online and watching multiple how-to videos, this is how I made mine (and how you can make yours too if you like!).

First off, I rec putting waxed paper down on all of your surfaces - wax or oil will inevitably drip somewhere while you're making your candles - especially if you're doing as many at a time as I did.   

After measuring out the amount of wax you need on a food scale, melt wax (I use 100% Soy Wax) on a hot plate in a stainless steel pitcher - I stir it with a paint stirrer.

Once the wax is totally melted we need to get it to 185 degrees.

Then we can add our fragrance/essential oils.  You need about 1-1.5 oz of fragrance oil per pound of wax.  Essential oil amounts vary by scent.  Anything you use to measure your oil will get totally jacked so don't use a measuring cup you love - it's impossible to get all of the oil out.

Remove from heat and add fragrance oil.  Stir thoroughly and then we need it to cool down to 125 degrees.

While you're waiting you can hot glue/sticker your wicks (which you have to experiment with the sizes of to get the right "melt pool" in your wax) into your container.  I ended up going with hemp wicks.  If you like something more interesting than the typical short glass jar check online at flower arranging/garden sites - their containers will be water tight and more fun.

Wicks glued into the center of the hobnail glass jars.

I think you're technically supposed to glue your wicks in after you put your jars in the oven but my jars are too big for my hands to fit easily without burning them so I do the wicks first.  Back to the oven - you're supposed to warm up your containers, at a really low heat, before pouring in the wax, so the wax doesn't "shrink" away from a cold jar.

Get an electric thermometer to do your temperature readings.  Once you reach 125 degrees you can pour it out.

If you look in the lower right corner you can see the bag of wax (looks like a white plastic bag) on the floor.

To keep your wicks centered you can use popsicle sticks, pencils, etc but I grabbed some wick bars to make it easy.

I don't add any color since I'm not into any additives.

Slowly but surely the wax hardens and you can cut the wicks to 1/4 inch - I've found fingernail clippers - new ones! - to be the easiest way to do it.  If the tops are "craggy" in your wax you can remelt it with a hair dryer.  

Then if you want to decorate with some jute twine you can throw that on there :).

The Hobnail Glass Jars take one pound of wax and the Recycled Zinc Tins take a half of a pound.  

I'll let you guys know if/when I make another set of candles - I'm not going to lie - they are crazy labor intensive and NYC apartments don't tend to be set up well for them so it isn't at the top of my list but people loved them so we may have a batch of Gardenia in the spring :).

Big Fish Opening Night Goodies

The beautiful Kate Baldwin is the lead in the newly opened "Big Fish" on Broadway and she is crazy generous when it comes to gift giving and gave these awesome presents from Erin's Faces to all of the women in the cast. 

Kate's dressing room backstage at "Big Fish" with some of her Erin's Faces goodies as well as a picture of her in the show!

Each of the ladies in the cast was given a Pumpkin Enzyme Mask, Shea Butter Body Balm and an All Natural Peppermint SPF 15 Lipbalm so they'll be retexturized and hydrated.  I wrapped them in blue bags to mimic the blue dress Kate wears in one of the key scenes and did little cards with the show's daffodil-backed logo.  We had done different products for their Chicago opening and wanted to give them winter friendly products this go round.  

If you've got a holiday party coming up, bridesmaids to find something fun for or a wedding/baby shower Erin's Faces can customize a gift set for you that will be custom made for your ladies - it's super healthy for them and they'll love it!

To see Mamma Mia! Opening Night Goodies click HERE.

Victoria Clark from Broadway's "Cinderella"

This is going to be a quicky but I got to do the fabulous Victoria Clark's makeup this morning for "Good Day New York" where she was promoting "Cinderella" (which she's nominated for a Tony for!). 

To view the video click HERE

Here's a quick list of Erin's Faces Products we used:
*Mineral Eyeshadows in Cafe, Espresso, Earth and Sunset
*Mahogany Eyeliner
*Retexturizing Face Primer SPF 20
*Mineral Liquid Powder Foundations in Cream Beige and Linen
*Mineral Concealers in Light and Light/Medium
*Cheek Duo in Pickup Artist
*Aloe Powder
*Magic Dust
*Natural Lipliner
*Peach Daquiri Lip Sheer Lipstick

*Mally Beauty Volumizing Mascara
*Urban Decay Primer Potion for Eyes
*Joey Healy Eyebrow Pencil in Wicker
*Vicky's own gloss

Fun in California!

 I had an awesome time at the Berkeley Hall School Country Fair this year - we got to introduce Erin's Faces to lots of new moms and young girls - all left smelling sweet (after a scrub demo) and glossed (I can't not gloss people).  I also got to meet my sweet month-old nephew, Desmond, who got in on the fun too.  Here are some pics from the day ~ 

Our super cute sign

My lovely helper, Katie Adams

Pretty flowers surrounded by gift sets and skincare

Awesome organic scrubs - we did hand massages with them at the booth to show how yummy they feel and sold out of the new Monoi Tiari!

My husband, Daniel, demonstrating how "all natural" the scrubs really are

More flowers and makeup goodies, including my new cheek color duos for summer

Lip glosses galore!

I saved the best for last :) - little Desmond getting washed in the Organic Lavender Bath Wash (which is meant for infants but used by all ages)

Post bath, all wrapped up and hydrated up with some Vegan Baby Cream

Monoi Tiari is Here!!

Tiari Flowers from Tahiti

I am BEYOND excited to share these two products with you guys - I have been planning them for months and finally get to put them in your hands and I cannot wait!

Don't you want to go to Tahiti?!  Me too :)

A little back story - I have always been in love with fragrances that smell like summer (as described in THIS blog post) and I got introduced to Monoi Tiari Oil last summer by a company that brings it in from Tahiti. It smelled delicious so I immediately started thinking about Summer 2013 and about how I could incorporate them into some products. 

Info on Monoi Tiari - Monoi de Tahiti designates that the Monoi Oil I use is made in French Polynesia and is created by macerating/crushing ten Tiare blossoms (hand picked as buds that must be used within 24 hours of harvesting) in refined coconut oil. The coconut oil is extracted from mature coconuts gathered from trees growing exclusively in the coral soil in the geographic area of French Polynesia. Only "Tiare" flower buds from the Gardenia Tahitensis species and of Polynesian origin are used.  Fancy right?  It's amazing!

Organic Monoi Tiari Body Lotion, 8 oz. $25

I went through a number of lotion formulas as I wanted something SUPER lightweight, almost gel-like, and very thin since the last thing I want to do in my tiny bathroom is put on a heavy body cream post-shower in the summer (because NYC is HOT).  I finally settled on an Organic formula that uses Milk and Honey to hydrate skin in an Aloe Vera base.  It is fantastic!  I add nearly a full ounce of Monoi Tiari Oil to each 8 ounce bottle of lotion so you get a great lasting fragrance that isn't overpowering. 

Organic Monoi Tiari Sugar Body Scrub, 8 oz. $25

Then I had a conversation with my awesome lady in the Bronx who makes my Organic Sugar Scrubs for me and checked to see if we could do a Monoi Tiari version - she thought it was a great idea and I just it in the mail right before I went to California last week and I was in LOVE.  In fact, we totally sold out of it in Los Angeles so those ladies loved it too! 

So if you are into turning your bathroom into a beachy, island getaway then join me with the Organic Monoi Tiari goodies - they're good for your skin and lovely for your nose!

Beachy Waves Video Tutorial

Hi beauties!

This picture is nuts - if you can't see the video, click HERE

So I have figured out a way I love to curl my hair and get asked what I use a lot when I do it so I wanted to lay it all out for you.  This is great if you actually want to learn how to do it - super boring if not :) - so if that's the case you can watch the beginning for the products and then skip to the end for the finished situation.  

My tools of choice are 

Carol's Daughter Monoi Shampoo

Carol's Daughter Monoi Reparing Hair Mask

Carol's Daughter Monoi Oil 

Sultra 1 inch Bombshell Curling Iron

Bumble and bumble Spray de Mode Hairspray

If you can't see this video, click HERE

I also wanted to include the video that helped me figure out how to do it the best so here's that one too - she was smart and did her makeup first :).  My reasoning for that will come in the NEXT video blog!  

Fun Feature on Marlay Drive!

May Nguyen of Marlay Drive in Erin's Faces lipstick!

So there's this super neat website, www.MarlayDrive.com, which uses all sorts of products and incorporates them into how-to videos with hair, makeup and nails.  There are general tutorials as well as those that recreate specific looks.  AND, Erin's Faces Red Lipstick (Satin) was featured on one of the latest videos!!

Jessica Chastain at the Oscars

Professional makeup artist, May Nguyen, used it in her video which shows how to recreate Jessica Chastain's look from the Oscars.

Click HERE if you can't see the video - lipstick happens around 7:30 

Fun shots:

Going RED!

One of the daughters from "Casey at the Bat" - and hello, she is powdering her nose on the base - aside from the whole baseball thing I am totally on board with this

Alright folks, so I have been in love with red hair for a VERY long time.  It started out many moons ago with a cartoon on the Disney Channel called "Casey at the Bat" - he was a redheaded baseball player who had a bunch of daughters with pretty red ponytails - I was hooked.

Ann Margaret

Next came Ann Margaret in "Bye, Bye Birdie" - ironing her hair, wiggling around singing songs - I fell in love with her and her hair.

Shani Wallis

Next came Shani Wallis singing "I'd Do Anything" in Oliver! - singing, corsets and strawberry blonde half up/half down hair situations - I was all in.

The next chapter was "The Little Mermaid".  Ariel twirled a fork through her ginger tresses, sang "Part of Your World" and I was all about mermaids, more singing and, again, red hair.

Christina Hendricks

Emma Stone

Kate Baldwin at a benefit I got to do her makeup for this past December

As of late Christina Hendricks on "Mad Men", Emma Stone in anything and my girl, Kate Baldwin, have been reminding me that red hair is singing a siren song that remains loud in my ear and I finally submitted. 

This shows you how much I love you guys because these are NOT flattering photos from the wig store ya'll - Grey and Jessica felt like the strawberry blonde washed me out

And it gets worse - I am not meant to be a short-haired person

8KG

7RR

My good friend, Jessica Myhr, is a fantastic stylist who is very opinionated about hair color and so we went to the wig shops to try on various shades to see what we liked.  She then recommended her hair colorist and stylist, Grey Wolf, who I had a consult with.  The three of us discussed colors - I apparently am drawn to orangey-er colors like Marcia Cross but I have cool undertones so they didn't think that would be very flattering on me.  So, after much discussion, we settled in on doing highlights instead of a single process so it would be less serious on the grow-out front.  I really liked Goldwell Hair Color's 8KG and Grey decided to do two parts of that with one part of Goldwell's 7RR which is cooler to balance the brassiness of the 8KG.

Grey mixing colors

LOTS of colors!

Before Shot

Getting the back of the head highlighted first

Cut to the day of the hair dying, Grey decided to add two more colors to the mix as well as using a combo of 8KG and 7RR so he ended up working with FIVE colors for my full head of highlights.  It took about four hours but once he was finished it looked REALLY natural since it was woven in with the brown from my natural hair color via the highlights.  He did the back first and then rinsed it, mixed new colors and did the side and the front.  I have a lot of hair and it's super long so he said he wanted to do it that way since the colors "turn" or something if they're in the air for too long.

Next time (which should be in 9-12 weeks) we'll do 3/4 highlights, the time after that we'll do 1/2 head of highlights and then start all over with a full head.  It'll get more red each time as slowly my natural shade gets colored red more and more.  I may go in for a gloss in the middle of highlight situations if I need a boost.  I'm just writing this all out because I had a really hard time finding info online for brunettes flipping to red - it's mostly about blondes doing it which is a lot easier. 

After getting it cut Steve starts to curl it up

With and without curls - he had to curl the heck out of it because I was going to a show and then sleeping on it and then shooting for Veria in the morning. 

The next day I went to my good friend, Steve Berg's, house and he cut my hair about 5 inches (it had been a while) so I was all ready to go on camera for Veria Living the day after.  Steve cuts hair dry so it's great if you need a cut after you get color since you can't wash your hair for a number of days.  He's very fancy and does all kinds of celeb's hair and is a super fun guy!

The finished product shooting the next morning on set!

At Grey's suggestion I picked up Aveda's Madder Root Shampoo and Conditioner and will use them once a week and continue with my Carol's Daughter Monoi Shampoo and Hair Mask the other time/week.  I don't get to wash my hair more than that because it'll fade more quickly.  So, dry shampoo is going to be my friend!

To read Going Red - Part II click HERE.

Grey Wolf is at Grey Wolf Salon - 256 West 15th Street (between 6th/7th Aves) - 646.479.0788
Full Highlights are $250; 3/4 Highlights are from $150; 1/2 Highlights are from $135.  Glosses (in between highlights) are from $80.  Prices subject to change.

Steve Berg is in Greenwich Village and his email is stevegberg@gmail and is $150.