sparkleshinylove - A lifestyle blog for girls who love a little sparkle!

Roxymandy September 12, 2014

Handmade Creations from Carberry Soap Company + A Giveaway!

My first visit to Carberry Soap Company was on a whim when I was shopping for favours for a party I was having. My party included a night with my girlfriends where we did some private shopping at one of my favourite stores Turquoise in Whitby (I’ve got a post coming soon about them – stay tuned!), and then I had a cake pop making demonstration where all of the ladies were able to take home some of their own creations at the end of the night. I usually have a party favour for my guests to take home after one of my parties, and I was shopping around for something to go with my theme in some way.

What I found at Carberry Soap Company was perfectly fitting – individual cupcake soaps, packaged just for my event using the colours of my party theme. The cupcakes were incredibly life-like, and the smell of them was out of this world. Perfect, right?

I’ve been shopping there ever since for gifts for friends and family, and of course for myself when I need pampering, which happens pretty often!

The offerings are almost overwhelming, which is actually a good thing. For every soap there are a number of scents, colours and designs.

Carberry’s Organic Babycakes soap is made with pure organic olive oil and fresh organic goat milk. It’s ideal for people with skin ailments such as eczema, psoriasis and rosacea.

Their Gourmet Soap Collection is gentle, soothing, and they smell exactly like the gourmet flavour they are named after!

My favourite offerings from Carberry Soap Company are from their Carberry Cakery collection!
All kinds of baked goods are transformed into amazing soaps! Cupcakes, cake slices, doughnuts – these creations look as decadent as they would be in real life. Not only do they look amazing, but their scents are out of this world.

Carberry has a range of items for children as well. Their Soapy Pops look like real popsicles, which may entice your little one to actually want to scrub up and get clean! Soapy Pops are SLS free and all fragrance oils are phthalate free too!

Carberry has a cute kids station right inside the shop for little ones to keep busy while mom’s take a moment to shop!

And for those who love to have a relaxing bath there are even more handmade items such as Bath Creamers, Bath Blasters, and Recipe Soaps which include a combination of ingredients to create some yummy flavours.

As I mentioned before, Carberry Soap Company was able to customize my party favours to match the colour and scent I wanted, and their team is willing to work with their customers to create the perfect favour for your event.

I love the fact that Carberry offers hands-on workshops to learn how to make these fabulous soaps yourself. This is something I can’t wait to do. Classes are offered based on the type of soap you would like to make, and I think it would make an awesome girls night!

And now – a giveaway!

You can win a gift bag full of goodies courtesy of Carberry Soap Company which includes one if their large fabulous cupcake soaps, a pack of three yummy mini cupcake soaps, and their very own Cake Mix Bubbling Bath Powder!

I was lucky enough to try all of these items, and I literally smell like a walking bake shop right now. It’s pretty fabulous.

To win, all you need to do is enter using the Rafflecopter link below this post! You will need to like sparkleshinylove on Facebook in order to enter.

The contest begins today, Friday, September 12th, 2014 and will end on Saturday, September 20th, 2014 at 12:00pm EST. This contest is open all US and Canadian residents, and the randomly selected winner will be announced on Sunday, September 21st, 2014.

Good luck to everyone who enters!

If you haven’t yet, you should also like the Carberry Soap Company Facebook page here to see all of the great products and incentives they are running. If you visit them in store and like their Facebook page while you are there, they even give you a free mini soap!

Carberry Soap Company is located at 629 Liverpool Road, Pickering, Ontario. You can visit their website at www.carberrysoap.com to learn more or order products online which may be shipped to the US and Canada.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Roxymandy September 11, 2014

eBay Partners with Local Shops for Boutiques on eBay

Ebay is trying to gain ground on the Etsy phenomenon by launching Boutiques on eBay. It’s a new virtual space on eBay’s website where they are carrying small capsule collections from select shops for a short period of time. It’s like an online pop-up shop! The idea is to feature local shops and independent designers.

For the month of September Ebay has teamed up with This Little Piggy from Toronto’s Queen West (have you heard it was announced that it’s the world’s second hippest street this week?), and Crywolf from Ossignton Street in Toronto.

This Little Piggy is a children’s clothing shop, and the Ebay boutique features tee’s, leggings, and sweatshirts, while Crywolf is featuring adult shirts. All products are priced under $40.

To shop the collection, or to see the next collection that launches in this space, visit here.

Roxymandy September 9, 2014

Unique Children’s Halloween Costumes Found on Etsy!

Believe it or not I’ve been thinking about what my son should be for Halloween for a while now. I love this time of year. September has always been my favourite month because it’s starting to get a little cooler at night so I can pull out my cozy sweaters that have been put away for the summer, I travel every year during this month so I know I have a fun trip to look forward to, Pumpkin Spice Lattes come out at Starbucks which make me happy, and pumpkins start popping up everywhere which reminds me one of my favourite holidays are coming up – Halloween! I decorate the outside of our house with all kinds of crazy decorations for Halloween, and around this time I usually start hunting for new scary items to add to the house. My husband made me a coffin a couple years ago, and my reaction of utter joy made him laugh at my wackiness.

My poor son has a few more years of me picking his Halloween costume before he starts taking over the process. I have started to look around for something fun for him to wear, and I have found some really fun and unique costumes on Etsy. Have you noticed I am kind of an Etsy nut? The whole pushing one button and paying with Paypal adds to the appeal. It doesn’t feel like I’m buying anything if there is no card swiping!

Here are a few of my favourite costumes I have found along the way!

Awesome Sauce Designs “Burrito Baby”

Mauky Joe Dinosaur Costume

Yum Baby Rasta Hat

Tiny Disguises Prince Charming Costume

Lisas Tutus Wonder Woman Costume

Lover Dovers Clothing Little Red Riding Hood Costume

Catherine Soucy Knight Costume

Rock the Journey Pink Clown Tutu Outfit

Epic Costumes Princess Leia

Lovelane Winged Hat and Cape Set

Fairytale Jubilee Cinderella Costume

Fairytale Jubilee The Fairy’s Overcoat Costume

Roxymandy September 8, 2014

They’re Real! Remover Review

If you read the blog, you know my absolute love for Benefit’s they’re Real! Mascara, and how much I was a fan of Benefit’s they’re Real! Push-Up Liner. The final item I needed to try was Benefit’s they’re Real! Remover. I feel like it probably would have been a good idea to buy this in the beginning, but I will get to that later.

I picked up this remover at Sephora, and likely the reason I held off on buying it right away was that it was $22. That’s a lot considering I already have a remover on the go, and although I am not sure it’s worth the price, I did have a great experience with it!

The remover is specially formulated to remove Benefit’s they’re Real Mascara and Push-Up Liner, which is exactly what I wanted to try removing.

It is a bit different than the remover I am using now, which is Philosophy’s Purity. That remover is more of a liquid, and that makes it a little difficult to use on the eyes. It does dry my skin out a bit and I need to moisturize immediately after, but it does a great job of removing my make up. I also use Vaseline as well if I have a hard time with my eye makeup.

They’re Real! Remover is a white creamy gel, and in comparison it is very easy to apply. You can use a cotton swab, or in this case since it’s more of a gel you can even just put some on your finger and wipe. It actually works well with a Q-Tip to just remove a small portion of your makeup if you have made a mistake.

I found that this remover did not dry my skin out at all. I was really waiting for it to irritate my skin or make it feel tingly, but it didn’t at all. It felt like I was putting cream on!

The remover lifts away waterproof eye makeup pretty easily, as long as you give it a minute. It took my liner right off, and I held the cotton swab on my eye for a moment with remover on it, and it took my mascara right off as well. I found that it needed more time to sit on my eyelashes for the mascara to come off, and when I waited it easily removed my makeup.

I washed my face with water when I was done to get rid of any excess make up, and it was a little scary to see all of that make up gone! So that is really what I look like under there? Ok maybe next time I will leave a bit of mascara on!

I didn’t find this remover irritated my skin or eyes at all, which makes sense because it is formulated for contact lenses wearers and people with sensitive eyes.

Overall I was pretty happy with this product, but I am not sure it’s is worth the price. Yes I really like it, and I will be sad when my bottle is empty, but there are lots of things I can do with $22, and a jar of Vaseline is only a couple dollars….

It does pair perfectly with my Benefit mascara and liner, so I feel like I need all of these products, but at the same time if I had to choose, I would be able to live without the remover.

If you want to try it for yourself, you can purchase it on the Benefit Cosmetics website here, or at Sephora here.

Roxymandy September 6, 2014

Forever 21 X Barbie Collection Launch

On a completely unserious note, Forever 21 has launched an exclusive collection with Barbie! It’s a totally quirky and fun collection that I love. I desperately need the “I woke up like this” tank. How can you not love this collection? It’s so cute and girly, and it won’t break the bank with items ranging from $11.90 to $29.90. The full collection is below, and it’s shoppable online here.