Giveaway and interview : Pretty Momma Beauty

Hi everyone!

I have a wonderful surprise for you today, a beauty giveaway!
I met Ekatrina in the Etsy forum and she was very kind in offering to send one set of her amazing Raspberry Black Bath Tea. I was very curious about her product, especially when she mentioned it is real tea mixed with magnesium, salts. The tea bad holds the leaves together so it will be an easy clean up after a relaxing, skin rejuvenating and soothing bath.

RaspBerry Black Tea Bath Giveaway by Pretty Momma Beauty

But, as amazing are her products, I wanted you to learn more about this impressive lady behind the small natural shop of Pretty Momma Beauty.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Ekatrina

Tell us about yourself and how all your Etsy adventure started :

I am a cell biology PhD student in the process of graduating and beginning my career as a professor. I started my first Etsy shop about halfway through my graduate career as a birthday present to myself. It has been a nice outlet for my creative energies in the midst of a demanding school load.

What pushed you to start your own beauty product line?

This shop began when I wanted to make bath salts for myself. I grew up in a home invested in natural and healthy products, so it was a short jump to combine that expertise with my scientific skills. The very first product I made was the mustard milk bath salts, which I formulated to combat muscle pain and tension. Once I got started, I just couldn’t stop, and I eventually opened this shop in order to share my products with a wider audience.

From the start, my products have been about providing tools to create a naturally healthy, beautiful you. Because of the demands on my time, I have been terrible about daily beauty upkeep. Once I started making my own products, I began to research and concoct products to help restore and repair my appearance. I formulated products that I found worked well, and so had to share those too. Because I need good value from the time I spend on myself, all my products are carefully formulated with high concentrations of active ingredients to maximize their effectiveness.

What inspires your collections?

My collections begin with an idea. For instance, I began my mud mask line in response to my search for something to reduce the appearance of my pores. Once I have an idea for a product type, my next question is “What other problems could this medium solve?”. So, in the mud mask example, I began expanding the concept to products that help maintain skin firmness, deal with inflammation, and provide deep-cleaning and detoxification benefits to help provide clear skin.

What is your process for your products?

When I start out to create a product, I begin by reading as much as I can about the process that produces the problem I want to solve and about how modern and traditional products go about addressing the problem. From that reading, I create a list of potential ingredients annotated with the mechanism of action of each. Then I research each ingredient intensively for safety and effectiveness, as well as to get an idea of which products would work well together. I create a prototype recipe designed to incorporate a diverse and synergistic ingredient list, then I go through repeated rounds of testing (on myself) and refinement for function and usability. The final product is what ends up in my shop. 

Are your products sold in boutiques or craft shows?

My primary outlet is online, although I have taken my products to a craft fair. I enjoyed the face to face interaction and direct feedback of the craft fair, so I hope to be able to do more of them after graduation. My products are not in a brick and mortar yet, but I am on the look-out for locations that would be a good fit. I’ve also been refining my packaging to reflect the professionalism and quality of my product, which is important in brick-and-mortar sales.

Can you tell us more about your Bath Tea Collection?

My bath tea collection is extensive, and primarily off-menu at this point. I have a wide variety of herbal and black teas, as well as a few more unusual options. My Roobios bath tea is especially refreshing, and my lavender mint bath tea is a favorite among returning customers. All of my bath teas are pre-packaged for easy clean-up and also contain magnesium salts to promote well-being. I will be working on bringing more of these teas into my regular offering once the craziness of my current transition period has passed. In the meantime, I am delighted to accommodate requests!

How long does it take you to develop a new serie of product?

The time it takes for me to develop a new product is directly proportional to how busy I am! :) Some products require minimal rounds of refinement and are ready to meet customers quickly. Other products, such as one particularly luscious conditioning treatment I have developed, require significant research to translate into a shelf-stable, easy-to-use product. (It’s been over a year since I made my first batch of that particular product, and it still isn’t ready to go to market. My hair, however, has greatly benefited from the research process.)

What’s next for PrettyMommaBeauty in 2015?

I have an extensive list of products to roll out in the next year. I have a very nice deep-conditioning moisturizer that is ready to go to market. It just needs final packaging decisions and photographs. I also want to elaborate on the idea and create a lighter moisturizer for those who live in warmer climates or who have more naturally moist skin. I also have an herbal detangling spray that has passed all my usage tests and needs to make its way into my shop. I have vegetable-based blush that will be ready once I standardize shades, and have initial recipes for complimenting lip products. I want to create liquid shampoos and bath gels from my bar soap recipes, which should be a fairly quick process once I obtain the necessary supplies. I also want to develop a magnesium-based deodorant, as I think that would work better than the salt crystal I currently use. What would you like to see in my shop??

If you weren’t making beauty products, what would you be making :

If I wasn’t running Etsy shops in my spare time, I’d be reading, embroidering, or tutoring. In addition to making bath and beauty products, I love doing graphic design and creating jewelry. I’m also an avid treasure-hunter at resale shops.

If you could live anywhere in the world...?

If I could live anywhere in the world….I don’t know. I like my current home, but would love to go someplace warmer in the winter. My favorite European country is Italy, but I want to visit China, and Spain, and Russia, and the Italian Alps, and see more of France… Home is where the heart is, but I love to learn about other cultures and meet new people too.


You can follow Ekatrina on Twitter here or on Tumblr

And, you can enter the giveaway at the top of the article! :)

Valentine's goodie : Interview with Sweet Lee's Rustic Bakery

Hi everyone! : )
My flu seems to have calmed down for a bit, so I'll take this chance to post my delayed goodie for Valentine's day : ) Here's the interview with Sweet Lee's Rustic Bakery…! :D

I've met Liana and her brother Greg back in 2010 at the craft fair at Dawson college. They had a table full of yummy goodies that kept tempting me…! After one bite of their salted savoury scones, I was addicted! Over time their business slowly and surely grew as they went from fairs to events. They finally opened up their first bakery in St-Henri in 2011. In January 2014, they opened the year with a bang, introducing their relocated gorgeous bakery. I decided to go take a peek at 4150 Wellington street and I met with Greg by a freezing February afternoon.

How did you start that wonderful adventure?
My sister Liana always wanted her own bakery. She would talk about it a lot and I realized she was in it over her head. I told her : ''You won't be able to do it alone so I'm going to do this with you'', gave her a hand at least. We then started furnishing small cafés, doing small orders, fairs and soon enough we needed a retail space. Then we started looking for a little space, starting out small, try not to go wild. And then we found a spot in St-Henri and stayed there for about two years and a half. When we decided to go to Verdun, it took us almost a year to get the new place ready to open.

We started with small amounts of our own savings. The first event we ever did was a neighbourhood gathering. We were selling baked good and had invited a few of our friends that displayed their art. I guess you can say it's where we got the very first taste of Sweet Lee's.

Describe Sweet Lee in three words (or maybe 5): Heum…. a rustic bakery…. ? (laughs) 

Well, I guess… natural, hearty and homy…. And definitely original, different.

Why the move from St Henri to Verdun?
We couldn't expand as much as we wanted over at St Henri, even if we were well established. We only had two seats and it was cramped, with not a lot of space to develop our products too. It wasn't what we wanted. It took us almost a year to find this new place, we looked in Verdun and St-Henri but since St-Henri is growing in popularity, the price of rent skyrocketed ( 2 to 3 times what is used to be…! ) Also we had been living in Verdun for a time and with our hyper busy schedule is a very good thing to be close to home. Now we have to get used to all that space and the seating spots, I guess we're almost like a restaurant now. Also we went from 2 employees to 8 so it's a good change.

Why opening a rustic bakery?

We like knowing what we eat. We're not into ''pretentious-looking'' food that is overly priced or decorated. We like food that looks like food and that tastes like it's supposed to be. We also put the lowest amount of ingredients as possible to make it as rich in flavour as possible. We want to make it as healthy - even if we serve a lot of deserts - but we don't want to add ''garbage'' like preservatives in our food.

How long did it took you to set up Sweet Lee's ?
We evolved over time, like we had our business cards redone 6 times, tweaked a bit the logo. But you've got to go with the flow I guess. Adjust with where you are heading at a certain time. Now we have a more refined look than our previous location which was more of an old country home look. But we always had the same mentality over all these years.

With a bit of snifs, sneezes and snurbs...

Hi everyone….!

It's with a steaming cup of tea with lemon and next to my new best friend Kleenex that I write to you tonight. After a lovely romantic night with my boyfriend last week, my immune system decided to give me the sexiest gift of all : a flu…. How cute is a runny nose right?

I've been sleeping a lot over the last few days, also I wanted to apologize to you my fellow readers for delaying the Valentine's day I've promised you all.  The interview is still on it's way, no worries. I'll just have to post pone it for a tiny bit. I will post the link up on twitter once it will be published.

On this folks, you'll have to excuse me. Blogging with a runny nose and sneezing is almost a national sport. I hope meanwhile you enjoy the fresh new design of the blog.

I say good night to you and I hope none of you is sick because of these roller coasting temperatures in Montreal....

O....M... G... !!

Hi everyone !

I will make this post kind of very very quick because.... my ! I am having so many orders I just can`t stop dancing in joy !

On the 28th, I had the honor of being on the Etsy daily Finds email. The sideeffects ? Lots lots of loves and hearts ! And sales as many as I had never seen them in my shop..... !!! O_O

Wow ! I am so honored to see that you guyz love what I do so much ! Wow, I don`t know what else to say but a huge HUGE thank you ! And lots of hugs ! :D

So, as promised ! I have goodies for you ! :D

I am doing a Flower Paper Earrings giveaway for this week on Krista`s lovely blog !

She was kind enough to write a review on them as she worn them for a whole week ! Result ? She fell in love with it ! :D

Yes, I am telling you, you will fall in love with my items ! And that will just make me super happy to send you unique items that I had so much fun creating ! ;P

On this, once again, thank you !

And simply follow the link for my lovely giveaway ! :D

Have a marvelous day everyone !

* M *

Blooming Passion

Hi everyone ! :P

It is with great honnor that I gladly introduce the very first interview of this blog ! I want you to meet the shop owner of Studio Haus, who is generous, passionate and as sweet as chocolate.


What would you like to tell us about yourself ?

I'm originally from the midwest but recently moved to Pennsylvania and I'm loving it!


When did you discovered your passion for photography ?

I've always loved photos and photography but it wasn't until the summer I was working at a portrait studio that I actually realized that this was something I wanted to do.


Do you have any other passions ?

I do! I love all art, the beach, Paris (I went once and fell in love!), and great friends because they are hard to come by.



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What type of landscape do you prefer ?

I love waterfalls and beach scenes. Anytime I get a chance to visit either I do!

What artist inspire you the most in your art ?

Definitely Ansel Adams ~ http://www.anseladams.com/
His landscape photography is so inspiring and would love to travel to all the beautiful places he did.


Your perfect photography trip ?

Oh gosh, its hard to say just one place but I would really love to go Yellowstone. I think the landscapes there would make for some amazing photos.

One tip you would give to starter photographer ?

I think my best tip would be that clouds are your best light diffuser! I always thought that I needed bright sunlight but found that it causes harsh shadows and washes out details on beautiful flowers and waterfalls. Just before or just after a storm can create some great lighting (and sometimes lightning so be careful!) and lead some awesome shots.




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What type of camera do you use ?

Actually *blush* I use a Kodak point-n-shoot. I'm saving for a Cannon 50D and can't wait to get my hands on one!


What lead you to open your Etsy account ?

I wanted to see if there is anyone out there who likes my photos as much as I do. Etsy was an easy way to either be rejected or justified.


If you could add another product to your store, neverminding the budget, what would it be ?

Oh it would definitely be canvas prints. Those look so amazing and I love how they make a photo look like a painting!



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What do you like the most about having your Etsy shop ?

The community aspect of Etsy is amazing. All the support and tips have really helped me improve my shop from where I started a year ago.

What would be your typical day ?

Well mornings are mostly listing and networking through twitter and facebook. My afternoons are spent exercising, doing chores, and taking care of the mundane things. Evenings I try to spend time with my husband until he goes to bed (really early!). I more of a night person so I stay up late editing photos and this is usually when I list new photos into my shop.


Do you exhibit in galeries, restaurants ? Do you exhibit at craft fairs ?

I have done a few crafts fairs and will be doing a few in the fall. I will be posting on my blog or facebook with the shows and dates.


Where can we contact you ? Do you sell somewhere else ?

I only sell on Etsy and at shows.
Email: mystudiohaus [!at] yahoo.com
Blog: studiohaus.blogspot.com
FB: www.facebook.com/studiohaus
Twitter: www.twitter.com/studiohaus