There is a project I have been quietly working away on behind the scenes! Almost 6 years ago I felt this sudden urge to get out of the city and move back to the mountains where I grew up in a log house in the woods. It surprised me as I don’t like change and I am so tired of moving. I didn’t move back to the log house but I am actually just on the other side of the valley from our cozy little log chalet I grew up in on the cute little lake where we swam almost daily.
I felt like I had finally accepted and gotten used to the reality that my dad was no longer here in the mountains. Yet, I expected everything else to feel familiar – to be the same town I had moved away from over two decades ago. It did not and was not. I felt like a stranger in my own hometown. Then I remembered, everything is constantly changing, even when we are not present, that is life. And I hadn’t lived in this little town in over two decades. It wasn’t so little anymore. And I wasn’t the same person who had moved away. No matter how much we are warned by our parents and grandparents, we don’t seem to grasp how quickly things change until we spend time in reflection. It makes one nostalgic and wanting to hold onto certain traditions or come back to those traditions later on in life. I am that person. Some change I wholeheartedly embrace though, especially when it comes to a makeup routine. I have always wanted to be able to evolve and elevate the way my clients can shop for their makeup and have fun with their makeup too. With my new ‘shade-changers’ it feels like I have come full circle from where I started out with this line twenty years ago. When I was told I had an illness where the pain would never really go away and I would be on medication for the rest of my life, it first made me deeply depressed, like I had just received a life sentence. Then it lit a fire under me to get to the root of things myself. I realized I just couldn’t accept their prognosis. It felt like all the specialists I had invested so much time in had given up. I realized from that point on it was all up to me.
my inspiration
Writing my e-book about my experience with chronic illness was surprisingly wonderful therapy for me a couple years ago, and it helped me stay sane during the thing. Through my research while writing, I learned about this important piece of the chronic illness puzzle, they called it ‘trauma’, that had been brought into the mix. It was fascinating to me. The pain that would come over me when I had an ‘episode was so horrific, I couldn’t sit still. My mind seemed to be telling me I had to try to physically get away from the pain like when a person is on fire. My nervous system was never able to relax from that point on. I didn’t know exactly when the pain would return so I was always on edge. I spoke to someone who had the same illness as me and she told me that natural childbirth didn’t hold a candle to the pain experienced with our condition. I am not sure I can say I would want to go through that level of pain again for as many years as I did to gain the level of knowledge I now have surrounding chronic pain and illness. Yet, the mind-blowing discoveries I made after starting to research things for myself helped to soothe my anger and filled me with incredible wonder. I realized the body is a self-healing and self-regulating system when it is given what it needs. It has prompted me to really think outside of the box when it comes to everything in life.
getting to the good stuff
This is where my shade-changers come into play. I have always wanted my clients to just have fun with their makeup. If it feels like a chore, it is just added to your list of chores and we always have more than enough chores. I like to think of it as my meditation or quiet time. Sometimes it is nice to take a break from our makeup and learn to feel comfortable in our own skin. Then we are truly doing our makeup for the fun of it when we go back to it. I know from having chronic breakouts when I was younger and since then, having clients with very serious skin conditions, that it is not always that easy. Sometimes you feel more confident and more yourself when you can camouflage scars, breakouts, and uneven pigment. I hope you can still find the fun in doing your makeup too, and that it helps heal your skin at the same time. My shade-changers could help those needing the perfect shade of coverage in areas as a camouflage more than anyone actually, because the perfect texture and shade of coverage is what creates the most natural-looking end result.
a niche market
This option, I know, will not be for everyone and that’s ok. You may have already found the perfect ready-to-wear or custom blend shade in my line and that makes me incredibly happy! If you are new to my line and you are a painter, baker, or creative in any way, you may just be tickled pink about this new option! If you are not any of those but still incredibly determined to try this custom-blending option out yourself, do it! I am happy to hold your hand through the process. If you have still not been able to experience what it’s like to have that absolutely PERFECT shade of makeup foundation, concealer. eyeshadow, bronzer, blush, or gloss, the shade-changers will be right up your alley. I think the best part is it will allow me to work a little more one-on-one with my clients, which I love. I have been custom blending my whole life and every day I enjoy it a little more. When I was very little I used to mix paint colours for my dad when he was painting scenic pictures. So I hope you will utilize my skills and reach out to me for guidance if needed. My focus is always 1000% client satisfaction and I think my shade-changer collection will help in achieving that on a whole new level.
When I moved back to the country from the city I realized I needed to work on myself. I felt like that city person who moves to the country and expects all the comforts and conveniences you can only get in the city. I realized if I wanted certain things I had to learn how to make them myself. This also made me appreciate those things so much more. This is what the shade-changer collection is all about. It cannot work for just any product as some products are a lot more labour-intensive. However, some of my formulas I have created these past few years with the intention of you, the client, having the ability to be a part of the manufacturing process. From all my experience in physcially working out of various spas and at wellness tradeshows over the past twenty years, there is a huge wow factor when someone realizes they can have a part in the creation of their makeup. You can’t really go wrong when offering this option to my clients. But the only downside was if they went on a tropical vacation or something about their skin tone changed dramatically for a whole host of reasons, they needed to come back to me to tweak their custom formula we had created together. I have experienced personally how just changing my hair colour a little requires different undertones be added to my makeup coverage and colours. So I fixed it! My shade-changers are similar to my custom rx formulas but you can be much pickier about the finished shade. It’s like me baking you a cake and you being able to ice it and create the final touches, or you and I painting a house together and I create the perfect combination of paint textures but the decisions on the colours and final trim are left up to you.
Is it more time-consuming?
Not on a daily basis, and probably the opposite, because when you have the perfect shade and coverage, it makes your makeup application a breeze and you will most likely use less products because there is no colour-correcting needed. It will take you some time to create your perfect shade, just like baking a cake. The bonus to me is you can always come back to it and change it up a little more or reverse the changes you have made, which you can’t do when baking a cake. To get a little more into the ‘custom-blending weeds’, once you are able to alter your shade yourself, it allows you to further alter the shade as needed as many times as you like until the product is empty. Our skin tones are constantly changing, just like everything else about our skin and body. So it feels good to be able to fix what you have rather than purchase another product just because the shade is a little off. So I would boast that it is minimalism at its best when it comes to cosmetics.
other cool facts
If you are wanting to dive into trying the shade-changers but are not sure which ones to start with, the plump + shine original lip glace + shade-changers and aloe loose tint + shade-changers I would say are beginner level shade-changers. You know how you see a lip shade or bronzer or foundation shade on someone and think, wow, I want that exact shade. But then when you receive it and apply it for the first time, it doessn’t look quite like the shade on the model in the advertisement? That is because differennt shades will have different effects on different skin tones. They can also look completely different, depending on the lighting. So I fixed that by creating these shade-changers. Whenever needed, you can manipulate the shade by adding different undertones so that the finished product looks like it was made for you, because it was! There is more to come with this cool collection, this is just the introduction post to get you warmed up to the idea and to help to wrap your mind around all the possibilities. Be prepared to have your created juices flowing and your mind blown…stay tuned!
the shade-changers are multitasking
You can also use the shade-changers as powder eye shadows, bronzers, and blushes. Just like my lip glosses are the gateway product to the rest of my line, so are the glace shade-changers so if you are not sure where to start when dipping your toe in the shade-changing pool, I would suggest the plump + shine original lip glace + shade changers or the aloe loose tint shade-changers (linked below). With the foundation serum + bio-foundation shade-changers, you want to be more precise as you are matching it to your skin tone, not just creating a fun new lip gloss colour. So it requires a little more time and concentration, but it is also fun and the end result is incredibly gratifying. Again, I am just an instant message away if you need my input on anything. Just click on the message box in the bottom right corner of this website to reach out to me. If you have an account and are logged in on your account when you message me, I will be able to see it is you and I will get back to asap! I have linked the products which offer my shade-changer collections below. The shade -changers for the various coverage options (the last three links below) are the same as long you stay within the same shade. So, for example, if you invest in an almond shilajit bio-foundation + shade-changers, you can use those same shade changers for your almond foundation serums too. Have fun playing!
