This is a more personal blog post today: I was targeted for a pretty scary scam.
Ever get a job offer that seems too good to be true? And you hope and hope that it really is! I got a email yesterday from someone at Instyle magazine offering me a job on a photoshoot for them. It was all paid for and a super crazy paying job. Oh god how I was excited and flattered and then my logical self kicked in. Is this a real person?
Here is the full story and what to do when you get one of these emails. There are a few updates at the bottom please read these too!
“Going green at the salon” used to be words that my Mum would roll her eyes at: because it meant that I was dying my hair another weird colour. But that isn’t what it means anymore!
The Green movement is picking up in Thunder Bay and the trend is becoming a business savy way in one of the most waste producing business: Hair Salons.
Some salons are just small with a few people working in them, and some are large with 8+ members. Just taking a look at over a regular week in a salon you can see from 20-60 clients per week: per stylist! That is a lot of hair alone, not to mention all the product that goes into the hair and the leftovers, the foils (which can average about 50 per person), plus the cups, other lunches and things clients and staff bring in and throw out. It can result into 13 large bags of garbage or more a week!
A new program, called the Green Circle Salon Certification program, helps salons collect recycling that is normal for anyone and salon specific items that can now be recycled. These items include hair, foils, paper, plastic and even the extra products such as dye, lightener, etc. I spoke with Amanda Benincasa of Evoke Salon and Spa (one of the first salons in Thunder Bay to become Green Circle certified) about how it has impacted her business.
On a trip to Winnipeg she went to a Green Circle presentation and was blown away. “I watched the demonstration of a synthetic buoy vs one made of the excess hair to help with oil spills in the ocean, lakes and rivers and it was amazing. The human hair buoy soaked up the oil in the water in half the time!” Her salon Evoke was already an established green salon with using green and eco-friendly products such as Hempz and Davine’s hair products. One of the things that I personally found great about this program was that they take all the plastics, unlike in Thunder Bay where you can only recycle bottles of #1 and #2 plastic that have twist off caps. “We used to throw out so much garbage, knowing how much already goes into our landfill, I thought I could do something to lessen our impact and it has! We only create 2-3 bags of garbage a week now.” told Amanda.
The Green Circle program is very easy for any salon to sign up for, they give you the boxes for disposal, then you pack it up let them know and they will send you a shipping label and arrange pick up for you. The salon has a small fee added to all services to support the program. It is the same as the Environmental Handling Fees (EHF) that are charged on the sale and distribution of all new electronic products regulated in Ontario. Paid at the time of purchase, the fee reflects the actual program cost to collect, transport and responsibly recycle each electronic category the end of its useful life.
As a esthetician myself, I was wondering about what the Green Circle program could do for the esthetics side. Amanda told me “Currently they don’t have a program in place for items such as wax sticks and strips, acetone, nail files and more. But the estheitican at any salon and spa can still use the rest of the recycling for their plastics and cardboards.” I spoke with Evoke’s esthetician Rebecca Nelson about what future projects she could see for esthetics and Green Circle. “They could figure out how to deal with the wax itself, what to do with nail files. Maybe some sort of filter that could go in our drains to catch debris and some of the product? There are lots of possibilities.” Past paper, cardboard, plastic and the few glass containers we have, the only other recyclable items we have is using the sharps disposable that we can take to any pharmacy.
“A Clean, Green & Beautiful Thunder Bay depends on the pride of residents, businesses, property owners and youth. It also makes good business sense and results in a healthy economy. Clean, green & beautiful cities attract visitors, highly skilled workers and investment, and enable us to live, work and play in well maintained, safe and pleasant surroundings.” – Mayor Hobbs from the Clean, Green & Beautiful Committee of Thunder Bay.
There are many different city, provincial and federal incentives for businesses to become greener, as David Suzuki always promotes ” You can just do 1 green thing to help.” Many of us do way more without even realizing it:
we do our weekly recycling, even if its just our empties because we can get money back
we use energy efficient appliances
when buying a new phone, laptop, tablet, etc we pay the electronic recylicng fee
we turn down our heat or air conditioning
use the hydro off and peak times chart to do our laundry + using only cold water
some of us compost for our gardens
use LED light bulbs (which you can get great coupons for online now as a incentive program)
walk, roll, bike to work or school / using public transport
bring your own bags or ask for paper bags instead at the store
Thunder Bay has hope, I know there are many of you who were brought up “if you recycle paper, you are putting your family out of work.” because of the mill but only 10 out of 49 paper mills in Canada deal with recycled paper pulp (“Benchmarking Energy use in Canadian Pulp and Paper Mills” Natural Resources Canada 2015) That is still a lot of jobs. We have to come to the realization that Thunder Bay is still behind. In many cities in Canada, once you get into a home you get a garbage can and a recycle can. In many cities they take more then 2 kinds of specific plastics. In many cities you can take in your recycling and get paid for it! Here you can take your metals to the scrap and the liquor and beer bottles to the beer store… but no paper, cardboard or plastic.
We can do more, follow the footsteps of my friend Elizabeth deBakker. “In May 1996, Elizabeth DeBakker, a 10 year-old student at École Gron Morgon School, addressed Thunder Bay’s City Council expressing her concern over debris found in city parks. As a result of this deputation City Council passed a resolution requesting the development of a municipal clean up program. A steering committee was established to develop an action plan to accomplish the goals of Ms. DeBakker.” – Ecosuperior. If a 10 year old girl 20 years ago had this big of a impact, what can you do?
I think all the Green Circle Salons in town have a great start to something very big.
Blush otherwise known as cheek colour(guess where it goes) can comes in creams, gel, liquids, and powders(loose and pressed). Powder blush is the most common to find and is the easiest to use.
Curtis brings me on some very interesting and unique opportunities Working on this was personally hard..not makeup wise, but I’m happy how it turned out and hope it helps a lot of women.
This is a very important psa filmed by Apple Wagon Films. So many families try to stay for the kids not understanding the effect of what they hear and see and why you need to leave.
As a makeup artist I get to work on so many different types of jobs. That’s what is great when you get get to my level, I don’t pin myself down to just one style, or just only focus on weddings, high fashion, editorial or special effects. Living in a small city there is very limited opportunities, there are many but if you can’t know the difference between a wedding, makeup lessons or filming makeup you can’t bridge out.
As much as I love doing gross, gory makeup with Elegant Embodiments. This extremely what seems to be simple makeup but important makeup. It’s not all just running mascara, but the cracked dry lips, the broken capillaries on her nose, the slight cut on her lip, the aging lines and sullen skin: this gives the look that even though a great actress can make the look, the small additions creates a full picture.
This is part 1 of the videos we recently produced for ONWA, which was a bit of a passion project for both myself and the other talented artists I had the opportunity to collaborate with on it and I think it shows!
Please give it a watch and a share to help spread awareness of a very real issue affecting many individuals and families within Northwestern Ontario. Help them break through. Help them break free. -Curtis Jensen of Apple Wagon Films
Please watch and share, and if you want to share a story or need help please call a womens organization, if you need help or just someone to talk to you can email me too! scotiamua@shaw.ca
I have been asked this a few times this month before and after xmas:
“I received a No!No! for Christmas…I need your Honest opinion on the No!No! ?” – Mary
“I was looking at the No!No! for myself but it seems so expensive.”- Diane
I will start off saying that I have not personally used this, because if I wanted to drop 300$+ I’d spend it more wisely.. or at least start with actual laser hair removal treatments. (anyone who has one and wants my to actually try contact me I’d love to make a video)
But I have talked to a lot of people with it and have done some research on it as well.
Click to see more reviews from consumer reports.org
I have been asked this question a few times about my new Hydrating line from DermaE that uses Hyaluronic Acid.
“How Can Hyaluronic Acid be vegan? I know it comes from rooster cones. How did this company get certified vegan?”
Hyaluronic acid is derived from 2 different sources: yes rooster cones (their little red mohawks) and from fermented grass yeast. But why would it even bother coming from animal byproduct if you can get it from fermented grass yeast?
For the past 15 years, I have heard some crazy things of what other spa owners, estheticians and assistants have told clients what to do, and how to prepare for their spa service.
And to be honest it is flabbergasting what they expect of clients and how lazy some people are. This is the service industry: I am here to serve you and your beauty and spa needs.
So how do you know what to get? How to get it? Will You feel comfortable? What happens? What should you do?
On tv all these makeup artists and nail techs and estheticians are usually alt(alternative) looking…(or from the east)
You would think working in this field bright hair, piercings and tattoos would be ok right? think again
Me at freelance work where I feel I can look like myself
But in the real world, there are lots of different kinds of people in this field of work. And especially in a smaller city like Thunder Bay, tattoos and bright hair is still looked at funny.
yes this is a xposted article from my old blog but it has been updated.
Aww no one answered so no one won! It’ll tell you anyways
The reason I had blue on lips was for when Smaug the dragon first woke up, he was blue in the movie.
We could also get into a very specific nerd trivia and also say it was because in Canada there was a cover of the Hobbit book that came out where he was coloured blue on the cover.
My husband, a friend and I distinctly remembering this all due to our confusion that he was described as red and golden.
Anyways sucks that no one won the awesome nails.
What would you like to win if I was doing another contest?
Sweet Cherry Spa 