Monday, April 9, 2012

Oh, We Love Moisture!


As much as cookies love milk. I've added five new moisturizing facial sprays to my shop; Lavenderp, Lemony Lassie, Chamomile, Geranium and Jazzmin. For a quick moisture fix in the morning, just close your eyes and spray it on your freshly washed face, then let it air dry. My skin is combination/oily, so I find this stuff perfect. It's light and great for summertime, especially when it's super humid outside. I live in Illinois, and there are times when I swear to jeeves it's a damn rainforest here. At least, the mosquitoes make me feel like it, anyhow. Ugh.


So, I got myself a pimple the other day and decided to take it out with my own acne spot treatment creation. With concentrated tea tree oil and witch hazel -- a great astringent -- I made my own blemish blaster I like to call Zit Zappa! I love it. Tea tree oil is great for zits, but I find that when you dab it on full force it gets a little too burny and stinky for my liking. Pair this with the Geranium facial spray (awesome for oily skin) and you've got your acne issues sussed.


Also, for all you au naturale gals out there, I decided to offer a flavor-free version of my beeswax lip balm. Just the bare necessities in this baby, without the sweetness. Well, there's sweetness of course, but a different KIND of sweetness -- soft, moisturized lips! Enjoy all the new products, cookies, and have a great week.

xo
Piękny


Friday, March 16, 2012

NEW Lip Balms & Toners


So the other day I busted my butt and posted a whole bunch of new lip balms to my Etsy! I've added delicious flavors like strawberry vanilla, pear, peach, mango and chocolate ... mmm, CHOCOLATE! I mean, really, who doesn't want to have the taste of sweet chocolate clinging to their lips all day long?


I've also added a new toner - in honor of St. Patrick's Day, of course - called Green Tease. It's totally awesome. Okay, so I might just be saying that because I made it, but no -- seriously, it's awesome. The combination of green tea extract and tea tree and geranium essential oils are not only great for oily skin, but will also help keep acne-prone skin clear. PLUS don't forget that any item that comes in a glass bottle (um, toners!) can be sent back to me to be refilled. Hey, I love to recycle. Why should I make you pay more money for another bottle when you have a perfectly good one right in your hand?


I will also be adding a few more toners in the very near future, most likely this weekend, so stay tuned.

One other note: I've been a photographer for several years and, until this year, I hadn't had a professional SLR camera to shoot with. Well, thanks to my gorgeous new Canon Rebel T3i (whoo whoo!) I can now upload awesome, great resolution photos of my products with little to no color correction. So that, darlings, saves me editing time, which in turn gives me more time to make more products! 

Everyone have a wonderful and safe St. Paddy's Day weekend!

xo
Piękny


Monday, March 12, 2012

Perfume Oil Ingredient Change

Monkey Farts Perfume Oil


I just wanted to let all my cookies know that perfume oils will now be made with fractionated coconut oil rather than grapeseed oil. Fractionated coconut oil is not only an excellent carrier oil when used with essential oils, it is also lighter, less greasy and penetrates the skin deeper. It's also super stable, which means it has a longer shelf life than most other carrier oils ... and who doesn't want their tasty-smelling perfumes to last as long as possible? Enjoy!

xo
Piękny

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Big News!

First off I'd like to apologize for the lax in posts. I've been busy, busy, busy! Besides my full-time job, I've been busting my patootie making Piękny Cookie products to stock at a store! Yes, that's right. An honest-to-peanut-butter, real live store.


The store is called Aurora Rose and it's located in Willow Springs, IL, right next to this adorable little coffee shop. The store is fab. Called simply a "unique boutique," Aurora Rose carries handmade products ranging from tutus to glassware to parasols to meatball mix to -- well, I could go on and on. I'm very excited to be a part of this group of creative vendors and I can't wait to see where this goes!


I even added a few new special items that you can only get at Aurora Rose for the time being! Those include two delicious-smelling moisturizing body sprays (great for after showering!), Lavenderp facial spray (with moisturizing aloe and jojoba!) and Aphrodisiac Attack perfume oil, a special concoction of my own that will instill much staring and perhaps even drooling by the opposite sex. (These claims are not substantiated, teehee)



So here's the store. Awesome, right? Totally cute, but totally spacious and full of amazing stuff. If you need a skull and crossbones baby romper or some super-cute handmade greeting cards, Aurora Rose is the place to go. Oh, yeah, and if you want to buy Piękny Cookie products, of course!


Please check out my stuff if you're in the Willow Springs area! I'd really appreciate it, cookies.

Aurora Rose
8695 Archer Ave, Suite 4
Willow Springs, IL 60480
708-330-5085
LoveAuroraRose@gmail.com

xo
Piękny

Thursday, January 5, 2012

It's Makeup Time

Photo Source

So, I'm excited and I just wanted to let you all know that I've just tagged off one of my New Year's resolutions: finding a natural mascara to replace my Covergirl Lash Blast, which I love, but is loaded with crap I can't believe I put so close to my eyes. I found a mascara through Erzulie Cosmetics in intense black that I can't wait to try. If I've never told you about my absolute obsession with Etsy, I'm telling you now. Etsy is brilliant, especially when it comes to finding natural beauty products (um, hello, Piekny Cookie is on Etsy). Most stores list their ingredients in full, which is a really nice little perk. Plus, you'll find some great sales and unique product; Erzulie Cosmetics, for example, has Black Cherry mascara on sale right now for $7. Sounds so yummy I could eat it.

Black Cherry Natural Mascara by Erzulie Cosmetics


I also went all out and purchased some more makeup from Noella Beauty Works. Eyeshadows in Snowflake and Sugared Plum, both weekly steals. I also went ahead and bought a deep espresso eyebrow powder, which triples as a matte eyeshadow AND eyeliner. How can you go wrong?

Sugared Plum Mineral Eyeshadow by Noella Beauty Works


I'll let you all know how it goes when I get my goodies. I can't wait!

xo
Piękny

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

New Year's Resolutions

Photo Source

Happy 2012, cookies! I'm sure you all had a wonderful weekend bringing in the New Year. I myself watched movies, ate some delicious pizza from Palermo's and watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind; a perfect film to celebrate new beginnings.

Every year, I hear tons of people announcing their New Year's resolutions. Some will keep them, and others will forget them after a few weeks (let's not forget the age-old "I'm gonna lose 20 pounds" resolution!). One of the things I'm striving for this year is to work on filtering out icky chemical products and replacing them with wonderful, natural, non-harmful products. I've already started over the past couple of years. Here are some of the products I love to make my life healthier:

Renpure Organics shampoo, conditioner and hairspray; Piekny Cookie (that's me!) facial toner & moisturizer, lip balms, hand salve, body oil; Noella Beauty Works foundation, eyeshadow and blush; Burt's Bees lip balm (I'm obsessed with lip balm and have TONS of different brands); LUSH bath bombs; and soaps by Heavenly Scent Soaps by local Spring Grove, IL crafter Erin Whalen.



That's not to say I don't have higher goals! What I'd like to achieve in 2012 is total natural beauty; a removal of all beauty products harmful for my skin and bodily health. There are things that I use every single day that I need to make adjustments to, including: mascara, hand soap, nail polish (Willow Tree Minerals actually makes non-toxic mail polish, which means I can finally start painting my nails again!), concealer and of course, the dreaded HAIR DYE. I'm still on a quest to find the perfect non-toxic dye, so stay tuned for that.

Caterpillar Non-Toxic Nail Polish by Willow Tree Minerals

And here's the big, big, BIG one: incorporate my love of natural beauty products into my diet! Don't get me wrong, I might still want a few slices of pizza every now and then, but you know what -- I want my entire body to be nourished and feeling sassy my not only changing what I slather on my skin, but also what I put into my belly! About a year ago I purchased The Diet Solution by nutritionist Isabel de los Rios. The website looks a little scammy, but I can assure you, the information you get from her book is excellent. When I started eating organic, natural and healthy foods (and she provies recipes, too; yum!) I started losing the weight. Of course, I fell off the wagon, but my goal is to start again and make a total lifestyle change. We'll see how that works out ... no, no, no ... must. Stay. Optimistic. !

What are your New Year's resolutions? Do you strive to make your life more natural and healthy? Or maybe you want to incorporate the natural life into your diet as well? Lemme know!

xo
Piękny