Fixed Coffee | St. John’s, Newfoundland

Fixed Coffee St. John's NewfoundlandIt’s a chilly (by California standards) 10°C degree morning here in NorCal, and I got a little feeling of Newfoundland with me. Grey skies, a little wind, and a little more rain.

I was flicking through the photos on my phone, from last month and spotted Fixed Coffee & Baking pictures, so I decided to edit them and post them today. You know, just in case you’re reading my site from home (totally likely), and looking for a spot to chill out for the afternoon, and warm up for a hot cuppa.

Located by the War Memorial, you have views of both water, and duckworth street when you sit at one of the windows. Fixed-Coffee-and-Baking

You can even have a seat with Jesus. Go’wan.seating-with-jesus

My sister-in-law and I both ordered lattes. Fixed-menu

I don’t remember if they do flavouring or not, and if they did I ordered it with vanilla.2-lattes

Most rad milk station, with one of those old school floor television sets. I had one of those! milk

Fixed Coffee & Baking actually have two locations in St. John’s, this one I’m showing which is on Duckworth Street, and the second is on Harvey Road. In fact, I spotted on Facebook they’re hiring a part-time baker, if anyone is interested.

I’m no Coffee connoisseur and I definitely don’t drink black coffee. But I do enjoy a lighter roast espresso (hot) drink whenever I go. But I can tell you that I enjoy the smooth lattes Fixed makes, and you know what? I can totally taste the difference in the beans, even though my cup is filled mostly with milk. Some of the places I’ve visited have a bitter, stronger taste.Fixed-Coffee

I’m happy to hear that lighter roast coffee and espressos are taking over.Fixed-Coffee-StJohns

latte-looking-outI think I’ve found my favourite place to come up with future blog posts. Coffee shops. Typical? Maybe. But definitely cozy and I love hopping around to all the different coffee shops wherever I roam.

Fixed Coffee & Baking
183 Duckworth St, St. John’s, NL A1C 1G3, Canada
Instagram // Twitter // Facebook

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Bliss and Bale | Serenity Box

Bliss-headerDon’t let gift giving stress you out people! In fact, I’m a huge fan of gifting presents. I LOVE it and often go all out. Shopping for unique/cool gifts that you know your friends/family would love? So fun.

TwitterI wanted to showcase another crate/box from Bliss and Bale (see the Valentine’s Day box here). Andrea Cwik is a small business owner located in the San Francisco Bay Area. She selects items for her boxes from other local businesses and partners with the best small batch artisans.

Bliss-and-Bale-SerenityThis one is called Serenity Box, filled with all sorts of nice goodies, like a really sweet mug, loose leaf tea, yummy mini waffles, candy and a candle. Andrea ships her products worldwide, so anyone can customize (email her for customization) or select a box from her website and send to a loved one. I’m sharing her products again, because hello? Support Local! And, Andrea is just the sweetest — we met up for coffee late last week and chatted for two hours!

See? E, from Apis Floral also joined us at yummy Chromatic Cafe. Good lattes there ;) Coffee

BlissAndBale-unopenedLove the details Andrea puts into her boxes, like sealing the boxes shut with her logo + social media information provided! It’s really well done, I have to say. Bliss and Bale caters to all sorts of people whether you’re one person, or a large corporation looking for multiple gifts and she is happy to customize the gifts working with any budget, which is so nice! You can read more about including your own promo-items in the gift boxes too.

Check out the boxes she has available for sale, and on Instagram the boxes she’s put together for other clients … see what I mean? So impressive, with gorgeous pieces, and equally gorgeous photos to go along with. I don’t want to ruin the surprise, but I want to work with Andrea and customize one of her new baby boxes for a pregnant friend of mine back in Canada (hopefully she isn’t reading)!

Bliss-Bale-contactYou can just tell, from the moment you meet Andrea, that she absolutely enjoys what she does over at Bliss and Bale. I wish her all the success — and I can’t wait to go for coffee with her again. Here’s to new friendships thanks to Instagram! :)

Give Bliss and Bale a follow on social media:
Instagram / Facebook / Pinterest

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G.M. Collin | Products for dehydrated skin

GM Collin reviewSo I’ve been trying out some products from G.M. Collin, since they reached out to me last month. They are apparently a higher end skincare brand, founded in France but also distributed across the USA and Canada. Before agreeing to them, I wanted to see what my friend Ashlee thought of them. She reviewed some of their products back in January (see Ashlee’s review here), and she mentioned that she loved the products she tried out. Yay!

Now it’s my turn! I’ve been using their products on-and-off for a couple of weeks, and now I’m here to report back on how well they perform. For reference, the products I’m talking about in this blog post are catering to those with dry/dehydrated skin.

It’s nice to change up the skincare products once in a while. Especially since I have been using my philosophy hope in a jar, and bobbi brown eye cream non-stop basically for the past 4+ years. I’ll probably continue to use those two products until one or the other stops working for me. Whenever I find something that works so well, makes my makeup last and my skin look dewy, it’s a no-brainer.

GM-Collin-Travel-KitLet’s start with the Hydrating Travel Kit, which contains 3 smaller sized products from their Hydramucine line. All of the items in this travel kit works well for all skin types, especially dehydrated skin.

Hydramucine cleansing milk: It was gentle on my skin, and didn’t sting the eye area when removing my makeup. Since I don’t wear much makeup, it removed everything fine. It didn’t leave my skin feeling parched or tight like some cleansers.

Hydramucine Treating Mist: If you’re a fan of the Caudalie beauty elixir, you’ll love this — the scent is identical! I didn’t use this much, because I don’t usually spray my skin before/after/during makeup application. Although, it smells nice. This product is for hydrating your skin and providing immediate comfort and refreshing sensation. Think about spraying it on your face on a hot summers day, it’ll kinda cool you down!

Hydramucine Optimal Cream:  A super nice hydrating yet velvety feeling face cream. I’m almost out of this already!

GMCollin-eyeserum2Last products from G.M. Collin was their Bota-Peptide line of products.

Bota-Peptide 5 Concentrate: Being straight with you here…I’m not a huge serum type of person. I just forget to apply it, or don’t want to go through the ‘hassle’ of applying multiple products when I’m getting ready in the morning. I’ll apply it a couple of days per week (I only use it once a day, although you can use it morning and night) during the night time. I didn’t notice a significant difference in how my skin looked in the morning. But perhaps I should start trying to use this twice a day and see how it goes.

Bota-Peptide Eye Contour: I loved this eye cream! Although more lightweight than my Bobbi Brown extra eye repair cream, it was still nice and didn’t make my concealer smear/wear off. Winning! Obviously after only using it a handful of weeks I cannot tell you that it reduces (existing) fine lines, because honestly the only way to get rid of those is surgery, or botox. AMIRIGHT? But the eye cream feels quite luxurious on the under eye area.

Final thoughts:
I’m pleased with G.M. Collin’s products for the most part. But to be honest, they are only sold in the finest and most luxurious spas by estheticians and skin care professionals. So unfortunately you can’t easily purchase their products. Nor do they list the ingredients in their products, anywhere online — which is a bit strange! However, my sensitive skin didn’t give me any issues when using the multiple products.

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