Behind the scenes at Tvål

Thank you for helping us help others

2010-02-01T12:19:00.000-08:00

Hello soap lovers!

As some of you might remember, a couple of weeks back we had a fundraiser where we would give 10% of our sales from that weekend to the Canadian Red Cross to support those affected by the earthquake in Haiti. With the sales from that weekend, and with some generous donations from the staff, we have managed to raise over five hundred dollars! I would like to thank everyone who came in to make purchases or place their order online that weekend, it meant a lot to us. Also, the Canadian government is matching contributions to Haiti, everyone's donation will count for twice as much! I think that's something we can all get excited about.

Lesley

P.S. Don't forget to come visit us at the "Get Baked! Art for your Sweet Tooth!" fundraiser this weekend at the Arts and Culture Center. We hope to see you there!

'Tis better to give AND receive...cupcakes!

2010-01-20T11:17:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone!

Our dear darling Anna is out on maternity leave so I, Lesley, will be filling in for her on the blog. Being a bit of an internet dork I can promise you I am all too pleased to do it! I will hopefully do her proud.

As I'm sure many of you have seen on the website, we have a special Blueberry Basil cupcake for Marguerite's Place where we donate half the proceeds of each cupcake towards their project for developing safe housing for women in St. John's. We consider ourselves very lucky to contribute to this worthy cause and we happily have been asked to join them for their new "Get Baked! Art for your Sweet Tooth!" fundraiser. The kicker? The fundraiser is based around cupcakes! I honestly couldn't think of a better theme.

The fundraiser will run from Feburary 5th to the 7th and there is an article about the event here from the Evening Telegram. We hope you all come down to buy a cupcake (real ones, knitted ones or soap ones!) and help support this great cause!

Lesley

P.S. I would like to thank all of our customers that helped us raise money for the Haiti Relief fund. It was much appreciated.

New collection on the way...

2009-10-20T11:15:00.000-07:00

We have made 7 new matte eye shadows that we will launch by the end of next week! Here you can get a little sneak preview of me trying them out :)

We have a winner

2009-09-23T07:52:00.000-07:00

Wow, we didn't quite expect THAT many people hunting for the pumpkin! As many of you noticed, our website went down when all the traffic caused a file in the database to crash. Oops!

But we do have a winner! Vicki was first to find the pumpkin. Congratulations Vicki! :) Please email us with your address and we will send you the set.

Apart from the website crashing, this was really fun. So keep your eyes open for a new contest very soon! :D

Pumpkin Marshmallows

2009-09-22T18:12:00.000-07:00

It is finally that time of the year again.... the Pumpkin Marshmallow scent is back! :) It will be relaunched this week, and to celebrate we are having a contest!

Somewhere on our website is a pumpkin. Search for it and when you have found the product page that the pumpkin is on, leave your answer in a comment here. Be the first one to find the pumpkin and you will win an entire set of a large Skin Smoothie, Shower Sundae and large Whipped Sugar in the intoxicating Pumpkin Marshmallow scent (a value of $41.50)

This is what the pumpkin looks like (not that we have many pumpkins hiding willy-nilly on our pages, but still):Now, go forth and find the pumpkin! Good Luck! :)

Skincare Tip o' the week

2009-09-22T06:59:00.000-07:00

We have a section called Skincare Tip o' the week, and I thought I should post the skincare tips here on our blog as well to keep them in an archive of sorts :)

So the first tip was on how to combat blackheads:

Apply our Deep Cleansing Oil, wring out a wash cloth in hot water and either lay down for a few minutes with the cloth over your face, or press the cloth against your skin. The heat makes the cleanser penetrate deeper. Wash off, and apply Resurface. Massage carefully, paying special attention to areas prone to black heads. Rinse off. Now you could follow up with one of our Face Masks, since the clay will absorb oil and thus help "pull out" black heads. Rinse and apply your moisturizer. For skin prone to blackheads I would recommend our Oil-free Lotion or Light & Airy

Natural Fabric Deodorizer

2009-08-03T08:44:00.001-07:00

Want to freshen up your couch or curtains, but not use chemical loaded "fresheners"? Try this: When your TVAL All Purpose Spray Cleaner is beginning to run out (about 2 cm left), add warm water and 4 heaping teaspoons of baking soda. Shake up, and you are ready to go!

I tried this yesterday, and it works wonderfully! :)

Cupcakes Galore and many warm Welcome Home wishes!

2009-07-26T08:45:00.000-07:00

Hoooooly cupcakes, Batman! Sorry, but as you can see from the pictures the ladies have really outdone themselves with the cupcakes this week. We’ve got some new delicious ones like Apple Pear Martini and Watermelon, which even have the seeds on them. We also got some oldies but goodies like Grapefruit Mandarin and Maple and Coffee.

In other news; the owner of the Toronto store, Bobby, is home for vacation! There was more than one hug to be shared when he walked through the store door. We couldn’t be any more thrilled to see him even if we only get to keep him for a short while. I can only assume any time with Bobby is too short. Here’s hoping we send him home happy and full of good food. I’m sure the Toronto store can’t wait to have him back.

New makeup collection

2009-05-01T12:38:00.000-07:00

We are launching a new makeup collection this weekend, just a small one in bright pretty summer colours! I took a picture of all the eye shadows on my hand just to give you an idea of what they look like on the skin! Enjoy :)

Where are the fresh goatsmilk soaps?

2009-01-22T07:17:00.001-08:00

We have had a lot of customers asking for our yummy fresh goatsmilk soaps, and we just wanted to update you all on the goatsmilk situation: The goats are pregnant! While this is a very joyous occasion, the goats will not give milk while they are expecting new small goats. So we will just have to patiently wait for the goats to start milking again, and in the meanwhile we have the second best alternative: Goatsmilk Sandalwood Vanilla Soap (made with powdered goatsmilk).

Happy Holidays from us at Tvål!

2008-12-22T18:52:00.001-08:00

We at Tvål wish you all a very peaceful happy Holiday season! This year has been our busiest by far, and we are all looking forward to the New Year when we can start planning for all the exciting product launches and events! I February the shop in St. John’s will turn 5 years! I can’t believe how fast time flies! Of course that will be celebrated with a biiiig party!! But first… relax! Enjoy your friends, family and good food! Read a good book, take a nice bath and enjoy yourself!

Happy Holidays to all of you from all of us!!

Too much traffic

2008-07-24T07:24:00.000-07:00

We were featured on CTV last night, and all of a sudden our website crashed from all the traffic! So if you tried to log in yesterday evening or this morning, and it said that the account was suspended, it was because they had to close our website or it was going to take the whole server down with it! Yikes!

So, a big WELCOME to all our new visitors! Feel free to drop us a line if you have any questions, and if you are in the neighbourhood.. drop by our shop in either St. John's or Toronto! :)

Toronto store

2008-07-16T04:01:00.000-07:00

Bobby's friend Lucky sent some pictures of the shop, so I wanted to share some of them and most of all the amazing before and after pictures! :)

So this is how the shop looked when we signed the lease: *gulp*
And this is what it looked like after some fixing up:This is what it looked like before on the inside: *double gulp*
And this is what it looked like last week: *aaaahh*
This is Bobby and his dear friend Kim (who has helped us tremendously! We can never thank her enough!). They are unpacking products we sent from St. John's, to start them off with. But they are also making products in the shop, just like we do :)

Bath Treats
Skin Smoothies

Goats galore

2008-07-02T08:39:00.000-07:00

Our first two batches of goatmilk soaps disappeared fast as lightning, so Andrea went out to her mother-in-law's farm to get us more goatsmilk! So soon we will have more of the wonderful soaps back in stock! :)

Mail-order staff

2008-05-28T19:17:00.000-07:00

Wonder how we get such good staff? We order them online! ;)

We got a big box of jar lids today, and Andrea decided to take the empty box for a test drive (after I sighed "What are we going to do with all the peanuts")

Three in a row

2008-03-17T14:26:00.000-07:00

Today we got our third snow storm in five days! And I think this is the worst of the three.... Andrea and Annette had to go home at around three, when the storm had just started, so they could make it home before the really bad weather hit. Me and Fiona, who both live downtown, could stay a bit longer and fill orders. But at 4.30 we had to give up, or we would've had to stay over night! When we got out we noticed that we were the last shop still open! The thing is that it doesn't look so bad from our shop, because we are a little sheltered on Water Street, but when you turn up around the corner... oh boy! Was it ever windy! And the sharp little ice pellets called snow hits your face with such brute force it feels like it would fall off! Brrrr.... Now I will go smother my whole face with Buddha Eye Cream, to treat it from the blasting treatment it got from walking home! :)

Cupcakes and cutie pies

2008-02-27T17:16:00.000-08:00

I have been a little bit absent from this blog, and the main reason for that is that I went home to Sweden for three weeks to visit my family. My sister had a baby last year, and I wanted to go home and see my niece again. They grow so fast! She is the cutest thing in the world (and I'm not saying that because I'm biased! :) Just look at those cheeks!

The pictures below we took when CBC Living Newfoundland came to shoot their show from the shop (I will post more pictures of when Bobby demonstrated how to make your own face mask when I can find them), so that is why we were all dressed up a little more than normal :) And the one of me posing with our adorable cupcakes was taken for a Swedish newspaper (Aftonbladet) that wanted to do an interview with me when I was home in Sweden. The article was printed the same day I flew back to Newfoundland, so I got the newspaper at the airport just before I boarded the plane in the morning! I will try to scan the resulting article, although it probably doesn't make much sense to most of you since it is in Swedish! :)

Ommmmm.....

2008-01-06T06:17:00.000-08:00

Both mine and Bobby's favorite skincare item is probably Buddha Eye Cream, and we have a couple of tips for you if you happen to own one! Both are Bobby's ideas so I can't take the credit, I can only enthusiastically agree that they work! :)

1. Try applying a thick layer of the cream under your eyes and up around the outside corner. By thick I mean about 1 pump divided on two eyes. You don't want a layer that is so thick that you can't see your skin underneath, but you don't want the cream instantly absorbed either. Pat it on gently with a fingertip and then leave it. The cream will absorb by itself within a few minutes and really tighten up the area. I love it!

2. Try mixing Buddha with your mineral foundation for a perfect concealer. Since it absorbs so easily into your skin it is easy to work with, i.e. you don't have to work it so much, you just pat it on and the look us super natural. Bobby explained that the less you have to work with a concealer the better. When Bobby called me to share the tip (right away when he had discovered it of course! That is so Bobby! :) I tried it while we were still on the phone (that is so me!) and it was gorgeous even as a full face foundation. Soft, dewy and still good coverage.

Try it and let us know what you think! :)

Happy New Year!

2008-01-01T18:15:00.000-08:00

I have just spent some time adding the January survival kit to the website and I thought I'd pop in here to wish you all a wonderful New Year! Loppan and Rasmus have promised to nap more in 2008.

Snow day!

2007-12-28T13:21:00.000-08:00

Wohoo are we having a blizzard or what! Today we woke up to snow covered windows and a wind that shook the whole house. I actually love this about Newfoundland... the weather is so dramatic!

If we didn't have orders to ship out we would probably have stayed home, but we did so me and Fiona (we live close to the shop) put on our winter gear and headed out in the storm. Almost everything was closed, but I did see a Subway that was open and thankfully so was the post office! So orders did get out today, but I doubt they will leave the island tonight... Not even the roads are plowed yet, and all air traffic is closed!

Oh Christmas tree

2007-12-04T14:40:00.000-08:00

This is our Christmas Tree all decorated and pretty! Fiona decorated it with Tub o'licious', Wax Melts and little organza bags filled with Smink stuff!

And here we are drinking Glögg and eating Pepparkakor (Gingersnaps), a Swedish tradition that we do all throughout December. It's quite yummy! This time it was thanks to Malin (far right), who brought some for us while we were working the other day. From left to right is Bobby, Fiona, me, Andrea and Malin :)

Christmas decorating

2007-11-20T16:15:00.001-08:00

We are probably the last shop in town to decorate for Christmas, but it just feels ridiculous to bring out the Holiday stuff the day after Halloween... We'd all be sick of Christmas by early December if we did! :)

But today we assembled our tree and started decorating. Since we have a scent called "Snöflinga" (=Snowflake) we (and by we I mean Fiona, Andrea and Annette!) cut out snowflakes in tissue paper to decorate our window and one wall. The tree we got from a gorgeous shop two doors down from us called Urban Home (I love it when I can support a small local business instead of going to a big box store!).

Here we have Fiona and Andrea working with the snowflakes and some giant gift boxes for our window

And here is Bobby admiring the progress. Check back tomorrow for the rest! :)

Bio bags!

2007-11-19T18:22:00.000-08:00

We got our new shopping bags today! They look like the old ones, but these are bio-degradable! Yay! :)

Shop

2007-11-14T17:02:00.000-08:00

I thought I would take a little break in adding the Christmas Collection to the website and show you some pictures of the shop! :)

We are located on Water Street in downtown St. John's. This is the oldest street in one of the oldest towns in North America. That is one of the things I love about St. John's... you can really *feel* the history here. It's easy imagining what this street looked like one hundred or even two-three hundred years ago. When we signed the lease to rent this building we got permission to paint it (it was in desperate need to be painted!), and of course we decided to paint it brown and blue!

Here we have Fiona, Andrea and Bobby posing for the camera :) Fiona and Andrea started working with us in June and we love them dearly!

And here we can see Fiona making bath treats in our "manufacturing room". In the area to the left (that you can't really see) we have a large table where we pack your orders and label products. And behind me there is a third room that where we have our office and makeup production. We love our new shop! :)

Wood nymphs

2007-11-09T17:56:00.000-08:00

If you were a fan of Napeaea this will be good news! These were just unmolded: I myself *adore* this mossy enchanting scent so I made a batch of soaps in it earlier this week, and we are also making more wax melts in the same scent! Look for them on the website in about a week! :)