Behind the scenes at Tvål

Too much traffic

noreply@blogger.com (Anna at Tvål) — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 14:24:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Anna at Tvål) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 11:01:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Anna at Tvål) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 15:39:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Anna at Tvål) — Thu, 29 May 2008 02:17:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Anna at Tvål) — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 21:26:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Anna at Tvål) — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 01:16:00 +0000

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.....

noreply@blogger.com (Anna at Tvål) — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 14:17:00 +0000

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!

noreply@blogger.com (Anna at Tvål) — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 02:15:00 +0000

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!

noreply@blogger.com (Anna at Tvål) — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 21:21:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Anna at Tvål) — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 22:40:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Anna at Tvål) — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 00:15:00 +0000

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!

noreply@blogger.com (Anna at Tvål) — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 02:22:00 +0000

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

Shop

noreply@blogger.com (Anna at Tvål) — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 01:02:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Anna at Tvål) — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 01:56:00 +0000

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! :)

New makeup!

noreply@blogger.com (Anna at Tvål) — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 17:17:00 +0000

Since Fiona and Andrea started working here we have a little more time to develop new products, and Bobby started making new colors for a winter line of makeup! We have 4 eyeshadows and 2 lip glosses so we only need to work on a new blush or two and maybe a few more shadows and we should be all set!

The purple shade has a brown base to "ground" it a little, and turquoise highlights for general fabulousness. It's gorgeous!! The pink is sooo pretty, it is a dusty pale pink with slight coral notes and a little bit of golden shimmer. Pretty as a blush too! The beige is a perfect neutral highlight that you can use under the eye brow or on the inner corner of your eyes to really make them sparkle! The brown is probably my favorite... it's so rich and decadent, with coppery highlights.

On my eyes I'm wearing the pink all over my lids, the outer corner are shaded with the brown and I used a wet brush to apply the the purple shade as an eyeliner.

Welcome!

noreply@blogger.com (Anna at Tvål) — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 15:55:00 +0000

Welcome to Tvål's blog! We have a lot of fun here in the shop, and I thought I'd share it with you all! The idea for the blog started when I took pictures of these amazing jack o' lanterns that Fiona made, and I thought I should post it somewhere for all our customers to see. And a lot of you have asked to see pictures of the shop, so hence the idea to start our own little blog! :)

So here you can see Fiona and her TVÅL pumpkin and in the background is Andrea making products!

We have started making our Christmas products, and yesterday I made a batch of Candy Cane soap. The leftovers that couldn't fit in the loaves I made into little cupcakes :)