Essence Festival 2017

Excited to announce I will be attending Essence Festival 2017.  This will be a fun weekend of music, beauty, and fashion!  Stay connected to our adventures by following the hashtag #EssenceFestSLF

More info coming soon!

Since 1994 the festival has been the official party with a purpose, and this year we continue the legacy with four days of music, empowerment, community and entertainment.  Whether you’re partying the night away at the Superdome or attending our free daytime experiences at the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, you’ll leave the weekend with a fresh outlook on how to build a better future for yourself and for your community.

Here’s the 2017 Lineup:

Diana Ross – John Legend – Mary J. Blige – Chance the Rapper – Solange – Chaka Khan – Jill Scott – Master P – Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue – India.Arie – Monica – Jazmine Sullivan – Mystikal – Silkk the Shocker – Mia X – Rhonda Ross – Ari Lennox – BJ the Chicago Kid – Daley – Doug E. Fresh – Elle Varner – Emily Estefan – Gallant – Jhené Aiko – June’s Diary – Kelly Price – Lalah Hathaway – Leela James – Lizzo – Michel’le – Moses Sumney – PJ – PJ Morton – Remy Ma – Ro James – Shaggy – Sir the Baptist – Teyana Taylor – The Jones Girls featuring Shirley Jones – Tweet – Yuna

Kingsmill Resort Summer Vacation Option

Kingsmill Resort, Greater Williamsburg’s only AAA Four Diamond Condominium Resort on the James River, is pushing forward with its summer agenda of value-driven, fun-filled packages with access and activities that will make that summer vacation great again.

 

©2012 Scott K. Brown Photography, Inc.

The Ultimate Family Fun package includes three nights accommodation in a in condo or guest room, breakfast each morning, and tickets to area attractions, including Water Country USA and Busch Gardens Williamsburg and one-day tickets to Colonial Williamsburg. Complimentary shuttle service to and from Busch Gardens Williamsburg and Colonial Williamsburg is provided by Kingsmill Resort. Complimentary use of bikes, fishing poles, kayaks and tennis court is also included in the Ultimate Family Fun package. With availability from May 26 until Sept. 4, families can also enjoy Kingsmill Resorts’ amenities such as kids camp, lazy river, golf clinics, and indoor/outdoor pools.

The Signature Family Fun package offers plenty of fun for families who crave a great escape. Each registered guest receives complimentary breakfast and a Flex Ticket to Busch Gardens Williamsburg and Water Country USA with complimentary shuttle service to and from the resort. Accommodations feature a resort guest room that can be upgraded to a condo that includes a living room, kitchen and laundry if desired.

Ready For Cinco de Mayo with Cascade Ice

Cinco de Mayo is fast approaching and what better way to celebrate than with a few festive drinks? But wait! Did you know that one regular Margarita is over 600 calories per serving? Using Cascade Ice, we can knock that down to just around 55.

Below are a few festive drink recipes I recommend mixing up for Cinco de Mayo. Low-cal, but full of flavor!

Kiwi-Strawberry Margarita

You can’t pass up a margarita, especially when it’s low-cal! Make this drink by slicing up about 10 strawberries and 3 kiwis. Put the fruit into a blender with ½ cup of lime juice, 6 oz of tequila, 4 oz of Cascade Ice Zero-Calorie Kiwi Strawberry Sparkling Water and a handful of ice cubes. Blend together until smooth.  Pour into a glass rimmed with sugar and add a slice of kiwi or a strawberry to garnish.

Skinny Daquiri

Not a fan of tequila? No problem! Try a delicious Skinny Daiquiri. To create this sweet treat, add 1 1/2 cups of ice and 1 1/2 cups frozen strawberries into your blender. Pour in 8oz Cascade Ice Zero-Calorie Wild Berry Sparking Water and your choice of rum. Blend until smooth. Pour into a chilled glass and garnish with fresh fruit.

 

Give Mom the Star Treatment | Mother’s Day

This Mother’s Day, give mom the star-treatment she deserves with the beauty essentials from the best in the industry. Rita Hazan, Mally Beauty and WelleCo have the offerings to make your mom feel like a celebrity on her special day.

Rita Hazan Root Concealer Touch Up Stick: This product masks fast-growing grays around the hairline and defines the eyebrows. The unique cream formula grips hair easily, while depositing buildable color instantly. It glides onto the skin and hair smoothly, creating clean, defined brows. A brush is also provided to help comb through any excess product to prevent smudging.

Available Shades: Dark Brown/Black, Light Brown and Dark Blonde

Price: $25

Where to buy: ritahazan.com

Mally Beauty Glowing Goddess Luminizer:  Give mom the tools to make her glow like the goddess she is with this featherweight luminizer. This sheer, silky formula delivers instant radiance to the skin wherever it’s applied. It’s also enriched with vitamins and antioxidants to help protect the skin.

Price: $29

Where to buy: Ulta Beauty stores and ulta.com

WelleCo Sleep Welle Fortified Calming Tea: This natural and effective blend of herbs is great to drink before bed if you have difficulty sleeping. It harnesses three powerful ingredients, skullcap, valerian root and hops, combined with lemon balm, passionflower and natural lemon and mango flower to create a mild fruity and soothing drink.
Price: $69
Available: welleco.com

Celebrate Earth Day with Lavanila

Celebrate Earth Day on April 22nd with natural beauty products from Lavanila Laboratories! Lavanila only uses ingredients that are healthy for the body, and are rich in antioxidants and vitamins. They leave out harsh chemicals and ensure environmentally safe harvesting of their ingredients.

Packed with pure essential oils, the Lavanila’s Healthy Deodorant Collection is free of aluminum and will last all day. Get superior odor protection with this award winning, 100 percent natural, freshly scented deodorant. Breakthrough natural technology fights odor effectively while soothing, conditioning, and nourishing the delicate underarm area. It goes on clean, with no sticky wetness, and delivers long-lasting, luxurious results. ($14; Lavanila.com)

Smell Spring fresh with Lavanila’s Healthy Fragrance Collection. Each fragrance starts with a warm base of Madagascar vanilla and layers on a unique blend of pure essential oils for an exquisite expression of nature that captures a mood, a memory, or a moment in time. ($58; Lavanila.com)

Moisturize the healthy way with Lavanila Laboratories The Healthy Body Butter Collection, which is a super soft, all-natural body butter absorbs instantly for deeply hydrated, luxuriously soft skin. 100 percent pure shea and cocoa butters blend with powerful antioxidants and essential oils for long-lasting hydration. Soft scents and a non-greasy formula create the ultimate indulgence. Layer with any LAVANILA Healthy Fragrance to enhance your scent experience. ($19; Lavanila.com)

 

Celebrate Earth Day with Amazon Warehouse Deals

Amazon Warehouse Deals, the largest seller of used products on Amazon.com, is celebrating Earth Day by offering customers 20% off select Amazon Warehouse Deals items across a variety of categories including electronics, home, kitchen, tools, and much more. This is in addition to the great discounts customers already get by shopping Amazon Warehouse Deals.

The deals, which are available now through Earth Day on Saturday, 4/22, include the following plus many more:

Making a new product requires a lot of materials and energy from start-to-finish, and reusing is one of the most effective ways to save natural resources. In addition to encouraging the reuse of products by reselling returned items, Amazon Warehouse Deals also repairs many of the products so they don’t end up in a landfill. Amazon customers who shop Amazon Warehouse Deals can help prevent pollution, save energy, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions and waste.

With the offer of great everyday deals on quality used products that are backed by Amazon’s award-winning customer service, eligible for Prime shipping benefits and come with a 30-day money back guarantee, Amazon Warehouse Deals might just be Amazon’s best kept secret.

Visit Amazon Warehouse Deals Homepage to shop all items, including today’s Earth Day deals, and get additional information on how you can help the environment and save on the Amazon products you.

The Morning Delight – Hearty Beverage Packed with Vitamins and Nutrients

Food is the best medicine for relief from stress, anxiety, sleep issues, and acid reflex.  Coconut milk adds a silky creaminess and the right amount of healthy fats so you’ll feel satiated, while lacuma, a super food hailing from Peru, is low-glycemic and packed with antioxidants, fiber, and protein. “The Morning Delight is a hearty beverage packed with vitamins, nutrients, and healthy carbs, which is going to give you the get up and go everyone needs in the morning without the coffee crash,” says Brooks.

INGREDIENTS:
11/2 cups coconut milk
1 tsp lacuma
2 tsp pure matcha tea powder
2 frozen bananas
2 to 3 dates, pitted
1 tbsp maple syrup
1/2 tsp vanilla extract OR 1 vanilla bean
Small handful of ice (optional, depending whether you froze your bananas)

DIRECTIONS:
Add the coconut milk, lacuma, and matcha to your blender and process until completely mixed. Turn off, then add the rest of your ingredients and blend until totally emulsified. If using the vanilla bean, split the bean in half and scrape out the vanilla pods.

13th Annual Toilet Paper Wedding Dress Contest

Everyone likes to save money here and there. And for some, saving money on weddings is more than a hobby, and a little less than an obsession. Laura Gawne and Susan Bain operate the popular websites www.Cheap-Chic-Weddings.com and TPDressContest.com.

Cheap Chic Weddings is thrilled to welcome their NEW Presenting Sponsor Quilted Northern Toilet Paper! Since 2004, the Cheap Chic Weddings Toilet Paper Wedding Dress Contest has challenged creative minds from across the country to create a wearable, on-trend wedding dress and headpiece from only toilet paper, glue, tape and needle and thread. Quilted Northern® is excited to supply toilet paper that has been crafted with the highest attention-to-detail for over 100 years – making it luxurious enough for a wedding dress.

Contestants have until June 5, 2017 to submit their paper masterpieces. Top ten entries will be chosen then online voting will be open to the public.

The top ten dresses and their designers will be flown to New York City to participate in a live fashion show finale event at a fabulous Peerspace.com event space in New York City on July 20, 2017 where the top three winners will be chosen.

At the Finale Event, the dress entries will be judged by Cheap Chic Weddings founders, a representative from Quilted Northern®, a representative from Sponsor Ripley’s Believe It or Not! and celebrity guest judges Jenna Ushkowitz, Actor, Singer, Producer and Author as well as Mikie Russo, Celebrity Party Planner and Lifestyle Expert!

“We are always excited to see what our talented contestants dream up.” says Susan Bain, Co-Founder of Cheap Chic Weddings. “We can’t wait to see how our contestants will work with the meticulously designed Quilted Northern® Toilet Paper! We know it’ll be a wonderful match!” added co-founder Laura Gawne.

The Grand Prize winner will receive $10,000, the second place winner will receive $5000 and the third place winner will receive $2500.

 

Here’s How to Enter:

First: Plan your design.

Second: Grab some Quilted Northern Toilet Paper (Quilted Northern Ultra Plush or Quilted Northern Ultra Soft & Strong, or Both), tape, glue and/or needle and thread (that’s all you can use)! To help offset the cost of designing these memorable creations; Quilted Northern is providing coupons by request at TPDresscontest@gmail.com

Third: Make the dress and headpiece on your model or mannequin and take some clear, well-lit, unaltered digital photos (front, back and side). The dress must be able to be worn by a human!

All photos and an Official Entry form are to be submitted to Cheap Chic Weddings at TPDresscontest@gmail.com by June 5, 2017 at 11:00 PM EST. There is no entry fee. The Judging Panel at Cheap Chic Weddings will judge the initial digital photo entries.

View contest info: http://www.cheap-chic-weddings.com/wedding-contest-2017.html

Official contest rules along with lots of other wedding cost saving tips and information can be found at www.Cheap-Chic-Weddings.com.

Spa Week Spring 2017 Event: Relaxation and Rejuvenation

Natural healing methods are on the rise as antidotes for an over-connected, demanding world.  The Global Wellness Institute (GWI) reports that US healthcare costs are forecast to rise an average of 5.8% every year through 2025.  In turn, more Americans are integrating alternative, preventative health approaches into their lifestyles.  Spa Week continues its dedication of delivering the best in health and wellness year round by working with spas nationwide to transform their traditional treatments into one-of-a-kind wellness experiences for our daily lives.  From April 17th – 23rd, hundreds of spas will give consumers the opportunity to explore wellness in an extraordinary and affordable way during Spa Week’s Spring 2017 Event.  “A profound shift in the way people consume wellness is underway: once a luxury or “add-on”, it is now being infused into every aspect of daily life,” shares Katherine Johnston, Senior Research Fellow, GWI.

From holistic salt therapy centers to detoxify the respiratory system, to standing in a -160 degree Cryotherapy Chamber to reduce cellulite and improve circulation, these signature services – normally valued at anywhere from $100 to $500 – will be available for just $50 each. Sit back and get ready to enjoy this roller coaster ride of healthy lifestyle choices and rejuvenate with our top recommendations for Spa Week’s Spring 2017 event.

Get Salty

Looking for a natural treatment that is designed to help you purify your skin, clear your lungs and overall help you de-stress? Take a trip to visit the Hygea Wellness Co & Salt Room in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania for a Salt Therapy treatment (Spa Week $50, normally $100). There, you will bask in a quiet Salt Therapy room made of seven tons of Dead Sea salt and breathe in its surrounding salty and misty vapors. As you meditate and unwind from the outside world, the ions will draw out the pollution, infections and toxins in your body. Not only will you reap the physical benefits of improved breathing and clearer skin, you will leave feeling completely relaxed and refreshed – like a breath of fresh air.

Freezer Friendly

Does the thought of a treatment where you freeze various parts of your body leave you with chills? Well, when you stop by the Carrollton Square Spa in Texas for a 50 Minute Cryotherapy Massage (Spa Week $50, normally $100), you’ll be joining the ranks of World Champion LeBron James and actress Demi Moore in using alternative methods to improve your health and minimize your pain. Carrollton’s targeted arctic treatment uses cryosticks during the massage to remove tension, promote rapid healing, and reduce the inflammation of muscles and joints. You can also visit the RonnaSkin Day Spa in Westminster, Colorado for a 60 Minute Results-Oriented MicroNeedling Treatment with Cryotherapy (Spa Week $50, normally $107). This facial concentrates on rejuvenating and revolutionizing your skin with small icy blasts that will increase collagen production and erase wrinkles.

Face-less Facials

A facial…for your butt? Initially, we asked the same question but when we look at celebrities like J-Lo, Beyonce and Kim Kardashian and their finely crafted assets, we can’t help but want to book an appointment at NYC’s Smooth Synergy for a Fanny Facial (Spa Week $50, normally $150). This sculpting treatment begins with an exfoliating scrub to smooth your backside, and then employs small zaps of microcurrents to your butt and upper-thighs to sculpt and lift your butt. A similar effect that you would get if you went to the gym to do squats. About an hour later, you’ll be left with a perky derriere and an overwhelming confidence to flaunt your newly contoured bottom down the street.

Escape from the Man Cave

Don’t worry guys, Spa Week isn’t just for the ladies. If you’re facing a hairy dilemma, we’ve created the perfect treatment for you.  The Bearded Boss Men’s Facial (Spa Week $50, normally $75) – at NYC’s very own KUR Skin Lab. There, your beard will be attended to with a series of soothing massages while the hair is thoroughly cleansed and the skin is exfoliated and moisturized. Your beard can also get the royal treatment that it needs in Indianapolis, Indiana with Pure Image’s Burly Beard Facial (Spa Week $50, normally $75). From its invigorating facial cleanse to a soothing massage, these alluring treatments are designed to build confidence and keep the beard soft and groomed – perfect for a night out on the town.

Entering the Gemisphere

What do celebrities like Katy Perry, Adele, and Robert Downey Jr. have in common? They are all harnessing the special healing properties from crystals to ward off negative energy and promote healing and relaxation. To experience this modern day treatment, head down to The Spa at CopperWynd in Scottsdale, Arizona for an Amethyst massage (Spa Week $50, normally $120). This immersive body massage utilizes the ability of the gemstone as an infused oil to block and reduce pain. You will leave feeling physically and spiritually renewed.

Joining Spa Week for the Spring 2017 event, sponsors include skincare sponsor, Peter Thomas Roth, beauty device sponsor Clarisonic and travel sponsor, Grand Fiesta Americana- Coral Beach, Cancun.  The event is co-sponsored by CEW (Cosmetic Executive Women)and a portion of the proceeds from the Spring and Fall Events are donated to CancerandCareers.org.

Visitors to www.spaweek.com also have the opportunity to spread the “Gift of Wellness” by conveniently purchasing the Spa & Wellness Gift Card by Spa Week.  Accepted at over 9,000 spa and wellness locations across North America, the Spa & Wellness Gift Card may be used during Spa Week or any time of the year without expiration. Recipients will have the freedom to choose from thousands of locations and services, all while knowing that you have their long-term health, balance and happiness in mind. Spa Week was created and founded by Cheryl Reid, who hails from successful careers within the luxury spa industry and publishing spheres.

About Spa Week Media Group, Ltd.       

Spa Week Media Group, Ltd. is the leading health, beauty and wellness marketing company across North America.  Through its website SpaWeek.com, millions of consumers from coast to coast benefit from an abundance of resources necessary to experience a healthier, well-rounded lifestyle, 365 days a year. Since its inception in 2004, Spa Week has continued to revolutionize the industry with the success of its biannual spring and fall events with signature $50 spa services, life-changing promotions and a robust gift card program. Spa Week continues its dedication of delivering the best in health and wellness year round with its Spa & Wellness Gift Card, the premier spa gift card of choice by consumers. This gift card is accepted at over 9,000 spa and wellness locations across North America and is sold in over 65,000 retail stores nationwide including Target, CVS, Walmart, Walgreens, Rite Aid, and on SpaWeek.com. It has never been more convenient to give and enjoy the gift of wellness.

TALK OF ALABAMA LIFESTYLE SEGMENT – Spring 2017 Fashion & Beauty Trends

Yesterday, I hosted a Lifestyle Segment on Talk of Alabama; sharing fashion and beauty must-haves to help everyone look their best for the new season.

This segment featured not only beauty products but also touched upon the latest fashion trends from Ann Taylor Spring 2017 Collection.

The products I presented on ABC 33/40 included Over EZParaguard, G. M. Collin Instant Radiance Anti-Aging Eye Patches, DECLEOR Aurabsolu Refreshing Mist, Bioré Skincare Acne Collection, Curél Hydra Therapy Wet Skin Moisturizer, Ban Roll-On Deodorant, Spa @ Home by Masque Bar Sleeping Mask, Rimmel London Magnif’Eyes Eye Contouring Palette, KORRES Body Butter in Basil Lemon, LAVANILA Laboratories The Healthy Fragrance-Free Deodorant, Crest Whitening System, and Vaseline Intensive Care Spray Lotion.

Here’s the breakdown:

Face

DECLEOR Aurabsolu Refreshing Mist

Bioré Skincare Acne Collection

Spa Home Mask

Rimmel London

Crest Whitening System

Body

Over EZ

Paraguard

G. M. Collin Instant Radiance Anti-Aging Eye Patches

Ban Deodarant

Curel

Vaseline Spray Lotion

Korres Lotion

Fashion

Tassel Suede Pumps

Bell-Sleeve Silk Blouse

Ruffle Front Sweater

Click Here To Watch:  TALK OF ALABAMA