Most of you know that Adri (“Mr. Stark”/my husband and partner) and I had a baby March 23rd, 2013…hence my lack of online presence (more or less). For those of you interested, I made a video about his birth story. I left out some details, so if you have any questions, please just ask! I love talking about his birth, and like all new moms, anything and everything baby related!
Hope you enjoy!
Guest Post by Montreal’s own Julie Mondor…aka. DJ Ruby Jane.
I love green tea. I love drinking it. I love cooking with it. When Stark showed me that I could also put it on my face, it was a done deal. Using the Green Tea Detox Mask before bed not only revitalizes my skin, it also calms me, helping me sleep better. When I sleep better, my mornings are better. And man, I really hate mornings.
I start my day with the best intentions. Those intentions are usually out the window within the first 10 minutes of dragging my sorry ass out of bed. I am groggy and cranky and will not carry a conversation with you. It’s because I really don’t get much sleep. I have trouble calming my mind and I rarely get to a deep sleep, often hovering in a dream-wake state most of the night. Bad sleep means an unrested mind. As a result, I am forgetful, scattered-brained and sometimes have trouble focusing. Moreover, I am not an organized person. I tease my boyfriend for his extreme organizational skills and I’m annoyed by his fastidious insistence on having fridge items placed in their designated spots. But I secretly envy his discipline. The only place for ritual in my life is the morning. I try to make sure I drink a big glass of water as soon as I wake up, but it’s usually followed by a guilty cup of coffee.
Now, a coffee a day is not bad for you. I’m just not so sure it’s the ideal thing to put in your body the instant you wake up. However, the process of setting up my moka pot, the smell of the coffee brewing and the bittersweet taste of a perfectly executed café au lait is the key to taming my morning beast. So I have found something that equates that experience in the form of matcha. I’ve tried to switch up my coffee fix with various steeped teas, but nothing could replace it quite like matcha, particularly because it tastes divine with warm, frothy milk.
The beauty of matcha is that it is as pleasing to the eye as it is to the rest of the body. Its vibrant green hue is a clue in itself to how good it is for you. Because you’re ingesting the whole tea leaf, matcha has more catechins, chlorophyll and antioxidants than steeped green tea. It’s also said to boost metabolism and help reduce cholesterol levels. I like adding it to smoothies and yogurt, and my boyfriend and I are planning on blending some in pasta dough to make springtime-inspired matcha linguine with fresh green pea pesto.
Perfectly prepared matcha paired with a sweet
Photo by Shabbar Sagarwala
While green tea does contain some caffeine, it doesn’t have nearly as much as coffee, so its stimulating effect brings alertness without the nervousness and agitation that coffee does. It’s no surprise that matcha was originally consumed by Buddhist monks to stay alert during long hours of meditation. To this day, matcha is associated with ritual and ceremony and is the predominant type of tea used in the Japanese tea ceremony chanoyo, or The Way of Tea. I have yet to attend such a ceremony, but learning about it has fed my desire to be more mindful and deliberate in my actions, something that is sorely lacking in my hectic city life. The Way of Tea is an art form that teaches you to strive for simplicity and refinement, and it gracefully leads you to realize the uniqueness of the moment.
Appropriate placement and order of objects for tea ceremony
Photo by Shabbar Sagarwala
I’ve started meditating before bed to help me fall asleep faster, and I’ve paired this with a more worldly ritual, the evening Beauty Ritual. At least once a week, after washing the day off my face, I’ll apply Stark’s Green Tea Detox Mask and sit in a quiet place to try to clear my mind for the 10-15 minutes that the mask is doing its magic. I focus on the lovely scent of the mask to draw my busy mind away from all my racing thoughts. I like mixing the TE mask with a little lemon juice, sometimes honey. Those smell amazing. It’s wonderful to use yummy hazelnut oil to work it off after. Green tea to bed, green tea to rise. The circularity of that ritual lends a little calm and order to my messy nature.
When Julie Mondor isn’t sitting at a computer all day making a living, she’s either at her kitchen counter preparing an ambitious meal, or standing at a set of turntables mixing as Ruby Jane. You can catch her live in Montreal at the Wefunk monthly jam at Le Bleury or you can listen to recordings of her frequent appearances on wefunkradio.com
We’ve been keeping this little puppy under wraps until now, but here is our big surprise….a new mask has come to the Stark Skincare lineup!
I am so so so proud of our newest product! Not only is the Stark-simplest of all the Stark products, but it is also the most edible…making it a great choice in product when travelling to remote regions, high in danger and excitement.
CHECK OUT PB HERE and find out why we think it’s so awesome!
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Ok, ok, so this was CLEARLY an April Fool’s day prank! But since I kind of love it, here’s the copy that went along with our exquisite PB mask:
The butter melts slowly into the toast. Tiny droplets of oil liquify as it warms and sinks deep into the pores of the now-crispy bread. Slowly, a transformation begins. What was once a sad slab of dry, lifeless carbohydrates now becomes a moist, succulent treat, bursting with nutritious, peanutty splendor. Biting into the toast, her mouth experiences the brief moment of stickiness, followed by the instant relief as saliva rushes to her tongue, coming to the rescue and allowing her breakfast to slip down her esophagus without delay. In a moment of sheer breakfast rapture, she buries her face into the toast, experiencing first the pain of the hot bread, followed by the instant relief of a rush of amino acids found in the delightful legume that is the peanut.
Wildcrafted, organic, fair-trade, hyper-ethical and exceptionally rare (but nowhere near the endangered list), and only grown on protected UNESCO sites, ARACHIS HYPOGEA, commonly known as Peanuts Butter, found only in the remotest region of a part of the Amazon you’ve never heard of, is transported by Toucan then hand-ground by a family of wild monkeys who have been secretly (until now!) employed by indie beauty brands worldwide for the millennia.
The monkeys lovingly blend the peanuts for 7 days and 7 nights until the exact consistency of perfection is achieved. The texture is a delicate blend of both creamy and crunchy, with just enough exfoliating material to gently cleanse the upper layer of the epidermis, the stratum corneum, without damaging it very much. The high oil content of the butter gently sinks into skin, providing instant hydration with a pleasingly greasy feel. Can be left on skin for several weeks to create a protective layer that is a popular high-protein snack for small birds and squirrels.*
*Should be avoided if you are allergic to peanuts.
Simply spread an even coat over the entire face, neck and décolleté. Leave on or rinse of several dozen times. Do not attempt to use with a Konjac Sponge.
Pure Arachis Hypogea Butter (Peanut)
Wow…I’ve definitely never written THAT sentence before! Check out this awesome article by Jodie Layne (and watch out for her upcoming posts here on the Stark Blog!)
So, did you know I’m pregnant? Haha, pretty sure everybody does now, as I can’t seem to shut up about it (and why should I? This is the awesomest thing, ever!). I wrote a few posts griping about my annoyance of how my birthing and pregnancy views pretty much sit on the border between full on granola-momma and conventional, modern (?) momma, and I guess I’m having a bit of an identity crisis at the moment. Rest assured that life at casa Stark is still as wholesome and au naturel as ever.
So, I though I would share with you some of the awesome super crunchy hippie things that Adri and I have been up to in preparation for baby Z to make his grand appearance (I was going to say “grand opening”….ouch.). Below is a list of what we plan on doing, a list of links for how-to’s and other (hopefully) informational ramblings.
Adri and I are always smooching…so soft lips are essential!
Lips are surprisingly delicate, and yet we subject them to constant abuse. I’m pretty sure that lips know no abuse worse than cold, cold city winters. Outside we are subjected to air pollution, freezing gusts of wind, and if you’re really lucky, you get weather that includes sleet, hail, blizzards and freezing rain (woohoo!). When you combine that kind of onslaught with hot, dry indoor climates and the general bad habit of wintertime –too much alcohol and not enough water- you’re also looking at some major dehydration. The thin skin on our lips is no match for all this, and eventually they become irritated and inflamed. All this results in a bad habit I think 99% of us must suffer from, which is chronic lip licking and biting when lips feel irritated, which dries them out even more.
So, what are we to do to stop lips from getting uncomfortably dried out in the first place? I’ve asked my buddies on Stark’s Facebook Page to help suggest some tips and tricks for smooth lips. Follow these 3 tricks and with any luck, you will soothe your mouth and have a kissable-soft kisser in no time!
I’m 31 weeks now…the home stretch, as some might say.
In some ways, this pregnancy just flew by, but when I look back in my day planner (which, oddly began the day I found out I was pregnant (August 1st)), I can really place myself back in those early preggo days, and I realize how much has changed and just how much time has gone by. There were the times when I had no energy at all, when I felt hot and dizzy and just wanted to sleep or watch Downton Abby or Lost all day. There were weeks where I would just look at Adri’s face and burst into tears; often out of joy, sometimes out of frustration, and once in a while because I didn’t know what else to do. I think back to when my hips were stretching out, and walking was very, very difficult and painful. I would have shooting pains from my sciatica (an old snowboarding injury coming back to haunt me thanks to Relaxin hormones). These times made me feel afraid; I was not even showing, and yet I couldn’t even bear the weight of pregnancy. But don’t get me wrong, I still think I’ve had a really easy pregnancy! [keep reading...]
Disclaimer: This is about poop. Yes, poop. Why? Because it’s important to your health and your skin and NOBODY likes to talk about it! Hence, we NEED to talk about it!
If you suffer from many common skin ailments, it isn’t your medicine cabinet or vanity you should be looking at; it’s your toilet. Not everyone will want to discuss this, but if you’re done with congested skin, princess, then I strongly urge you to become well acquainted with your throne. No, it isn’t a miracle in a pretty pot, and there aren’t any celebrity endorsements, but healthy poop and great skin are so intertwined that it’s a shame nobody ever really talks about it.
If you’re still with me on this, it’s time we discuss the art of the poo. Yes, the whole scoop on the poop. [keep reading...]
Skin and Diet: the correlation, and the myth that messes skin up!
.Oh, by the way, I need to point out a few things. Since I didn’t use a script or a draft for this vid, I made a couple of mistakes! (Oh me, so human.)
NOW TELL ME (and everyone else):
What’s your experience with the correlation between food and your skin’s appearance and health? What are some of the biggest no-no’s you have learned to stay away from?
How to use our (or any!) powdered clay mask.
Pssssh! So simple! Watch me mud-up!Do you regularly use masks? What’s your favourite part about the experience?