skoah blog

4 days til the 2010 Winter Olympic Games….4 days, yes 4 days! Where did the past 4 years go? Like anything in life, our human nature is to procrastinate and I wonder how many people are screaming around town sorting out their commute, their chidlcare, their groceries and pretty much every piece of their life that might become affected by the influx in people, excitement and fun!

We had a similar panic-stricken moment while considering all the ways our business could be affected by this tremendous event. While we have certainly been looking forward to this period, we also find ourselves feeling apprehensive. Will our fabulous skoah customers be too afraid to trek down to see us? Will we sell out of all our products and then have to work our chemist 24/7 to fill the shelves! Will we have to sleep in our treatment beds in order to make sure we all make it to work ontime!?

At the end of the day, we feel like most people probably do by now…..as ready as we can be.  In a moment of clarity while doing my morning commute of running to work along Kit’s Beach, I realized that we simply have to run our business well, be true and extremely proud to who we are (Vancouver-made skin care products), and share what we do with the world.

As a company, we have a goal to be Canada’s leading skin care brand by 2015. This goal is a part of every decision we make, every meeting we have, and every product we create. And now, as the days fly by, and I realize I still haven’t stocked up on enough toilet paper and coffee to last me through to the end of the Games, I am hopeful for what this event brings to Vancouver, to our Canadian athletes, and to businesses like ours.

And, for those of you who are wondering if it’s worth the trip down to Yaletown during the Games, yes. It most certainly is. If you are in the area, and we can squeeze you in, we’ll be dishing out complimentary glow n’ go facials (mini facials). Buy a product or 2 and we’ll gild one cheek with a gold medal and the other with a red maple leaf. We have a few more tricks up our sleeves too!

Best of luck to the athletes who have sacrificed a ton, to their families, who have probably sacrificed even more, and to our beautiful city and people who make it what it is. Our arms our wide open! Go Canada Go!

posted by Andrea Scott, co-owner

Yesterday I had the pleasure of meeting Kamal. Kamal is a taxi driver with Vancouver Taxi. He drove all the way down to our Yaletown store because he had found a wallet lost by one of our Metrotown Skin Care Trainers, Anjela on New Year’s Eve. Using his best detective skills, Kamal located in her wallet an old pay stub, and then brought the entire contents of the wallet to our store and asked if we could help him get it back to her.

How many of us would make the time to actually deliver it back to the owner. Sure, we might call and try and find her, then have her come pick it up. But he actually drove to Yaletown (address on paystub), parked, came in looking for her, and then made sure we let her know we had it safely here.

In addition, nothing was missing or lost in the process. Nor did Kamal ask or seem interested in anything in return. He simply wanted her to have it back.

Thank you to Kamal at Vancouver Taxi 604.871.1111. I will forever call you guys for a taxi in future. It is good to know there are some wonderful people out there!

posted by Andrea Scott, co-owner

Another year draws to a close and we all become a little more reflective. Did I do everything I thought I might? What will I accomplish in 2010? Do I have my goals ready? Am I proud of myself in most areas of my life since this time last year?

 I embrace new beginnings and love change. I know I am a rare breed, but I also know that with most change, we inevitably see something positive. 2009 has brought with it many changes to most of us. The economy had its stomach turned upside down. Some people lost jobs, customers, clients, homes, and some of the things we had thought we were entitled to receive. In the long run, I think this economic downturn has brought to those ready to see it, a humbling of our ways of living. A newfound appreciation for our employment, our homes, our families, friends and lifestyles.

In addition, I believe we have seen in those companies who have done well during this time, an improved environment of customer service and relationships. No longer as customers do most of us feel as though our role as ‘customer’ has been taken for granted. To that end, I am proud to report that at skoah we have been fortunate to have had a terrific year. Our customers, krews, and supporters have been fantastic and deserve this credit.  My true hope is that we have done well because we have done what we truly believe is important to running our business-listening to our customers, feeling deeply appreciative of their support, and continuing to meet their needs, exceed their expectations, and honour their reasonable requests and feedback.  

As we wrap up our 8^th year in business, we have some exciting plans for 2010 which include, in our Yaletown Flagship location, to be in the heart of the pedestrian zone during the 2010 Winter Games. This brings excitement and new people to our store and to our company, and we feel incredibly proud to present our Made in Vancouver skincare products. We also plan to grow, with the right partners, our wholesale distribution and hotel amenities programs. In short, our coming year is on track to ensure more people get to know our little company. We aim, to be Canada’s leading skincare company by 2015.

Thanks you to our customers, our fantastic krews, and our families and friends who continue to support, spread the skoah word, and give us the feedback we need to make the right changes and improvements to exceed our goals.

 Happy, Happy New Year!

posted by Andrea Scott, co-owner

8 years young and going strong. Thanks to all our friends for coming to celebrate 8 years of skoah last Thursday night. We enjoyed some fantabulous wine from a new brand called Strut.Enjoyed food by the Hamilton Street Grill and celebrated skoah style. 3 of our amazing skin athletes made it out and a big congratulations to Tommy and his wife who are expecting ‘baby Tommy’ soon! My 2 skoah babies were on site to help celebrate, and I think it’s fun for kids to see where their mom goes to work each day.

In some ways the 8 years have flown by, but I also feel proud of the evolution of skoah. Since opening in 2001, we now have 3 skoah’s, a makeup line called chiiki munki which is growing and evolving as skoah has, we have some fantastic retailers and spas who sell skoah and chiiki munki, and we are very proud of our recently launched hotel amenity program.

We set a goal to become Canada’s leading skin care brand by 2015. Our krew, ourselves and many thanks to our supporters who are helping us meet that goal. We are on our way.

Stay tuned for upcoming celebrations because we love a good party and a reason to celebrate. Next up, the 2010 Olympic Games. We are so excited to introduce skoah to the world, and to showcase our city.

Posted by Andrea Scott, co-owner.

I just received an email from a customer this morning. The fact that she took the time to let us know how she feels about our products makes me so happy. I love her description of our skin care trainers……skin magicians….clever!

Andrea-

About a month ago I got myself on a ‘skoah’ only program – face wash, toner, face cream, eye cream, scrub and hydradew mask – no other products (you know I am a reg Skoah user, but always had a bit of a mix and match going).  My skin has never felt better and I’ve had at least  4 compliments on how it looks in the last week….yay!  Keep up the great work skin magicians!

Deanna

Wow-that’s what I love about this business. And it really got me thinking about the various ingredient trends and ‘of the moment’ loves and hates. I realize there is a vast amount of conflicting information out there and as a customer, understanding what’s true and not true is really difficult. The most important thing about a skincare line should be that it works. Results are critical. While skoah products are well over 90% natural, we really don’t talk about them being natural, but more that they are effective. We’ve always felt that limiting our ingredient lists to only ‘natural’ ingredients couldn’t net the most effective product. There are some wonderful and safe synthetic ingredients on the market and the priority is always to ensure a product does what it says it will do.

I have been guilty of purchasing products because I liked the idea of them, but then found I didn’t see any results. This can be the case with some of the 100% natural products out there. They simply don’t have much real benefit to the skin. We’ve worked really hard to ensure we have a balance of plant based, effective ingredients and science-based active ingredients. Feedback as we’ve had from Deanna, above makes me feel we are on the right track.

We recently sent out a product survey to the customers, and this was really valuable for our product development. We are fortunate to provide facials only, where we learn a lot about what people love and want to see improved in their skoah products. This is how the entire line has been created. We receive feedback, we analyse the feedback, we improve, and or create new products.

One of the things that we recently saw through our product survey, and email comments was the request to look at alternative preservative systems. While we had some products in the past with parabens, our customers have been asking more and more for paraben-free products. We are in the process of changing all of ours to paraben-free. That will be complete by the end of October.

One of the things people might not know about our products is that they are free of inexpensive petroleum byproducts and mineral oils. We use highly refined olive oil, shea butters and a few other highly refined natural lipids. This has always been the case. Our packaging is also intentionally simple and free of additional unnecessary boxes and plastic films. The containers are also recyclable.

We have focused so much on our products being effective (and natural) that I sometimes wonder if  we should have been more communicative about the other positive aspects of our products.

I am really excited about the products we have on the shelves now, and am even more excited about the 4 new products we will be launching on November 4th…stay tuned…..winter and skin can finally get along just fine!

Posted by Andrea Scott, co-owner

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted since I have been on holidays for most of September. We spent 3 weeks in the Okanagan….this is a beautiful lake infused area of British Columbia-about 5 hours southeast of Vancouver. It was the perfect vacation for us because we were away, but able to work a little and keep in touch with our krew and kustomers. While much of our time was spent chasing a 2 year old around and trying to relax with a 4 month old, we still managed to visit some of the wineries (thanks to Grandparent visits!). I thought I’d share some of our favourites and also some of the highlights of the area.

Our 2 year old went insane for the Miniature Train Museum in Osoyoos. I must admit, I was completely mesmerized also……there are about 1500 square feet of tiny villages and towns, connected by this train and all different versions of European towns. The creativity in creating these tiny stories blew my mind….there was even a miniature nude beach, Oktoberfest celebration complete with a beer garden. So fantastic!

We spent some time Mountain Biking also-Covert Farms, 3 Blind Mice in Naramata, and the infamous Hike and Bike trail in Oliver which gave us easy access to some of the coolest wineries. QuintaFerriera Winery was great…loved their Rose and Mistura Branca, next stop, Road 13, set up in the hills with an entrance resembling a castle. My 2 year old thought this was fantastic. Loved their Honest John’s White and Red. Burrowing Owl, didn’t disappoint and the food was delicious. I managed to get 3 flat tires while biking so I wonder if the wine at the end of my journey tasted extra special due to the effort…..

In Naramata, Elephant Island had a fantastic tasting experience and the child’s play area knocked my son’s socks off. Loved the Cherry wine-very dry and so good, and the Pink Champagne……my kind of place! Also loved Lakebreeze. Their Pinot Blanc came in half bottles which reminded me of picnics in Paris…loaded up on those! Laughing Stock had the most amazing reds. I absolutely LOVED the Portfolio and the Blind Trust. I crave them just thinking about them and such a beautiful job with their branding. We were totally impressed, and a great story about their inception can be found on their website.

We ended our Naramata adventure at the Naramata Heritage Inn and enjoyed hearth made foccaccia with some delicious dips and charcuterie. They have a spa there and it made me think of how skoah could be in the Okanagan. We do have a few different spa partners that use skoah products during their treatments and also retail them in their spas. We don’t have any spa partners in the Okanagan, so this seems like it could be a good fit. Thoughts?

But then….in typical fashion, my mind started dreaming about skoah on a vineyard…..a mini hotel, skoah inspired of course……skoah treatments in the vineyard…weather permitting…..oh the possibilities are endless….

If anyone has any great ideas or contacts, let me know. Combining my passion for BC and wines with skoah could result in a pretty cool concept….

Posted by Andrea Scott, co-owner

Our 5 skin athletes play hard and test run skoah products and services in some of the most trying skin conditions. We sponsor their skin and they help us make our product even better.  Here’s what Sue Frause has to say…http://trueslant.com/suefrause/2009/09/23/vancouver-day-spa-skoah-employs-skin-athletes/#more-1172

Yesterday I had the absolute pleasure of meeting our newest skoah skin athlete, Catherine Bruhwiler. Catherine is one of the most inspirational people I’ve met. Not only is she a professional, world class surfer, but she is also a mother of 2, and business owner. She really is living her passion. Our skincare trainer, Lisa gave Catherine her 2nd facial in her life and was super excited and inspired after spending an hour with our skin athlete. Looks like we might have to consider a skoah krew surf trip in the near future!

Catherine spends part of the year in Tofino, BC surfing and running surf lessons through her family business, Bruhwiler Surf School. She also lives part time in Mexico and travels worldwide competing and enjoying the surf. It was inspiring to learn how she has created a life around her passion and talent. She made me want to jump on a ferry, get over to Tofino and learn to surf! She told me she needed to get in the water every single day. 

The first thing I think of when I go surfing in warmer climates is how many sharks might be lurking beneath me. Catherine put my mind at ease-she has NEVER seen a shark despite surfing in some of the most shark infested waters in the world!  

As a skoah skin athlete, Catherine’s skin is sponsored by skoah. We decided to select 5 athletes to use, test run, provide feedback on products and to inspire our krews and our kustomers. Athletes such as Catherine are out in the elements and require high performance skin care. In Catherine’s case, the sun, sea and wind are tough on her skin. We sent her home yesterday with a hydradew mask to smooth out her dehydrated skin. Catherine also fell in love with our sweet love body kream!

Stay tuned for details on our 4 other Skin Athletes!

Posted by Andrea Scott, co-owner

The heat has arrived….in Vancouver anyways. With the humidity and warmer weather, I thought I’d make a few suggestions to keep your skin smooth and clear.

I realized last night I had been continuing to use my richest face cream despite the humid, hot weather. I love to drown my skin in hydration before bed because with 2 little ones running around, I don’t have as much time for all my favourite treatment masks. But I did notice a few tiny whiteheads on my nose and chin. So, for the next few weeks, my nightime routine includes my lighter face lotion: skotion. It has vitamins and plant extracts, but has more water based moisturizers which is perfect for my combination skin. Every few nights, I slather on my hydradew mask which is loaded with cucumber extract, sea kelp algae and plant based gycosaminoglycanes which my skin drinks up. The best part is I can leave it on while I sleep and turthfully I don’t even rinse it off in the morning. My skin usually absorbs the ingredients. Because this mask has zero oil, I don’t break out.

I’ve also been really diligent with exfoliating….in simple terms-removing the dead skin. The skrubbin’ face wash is my new favourite cleanser. Tiny beads remove dead skin, and I can use it daily, so it’s quick and easy and kills two birds with one stone-cleans and exfoliates…..anything to save time! 

I am packing my tonik around in my diaper bag. This toner saves me and I put it in the fridge so it stays cool before I leave. It is loaded with cucmber extract and when I feel hot, or if I’ve been power walking with the babies, I spray it on my face and neck. My 2 year old also loves to be ’spritzed’, and I’ve even blasted his baby bottom when the diaper devil has left a little rash.

My final 2 heat wave products are my face skotion 30….same as my night lotion but with spf 30 and my chiiki munki tinted moisturizer. It’s all I need for makeup aside from gloss.

I am guilty of getting in a routine and skin care needs change with weather, hormones, time of the month….all those fun things. Since changing up my routine a bit, I’ve managed to stay a step, or two ahead of my skin!

If you have any skin or makeup related questions, ask away!

By Andrea Scott, co-owner and founder of chiiki munki

http://vitamindaily.com/calgary says our Stampede Recovery Facial is the top 5 ways to heal from Post-Stampede Libations……we agree!

Stampede Recovery Facial $70

Stampede Recovery You’ve made it halfway, lost your voice, found your cowboy, lost your keys, found a hat, sworn off line dancing then changed your mind the next night. Stampede is a time to love and to hate. Let us help you heal with the Stampede Recovery facial. For a limited time, you’ll be hydrated, smoothed and set free. Taking appointments from today until July 31^st. $70

Call 403.203.0200 or email chinook@skoah.com to book!