What is the Great Canadian Blog Bash? Let me tell you! It’s a fantastic event some amazing Canadian friends of mine have planned to celebrate Canada Day! We will be having a great time connecting with fellow Canadians in true Canadian fashion, finding new Canadian blogs and businesses to frequent, entering awesome giveaways at some of the blogs, and the hosts are hosting a mind blowing giveaway (all Canadian companies!).  In general, it’s a great excuse to whoop it up Canadian style!

For those of you who are NEW to It’s OK to be WEIRD! coming by through TGCBB, WELCOME! It is FANTASTIC to meet more Canadians on the web.  Let me quickly introduce myself. I’m Raylene, and I live in Alberta.  I am a Civil Engineer, and now a Mom who works from home doing lots of different things. My handsome and wonderful hubby is a pastor in transition right now, and I have 3 gorgeous kiddos ages 9, 10 and 12.  I’m not your typical pastor’s wife! 🙂  I’m a quilter who isn’t quilting enough lately, a Social Media Manager with a new business, an article spinner doing contract work with a Canadian PR company, a blogger with a passion for celebrating the fantastic weirdness of every day life, and… SO many other things!

© Jamie Myers | Dreamstime.com wave crashing on the beach at Vancouver

I have been in love with Canada since we moved here in 1998. It’s my chosen home now! My whole family are dual citizens (US and Canada). I love so many things about Canada.  One of the first things I fell in love with was the sea, and the city of Vancouver nestled between the sea and the gorgeous coastal mountains. It’s still amazing to me that one can literally be on a boat in English Bay in the morning, and then be skiing Grouse Mountain or Mt. Seymour in the evening, all on the same day! Vancouver is a beautiful city, and will always have a special place in my heart as my first home in Canada, and the place where all 3 of my children were born.

© Randall Shirley | Dreamstime.com Chateau Lake Louise

We visited Lake Louise in November one year, and were blessed to stay at the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise. Ohmigosh!  Was that ever amazing! We watched the lake freeze over foot by foot, a little more each morning, and we had bright sunny days highlighting the glacier and the lake. And the hotel is fantastic, 5-star for sure!

© Randall Shirley | Dreamstime.com Banff

In general I love the Canadian Rockies, the rivers, the glaciers and deep blue-green glacial lakes in and around the mountains. Not to mention, the picturesque villages and amazing variety of wildlife. The mountains are enormous, rough, and gorgeous!  Banff and Moraine Lake are some of the most famous places in the world.  These places never cease to take my breath away.

These places are classic examples of Canada’s beauty and nature.  That’s another thing I love about Canada – the wilderness feel, and the love of nature that we all seem to share.

© Claude Gariepy | Dreamstime.com Moraine Lake

That’s why I have saved this great giveaway to share during the Great Canadian Blog Bash, because it fits perfectly with the theme of all things Canadian that I love, and the beauty of the natural things Canada has to offer.

About Shian Naturals

Shian Naturals is one of the official sponsors of the Great Canadian Blog Bash!

Shian Naturals is a proudly Canadian formulator, packager, and wholesale distributor of high quality, all natural, health & beauty products. Their products are sold through our national network of fine retail partners stores, many who also offer online, or telephone, ordering and home delivery for your convenience through their own web sites, or through our network of affiliate online resellers.

Shian Naturals is proud to offer all natural, and many organic, skin, hair, and body care products.

Shian Naturals…For people who make healthier lifestyle choices!

My Review

I was very generously sent a “Just…” Trial Sample Pack of all their products from Shian Naturals to try out and share with my readers.

Packaging impresses me, and this was just SUPER cute!

Inside the package is the full array of products from Shian Naturals.  In the Trial Sample Pak you receive…

A 30ml bottle of Just… Shampoo
A 30ml bottle of Just… Conditioner
A 30ml bottle of Just… Body Butter
A 30ml bottle of Just… Moisturizing Lotion
A 30ml bottle of Just… Massage & Bath Oil
A 30ml bottle of Just… Organic Body Wash
A 50g bar of Just… Glycerin Bar Soap
A 4g regular size tube of Just… Beeswax Lip Balm

And a pretty Bath Scrubby, all in a colourful gift bag…

A few of us in the house have allergies, and are effected by scented lotions and shampoos and such.  Perfumes often give me a headache, and some skin care products make my daughter’s skin break out or cause an allergic asthma attack.  So I’m always on the lookout for natural unscented products.

Shian Naturals Just… product line is exactly what we have been looking for! All natural, unscented skin, hair, and body care products with NO fragrances or colours added to the natural ingredients.

It took me ONE use to find out how much I like these products. It did take a little getting used to NOT having scents in my bath products or lotion. But no scent also means no after-scent to linger for a long time after the shower is over.  I am just fresh and clean, no residues left behind, no scents following me around.

My favorite product might be the Body Butter, or the Organic Body Wash. The Body Butter is amazing!  It’s smooth, absorbs quickly with no oily feeling, and smooths skin even on my rough elbows and heels. The Body Wash is equally fantastic. A little bit goes a long way, with a rich lather that was a pleasant surprise.

The Shampoo cleans hair nicely, and the Conditioner is rich and creamy (for lack of a better word) leaving my hair very soft and clean.  The Glycerin Soap is a beautiful translucent bar of soap that does a great job of cleaning dirty kiddo hands, and is gentle enough for use on your face.  The Moisturizing Lotion now lives in my purse, and is perfect for those ‘on the go’ moments when you need a little dab of something to freshen up your dry hands.  I haven’t had a chance to use the Bath Oil, except for rubbing some on a particularly dry spot on the back of my hand; it was light and clean, and even for an oil didn’t leave a thick oil slick on my hand.  The Lip Balm may take me a little longer to get used to.  It’s thicker than most of the lib balm I use, and with no added ingredients that means that there’s no fruity taste or anything to it – a real plus when you’re dealing with sensitivities, but something that this fruit-lip-gloss lovin’ mama is going to have to get used to!

I’m just about out of my Just… Trial Pack products. Thankfully, ordering is easy with their online webstore. And Shian Naturals has been generous enough to give me, and my readers (!), a coupon code to use during checkout for a 15% discount on all their products, an unlimited amount of times, through till July 31st, 2011.  Our special discount code is “weird” – easy to remember, eh!? 🙂  Makes a great gift anytime!

Shian Naturals is another one of those Canadian things I appreciate so much – they stick to the basics, keeping their products simple and natural, just the way we Canadians like it!

Giveaway

Giveaway: Celebrating in great Canadian style with the Great Canadian Blog Bash, ONE lucky CANADIAN reader will win a Just… Trial Pack ($25 value)!  Thanks so much Shian Naturals!!!

• Follow this blog, It’s OK to be WEIRD, on Google Friend Connect.
• Follow @OKtobeWEIRD and @ShianNaturals on Twitter and Tweet this giveaway using this Shian Naturals #TGCBB Giveaway Tweet (you can tweet this once a day for extra entries, and leave a link to each tweet in a separate comment.)
• Like It’s OK to be WEIRD on Facebook and Shian Naturals on Facebook and leave me a comment to say that you are a fan (and what name you use there). [ Please feel free to share this giveaway with your friends on Facebook, but we can not require sharing as an entry into the giveaway as per Facebook Promotions Guidelines and sharing it will not count as an extra entry – but we will still love you very much for sharing! 🙂 ]
• Follow Its OK to be WEIRD on Networked Blogs
• Subscribe to It’s OK to be WEIRD! by RSS Feed or email
• Blog about this giveaway, with a link to this giveaway post, and my blog title linked back to me {for 3 extra entries}

© Johanna Goodyear | Dreamstime.com

Giveaway closes Friday, July 1st at 9:00pm MST! Open to CANADA only this time!  The winner will be selected by random.org and notified via email by July 3rd, and will have until July 5th to reply back before a new winner is selected. Winner will be announced after their entry is verified and they have confirmed by replying to notification e-mail. Good Luck, eh!

Note to contest enterers: if you subscribe via EMAIL, in order to be considered for the giveaway, you MUST verify your email when the confirmation message arrives in your mailbox.