Find your next treasured items while supporting local businesses and artisans at the Innisfil Pop-Up Market this Sunday, July 23. It will take place at the Stroud Innisfil Community Centre at 7883 Yonge St. from 11-5 pm.
Founder of the Innisfil Pop-Up Market, Nina La Costa told InnisfilToday that 25 vendors with an eclectic mix of jewellery, skincare, home decor, hand-crafted items, baked goods and more will be at the Summer Market.
This will be the first vendors’ event that the new venture, Tallow Twins will be attending in Innisfil. Aptly founded by twin sisters, Meghan and Madison Tylak, from Brant County in Ontario, Meghan explained the meaning behind their company’s skincare name.
“Tallow is rendered and purified beef fat that is packed with nutrients that are essential to our skin," said Meghan. "Our tallow-based skincare line consists of two different scented body butter, a face serum, a lip balm, a baby cream, a sunscreen, and a raw sugar exfoliant. My favourite and best-seller is our For the Face; it is buttery smooth and has a gentle scent and works wonders.”
Meghan and Madison started Tallow Twins in May — the very month that Meghan graduated from St. Francis Xavier University with a bachelor’s degree in business administration. Meghan explained that she and her sister grew up in a family of entrepreneurs surrounded by farms and friends who were farmers.
“We consider ourselves farm kids,” she said. “Our earliest memories are (of) us spending time on the farm, whether that be with the animals or playing in the fields playing hide and go seek. Our first job was picking snow peas and beans in the field. Later on during high school, we worked in tobacco during the summer months.”
Madison Tylak is a traditional doula, birth photographer, and postpartum photographer who recommends Tallow Twins' products to her clients, including post-partum women and babies.
"Through my work in the birth world, making sure my clients have access to clean and organic products that are safe and nourishing for both mother and baby is very important to me and our mission with Tallow Twins. Tallow is so universal in its uses, from nipple cream to baby bum cream, our tallow is healing and nourishing for both," Madison explained.
“We started this company because we wanted to have a clean, sustainable, and ancestral-based skincare that works, while still being at an affordable price,” Madison said.
Not all siblings operate businesses together, but Meghan explained she and her twin are close.
“Because we are twins, we have done almost everything together. Growing up, we had the same hobbies, the same friends, and we shared absolutely everything," she said. "We couldn’t imagine sharing the responsibility of building a business with anyone else.”
In addition to supporting entrepreneurs like Meghan and Madison Tylak, La Costa said the market will also support Gilda’s Club Simcoe Muskoka and Kempenfelt Quilters' Guild.
"I will have volunteers (in the banquet hall on the 2nd floor) with sewing machines and supplies to put together post-mastectomy kits for cancer patients in Simcoe County at no cost to them,” said La Costa.
“Community requires more than an internet connection. Events like The Innisfil Pop-up Market are great opportunities for residents, long-time and new, to really understand the community we live in,” the executive director of Gilda’s Club Simcoe Muskoka, Aaron Lutes, said. “We all want to connect with our community, and being involved helps support and nurture the community that we all want to live in.”
"I am excited to partner with Gilda’s Club Simcoe Muskoka as they are a phenomenal group of people giving back to the community. They provide services to those suffering from cancer, and as you can imagine, we have all been affected by this disease," La Costa said.
Lutes told InnisfilToday that Gilda’s Club Simcoe Muskoka currently helps over 430 people in Simcoe County.
“I hear every single week, from people who enter Gilda’s Club, ‘I wish I knew about you sooner.’ If I can connect with just one person who can benefit from our free Cancer support program, it’s a win. If I can attract another volunteer to help us support our cancer community, it’s a win,” he said.
Sponsored by Shopping With Nina, Sarah Bakker Homes, Gilda’s Club Simcoe Muskoka, Kempenfelt Quilters’ Guild, and Simcoe Kids Dental, shoppers are encouraged to bring a non-perishable food item that will be donated to the Troy Scott Community Fridges.
The Innisfil Pop-Up Market offers events year-round, so prospective vendors, sponsors, swag bag supporters, and volunteers are invited to email Nina La Costa for more information at [email protected].
