With A Side of Jess

Monday, December 24, 2012

What's in my December 2012 Birchbox

The theme of December's Birchbox is "All Wrapped Up" in honor of the holiday season. I was kind of hoping that because of the holidays this month, Birchbox would step up the game and give us some amazing things - more full sized products or at least more generous samples, etc. We'll see how it pans out.

If you want to hear/see my initial thoughts as I opened the box feel free to check out my YouTube channel.

Number 4 Clarifying Shampoo - Full size $32 for 250ml- Sample $6.66
I'm kind of excited to try this because I have really fine hair, but a lot of it. It seems that a lot of shampoos end up weighing it down after a few uses. Hopefully this might be a good every other shampoo type of thing or some sort of pattern to keep my hair from getting too weighed down and heavy.

La Fresh Eco-Beauty Oil-Free Face Cleanser - Full size $9.99 for 30 cloths - Sample $0.67
I have yet to find a face cloth/wipe that I like and can get all my makeup off. I've heard some good things about these and I'm excited to see if they work as well for me as I've heard they do for others. Usually the issue is with my face still feeling gross from still having makeup on it or oily from whatever residue the cloth has left behind.

Apothoderm Firming Serum - Full size $75 for 1oz. - Sample $11.25
As I'm getting older I find myself looking more and more for holy grail anti-aging products that can carry me through my 30s and into my later years. Though a bit pricy at $75 for a full sample, this looks promising. It apparently has a proprietary peptide duo that will firm and brighten skin. Sounds like win to me! Now we'll just have to see how it works on my skin.

Juicy Couture - Juicy Couture - Full size $90 for 3.4oz. - Sample $1.32
I've said this before and I'll say it again: Enough with the perfume samples Birchbox! My fragrance drawer in the bathroom cabinet is starting to become overrun with these tiny vials you insist on sending nearly monthly. While I do like discovering a good perfume every now and again, I might suggest sticking to 1 sample per quarter, perhaps something that may be a good scent for that season? Overall though, I'm not that into this particular scent. I liked the La Fleur version much better.

theBalm cosmetics Mary-Lou Manizer - Full size $24 for 8.5g by weight - Sample $2.82
This is an three-in-one highlighter, eye shadow and shimmer. It's really quite neat and I can't wait to try it out. I personally see myself using it as an eye shadow and/or highlighter most often. It should be a great alternative to the Stila highlighter I got last month.

Box total: $22.72


Thursday, December 20, 2012

FriXion by Pilot Pens Review - Influenster Cosmo VoxBox 2012

In case you don't remember, I received these pens in the Fall Cosmo VoxBox from Influenster. It's been a while, a long while actually, since I've used erasable ink. It was probably sometime in the 1990s (yes, that long ago) when I last used it. I have to say that when I had to use erasable ink for school, I was not impressed. The ink seemed really thick and gross. It tended to glob up and if you ever did need to erase it, it tended to smear and create a giant mess. I'm not really sure what the point was if it was such a hassle to use. Using some sort of correcting fluid would have been much easier for sure.

Anyhow, that really isn't the case with these FriXion pens by Pilot.

I'll start by talking about the red pen. As you can see, or I hope you can see, from the photos above, It writes really well. The ink is pigmented and everything you'd expect from a regular red pen. This isn't just an ordinary red pen though. Remember, it's also erasable. In the bottom half of the picture you can see that I erased part of the word to show you how it looks when erased.

Overall it did an ok job of erasing. However, it left behind an orangeish or light red sort of color where the red ink had been. You could also clearly see the indentation from the writing. If you had written something and wanted to erase it to write something over it, you could. I think you'd still see a bit of the original writing underneath though. I would liken the erasability to that of a pencil though. Sometimes when you erase pencil you're still able to see a smudge of it here and there as well as the indentation left by the original writing. This has kind of the same effect, just with ink.

I'd say pretty much everything about the black pen as I did about the red one with a few exceptions. The black ink leaves behind a little bit of a gray cast when erased and it's not quite as noticeable as the orange/red left behind by the red pen.

Both pens were very smooth to write with and I really liked using them. I didn't have to scribble or anything to get the ink going, which was nice.

So the big question is: Would I use my own money to buy these?

Yeah actually I would - but I probably wouldn't erase them much. I like the ink flow and the way the pen wrote more than I cared for the ability to erase it. If I'm writing with pen, I try not to make mistakes anyhow.

Disclaimer: I received these products complimentary for testing purposes from Influenster.

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

How to get products to review - Buy it myself

A few of you have expressed interest in knowing/learning about how I get the things I review and various ways to make money from blogging so I've decided to do a couple of posts about it. I had originally thought I could make it into just two posts but after starting to write this one about how to get products to review, I realized that it's going to need at least 3 or 4 posts, possibly more.

As I'm sure you've noticed if you've been reading my blog for any length of time, I like to review products. What kind of products? Pretty much anything. I don't like doing it to get free stuff, though that is a bonus. I like doing it because I like to share my opinions with others. I give honest feedback about whatever it is I'm reviewing so that others can use that information to decide if it's something they also want to try. Not only do I write reviews about things I enjoy (my favorite reviews to write), but I also write them if I didn't enjoy a product. I think it's important to share my views regardless of what they are.

So on to the big question: How do I get these things in the first place?

There are several ways I get these things and there are various requirements and rules and the like for each place.

1. I buy the stuff myself


Yes, believe it or not, I do buy some of the stuff myself. Sometimes it's something I pick up on a whim and sometimes it's a planned purchase. Generally speaking though, they aren't products I pick up with the intent to review. It's usually a product I've seen around or heard something about or just plain caught my eye at the store. Either way I get it home, try it and if I have some sort of strong feelings either way - love or hate - I tend to want to share that with my readers. If it's something I was kind of meh about, I might share it but it's not as likely unless I feel my meh opinion is really relevant and would help others deciding to purchase that product or not.

Here is where you guys as readers have some influence too. I don't always get a say in exactly what I get sent from some of the other places I get things to review but I always have a say in how I spend my own money. If there's a product you've seen around and want to know my opinion let me know! I'd be happy to purchase it myself, try it out and possibly save you a few dollars - or suggest you spend it!

As I said as the beginning, this is apparently going to be a multi-post miniseries since one post with everything would be insanely long. That said, the next post about another way to get things to review will be out shortly! If you know of any other ways you'd like to share or think I should check out, feel free to comment below!

Monday, December 17, 2012

Weight Loss Update - December 2012

Weight loss is a tricky road to navigate sometimes and this last month was really no different. However, the good thing is that in the last month I've only gained 1 pound. This is especially good since last month included Thanksgiving and all the food and goodies that go along with it.

That really shouldn't be an excuse though. Lots, and I mean lots, of people can make it through Thanksgiving and actually lose weight. I can't blame the whole pound on Thanksgiving though because if I broke it down on a week by week basis, I think I lost weight the week after Thanksgiving.

Going forward into the rest of December and January I want to do a better job at staying away from pop. Pop seems to be a fairly big part of my weight gain weeks versus my weight loss weeks. It's amazing how many calories we can just drink away and how if it's something we're used to, doesn't even being to fill us up. I could see drinking a smoothie with more calories than pop if the smoothie was a solid meal replacement type thing, but to just drink away between 100 and 200 calories (if not more!) on pop? It's starting to seem just a bit too insane to me.

I also want to try to have healthier options on hand to eat. That's an even trickier goal than the pop one since there are only so many ways you can stretch a dollar at the grocery store. Coupons help but at the end of the day, the average person isn't getting oodles and oodles of things for free - and really, most of what they walk away with for free is toothpaste, sports drinks and the like.

Are you on a weight loss journey? How is yours going?

Friday, December 14, 2012

Christmas Cookies Week 3 - Chocolate Oatmeal No Bake Cookies - Foodie Friday


I know that these cookies don't photograph the best - but really, does it matter if they taste yummy??

These are yet another holiday staple cookie for my family. We have them nearly every year and this was the first year I made them by myself. By "myself" I mean without the help of my mom. This year I had the help of my husband. We only goofed on one thing, which wasn't really our fault.

The recipe, as originally written, called for the mixture to boil for 1 1/2 minutes. Apparently it needs to boil for 2 minutes. Our end product tastes just fine but they didn't really set up right, even after sitting in the fridge for a while. They're very soft and floppy, for lack of a better word. I've adjusted the recipe below to reflect a 2 minute boil time so hopefully your cookies won't be floppy.



Ingredients
2 c. sugar
1/2 c. milk
1 stick butter or margarine
2 1/2 c. quick cooking oatmeal
1 - 2 T. vanilla
1/2 c. peanut butter
3 - 4 T cocoa

Directions
  • Boil sugar, milk, butter and cocoa for 2 minutes - start timing after the mixture reaches a boil.
  • Remove from heat and add peanut butter, oatmeal and vanilla.
  • Stir until blended, then drop on wax paper by teaspoonfuls.
  • Coconut or dates may be added if desired.