How to Get Products to Review - BzzAgent

The first two posts in this series are available here and here.

This post will look at another great resource that encourages product testing and honest reviews:

3. BzzAgent

BzzAgent is a free to join, word of mouth marketing site that connects users/consumers (that's people like us) with products. As with Influenster, however, the products don't just magically show up on your doorstep. There is a bit of leg work both prior to and after receiving products.

One major difference between BzzAgent and Influenster is that the things you need to do before and after receiving products tend to be much less for BzzAgent than Influenster. That does not in any way, shape or form mean that you should put any less into your BzzAgent requirements than your Influenster ones. The biggest reason why there tends to be less stuff to do for BzzAgent is that they send products one at a time, instead of a whole box of goodies at once ala Influenster.

BzzAgent encourages things such as sending informational Tweets, Facebook posts and writing blog reviews of the products you receive. They also give you the option of spreading your opinions face-to-face and over the phone and have a form you fill out each time you do one of those. I think this is a plus that I wish Influenster had because I often tell people in person about the products I've been using but there doesn't seem to be a way to get credit for that on some of the other sites.

So by now I bet you're wondering how you qualify for the various products and what kind of products you might see. Like just about every other site that is based on word of mouth marketing, they want to make sure to match products with the correct people - ie they don't want to give a chocolate bar with nuts to someone who has a peanut allergy.

You take surveys about your likes, dislikes, various habits, etc. and then they match you with upcoming BzzCampaigns as they call them. If you're a match for a particular campaign you get an invitation to join. You then have the option of accepting the invitation, and thus sampling the product, or you don't have to accept it if you don't want to.

Once you receive your product(s) you just spread the word about it - what you liked, how you used it, if it was helpful, etc. You can do this by sending Tweets, posting Facebook messages and all that other good stuff I listed earlier in this post. You then fill out forms on the particular BzzCampaign page to get credit for it. The more you talk about the products and let BzzAgent know about those conversations, the more likely you are to continue to get products you qualify for in the future.

The products available to sample are all over the place. They've had BzzCampaigns for things like cereal, adult beverages (read: beers and liquor), beauty products, milk...and lots more! I've been a member since mid-August and have already participated in seven BzzCampaigns!

Do you Bzz? What has been your favorite BzzCampaign so far?

How to get a great manicure with Neutrogena Norwegian Hand Cream & Giveaway - CLOSED

Neutrogena Norwegian Formula Hand Cream is not your typical hand cream, lotion or anything else that helps hydrate the skin. To be perfectly honest, I've never tried something quite like it at all before.

It's a glycerin based formula that's concentrated and lasts a long time - both in terms of how many uses you get out of a bottle and in terms of how long the moisture lasts after it's applied. It's also great at helping with many signs of damage:

• dryness
• chapping
• splitting nails
• dry cuticles
• scaliness
• roughness

Although the name suggests the use of hand cream, it can be used for so much more. In addition to your hands, you can use it on your nails, lips, anywhere dry skin pops up.

Not only does it help get your hands in tip-top shape, it also helps keep your manicures looking great too! It keeps your skin and nails moisturized and looking better longer. Say goodbye to a ruined manicure just because your cuticles got dry and peeled!

Below you'll find a step by step guide on how I get a great manicure and keep it looking amazing day after day with the help of Neutrogena Norwegian Formula Hand Cream:

1. Start with clean, dry nails. For me, this means using a hand scrub to help with any rough skin and taking off my old polish.

2. Apply a clear base coat. This will help keep whatever polish you're applying from staining your nails. Some base coats also claim to have other helpful properties which may or may not help your nails.

3. Apply 1 - 3 thin coats of polish depending on the opacity and desired opacity of the polish you have chosen. Personally, I have a few polishes that literally only need 1 coat to be completely opaque and cover my nail. I also have others that take about 3 coats because they are much thinner and the color takes a while to build up.

4. Top your nails with any glitters and/or top coats you'd like. Even though most glitters are suspended in a clear polish, I still put a top coat over to seal things in. Not only does this make the glitter feel less rough on top of my nails, it also helps seal things in and last longer.

5. Finish with a bit of Neutrogena's Norwegian Formula Hand Cream. I do this step at the end of my manicure, and then whenever needed for dry skin throughout the life of my manicure, because that's when it's most effective. As stated earlier, you want to start polishing your nails with dry, clean nails. If you applied your hand cream before you started and then didn't use nail polish remover or wash your hands to remove the oils/hand cream your nail polish wouldn't look as good as it could.

Disclaimer: I received free samples of this through BzzAgent.

Don't forget to enter the giveaway below! Four lucky entrants will win a 0.5 oz sample of Neutrogena's Norwegian Formula Hand Cream to try out for themselves! You can use it to get a great manicure or help with other dry skin issues you may be having during the winter.

EDIT 1/15/13: Contest open to US residents only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

No nonsense Tights & Leggings - Style Made Easy...and Affordable

This post brought to you by No nonsense. All opinions are 100% mine.

No nonsense has teamed up with Jill Martin, a new brand ambassador who has her finger on the pulse of the latest trends and is stylish, yet practical, to bring you great ideas on how to add a pop of color to what could be an otherwise ordinary outfit. As an Emmy Award winning TV personality and co-author of the book “I Have Nothing to Wear!,” Jill has an amazing background in the fashion industry and would never steer you wrong.

Having been an avid fan of the No nonsense brand in general for quite a while, Jill is even more excited (is that even possible?!) about the new tights and leggings. They’re on-trend, high quality and won’t break the bank!

They’re also an amazing, readily available way to make a style statement this winter without going overboard paying for a new wardrobe. No nonsense tights and leggings are an extremely affordable way to give new life to old staples by adding a pop of color under a long sweater, short skirt and anything else your fashionable mind can dream up! It helps that they’re available at many food, drug and mass retail stores.

Take this outfit below for example:

Neon was a great trend over the summer, and even into fall. With these teal leggings under the sweater, it seems to tone down the neon enough to make it still wearable into winter. The black boots and bag, along with the silver accessories also help keep the neon in check. And for less money than you would spend on an entire new wardrobe, you can just buy a few pairs of leggings and tights in a variety of colors and extend the life of your entire closet!

Be sure to follow No nonsense on Facebook and on Twitter @benononsense to keep up with all the latest and greatest in the world of leggings and tights.

Fiesta Lime Rice - Foodie Friday - Project Pinspiration #2

A couple of weeks ago my husband was complaining about reminding me that we were stuck in a dinner rut. We were basically recycling the same meals over and over and quite frankly there are only so many ways you can cook a beef roast before you want to stay as far away from beef roasts as possible!

Another couple of weeks before that we had Chipotle for lunch. Cue angels singing and rays of light shining down when I saw the pin pictured above pop up on my Project Pinspiration board!

Of course I did alter the recipe a smidge to suit our tastes and my husband's appetite, but it turned out wonderfully. I paired the rice with some steak and chicken cooked with a burrito seasoning packet from the grocery store and the huge burrito sized tortillas. It was a hit!

The next time I make this (note not an "if" but a "when"), I will probably add some diced red onion to the mix as well. Not that it really needs it, but the whole time I was munching away I kept thinking how good some red onion would be in there.

Oh! And as a testament to how delicious this really is, my very picky eater of a father loved it too!

Head & Shoulders Damage Rescue Shampoo & Conditioner Review

The Damage Rescue shampoo and conditioner is a brand new line from Head & Shoulders. It's so new in fact that you may not have seen it around too much. If it isn't already in stores near you, it should be soon.

It seems, to me at least, that hair care companies seem to be focusing on repairing damaged hair quite a bit more than they had been recently - maybe damaged due to all the ombre hair we saw over the summer? Who knows. At any rate, it's nice to see hair care companies, like Head & Shoulders, addressing the needs of those with dry and/or damaged hair.

This formula promises to leave your hair up to 10 times stronger in just four uses, and it still has all the anti-dandruff benefits as the regular formula. That's pretty impressive to be honest. Ten times stronger in just four uses.

Before I get into my thoughts on the shampoo and conditioner, I'd like to tell you a bit about my hair and my hair care routine.

I wash and condition my hair every other day. Once in a while I have to wash it two days in a row - due to my schedule or what have you - but that's pretty rare. My hair is fine in texture, but I have a TON of it. This means I'm prone to tangles and snarls and in the end hair breakage because it gets tangled so easily.

At first I was kind of skeptical about a dandruff shampoo and conditioner - I didn't even know they had conditioners! - making my hair stronger. It only took a few uses to convince me it was possible though. I started out using both the shampoo and conditioner every time I washed my hair - that's every other day - and after about a week of washing my hair really did feel stronger. It was almost as though my strands of hair felt thicker and there was definitely more elasticity. I didn't seem to have as much hair pulling/falling out when I brushed it and there was less fall out and breakage during the day.

The only downfall I discovered right around the time I noticed my hair getting stronger is that if I use these products every time I wash my hair, it doesn't take long for my roots/scalp to get weighed down and almost greasy. I hesitate to say it got greasy though because it wasn't necessarily greasy. It just got very heavy and tended to lay flat instead of having volume.

I've found that if I use it every other or every third wash it does a lot better. It keeps my hair feeling strong without also feeling heavy and flat. As an added benefit, I haven't had any of the dry, itchy scalp that I sometimes get in the winter. I don't tend to have dandruff problems, but occasionally get some itchy scalp when it gets really cold out.

The shampoo and conditioner retail for about $6 on Amazon and $5 at Walmart.

Disclaimer: I received this product free from Influenster for testing purposes.