Boots Botanics Ionic Clay Mask Shine Away Review

Disclaimer: The product featured in this review was given to me complimentary from Influenster. However, this is my 100% honest review. I was not paid to say any of it.

I received this mask in my J'Adore VoxBox from Influenster. I was pleasantly surprised to see this, as when the pre survey asked about face masks, I was expecting something from Freeman or Montagne Jeunesse. I am definitely a fan of Boots. My mom used to buy their products a lot when our local CVS carried the brand. She used to give me the eyeshadow colors she ended up disliking. Their products had always been top notch quality.

 I really like the packaging. It is very simple. Just a sticker wrapped around a clear plastic tube. Although I love pretty, cute and bold packaging, I like how this has simple packaging. Boots is letting the product speak for its self rather than the packaging. It has a screw top lid.


Even though I had high expectations going in, I was very impressed by this mask! I tried it on my weekly face mask night with my mom while we were marathoning True Blood (Anyone else watch? Who's ready for the new season?) . When I squeezed some product from the tube, too much came out. This is due to the watery formula. If you shake the tube before use it does help a little. I do like the consistency, you don't need a ton of product and it goes on easily. Just be careful when squeezing from the tube.

The mask is a dark grey-green color. It dries to a lighter green.

We sat for 10 minutes to let this mask work its magic until it was dried. When I looked in the mirror, I was amazed. There were all of these black dots on my nose where the mask pulled impurities from my pores. My mom had similar results. When I washed it off the spots were gone and my skin looked (and felt) very clean.

The 2nd time I tried it, I got even better results. More crud was pulled out of my pores.

This mask reminds me of a certain high end one, but at 1/6 of the cost! And it really does work. It will make your face feel dry, but apply a good moisturizer and you will be good as new. This is suitable for all skin types, especially those with oily skin.

I love this face mask so much, I may need to have a 2nd face mask night every week just so I can continue to use my other face masks! 

Influenster J'Adore VoxBox Review

Disclaimer: All products in this review were given to me complimentary by Influenster. As always, I am being 100% honest in my review. I was not paid to write this. 

It's been such a long time since I have gotten a VoxBox! I was very surprised when I got the survey email. For those of you that don't know, Influenster is this great website where you can share your opinions on different products. If you're lucky enough, they'll even send you a VoxBox full of products to try. This particular one is the J'Adore Voxbox, a Valentines Day themed VoxBox. Here are all of the products I recieved:

 Here are my thoughts on each individual product. I will be posting a separate review of the Boots Botanical Ionic Clay Mask later today so please check back for it.

Hershey's Kisses

There's not much for me to say about this, everyone knows about Hershey's kisses. They're great when in need of a little chocolate. I love incooperating these into recipes, such as peanut butter blossoms and chocolate covered pretzels. I also love shaving a little on top of whipped cream when I have hot chocolate.

Red Rose Simply Indulge Tea: Crème Caramel and Lemon Chiffon

I love tea. I'm not a coffee person, I always have to have my tea. I love trying new flavors, I was very excited to find some samples from Red Rose's new Simply Indulge line. 3 bags of Crème Caramel and 1 bag of Lemon Chiffon.

Crème Caramel:

This tea has such a great calming caramel aroma. There is a caramel flavor to this tea, but it is light and not overpowering. It has a hint of sweetness without being overly so. It is a fun tea to have when you want to indulge or just a little something different. I tried this two ways: with just steeped water and with a little half and half. When I tried it with the added half and half, it had a creamier and a little richer taste. It was heavenly. 

After having 2 of my sample bags, I had to buy it. I also got a great coupon on my VoxBox to use towards the tea. Sadly none of the stores in my town carried it. I will however keep looking until I can get my hands on a box.

Lemon Chiffon:

This is yet another delicious tea. It has a light lemon candy scent. When I tried it, I tried it without adding anything. It had a light lemon flavor with a hint of sweetness, but not overpowering. I usually drink black tea with just lemon so this flavor was welcoming to me.

With how much I loved the two flavors I was given to try, I can't wait to try the rest of the line.

John Frieda Frizz Ease 3 Day Straight Spray

To be honest I wasn't expecting to get anything from this product. Unless I curl my hair, have it recovering from being in a bun or braids or unless it dried weirdly, my hair is normally straight and I don't deal with too much frizz. 

I used this spray on my wet hair out of the shower, slightly towel dried. It was reccomended to use 7-15 sprays. I did 8 since I have really long hair. I blow dried and straightened my hair as directed.

The first thing I noticed: how silky and moisturized my hair felt! It also was shiny and had a little body. It felt and looked amazing!! As a person that has problems with dry hair, this is definitely a plus for me.

Kiss Looks So Natural Lashes in Pretty

Kiss came out with these new eyelashes and I think they're a great idea! They are meant to look more natural. Something I find pretty different is their tapered end. Most false eyelashes have blunt ends.

They went on just like any other strip eyelashes, but I had to be careful. The band didn't feel very sturdy and I thought I was going to break them a few times. 

I did like that they felt lightweight and not heavy like most lashes. I love the look of dramatic eyelashes. These aren't all that dramatic, but they were longer than my naturally long lashes and they gave me  some more volume. Although they seem too long to look natural to me, they are beautiful and as close to natural as you could get with false eyelashes.

They are good for when you want a little extra oomph, they would be good day time eyelashes.

Unfortunately, I had to trim mine down. I wear glasses and it can be very annoying when your eyelashes repeatedly bump your lenses. I even have this problem when I wear just mascara. Curling the lashes helped a little, but not completely. So if you wear glasses, these may not be the pair for you.

Overall, I did like these lashes. They're pretty and I love how lightweight they are.


Keep an eye out for my review of the Boots Botanics Ionic Clay Shine Away mask, which I will be posting later today. 

Spring Fever VoxBox

Disclaimer: All products featured in this post were given to me complimentary of Influenster


This post is a little late, but I received the Spring Fever VoxBox. Throughout this week and into next week, I will be posting reviews of all of the products in the box. Here's a little preview of everything I got, I can't wait to share my thoughts on everything!

Not Your Mother's® Beach Babe™ Texturizing Sea Salt Spray

Disclaimer: The travel size of the product was given to me complimentary from Influenster. The full sized bottle was purchased with my own money.

 I know I have reviewed this before, this is an updated review. I have a few things about this product that I couldn't mention in my original review and I also would like to compare the full size to the trial size I received in my VoxBox.

If you don't know about Not Your Mother's hair products then you are missing out! They have a wide range of great products at very low prices.

My favorite product of theirs is the Beach Babe Texturizing Sea Salt Spray. I had owned the full sized product before (more about this later), so I was very excited when I opened my VoxBox to see a travel size of Beach Babe.

On the bottle, Not Your Mother's claims:

Now everyday can be a day at the beach...minus the sunburn. Beach Babe has everyone fooled into thinking you just left the beach (you little liar!). It adds sexy, tousled waves and a lite matte finish to any hair type. Infused with natural Dead Sea salt & sea kelp this salon formula has you and your hair on the boardwalk all year long.

Beach Babe is easy to use, just spray it liberally all over your hair and scrunch it up. That's it! When I go out I like to spray Beach Babe and then scrunch my hair as tightly as I can into a claw clip (a nice big octopus claw clip works best), then do my makeup as the spray dries. It's perfect for when you want to add some style and volume but you don't have the time. You can also use this on wet or dry hair, personally I have found it works better with dry hair.

It also smells amazing! It has a coconut-ty tropical scent that makes you want to see it just for the scent.

This product does indeed work, but my hair does not hold a curl or a wave well so it sadly doesn't last long in my hair. This is just me, however and if your hair can hold a wave or curl well this should work much better on you.

I mentioned before that I used to own the full sized bottle of this spray. One day while my mom was getting something from the cabinet where I store my hair styling products it fell and the bottle broke! Right at the very bottom of the bottle and product went everywhere. If you buy this spray keep in mind that it is in a plastic bottle and if it falls, it will break.






 Here is the fullsized bottle so you can see how they differ:

                                                   


The design of the full sized bottle is a little more complex (but not difficult to use). There is a tab you have to move to open and close it. The tab could be moved easily in a bag, so I am very thankful for the travel size. The travel size has a normal pump and a cap. The cap doesn't fall off easily so there won't be product all over your bag. Although I do love the pump on the full sized bottle more, the  pump on the travel sized bottle is more practical.

 
I overall love this product and I will of course re-buy the full sized bottle and when I use up the travel size I will replace that as well. There is also a cream version of Beach Babe available now and I would love to try that to see how it compares.

For more about Not Your Mother's products visit: http://bit.ly/X9D4gH . For more on Beach Babe Visit: http://bit.ly/14G5TDQ .

Skinnygirl Daily On-The-Go Bars Review

 Disclaimer: Everything in this post was given to me complimentary from Influenster.

Skinnygirl On-the-Go Bars are essentially granola bars that are natural, kosher, high in fiber and best of all only 180 calories per bar. The one that I received in my VoxBox and that I am reviewing is the Coco-nut with peanut butter.

When I first saw this in my VoxBox, I was not excited. I actually dreaded trying this. I thought it would be some gross health food and I am not the health food type. After putting it off, one day while typing up a review and taking pictures for the review I decided to dig in.

I was pleasantly surprised, the bar was delicious! It tasted mostly of coconut (which I love) with a hint of peanut butter. It was a great and quick snack to have while working on a blog post. This is something I could see making a great breakfast on the go. It was surprisingly filling as well.

If I ever saw these bars in a store, I would definitely buy them over my normal Quaker granola bars. They are that good.

For more about Skinnygirl visit:  http://bit.ly/Z82f6r . For more on Skinnygirl products visit: http://bit.ly/W2l6g1

Olay Fresh Effects VaVa Vivid Cleansing System Review

 Disclaimer: Everything in this post was given to my complimentary from Influenster.

I was so excited when I opened my Influenster VoxBox and saw this. Not only was it a cleanser from Olay, a brand my mom and I have trusted for years but it also came with a brush. I do love my Sephora face cleansing brush but I've always wanted to try an electric brush.

Shine, Shine Go Away! is a powdered cleanser meant to minimize shine. This type of cleanser is ideal for anyone with oily skin and problems with shiny skin. The brush is meant to give a deep clean and fit into facial contours.

I found the cleanser to be drying, which I expected from a powdered cleanser. To me it isn't a huge deal because I can always put on some moisturizer. My skin has been terrible these past few months. After using this cleanser for just about every day for a week, I saw an improvement in the overall look and feel of my skin. It does cleanse well. It also smells great and lathers well.

I was most excited to try the brush this cleansing system came with, but I was disappointed with it. The brush doesn't have normal bristles, but semi chunky rubber bristles. I am not impressed with that. I expected the brush head to move or at least do something more when turner on, all it did was lightly vibrate.  By far the biggest disappointment of the brush: its size. This brush is really small! It is nice for fitting into the contours of your face and reaching those harder to clean places but it is too small. I would've liked it a lot more if the brush was larger.

My only other complaint is for some reason after using this cleanser, the brush has a not so pleasant smell. I'm not sure why.

Olay claims that this system will give a 400% better clean. It does clean very well but I wouldn't go as far to say that my skin was that much cleaner. I feel that my Sephora brush gives a much better clean.

Over all, I did like this product even though I have many complaints about the brush. I would totally buy this cleanser again, but I wouldn't buy the brush. I will be sticking to my Sephora brush.

You can purchase this cleansing system from www.olayfresheffects.com and www.amazon.com . If you just want to learn more about the Olay Fresh Effects system just visit http://www.olayfresheffects.com/ .

Secret Clinical Strength Stress Response Review

 Disclaimer: Everything in this post was given to me complimentary by Influenster.

I didn't know what to think when a deodorant was included in my SweetHeart VoxBox. I have always been a Dove girl and I had never even thought of trying any other deodorant.

Secret claims that their  Clinical Strength Stress Response deodorant contains a triple action technology that provides prescription strength against wetness, odor fighting capsules to absorb odor and skin smoothing conditioners. It also boasts that it is a sponsor of Oprah's Lifeclass.

I was pretty excited to try this deodorant. Anyone that knows me personally probably knows by now that I stress a lot and I stress over a lot of things. So this  would be the perfect deodorant for me. Now does it actually work?

I tried this deodorant in a few different ways. First I put it on as I normally would at the beginning of the day. At the end of that day there was absolutely zero wetness.

The next way I tried it was as directed at bedtime. Any time I used this before bed, my underarms were completely dry when that normally isn't the case (I know, too much information. Sorry!).

Lastly, I tried this deodorant the day I got my wisdom teeth removed, which was an extremely stressful day for me. This deodorant did live up to its name. It protected me from normal and stress sweat, keeping my underarms completely dry.





Overall, this is a great deodorant. It has worked well every time and every way that I have tried it. I got the Serene Citrus scent, which smelled great and lasted all day.

 At first I didn't like how this was more of a wet/cream deodorant instead of a solid one, but I am used to it now and I don't mind it. I would totally buy this again.

To find out more about Secret deodorant, visit: http://bit.ly/XSlF9h .

Influenster SweetHeart VoxBox

                                                             
                       Everything in this post was given to me complimentary from Influenster.

As you may know from previous posts, I do a lot with Influenster.com. I have gotten a VoxBox from them before and had so much fun participating in the program and reviewing all of the products. I was even more excited when I was selected to receive this VoxBox, the SweetHeart VoxBox. I was very surprised when I opened my box to see all of this:

In the box was a travel size of Not Your Mother's Beach Babe spray, Olay Fresh Effects Va Va Vivid cleansing system, Skinnygirl Daily Skinnygirl On-the-Go Bar, and Secret Clinical Strength Stress Response deodorant.

The outside of the box also had a pink heart glued to it, which I thought was really cute.

I will be posting individual review posts for everything I received (yes, even the Skinnygirl bar, even though this is a beauty blog). These review posts might not be up for a week or two, next week I will be getting all of my wisdom teeth out at once and I will need some time to recover from that. I'm hoping to have at least some of the reviews posted this weekend or even the end of next week. Don't worry about not seeing posts from me next week, I already have some queued to post! Keep your eyes out for reviews of all of these products, which will be coming soon to this blog. I can't wait to share what I think!