Dot&Dot Multi-Purpose Bag

When I received my box of Dot&Dot Packing cubes, I also received their Multi-Purpose Bag. Since I liked the packing cubes, I was hoping that this bag would be just as good. 

I received the x-small version of the bag. This one is 7.5" x 3.5" x 1". That makes it ideal for carrying smaller travel-sized products or a few bottles of nail polish, as seen in the picture above.  A rather heavy-duty zipper holds the bag closed while a clip hangs from one end in order to clip the bag to your luggage. 

While there aren't a ton of things that will fit into the x-small bag, it has been put together very well. I would probably get a lot of use out of the larger bags for carrying around my shampoo, conditioner, and deodorant when the family goes away on vacation. I would probably get more than one bag so I can keep my daughter's stuff separate from mine. If you travel a lot, these bags are definitely worth the price. 

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Oleavine Konjac Charcoal Sponge

I have a bit of a fascination with charcoal beauty products. On one hand, they seem to work very well. On the other hand, they tend to be very messy. When I got the chance to review the Konjac Charcoal Sponge by Oleavine, I was super excited. 

Supposedly, you do not need to use any sorts of cleansers with this sponge. You just wet it and wash. When I wet the sponge, I was very surprised that no black charcoal bits came out. Of course, this makes me wonder if there is actually any charcoal in it. I used to use Lush's Dark Angel face cleanser, which has charcoal, and it was a big black mess all over my bathroom sink. This didn't even have any black water, like when you get a new Brita filter. That left me suspicious about their charcoal claims. 

Even if there is no charcoal in the sponge, it is pretty nice. It is rock hard, almost like a pumice stone, when you get it but it gets super soft as soon as it gets wet. Even though I didn't use any cleansers with it, it also somehow managed to make my skin feel smooth. Though I will admit that I did not feel any sort of exfoliation, which is another claim Oleavine makes about their sponge. 

In the end, I am very torn on the sponge. I am rather disappointed about the lack of charcoal in the sponge. I was hoping that this would be something like the Dark Angel cleanser but in a sponge form. In reality, what I got was a nice soft sponge that just did sponge things. Maybe I can find a way to use Dark Angel with this sponge and not make a complete mess of my bathroom. That would be pretty ideal. 

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Dot&Dot Packing Cubes

My house is rather small. It is over 100 years old and, as a result, has very little storage space. Unfortunately, between my husband, my daughter, and I, there is a ton of stuff.I was pretty thankful when the opportunity came up to give these small packing cubes by Dot&Dot a try. By the way, I picked the pink ones because that is my daughter's favorite color.

When the cubes arrived, I was a little disappointed. They seemed a lot smaller than I expected. Little did I know how much stuff I could fit in each cube! I have managed to pack all of the samples I've received from the various subscription boxes into one cube. It also made it a lot easier to carry around all of the makeup and hair supplies I needed for a recent photoshoot. However, I have not been able to convince my daughter to use a few of these cubes to clean up her room. I think they would be a great place to store all of the little toys or knickknacks that she has collected. 

I love these cubes so much that I think I might pick up a set of the larger cubes to try to store some summer clothes or something. I also love that they come in so many different colors. We can have pink cubes for my daughter, blue cubes for my husband, and red cubes for me. Organization, for the win! 

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

StyleWriter 4

I think I am a decent writer. Granted, I do better at "free thought" blog-style than I do at formal paper writing. I am just not a formal person. When I got the chance to try StyleWriter 4, I figured it might give me some tips on improving my writing. 

It turns out that StyleWriter kinda hates my writing. I copied one of my previous blog posts to my computer's clipboard and tossed it into StyleWriter. From what I can tell, you can't really do a copy/paste. You copy the text you want to use then you open StyleWriter and, BAM, there it is. Very weird. There also wasn't a way to directly type the text into the program. I would think it would do better as a sort of smart word processor but maybe this works for people.

StyleWriter 4 told me that I use a lot of "glue words." It seems that they consider adjectives and adverbs to be "glue words" and that these are terrible things. I think it makes my writing more personable and easy to read. It does give ideas on how to rewrite your work but I didn't think their rewrites worked with my style. 

There are three different versions of StyleWriter. The Starter Edition is for students and people on a budget. The Standard Edition has some advanced editing techniques. The Professional Edition is aimed at lawyers, journalists, and other academic writers. I'm fairly sure that my version was the Starter Edition. This version is extremely basic. You will get notes if you use a homonym incorrectly but I don't think you will get any amazing editing from it. 

If you would like to give StyleWriter 4 a try, they are offering a free trial of the software. You can download that here: www.editorsoftware.com/stylewriter. Let me know if you think it is a useful tool or complete garbage. I'd love to know what other people think about it. 

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Old Factory Candle Gift Set Review & Giveaway!

I love candles but I don't get to burn them very often. My house is filled with all sorts of things (both animal- and people-related) that will easily knock over a lit candle. The last thing I need is my house burning down! Sometimes I burn candles in my office but not very frequently because there is a LOT of paper there. Fire hazards everywhere! But I couldn't resist the Winter Wonderland gift set from Old Factory Candles. I know, I know. I hate winter. These aren't cold, though. They just smell like winter.

The gift set contains three 2 ounce soy candles. This particular set has Hot Cocoa, Roasted Chestnut, and First Snow as the scents. I mostly picked it for the Hot Cocoa. I can never have too much chocolate!

Hot Cocoa smells exactly like a steaming cup of hot cocoa! Just like cocoa, the scent is more along the lines of a dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate. It is a very deep, pure chocolate smell. If you have ever been on the tour in Hershey's Chocolate World, you can find a similar smell in the beginning parts of the tour. It is delicious!

Roasted Chestnut is a little more difficult to describe. You would think that it would have a nutty smell but it doesn't. It has a light scent that sort of has a vanilla type of feel to it. I think that this would probably be good if you are looking for a scent that isn't very overpowering. Something that will just give you a slight wintery feel without going overboard like a pine tree or gingerbread scented candle might.

First Snow is an interesting scent. I'm not even sure how to describe it. I wouldn't say that it smells like snow. It has a little more of a baby powder type smell to it? I don't know. It smells nice but it is a scent that has you thinking "I should know what this is but I don't." Very weird.

If these scents aren't for you, they have a ton of others available. Coffee Shop, with Coffee Bean, Hazelnut, and Chai Tea scents, sounds perfect for the person that loves coffee. There is a Fall Harvest set that contains Pumpkin Spice, Cranberry, and Autumn Leaves, which might be great to get your house set for Thanksgiving dinner. Or, if you are super into Christmas, there is a Happy Holidays set with Christmas Tree, Candy Cane, and Gingerbread scents. And there are even sets for the "Manly Man" type. The Man Cave set has Straight Razor, Leather, and Mahogany, which definitely sounds interesting. 

So even though I'm not ready for it to be winter yet, I'll be burning some of these candles to try to try to get me hyped for the colder months. Maybe they will help me get through the next six months until summer comes back. I'm ready for you, summer!

Old Factory is being awesome enough to give away one of their candle sets for free! The giveaway runs from November 11 through November 18. Good luck!

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Returning full blast next week!

I am so sorry that I have been absent this week. I somehow managed to get an awful cold that has thrown me for a loop. Instead of doing fun things like testing products and writing, I have spent this week sleeping all of my free time away. But now I am on my way back to normal! (Not that I know what "normal" is....) So, expect lots of new reviews and whatnot starting Monday. I can't wait to tell you about some of the stuff I've been trying. It'll be exciting! 

Green Smoothies: The Weight Loss & Detox Secret

I've always been intrigued by smoothies. Like everyone else, I want to eat healthier and be healthier but smoothies always seem to take more effort than they are really worth. So, when I received a copy of the Green Smoothies ebook, I figured I would give it a try. 

There are 8 chapters in the beginning of the book that give you a little information about green smoothies. Ranging from the health benefits of these smoothies to tips on how to make your smoothie tastier, these short chapters should not be skipped. They are only two or three pages each anyway. 

The bulk of the book is made up of various recipes. I haven't had a chance to try every single recipe but they all sound very delicious. My favorite recipes are the ones with nuts in them. Since my daughter got braces in April, she isn't supposed to eat nuts. This is an easy way to make sure she gets the nutritional value from the nuts without taking the chance that she will break a bracket or something. 

I'm looking forward to trying more of the green smoothie recipes. Healthy living, here I come! 

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Secret Outlast

No one wants to be stinky, right? That is why deodorant was invented. However, most people stick to one certain brand and almost never try anything else. I know that is true for me, at least. I use the Secret Scent Expressions (on the right in the picture) clear gel. It's lavender. I like lavender. But I did jump at the chance to give Outlast a try. Maybe I would find a whole new world of deodorants.

For the most part, Outlast and Scent Expressions are the same. They are both clear gels, meaning you aren't getting that white powdery residue all over your clothes. And they both keep you dry and unstinky throughout the day. The big difference is just their scent. As I already said, I use Scent Expressions in lavender, but the Outlast is in Completely Clean. I think I was expecting something along the lines of baby powder or that "clean laundry" scent you can get in fabric softener sheets. Instead, it smells a lot like alcohol to me. Thankfully, that smell doesn't stick around once you put it on. I would hate to walk around smelling like rubbing alcohol. 

Even though this particular "flavor" of deodorant isn't my favorite, I will still use my Secret Scent Expressions. I am quite satisfied with the odor protection but I like the fact that it keeps my clothes looking nice even better. 

What is your favorite deodorant? Maybe that will be my new favorite too! 

Disclaimer: I received this product for free from BzzAgent. All opinions contained within are mine and mine alone. 

Vitamin C Serum

I am pretty terrible to my skin. I love taking rather hot showers, which makes my face turn bright red. It is a little embarrassing. Thankfully, Sano Naturals sent me some of their Vitamin C Serum to try. 

Here is how I used it: After I got out of the shower and dried off, I would put a dropper full of the serum in my hand. I would rub my palms together then smear the serum all over my face. (I said I was terrible to my skin, didn't I?) As I finished the rest of my morning routine, the redness would disappear. Now, I know the redness didn't just fade by itself. I have spent entire days walking around flushed. So the serum did help it along. I'm not sure that it had any other effects on my skin but I am glad it helps the redness go away.

I also got a sample of their eye gel. I have had problems with eye gels in the past. Most of them are very sticky. It is annoying when your eyelashes stick to your cheeks every time you blink. Instead of using it twice a day, I only used it at night and I only used a very little bit. I didn't notice any changes in the skin around my eyes. It is possible that I need to use a little more or give it a few more days to work. 

The one down side about both of these products is that they do not tell you how much product to use. The containers just say where to put the serum or gel. That makes it a little difficult to know if you are using the correct amount, which may be the issue with the eye gel. However, I do like the containers for both items. The serum is in a bottle with a dropper cap and the eye gel is in a tiny jar. I found the dropper much easier to use over the squirt nozzles that most other companies put on their bottles. I also prefer the eye gel in the jar. It lets me scoop out however much (or little!) I want. 

I'm not sure if I would recommend either product to anyone. The serum did calm the redness but it didn't seem to do anything else. The gel didn't seem to do anything at all. I suppose they are worth a try. After all, it is possible that I have completely screwed them up and you could do a better yourself. 

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

The Dream Ten: Where's Tony?

Where's Tony? is the second book in the Dream Ten series by A.D. Erving. Thankfully, for those of us that did not read the first book, there are player profiles in the front and back of the book to try to help us keep track of the book's key characters.

The Dream Ten series are various stories about a New York City youth basketball team. In this particular book, one of their players has gone missing after a semi-final game in the Lower-NYC All-Star League Winter Classic. Concerned, his teammates forgo practicing for their next match-up in order to find him. 

When I heard the book was about basketball, I was a little concerned. I'm not a huge basketball fan but I can read anything so I cracked it open. There actually is very little basketball in the story. The plot mostly revolves around the inner workings of the team and their friendships with each other. There were some super over-dramatic parts (the opening chapter tells us we will meet the devil) but kids that age tend to be Drama Bombs. Overall, it was a decent read. However, I think the book is more appropriate for boys in a 7-10 age range instead of the 7-14 age range it has listed. And, while the book does have some basketball, it feels a little disingenuous to call it a sports book. 

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.