Blossom VoxBox UnBoxing
I recently received this lovely (not so) little box in the mail after having been away on a vacation. It's always fun to come home and have a surprise box of goodies waiting for you to open and try. This is the Blossom VoxBox sent to me for testing and review, complimentary of Influenster :)
If you have never heard of Influenster, they have created a platform for social-media butterflies to connect, learn and review new or upcoming products from a variety of markets. If you'd like to get involved with Influenster and sign up check them out at my affiliate link. Once signed up you can take a few "snaps" which are mini-surveys to help the kind people of Influenster connect you with the best VoxBox campaigns to fit your lifestyle. They are very social-savvy and constantly posting on their various social media platforms, even hosting "Twitter Parties" to talk about current or upcoming products. Many of these Twitter Parties end with door prizes and give-away's, so it's not just about being their product testing robot :)
So, what did my pretty green Blossom VoxBox have inside for me???
Read 'em and weep!
9 Products just waiting to be eaten, wore, smelt and tested :)
First up, Beanitos "The Original Bean Chip"
Yummy little chips with the first ingredient listed as Whole Black Beans. I have heard of these before but have never gotten the courage to buy a whole bag; I mean, who wants to buy a whole bag of chips that you might not like! Being slightly afraid to test our the Chiptole flavor (not sure how spicy they might be) I dove right in to the Original Black Bean bag and was pleasantly surprised. They had a good flavor and a light dusting of Sea Salt and tasted great dipped in fresh salsa from a local Mexican restaurant. My very skeptical husband (who eats corn tortilla chips by the 5 pound bag) even said they tasted good; not like corn tortilla chips, but good. He continued on to ask how much they cost, which is a good indicator that he'd be interested in buying them in the future.
Next in line, Bear Naked Granola
in "Sea Salt Caramel Apple" and "Coconut Almond Curry"
I have yet to try either of these flavors but find it interesting the flavors that they sent. On one hand the "Sea Salt Caramel Apple" is a safe granola flavor and on the other hand "Coconut Almond Curry" is a flavor that is going to test the general preconception about what granola is supposed to taste like. More often than not granola is seen as a sweet topping that can be added to an already sweet meal (think, yogurt and fruit) but the Coconut Almond Curry makes me think it might be good used as an addition to a savory meal. Part of me wants to grind it down a little in a food processor and use it to coat a piece of chicken breast to see if I come up with a Chicken Coconut Curry meal without the actual use of a curry sauce. As for the Sea Salt Caramel Apple, that bag is going in my travel snack stash :) Soon to be pulled out for eating on my next road trip.
Moving on to the Sally Hansen Water-Resistant Airbrush Legs
"Leg Makeup" in Medium
While it's not quite short or skirt weather here in the Pacific Northwest, this will definitely make my legs look less pale when going to the gym. While this might seem vain, having tan legs is very helpful for girls with dark hair and pale legs. There is a running joke in my family that we come from a line of Sasquatches and even if we shave our legs in the morning you can still see what looks like stubble because you can see the hair follicles through the skin. So having tan legs (real or fake) makes the hair follicle less noticeable, and having a product like this is much safer than a real tan. Only downside is the chemical smell, but you're going to get that with nearly all tanning lotion products.
Now, Australian Gold Lotion Sunscreen
Broad SPF 30
Speaking of Real Tans, Influenster also sent me a travel size of the SPF 30 lotion sunscreen from Australian Gold. While I don't go tanning like I did when I was younger, I still do love to be outdoors and this little bottle will come very much in handy when the summer rolls around and we are back out on the trails and beaches up here on the coast. It's also nice that it doesn't smell awful, it actually smells like the yummy tanning lotion I used way back in the day. Now I can enjoy the yummy smell I so lovingly associate with summer without having to be all greasy and sprawled out in the sun :)
Fun Times with the City Proof 24 HR Eye Shadow
in Brooklyn Mocha from NewYork Color
This eye shadow stick is a little different than others I have tried (or am currently using like the one I have from Milani). The color is really good and it goes on smooth but what I love most about this eye shadow stick is that you don't have to sharpen it but rather the bottom black cap twists to twist the product up like a retractable eyeliner. I don't know if there is a way to sharpen the end to the semi-point it has when you first open the product, but even with a dull rounded tip it would be a great eye shadow stick. I will definitely be going down to the store to check out what other colors this little shadow stick comes in. This will be a perfect addition to my summer make up routine to hopefully make my mornings go a little faster.
All Natural Pasta Zero Shirataki Spaghetti from Nasoya
I have tried Shirataki noodles from other companies but all of the ones I have tried have the common denominator of a rubbery noodle-esque excuse of a food item. Maybe it was user error but after multiple tries I had given up on the wonder of Shirataki noodles. After reading a few other reviews and articles I decided to par-boil these noodles before pan-frying them for a stir fry dinner with chow mein. The par-boil really did help the texture of the noodles and kept them from completely sticking to the frying pan (like last time I tried to make them). The noodles themselves have almost no flavor but they do take on the flavor of what you mix them with. So I mixed mine with a little soy sauce and mandarin sauce and they tasted great. They definitely aren't your normal chow mein noodles but if you are trying to cut your calories and carbs these are a way to go. The whole bag has about 30 calories and 8 grams of carbs so if you add that to some stir fried veggies and beef you'll end up with a very tasty Chinese dinner for a very low carb expenditure.
Last item in the Blossom VoxBox ~
Hair Food Root Cleansing Shampoo by Clairol
I am pretty darn picky about what I put on my hair, especially shampoo and conditioner. Before trying this shampoo I went to Target looking to see if I could get the matching conditioner before trying this on my hair since I always try to use a matching shampoo and conditioner; but there wasn't one... With much reluctance I went ahead and tried this on my hair and just bypassed using conditioner to see what this would do to my hair all on it's own, and how my hair would style after using it. Clarifying shampoos are supposed to be great at removing all of the excess buildup from other products and I can say this shampoo did just that. I'm not sure that I like the end result (which may be avoided if using a conditioner) because my hair was a lot bigger than normal and I battled mad static all day. The static could be due to the fact that I washed my hair with this a day prior to doing a 6 hr road trip; leaving the coast, driving over a mountain ridge and spending the day in a valley (and driving back the same day). So spending that much time in the car probably didn't help my static issue, but none the less it was bad. What I can say is that I will probably use this shampoo once a week to help remove any build up that might be there. But maybe it will be used on a day that I don't plan to leave the house :)
That's All Folks!
PS, quick disclaimer :)
"I received these products complimentary from Influenster for testing purposes."
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