influenster: jingle voxbox

Influenster jingle voxbox

I recently got the chance to receive a jingly voxbox from influenster (join here!). All these products were given to me for free, in exchange for posting reviews/photos (super easy, right?). This is a great site to join if you want to try different things before you buy (or if you are trying to discover your inner girly-girl like me). Some of these items I never would have thought to purchase. This blog post will outline each product and what I loved (or didn't care for) for each one. the blue links will link to each company's facebook page. Enjoy :)

hallmark itty bittys

 Hallmark itty bittys are these tiny stuffed toys. They have a ton of different characters (we got spiderman. There was also other superheros, frozen, princesses star wars...the list goes on). These are super cute and my kids adored them.

Biscoff cookies are marketed as "Europe's favorite cookie with coffee" which is a fair statement. They are pretty decent as a stand alone, though not my favorite cookie. However dunked in coffee (or as part of one of the many recipes you can find linked on their facebook page or on pinterest) they are a pretty amazing cookie. There is also a spread available that I need to try and get my hands on.

Cetaphil moisturizing cream was one of my favorite product I reviewed. I have extremely dry feet that get worse in the winter. I put some cream on before bed and had some good results overnight (and improving each time I use it). The jar reads fragrance free and is pretty accurate. No funky smell that I would expect from a cream that actually works.

Ore-Ida was already a household brand for us before receiving it. We get their frozen fries fairly often. What was fun about this sampling is that I was given some recipes to try, as I normally think of frozen tots as a stand alone side. We ended up making some cheesy tots for my kiddos in a picky mood (check out my blog post on that here) but there was a ton of other recipes that looked good. Ore-Ida overall has great quality and taste, the tater tots are no exception.

NYC 24 hours city proof eyeliner was an adventure for me. I've worn eyeliner before and thought it looked nice, but I've never done it myself. It took quite a few tries to get the line to look decent. Other than my inability to draw a straight line and stop from blinking, the eye liner went on smooth and did last (no make up wipes here, so I had to use coconut oil and tissues to remove). The color was great (dark brown) and once I get some more practice it'll be more fun to apply.

Pure ice nail polish is exclusively sold at walmart. The price is great and it comes in so many fun colors! The one above is called silver star, a fitting name for the shiny color. It lasts about a week before it starts to chip. The only thing I was not a fan of is that it does take a while to dry (I don't often wear nail polish, so that may be a normal thing. I had used some quick drying polish a few years back) and I'm usually running around so I prefer something that dries quicker. For the price and color, it's a great deal.

Kiss nails fake lashes were another interesting adventure for me. I have literally never worn them in my life. After a quick search and a thorough instruction reading, I was ready to try! These lashes (which are not adhesived in the photo above!) are nice and thick and really make a difference. It was fun to try, and I would recommend the brand to anyone who likes to make their lashes full and pretty--it's just not my thing. It was fun to try once. :)

Overall, I had a great time trying these products out and taking the photos you see here. I'm having fun learning what type of products are for me (and how to better use them!) and thanks to influenster, I get to do it for free!

Making Ore-Ida Totchos

Ore-Ida cheesy tots!

I recently got the chance to try Ore-Ida for free from Influnester as part of the jingle voxbox. I've got four kids who are all potato obsessed: mashed, fries, hashbrown, tater tots....any way they can take it. My original intent was to make loaded tots: load those puppies up with cheese, sour cream, and bacon (check out that recipe, alone with some others over at kraft!). Note to self: do that up for the next get together. Since it was a side dish for the kiddos who were in a "ewww sour cream???" mood, I just cooked the tots based on the cooked directions in a casserole dish and piled on the cheese immediately when it came out of the oven (to melt it a bit. yum!). I also sprinkled on a touch of raspberry salt to season (a local farmers market find--try a touch of sea salt!). A very kid friendly and simple recipe that takes almost no extra time.

pasta with a side of Ore-Ida!

the kids chowing down

Hosted party: weight watchers morning glow party

spending some time with my favorite people!

Weight Watchers is one of the best weight loss programs I've had experience with. Ive never been a paying member, but my mom has been most of my life. I remember her going to meeting when I was younger, and she fairly recently started going back again. She lost over 100 pounds by eating better and getting active. I got the chance to try out their new smart points app (not related to this hosted party event!) and it was really neat to see how points were calculated and helped me cut down on late night snacks and make better eating choices. When crowdtap announced a chance to host a weight water party, I jumped on it. With the new year, a bunch of my family and close friends have a healthier life style as a new years resolution--and what a fun way to kick it off!! The idea behind the party was a morning brunch--we turned it into a dinner party. For the party,c rowdtap supplied us with some fun goodies:

weight watcher party it!

Included was a neat spa kit for me (hostess gift! yes!), a pretty table decoration, a glowing backdrop, a selfie stick (!!!), glow sticks, beach balls (we stuck the glow sticks inside and had a blast!), journals, and most importantly: a recipe book! For the party (check out a sample of weight watcher recipes here), I made raspberry-peach smoothies (six points) and blue berry-peach cornmeal cupcakes (six points) as well as a low fat baked ziti entree for dinner (8 points) and some cheesy tots for the kids (I swear!). The cornmeal cupcakes were amazing! I made them mini-sized to make a cute 3 point snack (and they came cleanly out of the pan! woohoo!). The smoothie was good, I am in desperate need of a new blender (I found this out the hard way, of course!) so it was a bit thick, but tasted really good. I'll have to revisit once I replace my blender. overall, it was a fun night. We all got to talk and motivate each other, share some recipes, take some fun photos, and play with glowing balls! Check out our photos below!

mini cupcakes!

pre-party selfie :)

table set up!

smoothies :)

kids table--sort of!

love the back drop!

showing off our journals!

dance party!

Influenster voxbox: covergirl

influenster voxbox: covergirl

I come from a long line of women who don't "do" makeup. My mom couldn't have taught me if she wanted to. My younger sister went through a phases of funky bright eyes and fishnets, but none of us could even tell you how to use mascara. Fairly recently, I've noticed how my age is catching up to me, along with some genetic dark circles (you'll get to see those later...). Earlier this month, I went to see the amazing Max with some girl friends who insisted on making me up before we went. I looked cute! I was excited. What bummed me out was getting the stuff off my face afterwards. I was excited to try covergirl when I got the email from influenster that I was selected to receive the voxbox. Inside the voxbox was two new products: Plumpify mascara and oh suagr! (I adore the name!) lip balm. I played around with them both, and found that they are both amazing. I think I may have found my brand after not searching very hard!

covergirl pumpify mascara by blastPRO

I'll be totally honest here: every other time I've worn mascara in my life, someone else has applied it to me. Including my wedding day, and the Max show referenced above. I was totally nervous for this. I youtubed a few videos to see exactly how it was done (while my husband tried not to laugh at me as he got ready for work) and decided to give it a go. Either I have a natural talent for not poking my eye out, or the new larger brush that comes with the plumpify mascara is really amazing (I vote the second one is more likely). I can't promise I did it perfectly (scroll down and see for yourself...) but I thought it looked decent. You could definitely tell they looked darker and fuller. The best part? When I got a bit on my eye lid, it wiped right off with a baby wipe! Easy removal is a must for me after one particular day I spent looking like a racoon. I liked that when I pulled the brush from the tube, it wasn't gunky with extra mascara. it went on smoothly with no clumping and did not make my eye lashes feel heavy or weird.

covergirl Oh Sugar! in sprinkle

Now, lip balm I can handle. I spent most of the 90's up to my ears with bonnie bell chapstick. This lip balm is made with grapeseed oil, avocado butter, and vitamins C & E. It goes on smoothly. It's subtle yet cute with a hint of sweetness. The shade I got is called sprinkle (I am loving everything about this product name!) and it's a light subtle pink that I adore. Other shade names featured on the information card: jelly, punch, and cupcake. What's not to love??

As always, keep scrolling for some fun photos I took during my sampling time! I've also included a link to the mascara ad, as it features Katy Perry and makes me happy.

close up of the brush

love that it can stand on it's own!

before and after

all done! ;)

showing off the goods!

Sample share: Fast acting Advil® Film-Coated

sample kit

My newest crowdtap adventure (more coming this month--I've had a great sampling month!) is fast acting Advil® Film-Coated. I've been an advil fan for quite a while (I do have a tad of a bias towards Ibuprofen products as I feel they work better than acetaminophen and other pain killers) and have tried the fast acting film coated a few times before. What was improved this time, was that I didn't get heart burn (I had had that issue the first few times I've tried it). The film is a bit sweet, which makes it go down more pleasantly. True to its name, it works fast. I took some in response to a headache and it went away quickly. I normally feel like all Ibuprofen products are equal (and have a cabinet full of walmart brand to prove it!) but I feel like this product goes above and beyond and is worth the extra price vs. generic. You can also often find coupons in the paper and online (bonus!).

sample selfie! ;)

Kyra and Derf excited to try their samples!

Sample share: splenda granulated

splenda kit

Next up this month: splenda no calorie sweetener, granulated from crowdtap! I am not a huge fan of sweeteners. I've tried, I really have. While I can appreciate some recipes (I made some amazing not-so-naughty egg nog one year that came out amazing!) I have found that mostly, unless you get lucky or prepare something just right, they leave a funky taste. This box said right on it "tastes like sugar" so I decided to test the theory. I had a taste right from the box! And while I wouldn't say the taste is exactly the same, it wasn't bad! No gross after taste (which I thoroughly expected after a straight up taste!), it actually tasted good, melted in my mouth, and the texture was fun (think of fluffy snow candy). One of the fun optional parts of the challenge was to make some recipes using granulated splenda. I opted to do two of the three, with some minor adjustments:

Baby Spinach 'n bacon salad

The first one I did was the baby spinach 'n bacon salad (recipe here). We skipped the croutons and red onion and added in some cheese. I was nervous about the dressing at first because it smelled very mustardy when I was preparing it. However, it ended up being a nice vinaigrette with just a touch of mustard. It was a pleasant dressing with a nice taste. I just had to bring some over to my mom and step dad, who raved about it when they tried it. It was my first time making my own dressing and was very pleased with both the recipe and how it turned out (scroll down for more images!)

peppermint-mocha delight

The second recipe I tackled was the peppermint-mocha delight (here). Since we are a keriug household and my husband had already got a coffee when I did this, I prepared it a bit different. I put the splenda/milk/extract/chocolate mixture in the microwave for 10 seconds at a time as if I was melting chocolate for my molds or dipping. When it was a nice smooth mixture, I put the cup under the keriug and brewed a cup. I skipped the whipped topping. It was smooth with just the right bit of sweetness. As a mocha fiend, I've always bought my mocha coffees since I feel the flavor add ins never are good enough. This recipe was pretty much perfect! I'm excited that I can now make my own mocha coffees at home. It was also quick and easy to do.

Overall, granulated splenda is by far my favorite sweetener. I can't wait to explore more recipes. Scroll on down for more photos! ;)

handy pour spout and a glimpse of the fun texture

ready to make salad!

making dressing

sampling!

"I love it!!!"

someone isnt too sure ;)

bowl o' salad

working on my chocolate mixture for my peppermint-mocha delight