Influenster VoxBox Review: #ClearProof from Mary Kay

Check it out folks! 

The latest Vox Box I received from Influenster.com is the Mary Kay #ClearChoice Vox Box! In it I received:

The Clear Choice Clarifying Gel
The Clear Proof Blemish Control Toner
The Clear Proof Acne Treatment Gel
The Clear Proof Oil-Free Moisturizer for Acne Prone Skin

It was pretty awesome that I received full size bottles and not teeny sample sizes. After about a month using the products I'm happy to see that I have a lot left. 

Now to how well the products worked for me.

At the time I received the Vox Box, I was struggling with an acne breakout on my chin that had been going on for about two months. It was really frustrating because well, I'm not a teenager anymore for God's sake! Also, I always make sure to wash my face and never wear make-up, but it didn't seem to matter because my face was still breaking out.

The suggestion for the products is to start using them once a day and then  gradually increasing to avoid initial excessive drying  of the skin.

I used the Cleansing Gel in the evenings, the Blemish Control Toner twice a day--and yes I did notice dryness in the areas I used it, the Acne Treatment Gel on spots as needed, and the Moisturizer I used twice a day.

I started noticing a difference in a little over a week of usage. My cheeks, which are prone to small spots cleared up completely, and the overall look of my forehead and cheeks smoothed and lost the oily, shiny evening look I am prone to.

The big problem area, my chin, was a tougher nut to crack. Large pimples were just plaguing it and making me miserable, and I made sure to use the toner and treatment gel on the spots twice a day. When the dryness occurred I used the moisturizer and remained patient.

It took about two weeks but the large, most persistent blemishes on my chin began to shrink and jump ship. YESSSSS!

As of today I am using the product every morning and night but the Acne Treatment Gel I have not needed in a week. My skin feels and looks great and I am so relieved to be free of annoying and embarrassing blemishes.

I highly recommend this product to anyone!


I received these products complimentary from Influenster for testing purposes.

Product Review: Influenster #IceCreamStockUp Part 2

Yowza!

So went back for MOAR ICE CREAM at Target. Remember kiddies, tomorrow is the last day for you to get in on the ice cream stock up and take advantage of a buy 3 get 1 free deal.

There are so many flavors to choose from in just the three brands! Magnum, Klondike, and Fruttare all offered a wealth of yummy. It was pretty hard to choose. Here is the final take:

Needless to say my family was VERY happy with this. Their favorite brand/flavor was the Magnum ice cream, with one box of it devoured on the spot!

Klondike scored very high as well. The classic flavor, no bells and whistles, you can't beat it.

 I tried the Wild Cherry flavor of Fruttare and I enjoyed it immensely! It wasn't too tart, and it was quite refreshing! The portion size was pretty small, more so than I expected in fact but it made for a decent snack.

All in all, I have to say this has been a super fun promotion from Influenster, Magnum, Klondike, Fruttare, and Target. Thanks so much to Influenster for letting me participate in the #icecreamstockup party, and for sending me the voucher for free ice cream so I could review it!



Keep up the awesome guys!

PRODUCT REVIEW: #icecreamstockup from Influenster! @Fruttare

Yay a sweet treat from Influenster!

Qualifying for a #voxbox or brand challenge from Influenster.com is such an exciting thing. This time around, I've received a voucher for a free box of ice cream treats. Granted, the shiny red envelope containing my voucher was a wee bit late in arriving but when I finally had it in hand it was OFF TO TARGET FOR MY FREE ICE CREAM! <--- free ice cream deserves to be all caps, n'est pas?

Shiny red envelope promising free ice cream is better than a golden ticket from WONKA! :)

So off to Target I went for my free ice cream. In this case I received a voucher for a free box of Fruttare ice cream. Super cool! The only problem, is when I got there I was met by this:

HEAVEN!

The choices of Fruttare I was met with were Strawberry and Milk, Coconut and Milk, and Mango Ice. Ugh! Too much yummy! Welp, since I have a free box anyhow, why not splurge and get all three? WOO! Once I've tried all three flavors I'll post a blog with my review :) . Sounds like I'm gonna be having Fruttare for lunch!

In the meantime, y'all should get to Target straightaway and take advantage of the buy 3 get 1 free deal being offered on Fruttare, Magnum, and Klondike before it ends on August 30. Time is a-ticking!

Product Reviews: The Influenster #GoVoxBox

The #govoxbox from Influenster is definitely my favorite voxbox to date! I'm just gonna say that right off the bat. It arrived packed full of goodies and samples of things that I really want to keep in my life forever.

ALL THE THINGS

Playtex Sport Fresh Balance Tampons

A coupon for a free Muller Yogurt product

3 packets of The Vitamin Shoppe's Fit N Full Shake AND a shaker cup to mix them

Blue Diamond Blueberry almonds

Profoot Triad Orthodic & PediRock

Aqua Spa Bath Salts

The things I didn't much care for: The tampons--they are "scented" and supposed to keep your "fresh" and "nice" down there BUT I don't really care for products that bring perfumes to the lady-parts. Sorry Playtex! 

. 

The aqua Spa bath salts do have a luxurious feel and look, and are quite attractive to put on display in your bathroom. And who doesn't love having an excuse to just put the candles on and SOAK in that tub? 

The bath salts had a lovely smell but I found it quickly overwhelming. Now THIS is a feat considering I have lost 90% of my sense of smell! I did give the bath-salts to someone else who enjoyed them immensely. So on this one I have to chalk it up to personal preference

Now on to the goodies!

The Profoot Orthodics and the PediRock are amazing! The orthodics fit into my sneakers and took a lot of stress off my body. I will keep looking for those. The Pedi Rock is my new best friend! After using it once my feet were already glowing and smooth and free of pesky rough spots. It's soft and squishy but rough on the surface so it presses against every curve of your foot and gets all the dry stuff off. It's washable and easy to use and store. 

The Muller Yogurt voucher. YUMMY! Who doesn't love yogurt? Great stuff.

The Blue Diamond blue almonds. Okay... these almonds are more purple than blue and at first I was freaked out looking at them. I thought they would be drenched in food dye and I HATE food dye. They were colored with beet juice, though, so no worries about food dye headaches. Yay! They were tasty and attractive and sweet and almondy and basically a snack of awesome and win. 

I can see these as being a perfect snack for someone who finds a eating a handful of nuts and almonds boring despite it being good for them. It would also be a perfect snack for kids who are finicky. They're slightly sweet and fragrant so they make for a very attractive snack.

Then we come to the Vitamin Shoppe's Fit N Full shake samples. This was indeed a mixed bag ranging from "meh" to "awesome!" The Vitamin Shoppe sampler included three different flavor packs, the shaker cup, and a five dollar off certificate for a future purchase.

The shaker cup is super nifty! It has a big purple jax in it that mixes the powder and gets you a smooth, hassle free shake. BPA free as well so that's a plus.

The first time I used it, the shake was rather lukewarm and still had chunks in it. I didn't shake it long and hard enough. The next time I used it, instead of just cold water (as directed on the packet) I threw in some ice cubes and gave it the shaking of a lifetime. That made the shake super cold and smooth. 

The texture of all three flavors was smooth but also thin. It did not have the consistency of a smoothie but I'm sure anyone could remedy that by using a blender and adding fruit, crushed ice, and rice/soy/dairy milk and honey. That would add to the caloric count however.

Despite it being thin, the shake filled me up and I found I didn't need to add any extras in it to make it more feeling. So as a snack or quick meal replacement it does its job nicely.

The wild berry flavor looked attractive--turning pink when it hit the water, and the taste was initially ok, but the heavy stevia flavor of the shake left a heavy after taste and did not leave me wanting more. The vanilla shake was a bit better but again, the aftertaste remained. I can see trying the vanilla one again with a dollop of honey and cinnamon and a mashed banana. The swiss chocolate flavor was DELICIOUS! It mixed smoothly and even though I just used water and ice cubes, it didn't need a thing more. The chocolate taste overpowered the stevia taste and I felt satisfied and happy with it.

I did see a burst of energy each time after drinking these shakes, so that was interesting, considering they're not sweetened with sugar but with stevia.

I will use my five dollar off coupon to get more of the chocolate packs. They'll be great to have on hand for a quick snack or meal, especially when I'm being whiny about what I want to eat.

Here is my video review of the wild berry shake.

Well that's all for now! Thanks to Influenster.com for sending me the products FREE OF CHARGE for testing purposes. 

If any of you would like to join the influenster program, please feel free to ask! All I need is your email and I can get an invite sent to you.

Mad Writer's Club Week 8 -- BURNOUT

Writing goals are essential to getting anything completed. The main reason aspiring and frustrated writers fail is because they cannot find or make time to write, or if they can, they do not have a viable goal to reach for other than the concept of having an idea for the story and wanting to write it. Now wanting to write something is awesome but that's the easiest part, having an idea is even better but it's still kinda easy to have an idea. What matters is getting that damn thing completed!

There's nothing more fulfilling than just getting that beginning in and introducing your awesome character (you know, that scene at the beginning of your manuscript where the character has a long look at themselves in the mirror and you get to describe their hair color, skin type, bone structure, and what gemstone their eyes match). After that, you get to set the plot rolling by writing the catalyst scene that throws your character into turmoil and jeopardy and might even introduce them to the dreamy love interest or some other important character who is quirky, or cool, or tortured, or terrifying. There is such a RUSH in being able to breathe life into those scenes you've been rolling over in your head and at that point you can't stop writing!

The words just flow from your fingers. You find yourself laughing as you write or smiling smugly at your words. YOU ARE A MASTER OF WORDS and you get such a thrill at knowing how everyone is going to read this story and... and then...

The feeling leaves. It starts with hitting scenes that just don't excite you. They're important scenes but they don't feel right. You know you can come back and fix them later because of the rule of NO EDITING the first draft. Still, they're not as exciting as the scenes you can't wait to write.

So then you leave it a few days and then try coming back to work on more interesting scenes hoping to fill in the less interesting scenes later. That works for a short time but then even that loses it's luster. Writing becomes less and less every day, and what once was a torrent of words has become a drought. The manuscript gets put away and nothing more gets written.

That's burnout... fizzle out.... whatever you want to call it.

A good way of fighting burnout is by setting wordcount goals and making sure to meet the wordcount every day. It locks you into moving forward and even if the writing is bad the urge to turn back and delete or edit is curbed because you need to keep those precious words on the page so you can meet wordcount. It's the whole reason why National Novel Writing Month is so successful.

Sometimes, though, you even reach wordcount burnout! D: D: D: It's like, that goal of 2000 words becomes a goal of 1500 which becomes a skipped day which becomes a weekend off. Then it gets depressing when you find you haven't reached your weekly wordcount and it becomes easier to declare oneself defeated.

The only remedy I can see for this, if one does not want to abandon the story that is, is accepting the dwindling wordcount as a victory over writer's block rather than a failure to meet the self imposed standard. Writer's are naturally skittish creatures and it does no good to feel inadequate and depressed over something like the number of words written per day. Feeling like a failure only encourages giving up.

It's better to suffer a week or two, or even a month of writing days where only 200-600 words are written and trudging towards a second wind of epic writing than it is to become frustrated and give up completely on a manuscript when a daily wordcount of 1000-2000 is not met. Accepting the tiny wordcount results in a constant movement forward. The alternative of feeling inadequate and abandoning the manuscript only ends up in ashes and broken dreams.

I know they say "don't force it" but if you are really serious about finishing a longform manuscript I think you should force it when you've hit the wall. Squeeze out 200 painful words every day, even if they're words you are ultimately gonna overhaul or delete. Nothing about writing is easy, and pushing yourself to your limits even if your brain is tired, can only serve to toughen you up and prep you for sitting with a manuscript for the long haul.

Moribund Tales by Erik Hofstatter

Moribund Tales by Erik Hofstatter

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Children are never safe, neither are expectant fathers or philandering girlfriends in this devilish collection of short fiction from author Erik Hofstatter.

The tales collected in this slim volume range from revenge and comeuppance fables to the horrifying and harrowing. There is a consistent theme of how violent the emotions dredged up by jilted love or infidelity can make an unstable person, and there are also tales gleefully turning upside down any notion that children or babies have any safe spot in this world.

The prose is very poetic minded and descriptive, and although some might call that "flowery" , I rather liked it because it made me think of early Anne Rice or writers like Edgar Allen Poe. There is a lot of Victorian influence to the style of writing and the subjects, and the bleeding heart of the collection is very romantic minded.

I will note that there is one story that literally made my drop my kindle and gasp! But I will not say which one as I do not want to give away any spoilers.

I heartily recommend this book! Download it now!



View all my reviews

You can purchase Moribund Tales on Kindle for 2.99.

Mad Writer's Club Week 7-- Clashing Storylines

One of the strangest thing about the manuscript I'm working on, (for all those keeping track it's my cracked out modern hockey rewrite of "Dangerous Liaisons"), is the schizoid differences between the various storylines of over a dozen characters.

Ideally, I outlined and intended to do a tongue in cheek rewrite just using the templates for the major characters, Valmont, Merteuil, Cecile, and Madame Tourvel. I really wanted to pay homage to the novel I am such a fan of, but also, I wanted to add a little bit of fun and humor to it, while also paying note to my rabid love of professional ice hockey. Even at THIS point it's already gone too far haha.

As the draft moved along though, weirder stuff began to pop up--like the talking goalposts, and a weird secret society that has its roots all the way up to the Vatican, and the appearance of a living saint! Truthfully, a lot of those storylines have a lot to do with my adolescent adoration for Anne Rice and the original "Dark Shadows" TV series. *salutes them*.

The storyline that surprised me the most, however, was how deeply I began immersing into the lives of the children of the characters. Initially they were just to be background fodder, only brought forward when needed as an excuse to bring character A (a nanny or parent) into a situation where they could interact with character B (another parent). Or they could pop forward with a cute scene or a reason to give a typically "bad" character a "see, she really has heart!" moment.

I couldn't bring myself to stay so distant though. Argh! I began to probe into the lives of the kids and spin tales for them. While the adults in this story are busy plotting, and seducing, and being seduced, what could the kids possibly be going through? Kids aren't stupid, even if things aren't spelled out for them they still notice when things are off. What sort of effect does all this craziness have on them?

And just like that, a door opened. Things in this reality are so weird that I began to write story-lines for the children that open doorways for them to other realities. A world where cursed mummies attack, flying monkeys descend, evil doppelgangers threaten, and magical scepters can transport them to different times and places! And this is not stuff just in the children's heads, this is REALLY happening to them right under their parents' noses and NO ONE notices.

Now the fun of it, is that none of these adventures are completely experienced upfront for the reader. The reader sees only slightly more than the parent sees, but not the whole picture. It'll just be a tease of the world that is mostly hidden from adults but is present and perfect for the children to escape into while the authority figures in their lives prance around their own soap opera.

Will any of this work? DOES THIS WORK?

I DON'T KNOW!

We'll see. The point is, I get to put in a mummy's curse. Woo!

*scampers*