Look at my Nails!

About 9 months ago, a friend and colleague introduced me to an amazing nail art company. It's name is Incoco. My friend received a package in her Birchbox (read about them in a previous post). This started my love of both companies. Many of you have seen and tried Sally Hansen Nail strips. And they work okay. They are nice when you want a design that you can't create on your own and don't want to spend $30 or more at the salon to create either. But for about the same price you could be using Incoco nail strips. I've tried many, many different nail strips: Sally Hansen, the Ulta Brand, Sephora's brand,Butter London (which were the most expensive of them all) and other lesser known brands (including some that were nail stickers). NONE of them compared to Incoco. At all. When you order online, for between $8 and $13, you will receive 18 nail strips, a nail polish remover cloth, a cuticle stick, a free sample of another type of nail strip, and silver tape to reclose the package of leftover strips. Each nail stirp has two sides. I can get two nails per strip, which means I easily get 20 nails done out of each package. I then usually save the rest and use later as an accent nail. One of the things that makes Incoco so much better is the consistency or texture of the nail strips. They are thinner and really move like a thin strip of nail polish. They are easier to apply and stay on my nails much better than other brands. They look like nail polish and not like a sticker or strip applied onto my nails, which I love! Incoco has the following line of products: colored strips, patterend strips, pedicure strips, french manicure strips, and more. I recently tried their Papparazi (glitter) which follows the ombre trend currently so popular. They were very cute! I am currently wearing Pretty Thing which is my new favorite.

This is a picture of what Papparazi looks like.

So, go to Incoco and give them a try! You won't be dissappointed.

My monthly present

First, I don't mean THAT monthly gift. I am referring to something that I look forward to every month. I check my email for notice of it's impending arrival. Then I check the mailbox until it comes. Yes, my mailbox. What am I talking about? My Birchbox. Some of you have have heard of it before, or seen one of their banner ads. Some of you may have heard of other types of monthly "lifestyle" subscriptions, such as MyGlam and GlossyBox. But, in my opinion, nothing beats my Birchbox. Here are some photos I took of my Birchbox's.

So, what is Birchbox? It is a $10 a month service. For that $10, you receive a lovely box (usually pink, but sometimes it is a different color to match a theme). It's what's in the box that is exciting. Each month is a new surprise gift! It might be nail polish, lipstick, eyeliner, hair serum, face cream, blush, bronzer, nail art, or more! Each month you will receive 4-5 "deluxe" samples, usually related to beauty. Sometimes they include lifestyle samples, such as the Cynthia Rowley designer bandaids, or the bananas foster Lara Bar that came in my box this month. These are often considered "extras" in addition to your regular 4-5 samples. For example, this month I got 7 items in my box! Here is a photo of my box this month. Notice it includes a FULL SIZE eyeliner, which I love!

All that for a flat $10! I did try Myglam and honestly didn't like one single box I received from them. I found them to be cheap, off brands. I haven't tried Glossybox mainly because it is twice the price, and why spend more when I LOVE BIRCHBOX! And I haven't even begun to tell you about the points! Each month you can review the product in your box and earn 10 points per review. So this month I earned 70 points. For every 100 points you earn a $10 credit. You can save up your points and buy full size products. I've bought several items from my boxes, sometimes paying nothing out of pocket because I used my points. I've bought a wonderful lotion, perfume, hair oil, nail polish, lip gloss, and more! So, what are you waiting for? Sign up today and soon you will enjoy your box too! Remember to fill out your profile so you get samples tailored just to you. And be sure to come back and tell me what was in your box!

A "Truly Awesome" Family Fun Time by Kroger

A package came in the mail a couple of weeks ago. It was filled with items and ideas from Kroger's Truly Awesome line of products. I was so excited to learn that BzzAgent (who sent me the package)has teamed up with some major grocery store chains! Now I can try products (for free!) from the store I shop at the most. Inside this package (again, all for free!) was a bag of tortilla chips and coupons for a "Truly Awesome" pizza and some fruit popsicles. It also contained a booklet with some great ideas to have fun with the entire family. I took my youngest child with me to the store and we picked out a cheese pizza and some lemonade frozen popsicles. My husband had recently made salsa using the plethora of tomatoes coming out of the garden, so we were ready to go with the chips and dip! I made the pizza for the girls (ages 5 and 13) and the LOVED it! Our 5 year old ate 3 slices and the teenager did too! Our 13 year old commented on how great the crust was (and I tried it, it was good!). For a $2.00 pizza (yep!) it was self-rising, with plenty of sauce and cheese. We will definitely get more of these to keep on hand in the freezer.

We then played a game of Sorry! With kids in the home ranging from 5 to 16, there are a limited number of games we can play. They have to be fun, but not require reading. So our choices are Sorry! or Uno! right now. If you have any other ideas, please feel free to let me know. After our game, we were ready to cool down with a lemonade flavored popsicle. Yum! These taste just like frozen lemonade. Everyone loved them. The box is empty.

As for the chips....well these were not a hit in our family. Maybe there is a hole in the bag we couldn't see, but they tasted stale. (sorry, Kroger, but it's true.) The salsa, however, is amazing! As you may know from my previous post, Kroger has several store lines, from the Private Selection Line to the Truly Awesome line, and even a plain old Kroger store brand line (the cheapest of them all). I have also tried the Truly Awesome cookies before (and they were!). I think this is a great line of products.