Can You Kick It?

Recently I entered the true digital age population. Yes, I finally procured my first smartphone (an iphone 4 to be exact). With my new device (because it is so much more than a phone), I can download and use many different apps.

One of my new favorite apps is SHOP KICKS. Why? First, it is free and fun. I love anything free and fun! Second, not only is it free, I can get free stuff by using the app.

How does it work? It's really quite simple. You collect "kicks" - which are basically points. 500 kicks = $2. You can collect your earnings in instant gift cards (you just show the code to the cashier).

You might be thinking, "That's great, but how do I get kicks? And how long will it take me to get these kicks?" Well, you can get kicks in multiple ways.

1. Browse through "lookbooks". Using the app, you browse through ads. Inside the ads are stars that you click on to earn kicks. They are usually 1 kick, but I've gotten up to 20 before. I earn about 10-20 kicks per day just by browing through lookbooks.

2. "Check Ins" - when you enter certain stores, the app will recognize you are there and you will earn kicks simply by entering the store. For example, when I walk into Target, I get an average of 100 kicks. You can get kicks this way by checking into Target, Old Navy, Best Buy, Macy's, American Eagle, and more.

3. Scanning Items - When you are in a store (not just the ones listed above, but also your local grocery, CVS/Walgreens, Walmart, etc.) you can scan the barcodes on specific items and get kicks. Usually you can earn anywhere between 20 and 100 kicks per scan. Right now I can earn over 300 kicks just by scanning 4 items at my local store.

There are other ways to earn kicks too, like referring friends,and making purchases. All the ways I described above, though, require no purchase!

I have been with Shop Kicks for just one month and have already earned well over 6,000 kicks! I've redeemed $15 in kicks ($5 at Target, and $10 at Best Buy). There is no minimum purchase when using a gift card, like with any other gift card. I now have 3,000 kicks that I am saving up for something bigger. So, basically, in a month I have "earned" $25 in gift cards! For free!

If you want to join, please use my referral link : http://get.shopkick.com/georgia5689
I really encourage you to try Shop Kicks. I really enjoy it and hope you do too!

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.

Memoire Liquide - A Fragrant Indulgence

Recently, in my NewBeauty Testtube, I received a full size bottle of Memoire Liquide Reserve Amour Liquide Body Cream. I also received some sample sizes of the companies perfume. I then won (yay!) another Testtube, filled with similar items, including another full size bottle of Memoire Liquide Reserve body cream, this time in Soleil Liquide. I really like both creams (aka lotions). My favorite by far, though, is the Amour scented one. It has a wonderful vanilla aroma that is subtle and sophisticated. The texture of the cream is thick and luxurious. And it really does moisturize well. The scent also lasts most of the day - my husband will remark about smelling vanilla when I move. I also like the Soleil liquide, but it is a much stronger aroma. I personally love the smell, which reminds me of a classic English garden with lovely little white flowers. My husband, however, didn't enjoy it and thought it was too strong. So I will put this one when he is gone camping or first thing in the morning so it wears off by the time he gets home. These creams retail for about $25 for a 5.1 oz size. For my budget, that is expensive, but then again, this is a LUXURY cream. I would recommend it, even at that price. Splurge. Use it after your weekly bubble baths. A little goe a long way, because this cream is rich in moisturizers. As for the perfumes....I am still undecided. It's not that I don't like them, it's just that I don't LOVE them. And right now I have a couple of perfumes I do LOVE. Oddly enough, in the perfumes, my least favorite is the Amour Liquide, as it has a very strong smell and isn't as dainty as the vanilla lotion. The other sample was of Vacances Liquide, and I enjoy wearing this one every once in a while. Again, not because it's a bad perfume. It's not. But it isn't so amazing I want to go out and buy the full size bottle. I will definitely use all my sample :)

Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare is AMAZING

A few months ago I received ten small packets of Dr. Dennis Gross's Alpha Beta Glow Pad. It was one of my samples in my Winter NewBeauty TestTube. I was a little curious, but mainly aprehensive. You see, I have freckles and fair skin. Self tanners rarely make me look tanned, but orange. And you can see every little line/streak because of the difference in my tone and the tanner. And it looks like a wipe. You know, the kind you get at a restaurant after you eat the ribs or lobster. But I decided to go for it. The next day, at work, I received numerous compliments about the color of my skin. People asked me if I did something different with my makeup or did I get some sun this weekend. Yes, I (freckles and all) looked SUNKISSED. Not carrot-kissed. Not streaked. But glowing. This made me very happy. I, of course, filled with glee, shared this new product with everyone and anyone who asked (and a few who didn't). Since my first experience with Dr. Gross (I still can't say that name and not giggle a little) was so great, it was easy to sample another product from his skincare line. I was making a purchase on Sephora.com and the Alpha Beta Daily Facial Peel was one of the free samples to select from. I honestly must say, I might have been a little bit more excited about that than the Dior mascara I actually purhased (but in my defense, I purchased it because I KNEW I loved it). The Daily Peel is just as amazing and the Alpha Beta Glow Pad! I love the way my skin looks. I have very dry skin (but not overly sensitive) and it did not dry it out. It was easy to use, too.

So, now I am browing Dr. Gross's (hehe) website and I think that for my birthday I am going to splurge and get myself the Red Carpet Glow Kit. They have another great kit called the Discovery Kit, which is currently on $55.

Neutrogena's Latest Line of Products

Recently, as a BZZagent, I received a few free size products as well as coupons. I was delighted to open up my BzzAgent kit and find the following: three different Neutrogena Revitalizing Lip Balms, a Neutrogena Healthy Skin Brightening Eye Perfector, and a Neutrogena Nourishing Eyeliner. I did my best to take some photos, but honestly I can't get my "results" to show up well in photos. This is one of those photos that I didn't even think about needing, as I don't have large dark circles or bags under my eyes. But when I used it I realized that there WAS a difference. This is one product that I would say "try it" to those who are entering their 30's or have slight puffiness/darkness under eyes, or even if you don't notice it yet, you might realize it AFTER seeing yourself with this product.

I will say that I do notice a difference around my eyes when I use the Brightening Eye Pefector. It really makes any puffines and/or darkness disappear. I also LOVE the lip balm. LOVE. Really, really LOVE. I could tell a difference within a week, just like the package claimed. My lips went from fairly dry to very nice and moisturized. The eyeliner is a good product too. I will be honest and say that I won't be switching from my Stila eyeliner that I love, but I will use it until it is gone. The color is nice and it is a decent price. It also has a cool "smudger" on the end. This might be better if I really knew how to do smudges. (note to self: learn how to "smudge" eyeliner). So, if you haven't considered Neutrogena for your make up needs lately, I do recommend you give them a second look. I highly recommend the lip balm, as well as the eye perfector.