Kroger Simple Truth and Simple Truth Organic BzzCampaign

As you may know from reading previous blogs, I am trying to lose weight by exercising more and having a better diet. Still, normally I am not the type of person to spend extra money to go organic. Don’t get me wrong, I would love to be able to afford it since I believe that organic and all natural foods are better for you, even if just a little bit. It is so frustrating to me that healthy food is usually more expensive than unhealthy food. That is why I was so glad to find out I was a part of the Kroger Simple Truth and Simple Truth Organic foods BzzCampaign. Again if you are a previous reader of my blog, you would know that I am what is known as a BzzAgent which basically means I fill out surveys to qualify to receive products or coupons for free or discount products to try and share my opinion about.

For this BzzCampaign I received several items for free. They sent me the blackberry pomegranate flavored Simple Truth sparkling beverage, which is caffeine free and contained 12% juice, but was the only thing I didn’t really care for. They also sent me peanut butter chocolate chip flavored Simple Truth energy bar, which was so yummy! And the rest were coupons I had to redeem which included a coupon for both chocolate and regular almond milk. I used the regular almond milk on cereal and was pleasantly surprised to find that I liked it, and my nieces and nephew really liked the chocolate almond milk. They also sent a coupon for free Simple Truth Organic frozen fruit, I picked whole strawberries which were very good, but not a very big bag. And finally a coupon for Kroger Simple Truth “chips” and we chose the natural vegetable straws to try, which tasted very much like regular chips, they were very good too.

All of the foods are free from 101 artificial preservatives and ingredients. Although some of the ingredient lists were still pretty long, they weren’t filled with a bunch of unpronounceable and unidentifiable things. I love that Kroger has made eating cleaner and healthier so much easier. Also that is just a very small sampling of all the products that are offered in the Kroger Simple Truth and Simple Truth Organic foods! There is produce, snacks, dairy, pastas…on and on. Even better is that new products are being added all the time. Just about the only problem I had with all of the foods that I priced was to me they are still too expensive to justify even though I liked them.

Healthy yogurts available at Kroger

I remember when yogurts were just regular and ordinary, and nowadays there is such a wide variety of types and flavors of yogurts available. Being a person who loves yogurt, I have tried many brands and varieties of yogurts. So I was so excited when I was given the opportunity by BzzAgent to try some Kroger Greek and Greek lite yogurts, and Kroger CARBmaster yogurts for FREE. I was especially excited since these are healthy yogurts that will help me remain on track with my diet. Can you believe the CARBmaster yogurts that I tried only had 60 calories, 1.5 grams of fat and 4 carbs!?! And I am not talking about some little dinky cup of yogurt; these are regular 6oz. cups. Both types are high in protein also; the Greek has twice the protein of regular yogurt.

Such a wide variety of flavors is also available! In the CARBmaster variety I tried cinnamon roll and spiced pear and they were so delicious! The spiced pear was my favorite; there were even a few bits of juicy pear in there. I also want to try carrot cake. They make a great snack, so rich and creamy.
I love vanilla yogurt, so for the Greek ones I tried vanilla. I actually think I liked the Greek lite vanilla yogurt better. Both were so thick and creamy too. I also picked some of the Greek yogurts up in plain and used them in place of sour cream.

I was amazed at the quality of store brand yogurts, especially since they were specialty and not just regular yogurts. And since they are healthy yogurts, I was afraid that taste would be sacrificed (or that there would be a funny aftertaste), but that clearly was not the case. I have definitely recommended these yogurts to many friends and family, and I will certainly continue to enjoy them myself!

*Thanks to BzzAgent and Kroger for giving me the opportunity to try these Kroger brand yogurts for FREE!* If you ever want to know more about being a BzzAgent, don't hesitate to ask me...I love being a BzzAgent!

Schick Hydro Silk razor BzzCampaign

The next totally free awesome product that I received to try from BzzAgent to share with you was the Schick Hydro Silk razor. All I can say is wow! This razor is awesome, the only small flaw in my opinion is the price of the refills, but we will get to that later. I was excited because my husband has really liked his Schick Hydro men’s razor for a long time now, so we just recently upgraded him to the Schick Hydro power men’s razor. I was so happy with the results.

This 5 blade razor delivered an incredibly close shave. The blades move independently of each other and sense your curves, so there is no issue with missed patches of hair. It has a water-activated moisturizing serum strip that leaves your legs feeling so hydrated and smooth for hours after shaving.

Even the way the handle is worth a mention. Not only does it fit comfortably in your hand, it is designed to keep the razor elevated when it is resting on the counter. I have always had problems with razors that I leave laying on the edge of the tub that later get rusted from laying there in a puddle that forms.

Now as I said the refills can be somewhat pricey. In our area the 4 pack of refills with no sale retails for around$15.99!! The actual razors themselves (one razor handle and cartridge) can be found for as little as around $6, so my friends and family were especially happy that I had also received $5 coupons to pass along! Anyway, I have known of some good sales and coupons out there, like $4.00 off the refills. When you figure that each refill will last a good amount of shaves, it becomes worth it if you buy them wisely.

So in my opinion, if you are not already using one of these razors, you should make the switch for sure. I know the cost may seem a bit, but find yourself some great coupons and realize that once in awhile it is simply worth it for you to splurge on yourself! If you think about the amount of irritation you will save in not dealing with the way most razors leave your skin feeling, you will see that the benefits outweigh the costs. *Just wanted to remind you, I did get this razor for free to try…but I really do love it as much as I say. Have I mentioned lately that I also love being a BzzAgent!*

Let's talk about at home manicures :)

When I was younger, I would often go to a salon to get a manicure, but as I got older it became just one of those luxuries that I could not longer afford. Don’t get me wrong, I still LOVE having painted well maintained nails, but it is just something done at home nowadays.

If you are a regular reader you know I am a BzzAgent which means I get opportunities to try awesome free products and share my opinions of them with people. I absolutely LOVE doing it, and my friends, family, co-workers, etc. love it too because I can let them know about products, and BzzAgent always gives me coupons or samples to share as well. For this BzzCampaign, I received a full size Neutrogena Norwegian formula hand cream for myself and 6 samples to hand out.

Anyway, I received some Neutrogena Norwegian formula hand cream to try. It is great for combating dry skin, I love it! But for those of you like me who like to have painted fingernails, this lotion also will not mess up your manicure. So I wanted to share some tips for a great home manicure. I don’t do anything special like you would get with a paid manicure such as soaking your nails, but this is still a treat to me.
The first step is to make sure you have totally clean hands and nails. You want to start by using some nail polish remover on your nails to make sure they are fully clean of polish and other dirt or oil. Then I always wash my hands paying close attention to washing the nails so you don’t have any remaining remover on them.

Then trim and file your nails so they are all uniform. My nails grow and break at different rates, so I don’t trim them all to the same size, but I make sure they are not jagged or splitting anywhere. I also clean under my nails.

Now its time for paint! I personally don’t use a base clear coat, but do apply 2 coats of color and then a top coat. You want to make sure to shake up the bottle well to mix it all before applying. Apply the first coat and let it dry a little to “tack up” as my husband puts it before applying the second coat. I let my color dry almost fully before applying the top coat. Then the waiting game because you want to make sure not touch anything for about 20 minutes so they can fully dry. And yes, even the ones that claim to dry in 10 minutes, I have never personally found one to actually dry that fast unless you use a nail dryer.

The greatest thing for me is that I have a husband who is very willing to paint my nails! Shhh…don’t tell him that I told you that ;) but he loves working on model cars, and painting my nails just gives him more practice for when he is painting them. So my number one tip would be to have someone else do the painting for you.

The final step after your nails are all nice and dry…apply some Neutrogena Norwegian formula hand cream of course! This will not only help to maintain your manicure, it will hydrate your hands like you never imagined.

Kiss Nail Dress

I was one of the lucky people to receive a Holiday VoxBox from Influenster! For those of you who don’t know, Influenster.com is where you can sign up to receive a similar “VoxBox” full of goodies for you to test. I had been a member for more than 6 months, and this was my first VoxBox so I was very excited!

Amongst other great things, this VoxBox include some Kiss Nails Dress, which are stick on stickers for your nails in place of nailpolish. I didn’t want to use all of them up at once, so I just painted 6 of my nails and applied the nails dress to the remaining 2 fingers on each hand. I had my husband help me apply them, which made application very quick and easy. It may not be quite as easy by yourself, but I am not sure.  I did find that the lasted as long as they should have, however as you can see some of the tips had worn away a bit, but I do a lot of typing. All in all I am not sure they are worth the price listed of $6.99, but you do get 28 stickers total in 14 sizes. Some of them are quite big so they would be able to be used on toes only though. There are many patterns and colors to choose from too. I was also surprised with how easy they were to remove and that there was not much if any residue left behind.

when I first applied them:

10 days later:

For more information about Kiss products visit their website here and the Influenster review page can be found here .  

Goody Quikstyle

I was one of the lucky people to receive a Holiday VoxBox from Influenster! For those of you who don’t know, Influenster.com is where you can sign up to receive a similar “VoxBox” full of goodies for you to test. I had been a member for more than 6 months, and this was my first VoxBox so I was very excited!

The best part of this VoxBox was that it included a Goody QuikStyle Brush! I had just recently seen these in stores and was shocked by the price tag of $12.99, but after I have been using mine I can see why it costs as much as it does. The amount of time you save from drying your hair is priceless. I am not the type of person to use blowdryers since I do not like the resulting damage caused to my hair from the heat, so this brush was perfect for me. I have very fine hair and did notice though when I used on my dry hair it tended to leave me with a lot of static.

For more information on Goody products, visit their website here or for information about the Quikstyle brush itself visit the Influenster product page for it located here .

Happy Valentine's Day, Eden Fantasy's style ;)

*This blog references an adult shopping site and should not be viewed by those under 18 years of age! These are my opinions, but I was compensated for writing this blog with a site giftcard.*

 Valentine’s Day holds a special place in my heart since it was the day that my hubby asked me to marry him, 12 years ago this year! Typically guys are the ones doing the gifting, and it is usually some form of flowers, chocolates, or stuffed animals. Don’t get me wrong, I love getting that stuff! But maybe this year you gals should join me in getting the hubby a “gift” too…you in a sexy piece of Lingerie from Eden Fantasys!! It’s a win win since lingerie is great not only for him, but wearing lingerie helps you get in the mood faster and easier.

Currently (ending February 15^th) you can save 25% on their very large selection of lingerie. There are many brands, styles, and colors to choose from.  I love Escante lingerie and have found several pieces that not only fit well, but are well made too.  I love the Enchanted forest open-back chemise , the green color is so beautiful. You don’t even have to get a full outfit; perhaps a pair of crotchless panties is all you need to make your partner go wild.

I love Eden Fantasys since it is not just a sex toy site, they offer a WIDE variety of things including health and beauty items like make-up and body lotion. They are constantly having sales and offering freebies with your order, which makes it one of my favorite places to shop.