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.

 

Lean Cuisine Salad Additions...Thanks to BzzAgent!

I often get frozen lunches for work for convenience and price. There are really only 2 brands of frozen lunches that I purchase and Lean Cuisine happened to be one of them, so I was really excited to be part of this BzzCampaign! Up until that point I had not even seen these Lean Cuisine Salad Additions, but the next time I was in the store I did see them on display, and they looked so yummy! I was interested in 3 of the 4 varieties, so I had to try all 3; Asian-style chicken, Bistro chicken, and Southwest-style chicken. They seemed kind of pricey, but at least I was able to try one for free at first…although I did still have to pay for the salad (lol).

Now like I had said before, I am maintaining a 45lb. weight loss (and lose a lil more), so I also buy healthy frozen lunches. A salad was a great change to a typical toss in the microwave frozen lunch. Yes these do require some microwaving for the chicken and vegetables and such to cook, but it isn’t the same as a frozen meal, a salad just has a healthier feel to it. And it was so quick and easy! The main reason I would not normally have a salad that included things like beans and corn (like the Southwest-style chicken variety) I would have to open a whole can of each and then only use a part of it and try to either save the rest or let it go to waste. And what a pain in the butt to take up the time to cut up peppers and carrots or asparagus! The biggest reason my husband and I don’t keep a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables in the house is because of how fast they can go bad if you do not eat them right away or take care of them properly. I hate wasting money! But since these are frozen, they could sit in my freezer for a month or more if need be (although they won’t last that long in my freezer before being eaten!). I would usually put shredded cheese or maybe some croutons in my salads, but I did not even miss the presence of cheese, and the additions always included something crunchy, so there was no need for croutons which tend to add a lot of calories. Eating good for you healthy meals set you up for success and gives you more motivation to do other healthy things such as getting a workout session in. At least that is the way that I feel when I eat well.

I have always loved Lean Cuisine! Their delicious rewards points program is awesome. I was just recently able to order the collapsible salad bowl that they just added as part of the winter catalog. Also there is a chance to earn a free lunchbag if you log 20 codes before the end of March (or when supplies are gone) and you get to keep the points you accumulate to earn other great stuff (like that collapsible lunch bowl!). So if you have not already, you should check it out!

If you have read any of my previous blogs about being a BzzAgent, you know I absolutely LOVE it! It gives me the great opportunity to try products free of charge like this one, and then pass my opinions on to my family, friends, and readers. I get coupons or samples or both to pass out too. So, other than it being free, I am not compensated, and these opinions are my own.

Perdue Oven Ready chicken BzzCampaign :)

I was invited to this Perdue Oven Ready chicken BzzCampaign after it had already started, so by the time I received my coupons, I was already in a time crunch. I checked our usual Walmart, Meijer, and Kroger and was unsuccessful in finding them, even with the help of store workers. I was worried they simply were not in my area and I panicked until I realized I should check the Perdue website to see if there was a store locator (I sometimes have blonde moments, why didn’t I think of that in the first place!). Unfortunately there were only 2 Kroger stores that offered them, and they were both over 15 miles away, but at least one was near my parents house. It just so happened they had them on sale for $7.99, so we were lucky they had just 1 left when we got there.

My plan was to make the chicken the following night for dinner since it takes a minimum of an hour and a half to cook plus 10 minutes of rest time. The cook time is not a problem though even for a weeknight meal, if you just plan ahead; I made it on a Thursday. I also made salad, mashed potatoes and jar gravy since I did not at first realize there is a recipe on the bag for gravy that you make with the remaining drippings after cooking. We did make the gravy the next time we enjoyed one of these chickens and it was good and our guests enjoyed it. From the chicken that I made just for us, I was also able to make chicken noodle soup and chicken fajitas with the leftovers, it was great! Since this was my first time making a whole chicken, I was worried at first, but the Perdue Oven Ready chicken made the whole experience a great one with the fact that it is perfectly seasoned and in its own baking bag which makes cleanup easier. Both times that we have made them, they turned out tender and juicy, and so easy to get off the bone. I hope that they become available at our local Kroger or another local store soon, because if on sale or if I get my hands on more coupons, my family would be enjoying more Perdue Oven Ready chickens for sure! Have I mentioned lately that I LOVE being a BzzAgent?? I DO! :)

 I am not sure if it was a mistake or not, but I did not understand why there were 2-$3.00 off coupons and 4-$2.00 off coupons to hand out. I did not even realize that they were for two different face values at first, I should have checked closer I guess since it was kind of embarrassing when you hand one person a $3 coupon and another a $2 one, so I kind of felt the need to apologize to the people who only got $2 ones.

Kroger Private Selection Gourmet Foods BzzCampaign!

I love great food…who doesn’t? So I am always excited to get an invite for a food related BzzCampaign! My latest food BzzCampaign was for Kroger Private Selection foods. For this campaign I received a bag of Kroger Private Selection Costa Rican Coffee and Kroger Private Selection Classic Water Crisps Crackers in the mail along with coupons for other free products to redeem at my local Kroger. My other coupons were for Kroger Private Selection Marinara, Garlic Stuffed Green Olives in Brine, and Garlic Herb Pre-sliced Deli Cheese. It took us a minute to find the cheese, but we did find it and there were a few varieties to choose from, priced regularly at our Kroger for $4.89. The marinara was easy to find near the other spaghetti sauces and there were also 4 or 5 to choose from priced at $2.89. There were 2 kinds of stuffed olives available at our store, priced at $4.39. Normally these products are kind of out of our price range, but these are gourmet foods meant for entertaining, something worth splurging for ;).

Unfortunately, when I got to the checkout, I realized I had lost my sliced cheese free coupon somewhere in the store :(, so I ended having to purchase it at the full price of $4.89! Learn from me; guard your coupons with your life hahaha. I was glad that I was able to share these foods with my family for Thanksgiving at my parent’s house. I took the olives, cheese, and crackers over with us for a snack before dinner and it wasn’t long before it was all gone. I thoroughly enjoyed all of it, as did most of my family.

I used the marinara sauce when I made spaghetti for dinner for my husband and I. My hubby really liked it; I liked it but personally did not care for all the big chunks of tomato. But that is probably because I am overall not a big fan of tomato.

Normally my husband and I drink light roast coffee, and he did not care for this coffee. I thought it was okay at first, but as I drank it a couple of days I started to change my mind to not liking it very much at all. It has a bolder flavor to it, a more coffee like flavor if that makes sense. There was a Carmel Truffle flavor mentioned in the literature that accompanied my BzzKit, which sounds really good! My husband and I were thinking about trying that flavor, but since Christmas we are the proud new owners of a Keurig coffee brewer and could not be happier!!

Overall I still very much enjoyed being a part of this BzzCampain! My family shops at Kroger often so it was a neat opportunity to try some great Private Selection foods that I may not have had the opportunity to try otherwise. I know I will at least be getting more of the olives and try another type of cheese at a time when we can afford it!