Goodies.Co Taster’s Box August 2013

Goodies is supposed to be a service to let you try out interesting new snacks for $7 a month. Well, not anymore. I was disappointed last month, but this month is even worse!

 

Contents:

• Orion Cookie Crackers- They’re bland and boring.
• Rocky Mountain Popcorn Poplets- These are little half-popped pieces of popcorn kernels. Why in the world would I want to eat those? Not to mention, the package that Goodies sent is clearly labeled “free sample.” As in, this is the kind of sample you’d get at the grocery store for FREE. Seriously? A free sample of the half-popped popcorn from the bottom of the bag?
• Ojo Nectar Mango Blackcurrant drink- Allegedly this is an “eye health” drink, but that seems like a gimmick to me. The label says it’s 50% juice.
• Barnie’s Coffee Hawaiian Hazelnut flavored liquid coffee- Yeah… I like real coffee, not liquid stuff. Plus there’s only enough here to make one cup.
• Veggie Crisps- I’m not even sure what to label these. They heading is “eatsmart” and then under that “Synder’s of Hanover,” so I guess that’s who makes them. They’re not listed on the items I’m supposed to review on my Goodies page, so either these were sent by accident or Goodies forgot to put them on the website.
• Morris International Co. Wild Fruit Tangy Zangy Twisties- They’re sour chewy candy. The package is so small. It has maybe two bites of candy in it. Goodies just sent out the exact same sour candy a few months ago. The packages they sent out then were huge, full sized packets.

Conclusions: I am cancelling this for sure. I tried Goodies again because the quality seemed to be improving, but I was wrong. It has gone so downhill that it’s not even worth $7 a month.

Love With Food August 2013

Love With Food is a “gourmet” food sampling subscription service. For $12 a month (I swear it used to be $10, but maybe I’m imagining things), they’ll send you a box of snacks. The website says they’ll send “8+” snacks in your box, and they’ll donate a meal to a hungry child with each box purchased. The theme for this month’s box is “Backyard BBQ.”

First Impressions: It’s the same size Love With Food box is usually. It fits inside my mailbox. When I opened it, the box was full of stuff!

The box!

Contents:

• Good Boy Organics Sea Salt Potato Chips- These seem to be fancier Pringles-type chips,  but they do look good.
• El Pinto All Natural Salsa- The package of this is a nice portion. It’s a little bigger than a single serving applesauce container.
• The Dizzy Pig BBQ Co. All Natural Spice Rub- This is probably enough rub to make coat enough meat for one family meal. It’s your general BBQ rub with paprika, garlic, etc.
• Rip Van Wafels Amsterdam Waffle Cookie- If you’ve gotten a subscription snack box before, you’ve probably seen these! They’re everywhere, it seems. This one is caramel filled! I’m excited.
• Aunt Sally’s Original Creamy Praline- I love pralines but hate the pecans in them, go figure. Still, this looks quite good, and I’m pleased to see it’s actually made in New Orleans. (It says they have a store on Decatur Street, so maybe they make them there, or at least close by.)
• Project7 Sugar-Free Fresh Mints – It says on the package that for every tube of these mints, Project7 will plant a fruit tree. Sounds nice.
• Harvest Snaps Snapea Crisps- These seem to be freeze dried snapeas, and I assume you eat them (shell and all) kind of like edamame. Edit: It’s not like that at all! They’re like little puffed up snack pieces made from pea mash. Oh dear. I think they taste like peanut butter and peas mixed together. Not for me. No thanks.
• Sahale Snacks Crunchers- This one is a fruit and almond snack. It’s sort of like granola. Mine is cranberry, sesame seed, and honey flavored.
• The box also came with coupons for the salsa and the snapea crisps. The second one is a buy one, get one free coupon! Pretty good.

Conclusions: All in all, this is a pretty good box. I don’t necessarily think it goes with the “Backyard BBQ” theme, but that’s OK. I’m really glad to see some items in here that I haven’t seen in stores before. That’s why I keep getting this box. Even if I don’t necessarily like everything, it’s fun to try different things. I like that they’ve started including more coupons, as that gives me more incentive to buy full sizes of the snacks (if I can find them!).

Allure Fall Box 2013

I managed to snag one of these boxes when they were put up for sale. They went really, really fast!

The website stated that there are twenty-three items in the box. The price was $39.99 plus shipping and tax, so it came out to $53 and change. I figured $53 divided by twenty-three items made it roughly $2.30 per item. One of the women at website I frequent added up the regular cost of each item, and it came out to $359.94 if you paid full price for each item. (Credit for the math goes to gypsiemagic in this link.)

The Box:

Most of the contents.

• Schick Hydro Silk Razor – It has coupons on the back for razor refills, too!

• Skintimate Shaving Cream – This is the kind I normally use, so I’m always glad to have more.

• Sally Hansen Airbrush Legs – Yikes! I tried a bit of this and it is so dark and so yellow on me. I thought it was going to be a self tanner, but the package says it’s waterproof leg makeup. I guess you slap it on before wearing shorts or a skirt, and then wash it off in the shower. It looks awful on me, though!

• Burt’s Bees Revitalizing Lip Balm with Blueberry and Dark Chocolate- I was surprised to like this lip balm. Burt’s Bees is usually so hard and waxy, but this kind feels nice on. The smell is kind of fake-chocolatey, but it’s not overwhelming.

• Pixi Eye Bright Liner – The liner is supposed to be a nude shade that goes on your waterline.

• Neutrogena Rapid Tone Repair – I’m a little scared to try this, but supposedly it works decently at getting rid of dark spots and old acne discoloration.

• RoC Retinol Correxion Cream – An eye cream.

• La Roche-Posay Redermic – I was pleasantly surprised to see a fairly expensive (for this box) item in the box. I won’t use it, but I can give it to a family member!

• Cetaphil Daily Advance Ultra Hydrating Lotion – Cetaphil body lotion. I’ll try it and see how I like it.

• Neutrogena Oil-Free Acne Wash – This will probably go to a friend.

• Simple Skin Care Hydrating Light Moisturizer – I’ve tried this before and for some reason my face didn’t like it. I can use the same brand’s cleansing wipes without a problem, though.

• Neutrogena Triple Moisture Deep Recovery Hair Mask- I’m looking forward to trying this!

• Carol’s Daughter Monoi Repairing Hair Mask – I’ve heard lots of great things about this product. I haven’t used too many hair masks before, so hopefully it works.

• Redken Satinwear Ultimate Blow-Dry Lotion – This product sort of weighs down my hair, but hopefully I can find someone else who will like it.

• Redken Argan Oil – This is a hair specific oil, although I’m not sure what exactly makes it that way. I guess I’ll have to read more about it.

• Goldwell Gloss Style Magic Finish hairspray – I’ve never heard of this brand before, but at least the bottle doesn’t seem cheap.

• KMS California Hair Stay spray – This seems to be an anti-humidity product. I haven’t heard of this one, either, but it has some decent reviews.

• GK Hair Taming System serum- This was supposed to be Tibolli hair oil, but for some reason it got switched out to this. There’s no explanation in the pamphlet that came with the box.

The nail polishes.

• Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure polish in Jungle Gem – I don’t really care for this color so much. It shows up a lot more green/gray toned in person than in the photo.

• Sation nail polish in Happy Wine-y People – This color is super, super dark in person. Perhaps it would be good for a fall manicure.

• Sally Hanson Salon Effects Nail Strips in Laced Up – I like these strips, in general. This pattern, however, verges on too tacky, even for me (and I love to coat my nails in all sorts of glitter and whatnot).

• Sally Hansen Ouch Relief Wax Strip Kit

• Sally Hansen Cuticle Eraser & Balm

 Conclusions: All in all, this is a LOT of stuff. I’ll give some of it away, or trade with friends for other things, but I do like the majority of it. For a little more than two dollars per product, it’s a pretty good deal, even if I don’t use everything.

Julep Golden Mystery Box August 2013

Today I received the Golden Mystery Box I ordered from Julep. It was originally $29.99, but I had a coupon, bringing it down to $20.99!

August 2013 Golden Mystery Box

In the box:

• Julep Everyday SPF Hand Cream- It feels OK on my hands, although it’s a tad greasy.
• Julep Oxygen Nail Treatment- This is supposed to somehow infuse your nails with vitamins and oxygen to make them stronger. You’re supposed to wear just this — no polish — once or twice a week. It looks like a slightly pink tinted clear coat.
• Hair ties in lime green, taupe, and sparkly black.
• Polish in Drew- This is a watermelon pink. It’s seriously bright, but I like it. I was able to make it go on smoothly with just one coat.
• Polish in Layne- This color is the palest of pinks, and it’s not a creme, so it’s completely sheer. I had to try four coats of it to look like I was wearing polish, and even then, it just looked like I had bad acrylics on because it was so thick. I think this would be a nice color to use while doing french tips or just to wear if you don’t want to wear any color but want to protect your nails. Otherwise, it’s pretty boring.
• Polish in Bunny- Being a white creme with a slight gold shimmer, this color is not something I was expecting to like. However, it actually looks pretty good on!
• Polish in Sheryl- Gold glitter/shimmer makes up the majority of this polish. It has a light orange base, but it’s barely visible. To get full(ish) coverage, you’d need about four coats of Sheryl. I experimented and tried it on top of Bunny and Sheryl became very, very yellow with gold sparkle. I like this polish, in general, way less than I thought I would.
• Taffy pieces

Conclusions: All in all, I like my box. It’s not the greatest thing ever, but I got some interesting colors. Had I paid full price, I’m not sure I would have been as happy. Still, I got seven items, so that’s about $3 a piece. Not bad!