May 1 2012

Product Review: L.A. Colors Color Craze Nail Polish – Jewel Tone

L.A. Colors Color Craze Nail Polish in Jewel Tone

L.A. Colors Color Craze Nail Polish in Jewel Tone

As a general rule, I love glitter polishes. I love glitter. But the problem I have with most glitter polishes is that they tend to be nothing more than clear nail polish into which glitter has been dumped. To wear them on their own requires five or six coats to get a good covering of your nail. L.A. Colors Color Craze Nail Polish in Jewel Tone is no exception to this rule.

Back in the late 90s I had several glitter polishes that I had purchased that gave gorgeous coverage of my nails in just one or two coats – and these were traditional glitter polishes that were clear with glitter in them. This is what I have come to expect a glitter polish to perform like. Unfortunately, L.A. Colors Color Craze in Jewel Tone did not live up to my admitted fantasy performance standards.

While this polish does not give good coverage without at least three coats, and for me it was more like five or six coats, I do have to say that it lasted well – I put the polish on and went out to eat and didn’t have any chips or dings in the polish (I am notorious for nail polish only lasting a couple of hours before chipping off, regardless of brand, base coat, or top coat) and it dried fairly quickly as well.

I recommend this polish as an “over layer” polish – putting a solid color on and then putting one or two coats of Jewel Tone over it to give added glitter and shine. All in all not a bad polish, but not quite right on its own.

*This is a review of an item I purchased. No compensation was received for this review.*

Apr 29 2012

In Need of a Good Air Freshener

Any ideas on where to get a decent air freshener? LaShawn and I make them for Candlelight Boutique (when they’re finished with the testing phase we will see about adding them to the shop), but they aren’t quite what a friend of mine needs for her new apartment.

You see, a friend moved into a new apartment recently and the guy before her must have smoked Swisher Sweets (my dad’s brand of cigars, lol) or something because it smells like stale cigar smoke. Now my mom would tell you that there is nothing she liked more than the scent of a good cigar, but frankly, once the smoke is stale, it’s just gross.

We tried the Febreze air fresheners, but it seems those just don’t cut it for this. Any of you have any ideas?

Apr 29 2012

Product Review: Mission Cheddar Cheese Flavored Dip

Mission Cheddar Cheese Flavored Dip

Image courtesy of MissionFoods.com

My best friend and I both love to have tortilla chips – but we don’t generally agree on the appropriate dip for the chips. You see, LaShawn prefers a non-spicy dip. She doesn’t mind a cheese dip, but the salsa con queso dips are not her favorite. While I prefer a good salsa con queso myself, when we have to share the dip, we end up looking for something else.

The other day, our Walmart store had a display of Mission products – mostly tortilla chips, but a few dips as well. We already had tortilla chips at home, we were just looking for a good dip to use with them. We had a Tostitos cheddar cheese dip that we were going to try, but saw that the Mission cheddar cheese flavored dip was cheaper so we went with it.

The dip was good – it was creamy and even after refrigeration it held onto some of the runny quality that makes it easy to dip chips into. It tasted like cheddar cheese, which believe me, I’ve had many a cheddar cheese flavored dip that did not taste like cheddar cheese. My only problem with it was that as I am more of a fan of salsa con queso dips, the dip didn’t have quite enough flavor for me.

However, it was a very good dip and would be great for putting over vegetables or a quick and easy mac & cheese.

*This is a review of an item I purchased. No compensation was received for this review.*

Apr 27 2012

I Need New Speakers

I am, apparently, very rough on speakers. Whether they are stereo speakers or computer speakers, it seems I am constantly in need of new speakers. Right now, I need new computer speakers.

My laptop has built-in speakers, and they’re great if I want to watch a movie by myself. But if I’m watching a movie on my laptop with LaShawn, then I need to plug in speakers. My current set, a pair of Logitech speakers, isn’t working very well as only one speaker actually works. :/

I’m beginning to wonder if mackie makes computer speakers so I could possibly get some decent speakers for listening to music and movies with. They probably don’t – I’m sure their speakers are only for PA systems and stereos, but it’d be nice if they did have computer speakers. :)

Or maybe we should look into the appropriate cords to hook LaShawn’s stereo to my laptop for when we watch movies. I did that down in Texas and it was awesome. ;)

Apr 26 2012

Product Review: I Love Cake Hand Sanitizer by Bath & Body Works

I Love Cake Hand Sanitizer

I Love Cake Hand Sanitizer by Bath & Body Works

I am a huge fan of hand sanitizers from Bath & Body Works. I buy them all the time because they’ve got some pretty cool scents and you can get 5 of these little pocket bacs for $5 most of the time. However, I have to say, I don’t care much for this one.

This blue colored sanitizer is supposed to be scented like frosting, but if it is, it’s the strangest frosting I’ve ever smelled! Even my best friend says it doesn’t smell quite right. It almost smells like something that is blue coconut scented, not frosting scented. It works the way it is supposed to, but I have to say the scent is not quite right.

I noticed on Bath & Body Works’ website that this scent is not listed, so I am going to assume that either I’m not the only customer who didn’t like the I Love Cake scent or it was a limited time only scent. Either way, if it were still available, I wouldn’t buy it again.

*This is a review of an item I purchased. No compensation was received for this review.*