C9 Power Core sports bra review

I’m a woman who takes fitness and nutrition very seriously after losing over 100lbs. With fitness comes certain necessities, such as a functional sports bra with decent support, that wick away moisture, and is still comfortable to wear as I run or do a strength workout. This bra does not disappoint. The fabric and design is cute, but that’s not really important to me as I throw a shirt on overtop my bra. I never realize how wet the bra is until I’m taking it off, and I have never felt as if support is lacking. Washing can be tough to get the sweat smell out, but that is common with moisture wicking material. In all, I recommend this bra for the price I paid. 

I did receive a 40% off coupon through Influenster that I used to purchase this sports bra. I am also entering a #contest. This does not influence my review in any way. This is 100% my opinion. 

Begin with Uncle Ben

I've lost 100lbs and usually rice is something that I only indulge on random and very rare occasions. I got a coupon from Influenster to get a box of Uncle Ben's Flavored Grains for free and decided to give it a try.

I took my favorite vegetables (onion, mushrooms, green pepper) and some chicken and mixed it with the rice. It tasted great! Calorie wise, it also wasn't too bad. I didn't have major panic attacks eating it, which was great! I was able to make a healthy and delicious meal and it made me interested in trying more Uncle Ben products in the future! It also wasn't tough or gritty like some brown rices I've had in the past. A+ product, and probably my favorite in this Vox Box!

I received this product complimentary from Influenster for testing purposes. All opinions on this blog post are 100% my own.

Dramamine Non Drowsy Naturals

This worked well for a quick fix during a car ride but it didn't seem to last long and after a little while the uneasy carsick feeling back back. I would recommend it to those who need a quick fix, but not for anything longer than a couple hours as more might be necessary. Only two tablets can be taken in 24 hours. I am planning on testing it out again for amusement park day, but taking it before we start hitting the bigger rides to see if that helps.

I received this product complimentary from Influenster, but all these opinions are 100% my own.

ATTITTUDE 2-1 Shampoo and Body Wash

Hi guys! I recently received the Nurture Vox Box from Influenster and inside was a sample of Attitude 2 in 1 Shampoo and body wash. I thought I'd take a few minutes to share my opinion of it! I am very picky with shampoo and body wash and that might have been some of the problem with this, but really, it wasn't my favorite. The first thing I noticed was the scent of this. It's not that it smells bad, but it has a really strong scent that almost felt a little too strong for me. While using it as a shampoo, I noticed that I had problems getting it to lather and while my hair felt clean, it also felt completely stripped. I soaked my hair in conditioner after using this. I had problems getting it to lather to use as a body was as well, but with the help of a loofah, I finally got it going. I felt like it added time to my shower rather than help speed it up, and it didn't work like I was hoping it. Because of that, I probably won't buy again. 

While I tested Attitude 2 in 1

 for free, all these opinions are my own and this did not sway my opinion in any way.

Blue Lizard Sensitive sunscreen

Hi guys! I recently received the Nurture Vox Box from Influenster and inside was a sample of Blue Lizard Sensitive sunscreen. I thought I'd take a few minutes to share my opinion of it! Since I have extremely sensitive skin on my face, I used it on my face. It doesn't have a scent that I could smell like most other sunscreens I'm used to and that was nice with it being so near my face (sometimes I get headaches with an overwhelming scent). My face didn't burn while I was out today, which was really great! I also really like how thee cap turns blue when there are damaging UV rays out there. It is something that I could see myself picking up again in the future if it's available in the stores I shop at.

While I tested Blue Lizard Sunscreen for free, all these opinions are my own and this did not sway my opinion in any way.

Swagbucks

Hi guys! You might have heard about a website called Swagbucks. Swagbucks is a website where you can do different things to earn points (also called Swagbucks or SB's) that can be used to redeem gift cards. I heard about Swagbucks a long time ago and joined, but didn't really get into it. I joined again back in May to earn points for another website I frequent, but in order to get points I had to make a certain amount of Swagbucks, and therefore I had to earn Swagbucks to get points for the other website.

I'll be honest - in the beginning I was apprehensive because it seemed almost too good to be true. Partly because while it's not the easiest thing I've done, earning Swagbucks definitely isn't as hard as I thought it would be, nor was it a pain in the butt! Like I said, I joined back in May, and wanted to figure out a way to quickly (and of course, legitimately!) find a way to earn 450 Swagbucks to get points for another website I visited. Doing a quick Google search, I learned that Swagbucks had an app for iOS. I downloaded the Swagbucks TV Mobile app and watched movie trailers. Every five videos give you two Swagbucks. Those movie trailers seemed awful long, so I learned about the other sections on the SBTV app, and found the Home and Garden section where I realized that the videos there were much shorter. They even had these nifty little videos called 10 Second Tips. So watching these clips that average about ten seconds I would earn two SB's every minute or so. And these videos aren't a time waster at all, especially the 10 second tips. All of them have taught me some really interesting things (such has how to get grass stains out easily, how to remove a broken bulb from a light fixture, how to remove the sticky residue form bumper stickets, etc.) that are nice to know. At the time I joined, you could 50 Swagbucks using the SBTV app, but as it this post, it's been decreased to 36 SB's. They do have other apps for Android, but I don't have an Android device.

I should point out that earning one Swagbuck is the equivalent of one cent in the US. However, you can redeem a $5 gift card from Amazon for 450 SB's or technically $4.50. Many other $5 gift cards are 500 SB's, but you can find sales.

On top of the app, there are specific games you can play on the website that will give you two Swagbucks for every other time you play. They have some really cute games too, like this one called Swagasaurun Run. It's sooo cute! It reminds me of Super Mario in a way because it looks very 8Bit, but ultimately it reminds me of Robot Unicorn Attack, which is one of my favorite causal gaming games! They also have a game similar to textris, and one called Swag Jump, which is fun.

Another way I've earned Swagbucks is by searching. On Swagbucks, they have a search engine and every one in a while, you'll get Swagbucks for doing our average searches. I think the highest I've gotten from a search was somewhere in the 40s. Usually, I get around 6-12 for searching. Can't dislike getting a few cents to search! Again, it's not every time, and there is no pattern as it's random, but I tend to at least get one a day if I actively search. :)

Several times a week (sometimes even several times a day!) they have what they call a Swag Code. If you have the Extension or the Swagbucks app downloaded (different than the SBTV Mobile app) you will get notified of a Swag Code. The amounts also vary, but I've gotten as high as I believe 9. I always get at least two, but usually average them being worth around 3 SB's. You can enter these codes on Swagbucks itself, on the app, and and through the extension.

If you do a lot of shopping online, you can earn SB's by seeing if shopping through Swagbucks is available. For example, today I ordered prints on Snapfish.com. I went to Swagbucks first and saw that I get five SB's per dollar spent ordering at Snapfish. I was going to buy anyway, so I activated Shop and Earn through Swagbucks, it took me to the Snapfish page, and I ordered the photos I wanted printed. I've used Snapfish for years, long before I heard about Swagbucks, (I totally recommend them, too for any printing needs!) and there was nothing fishy going on. Back in the summer I ordered something on Groupon and got a certain amount of Swagbucks per dollar spent as well. Very nifty if you do a lot of online shopping. I personally don't shop online, but when I do, I make sure to check and see if they have something with Swagbucks. It's like getting rewarded for shopping!


Another way to earn Swagbucks is to do the daily tasks, such as the No Obligation Special Offers (NOSO) where you skip everything and enter the captcha/code at the end, the daily poll, the Swagbucks Extention, and the Encrave. They have other quick tasks such as two SB's per video that is sent to your inbox, and the Jun Group and N-Gage offers. You usually watch a video or a page for 10 to 20 seconds and then hit next when your finished watching. Also, Swagbucks has other offers where you can sign up for things, enter in an email address, register for some website, and so on. I signed up for BookBub and got 10 SB's, and also get emails on free or low price Ebooks!

There are also a lot of surveys that can be taken on Swagbucks that will help you earn SB's. The amount of SB's you'll earn vary, but I have earned 250 SB's for one completed survey, and 10 SB's for a completed survey. A lot of times I do the Gold Surveys or the Surveys through Peanut Labs, which is an advertising website that is partnered with Swagbucks.

Most of the SB's I earn are from watching videos, looking at advertisements, doing a survey, playing a cute dinosaur game, and doing searches. It's pretty easy! When it got to the point where I had a decent sum of Swagbucks saved up (over $100 worth of SB's), I redeemed my first Gift Card, a $25 to Walmart for 2500 SB's. I was so so so nervous that something was going to go wrong! How often do you get paid for basically doing things you were going to do anyway, or doing a few tasks in a little bit of free time?! It just didn't seem like it would happen for me, you know? I will admit that I am easily nervous and more the glass is half empty than half full. Even when I got my Gift Card code for Walmart (!!!!) I was so nervous that I was going to go to the store and be told it wouldn't work. The cool thing about Walmart is that you can take their gift cards and shop at Sam's Club, and that happens to be where I saw some very nice pants that I wanted to buy. So I went armed with my $25 gift card, a stomach full of butterflies, and headed to Sam's Club. Not only did I buy my pants with the gift card and everything went without a hitch, I got two pairs of pants for basically doing really simple things thanks to Swagbucks!

I can't even begin to express how I was so sure it wouldn't work! My family was probably sick of hearing me worrying about "wasting my time" doing surveys and not having it work. I can't even count how many eye rolls I got when I kept telling everyone, "Now, this might not work. I might not buy any pants." Probably even Swagbuck employees themselves rolled their eyes at how many times I posted on their Facebook page asking if it was okay to do one thing, or not okay to do another things! I was told the only stupid question is the one you never asked... Phew!

So to sum it up, I really like Swagbucks! It's worked great for me. If you follow my other blog (which I know I'm  awful at updating) I've lost a significant amount of weight, and have been in the process of buying a new wardrobe because nothing fits me anymore - that's hard to do on an extremely tight budget. Swagbucks is so helpful!

So I highly recommend joining Swagbucks. It's really great to just have some spare change in your pocket. If you would like to join, I highly recommend it. I'd love if you'd sign up using this link with my reference code (I'd love you forever!) but if you don't want to sign up via my reference code, you can at Swagbucks.com.

Thanks for reading, and hope this helps you out!

Julie

Venus Snap razor review.

Hi guys! I received the Gillette Venus Snap razor in a VoxBox from Influenster. This product was sent to me complimentary from Influenster for testing purposes. Here is my review!

When I opened the box, I saw a Gillette Venus razor, but with a tiny, tiny handle! On the back, it said that it was a portable, to-go razor. It was perfect size to fit in a gym bag, purse, or a tote bag that you can bring back and forth to the pool or beach. The size is perfect, and let me tell you, it's cute. I know you wouldn't expect a razor to be cute, but this is like the chubby little kid of the Original Venus razor. One of the perks about this razor being called a portable, to-go razor is because you don't need shaving cream. There are moisture bars on the razor blade that eliminate the need for shaving cream. All you need to do is add water and it works.

So, yesterday we decided to go out shopping on a spur of the moment thing, and I missed a spot when shaving my underarms. Everyone else was ready to go but me, so I decided, why not test out my on the go razor right now! I took it out of it's cute little packaging, and because it wasn't clear on where to add water (your skin or to the razor?) I got my underarms wet, and the razor wet, and went to business getting the spots I missed. The five blades didn't leave a single hair and it was quick, and at the time, great! My underarms felt moist-ish directly after shaving, as if they had shaving cream. You know how shaving cream/gel can make your skin feel soft and maybe slightly oily/incredibly smooth? That's how my skin felt, and I was pleased.

I'll be honest, though. That's pleased feeling didn't last forever. About an hour into my shopping trip, my underarms started to itch, and burn. It was kind of embarrassing to be walking through the store I was at, trying to find a way to conceal myself digging at my underarms like a monkey. I went into the bathroom, and man, let me tell you. My underarms were razor burn city! Phew, so red and angry looking, and man, the itching and burning was about to drive me to drink. I took off the jacket I was wearing (I was wearing a tank top and a demin jacket) thinking maybe that was aggravating the rash and that did help a bit. Eventually, the itching and burning did subside enough that it wasn't the first thing on my mind, though later that night when doing my kickboxing workout, my poor underarms took a beating with all the friction with moving my arms forward to punch, kick, and so on.

I wouldn't say that my skin is seriously sensitive, but it is a little bit (which is why I felt my underarms after shaving them to see if they felt "moisturized) and maybe that's why this happened. All I know is that I will not use this razor without shaving cream, so therefore it being used a portable, on-the-go razor is a no-go for me. So disappointed in that! However, I've never been one to take care of personal business on the go anyway (personal meaning shaving). I will say that it's a great razor, and I'm sure that it'll work great for me when using shaving cream, but since it's billed as a portable razor, and since the portable, just add water part didn't work out for me, that's why I'm a little iffy about this.

Here are the pro's to this razor:
1. Gillette Venus are great razors in general. I really feel like I get an amazing and close shave when using them, and I felt that way while using this razor. The five blades made it even closer!
2. It's small, compact, and can fit anywhere. Plus it's cute! It comes with a cute carrying case as well.
3. Maybe I just have more sensitive skin than I thought? It might work fine for other women.

Here are some cons:
1. Okay, I get that it's an on-the-go razor and stuff. But you know how if you miss a spot, you might have a few hairs stuck in the razor? If I was truly out somewhere, where would I clean off those excess hairs? I don't like having them stuck in my razor.
2. This is something I've experienced with all Venus razors. Those things work great and I love, love, love them...until it's time to buy new cartridges. Phew, those things are expensive. (I did receive a $4 off coupon in my VoxBox) I'm not sure how long this razor blade will work since I only have used it once, but I've noticed that some Venus blades last longer than others. The ones with the built in shaving cream don't last longer than 2-3 shaves, and at $20 for only three at my local store, it's not worth it.
3. Might not work well with women who have sensitive skin.

So that's my overall opinion of the Gillette Venus Snap razor.

Again, I received this product complimentary for testing purposes from Influenster!