Frosty VoxBox review!

I'm back.

Still terrible at this blogging thing, though.

I was one of the lucky ones to get the Frosty VoxBox from Influenster.

I am in LOVE with all but 2 of these items!  

First up is the EcoTools Quick Volume Styler Hair Brush.  I am loving this brush for drying my bangs quickly.  It has large vents for faster dry time, and the dual bristles make quick work of de-tangling my hair.  The round barrel makes it really easy to style my bangs so that they aren't flat against my forehead.  I even use it on my son's hair to shorten the dry time of his insane amount of baby-fine hair.

Next is the Rimmel London eyeliner and remover.  The Eye Makeup Remover is awesome, I am so happy with it!  It's oil-free, which is great since I have oily enough skin as it is.  It has little to no smell to it, and quickly removes my eye makeup with just a few swipes.  The cap is shaped just so that I can get the product on a cotton swab without making a giant mess, making cleaning up eyeshadow fall-out and smoothing out eyeliner a breeze! 

The Scandaleyes Waterproof Kohl Kajal eyeliner in Black is a great addition to my eyeliner collection!  I love Rimmel's eyeliners, especially for lining my waterline, since they don't irritate my eyes, and have such a huge color payout.  It goes on smoothly, and blends just as well.

The N.Y.C. Sugar Plum Lip Color is a beautiful share of shimmering purple-ish mauvey pink that works well for a subtle wintery lip look.  It has a slight fruity scent that was not unpleasant or overpowering, and it didn't make my lips feel dried out.  Lasted a good few hours, but I did need to reapply after meals.  

The Red Vines Fruit Vines Bites were more of a hit with my son than with me, I don't care for gummy candies unless they are covered in sour stuff.  He said he likes that they are little pieces, instead of the long ropes, less sticky hands.  

I am so super excited that I got a regular sized container of Thyme from McCormick, since I was about to run out of my pervious one!  I use it in soups, pasta, and especially in pot roast!  I love McCormick brand spices and dried herbs, as I have had the best luck with flavor and amount for price!  The store brand is ok for some things that I'll finish up quickly, but McCormick ones have better flavor for longer, to me anyway. Plus I tend to be a bit "brand-loyal", and have used McCormick since I was a kid.

Now the two that I just wasn't impressed with: the Candy Cane tea and the No.7 Serum.

I am not a fan of most hot teas, but I gave this one a try while at work.  Even adding sugar did not make me like it. 

The No. 7 Serum was nice enough, but I felt that it made my face a bit oily, which I have enough problems with, lol.  The scent was kind meh, not bad but not really anything to write about.  

Overall, this was an awesome box, and I'm so thankful to Influenster for sending me these products to try!  

~*I received these products complimentary from Influenster for testing purposes*~

Cinnamon Roasted Almonds and Stripes

A while back, I found an awesome garage sale find, a Back To Basics Nut Roaster.

I had wanted to get one of these as kind of a joke for my aunt, who has a love for Cinnamon Roasted Almonds, (Whenever we'd go somewhere they were, she'd exclaim "I smell my nuts!"), but I never ended up buying one and they disappeared from the shelves.  So when I found this one brand new and never used for $3, I snatched it up!  So now I make a batch of almonds to take to family get-togethers, and sometimes just because!

I've found that they're best when I dry-roast them in the oven first.  Not only do they taste better, but the whole house smells awesome!  I just toss them onto a cookie sheet/baking dish and put them in a 350 F degree oven for about 20-25 min (I've found that the time will vary depending on ovens, so just keep an eye on them near the end and make sure they don't get to dark).

After they've roasted, I put them in the pan and add the cinnamon and sugar, and turn the burner on to medium high heat. Then I add the water and vanilla extract.  Then you just slowly stir and stir and stir until the liquid evaporates and the nuts are glazed.

This is the recipe that came with the pan, you can tweak it depending on how much sugar/cinnamon/vanilla you'd like(just don't use a ton of cinnamon, you'll end up with a goopy mess that looks like tar!).  You don't have to use a special pan, any heavy bottomed pan will work (like cast iron).  

1 C sugar

1/2 Tbsp ground cinnamon

2 C nuts

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1/4 C water

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This week's nail challenge was stripes, and I just did a very simple design.  I used Wet'N'Wild Wild Shine Black Creme as a base color, then used N.Y.C. Matte topcoat on it.  I then painted a single stripe down the center of my nail with a shimmery dark cherry color polish, but that didn't really look nice to me.  So I got SinfulColors Let's Talk and painted over the red.  I loved the color combo, and also loved how pretty the shiny purple was against the matte black.

Happy New Year?

Ugh, 2012 had a super sucky ending for my family.  My grandfather passed away the morning of New Year's Eve, and later we spent 5 hours in the ER with my son for what luckily ended up being just an ear infection.  I completely missed last week's challenge for red nails, as I was still somewhat sick and then just distracted by the holiday.  I only really half-assed this week's challenge, since we don't really do anything for New Year's and I didn't have anyone to go to any type of parties anyway.

Sally Hansen Complete Manicure Black Platinum, N.Y.C. Matte Top Coat, and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Celeb City

It ended up looking pretty cool, like chalkboard with a shiny metal frame.  Thought about doing some stamping, but just wasn't feeling it.

I now have 59 polishes, 2 base coats, 1 nail strengthener, and 1 top coat.  The one base coat is really just Elmer's Glue, but it works just like the Essie peel-off so it counts, right?

Winter nails!

I love winter.  This is one of the challenges that I was looking forward to, I had the idea already thought of months ago.  I just wish I had a micro-flakie top coat for some sparkle.

I used Elmer's Glue as my base coat (for easy removal in case I screwed it up), Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Blinding Blue for the background, SinfulColors Snow Me White sponged on the tips.  I then used Snow Me White and my dotting tool to make the snowman, with Wet'N'Wild Black Creme for the coal and hat, Color Club Wham! Pow! for the nose, and a random dark shimmer red for the scarf, all with the dotting tool.  I then sponged SinfulColors Tokyo Pearl on all the nails for a snowfall look, and then N.Y.C. Matte topcoat.

I was going to attempt to do this on my right hand as well, but after multiple hand washing, doing dishes, and taking a shower, the polish popped right off.  So waiting for my nails to dry out before completing my mani.

Saran Mani Week 8 / Wordless Wednesday