Active rings - silicone wedding rings

There's this cool new trend going on for men - silicone "wedding rings." They're silicone bands made to look like your standard silver or tungsten wedding rings to wear when you don't want to worry about damaging your own ring - or if you break/lose the real thing!

The product description: Active Rings are finger rings that you can wear in place of your real wedding ring so that you never have to worry about losing or damaging your real wedding ring. 
They can be used for countless instances like going running or to the gym, outdoors or to work, or if you are in the military or enjoy swimming, these rings will definitly help you to not have to ever worry about your real wedding ring being lost or damaged again. 
They are made out of silicone rubber and come in various sizes and colors.
I was sent a set of 2 in silver and in black for my husband to try out. They do run quite a bit smaller than standard rings, so ordering his standard ring size was a bit tight on him. He said he'd suggest ordering 2 sizes up for comfortable fit, though of course they will stretch out over time.

His actual ring is a tungsten ring so the black one is what he usually wears, therefore it was stowed away in his briefcase and I didn't get any good pics of it! This is a really great idea and super handy to have on hand in case of any ring breakage. He actually did break his first wedding band a few months ago, and this would have been perfect to have in the meantime instead of wearing nothing!

Active rings can be found on Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/Active-Rings-silver-black-sizes/dp/B00OAZ9RJQ, currently retailing for $8.00 for a pack of 2 with free Amazon Prime shipping.

*I received the reviewed product at a discount/free for my honest and unbiased review.

-Tara

Lego silicone molds and homemade candies

My husband is totally obsessed with Lego's, so I wanted to make him something Lego related for his birthday. I recently got this awesome trio of brick and minifigure molds, so decided to make him some candy! It was literally my first attempt at ever making candy so it didn't turn out the best, but it was still pretty fun.

These cute molds came from Kitchim on Amazon and can be found here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OM92VQQ, currently retailing for $18.50 with free Amazon Prime shipping. It comes with one brick mold, one small minifigure mold, and one mold with 4 larger minifigures and one JUMBO minifigure. I think the large one would be perfect for making a Lego guy soap with!

I used the brick and the smaller figure molds for my candy making adventure. Since I wasn't sure how great it'd turn out I just bought one cheap pack of vanilla candy melts from Hobby Lobby and broke them up into batches using food coloring to color the candies. I thought I had all the primary colors at home but I pretty much had yellow and green or neon orange and pink.

My first try did not go so well. The candy melted fast but I hadn't put any coloring in yet, so it ended up getting hardened every time I tried to further microwave it to melt. It was pretty chunky as I put it in the molds so it took shape, but did not take the details of each. I used around 30 candies for 5 bricks, and 20 candies for 4 mini figures.

My second attempt I use yellow coloring and it turned out much better. It wasn't super runny when I put it into the molds but pretty thin. If it had been actually runny like it was supposed to I think it would've turned out perfectly. My third batch I found some blue coloring, but not much, so added some green thinking it'd end up a dark blue and it ended up more of a greeny turquoise. That batch got kind of chunky again so didn't take perfectly, but better than the first since the molds had been broken in.

The molds were super easy to clean once I was finally done, and none of the dye stuck to them so they're ready to be reused for whatever else next! Even though the candies didn't turn out perfect they were sure yummy and my husband loved them!

*I received the reviewed product at a discount/free for my honest and unbiased review.

-Tara

Chalkboard labels and neon markers

So as I've talked about before I'm starting to get into labeling things around my house, but only had smaller labels and a kind of crappy white chalkboard pen to use. Luckily I've gotten some bigger labels and some super bright markers to get my labeling jumpstarted! Nail polish is my biggest passion, and I have a whole vanity station dedicated to it, but until I can get another 6 drawer Helmer unit from Ikea I have a couple boring white drawers to keep my overflow of polish and other stuff in. I didn't really want to paint them, but wanted them to match the other unit so I labeled them in rainbow to match!

Vanity before, and then the drawers after:

Live With Flair was nice enough to send me their labels and marker set for review, and they even included an extra pack and a really nice note. Normally sellers on Amazon just throw things in a box so I am really impressed and happy with the customer service I was given.

The labels can be found to buy here: http://www.amazon.com/Live-Flair-Custom-Designed-Chalkboard/dp/B00KR4KSBK, currently retailing for $12.95 with free Amazon Prime shipping. The pack comes with one marker which was SUPER easy to prime and use and 24 chalkboard labels; half large and half smaller. Check out how accurately the marker wrote on these bad boys! And all it took was a swipe of a Lysol wipe to get the writing off, and it was dry enough to write on again in a matter of seconds.

The markers that I used for the rainbow writing are from Chalk Lits and can be found here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00PSKAYD0, currently retailing for $18.00 with free Amazon Prime shipping. These also primed in a matter of seconds, and it was so cool to watch the color actually fill into the pen tip. The really cool part about these markers it that the tips are reversible, so if you don't want the chiseled look, you take the tip out and turn it around and there's a rounded edge! I love how bright and vibrant the colors are, even after fully dried they show up so well. The only color I had any issue with is the yellow, but I don't think I got it fully primed and filled with liquid at the tip yet.

Here's a close up of the labels on my drawers:

Overall two products I am really happy to have. The colored markers are going to make labeling so much more fun! I am probably going to end up labeling everything in my house when I'm through, haha.

*I received the reviewed products at a discount/free for my honest and unbiased review.

-Tara

Adovia mud mask review

I typically get a lot of beauty items that I think I'm going to use and then never do or never have a need to(why did I ever get anti-aging acid? I'm 27!) So I'm pretty pleased I finally used one that I didn't think I would, I received and tried out the purifying mud mask by Adovia.

You can find this mud mask on Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IBS9QC6, currently retailing for $24.95 with free Amazon Prime shipping. Unlike others I've bought or been given that simply say they are "detoxifying," this mask specifically states it has good stuff in it like jojoba oil, olive oil, beeswax, and evening primrose oil. I use a lot of those same ingredients in my homemade cuticle oil, especially jojoba oil, so I immediately felt a lot better about this mask than others. I have fairly sensitive skin, and while I don't get breakouts as bad as I used to even in my early 20's, most new stuff on my face makes it break out.

The nice thing about the oils in this mask, if you're not familiar with them, is that they actually sink into the skin instead of just sitting on top and being wiped away later.

First impressions of the mask was how huge the bottle is. I always read size and dimensions online, but I never actually expect stuff to be very big when I order it. This is a huge 5.1 oz tube and I'm sure it'll last a LONG time! I did take before and after pics, but I didn't notice any immediate change in my skin visibly, but it does feel much more hydrated. 

The mask itself was easy enough to apply, though after about a minute I could see the spots I put too much on and put too little on. It started to dry almost immediately:

It felt like any normal mask on the face, and did have sort of an earthy scent, but I think I put it way too far up/close to my nostrils so that was probably my fault I could smell it so much! The scent didn't bug me at all though, I was just very aware of it the whole time. I left it on for around 20 minutes(package says 10-20 mins, though I didn't time it at all so I'm just guessing.) This was the dried mask:

I scrubbed it off using a konjac sponge and it came off pretty easily, as easily as you'd expect any average mud mask to come off anyway. The instructions have no suggestions for taking it off so I'm not sure if I would have had better results with a washcloth vs the sponge. 

It's been about an hour since using the mask and although I don't notice any change my face feels much more hydrated. I followed it up with my typical facial lotion and haven't applied any makeup yet because my skin feels so smooth I don't want to ruin it! Hopefully in a couple days I'll notice a difference and be able to add before and after pics.

Overall I can already tell I like this mask more than others I've used. Some I've wanted to take off right away, some I could feel my skin breaking out or flaking right after. I will definitely give it another go in about a week as per the directions.

*I received the reviewed product at a discount/free for my honest and unbiased review.

-Tara

Alright - an actual review!

I know I said months ago I was gonna really start this blog, but now I REALLY am! I have a plethora of products to review and need to get some real posts going so I can review even better stuff :).

A little bit of background about me first: I am not new to the world of blogging, but I am fairly new to the world of reviewing. I stumbled upon Amazon product reviewing and it has been absolutely awesome! Of course I enjoy trying out new products, but I also love giving sellers some reviews with actual content, and maybe even helping out a potential buyer or two along the way. I've blogged about nail polish in the past and I do think I'm going to start that blog back up, but one step at a time, right?

Anyway, today I have a cool product that I've had sitting around for awhile and I'm not really sure why I never opened it up until today. It's these cool chalkboard labels:

You can find them on Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KFX6PC4 currently retailing for $9.99 with free Amazon Prime shipping. 

I was a bit hesitant to use them at first because I didn't have any chalkboard pens and I knew my writing would be horrid with actual chalk as these do run semi small, around 2" wide by 1" tall. But I picked up a clearance chalkboard pen from Target, and while I don't love pen/results of the pen, I do love these labels!

I decided for now to use them to label the drawers on my hutch, since I know we're going to be moving in the near future and I don't want to waste these on the cabinets in my current rental house. Though I did position one crookedly at first to see how easy it was to remove/replace. It took a bit of an effort, though I think that was partially due to me not wanting to smudge the chalk, but it re-positioned no problem!

Here's a shot of the labels size wise compared to the chalk pen, and placed on my hutch:

As you can see they do run fairly small, but they're meant to be used on jars and stuff like that. I really like my old hutch so I don't mind the small labels, they don't stand out TOO much but it's nice to know what drawer is what.

I don't think I'm going to do my whole hutch yet until I get ahold of better chalk markers/pens and can do the rest in cute colors :) But I am very pleased with the quality of the labels and the stickers used. These would be SUPER cute for a party or a wedding as drink labels!

*I received the reviewed product at a discount/free for my honest and unbiased review.

-Tara

Intro

Hello! I am just getting my review blog started here. I've had blogs in the past for furniture redo projects, nail polish, crafting, etc, but I pretty much let them all die.

I am addicted to polish, kitties(I have 4), spray paint, and more recently, Amazon reviews. Feel free to follow me and I'll follow back!

-Tara