Mucinex Fast Blast - Hard Pass

I had the misfortune of catching a cold last week. I felt miserable and was scouring online for the best meds to take to get me back on my feet...then I remembered I had been sent a free trial for Mucinex Fast Max, from Smiley 360.

I want to say I ran to my kitchen to find it, but I felt like crap, so realistically I slowly dragged my body to the drawer where I most likely stashed the meds and dug through an unnecessarily full drawer until I found the ice blue bottle. Through watery, cold ridden eyes, I read the label for the recommended dose, poured it out and tossed it back like I was taking a shot of Jameson.  My tastebuds were instantly hit with a menthol ambush; it was disgusting, but I choked it down, dragged my ass back to my desk in an attempt to get some work done, and waited for the results. Not only did the Mucinex Fast Blast make me super drowsy, it caused horrible Acid Reflux and did very little to help with my cold. Honestly, I felt worse than before because I was using so much of my very little energy to stay awake. I even dragged myself back to the kitchen to make sure the bottle didn't read, "sleepy formula" or "nighttime relief". Nope.

Bottom line, I'm so happy I didn't spend my money on this crap.

Infusium 23 Smooth

I started damaging my hair at a very young age with the help of Sun-In. It was all the craze in the 90's. A spray product that lightened your hair "naturally" with a little sun or the heat of a hair dryer. I spend hours spraying and blow drying my hair, hoping that one day it would turn my super dark brown hair blonde, like the woman on the bottle. Rather than turn blonde, it turned orange. As I got older, I decided to try much harsher chemicals to damage, I mean, dye my hair with. My freshman year of college I went from brunette to blonde to brunette to brunette with highlights to redhead to brunette within the course of a few months. Now, years later, I'm paying the price with dry and very damaged hair. Whenever I find myself in a salon I'm told I need to buy multiple products to "fix" my damage, all costing an arm and a leg.

A couple of days ago I received my Sunshine VoxBox in the mail from influenster. Inside the box was a product I had never heard of before, Infusium 23. The label claimed it could repair damage using Avocado and Olive Oil. Needless to say, I was skeptical. I mean, could a tiny bottle really fix the years of damage I had done to my hair? I was eager to try it out and jumped in the shower a couple hours after getting it in the mail. I lathered on the suggested amount, post shower, and let my hair air dry. Much to my surprise, my hair was not only smooth, but super soft! AND it smelled great.

I've been using the product for a few days now and I have to say, I was wrong, a small product can absolutely fix years of damage. I am officially hooked.

Dickinson's

You know that one scent in your life that triggers weird memories from your childhood? That super obscure aroma that you definitely don't smell frequently, but when you do, you're brought back to some really weird memories and you can't help grinning like an idiot thanks to that trigger? Well, I have a lot of those triggers, most can be found at a barn thanks to my sister's Equestrian days in my youth, but a few are as close as the local drug store. Today, one such scent entered my life by way of Influenster's Sunshine VoxBox, which I received in the mail. There were tons of great products inside, but one in particular, "Dickinson's Original Witch Hazel Daily Refreshing Clean Clenshing Cloths" (holy crap that's a mouth full!) instantly brought me back to my childhood within seconds on opening the package.

To be honest, I had kind of forgotten Witch Hazel existed until I unboxed my free samples earlier today. Just reading the words triggered a few memories, but once the smell hit my nostrils I was instantly driving down memory lane. I remember my sister dousing her skin in the stuff to "kill acne" and remove any excess oil from her skin. In all fairness, she had (and still has) a great complexion, so I guess it worked. I also remember her telling me it was "for grownups" and couldn't use it, which of course meant I had to have it, so I did what any annoying little sister would do, I sneaked into the bathroom and used half the bottle on my skin. When she found it, she flipped out, yelling at me for using her Witch Hazel. I remember swearing I didn't, but the distinctive smell gave me away. I learned a valuable lesson that day: Only steal products from my big sister that didn't have a signature scent. Sadly, I forgot the lesson when she brought home some great Bath & Body Works lotion a few weeks later, but that's a story for another blog post.

Once I got through the nostalgia trip, I decided to eagerly try out my new cleansing cloths. I fell asleep last night without taking off my mascara (I know, I know, I screwed up) so I had perfect raccoon eyes to remove. Not only did Dickenson's remove the caked on makeup with ease, it left my skin feeling exceptionally clean! The best part? The Witch Hazel scent is just strong enough to last on the skin, but faint enough to not be the least bit offensive.

Bottom line, I love this product. I will certainly be buying more with the three $3 of coupons also included in my Sunshine VoxBox. One of the best free products I've gotten in a long time. The nostalgia was an added plus.

BarkTHINS

I remember the firs time I tried BarkTHINS. I was wondering around Costco, rather aimlessly, when I stumbled upon a sample cart offering chocolate. I felt like I'd struck gold. When the woman sampling the products noticed my enthusiasm she insisted I try all three flavors. I must have had "sucker" written on my forehead, but hey, it works, I ended up walking out of the store with all three flavors in my cart. I've been hooked ever since. BarkThins are the perfect treat. They're the perfect bite for a quick energy boost and a great reward after closing a big deal at work. AND they're reasonably healthy (aren't there like, 1000 articles claiming Dark Chocolate is the next big super food?) and use 100% Fair Trade ingredients, which is just awesome.

Obviously, I'm a fan, so I think you can imagine my excitement when I received my Sunshine VoxBox from Influenster in the mail today where I found a coupon for a FREE bag of BarkTHINS!! Yup, you read that right, FREE! I mean, who doesn't love that word?

So, yeah, I'd say today has been a pretty damn good day so far. Now I just have to decide which flavor to try next...

SoapBox Shampoo

About two days ago, the mailman trudged up the stairs to my front door to hand deliver a very heavy box that simply said, "SoapBox" across the front. I vaugly remembered getting an email from Influenster.com telling me to "be on the lookout" for a SoapBox delivery, but did not anticipate the contents of the box, in the slightest. For one thing, when I read the title, "SoapBox" I assumed it was going to be a box filled with types of soap, I didn't realize it was referring to a brand name; furthermore, I never imagined I'd be receiving full sized products, I figured they'd send me mini samples of some soap to try out. I thanked the mailman and quickly ran into my kitchen to find something to but the box open with. After a minute of slicing tape away I opened the box, revealing two full sized bottle of Shampoo and Conditioner.

I was still unfamiliar with the brand, SoapBox, and I had never heard of the scent, "Bataua Fruit" but I was really excited to try something new, especially for free! The first thing I did was pop the Shampoo bottle open and take a sniff. It actually smelled delicious. Next up, I decided to read the bottle and see what made these hair products different from other's I had purchased. The bottle read: Repair & Renew, not really anything that unusual there. What caught my attention were the words at the bottom of the bottle: "Soap=Hope, Your purchase donates one month of clean water." Now that was certainly something new. I decided to do a little research about SoapBox and learned that, similar to some of the charitable clothing brands out there, they donate clean drinking water to someone in need, for every single bottle of Shampoo or Conditioner purchased by consumers. They even provide a code on the back of the bottler, which customers can enter on their website, to see exactly what community their purchase helped bring clean water to! How cool is that? The Shampoo and Conditioner's are also made with all natural, chemical free, ingredients. that was an added plus.

I was obviously already high on the company, (I mean, what kind of monster wouldn't be excited about a company that gives back to those in need, right?) but I still had to try out the Shampoo and Conditioner, I mean, what if it just smelled good but sucked? Well, I'm happy to report, this is one of the best Shampoo/Conditioner's I've used in a looong time. As I write this, my hair feels super healthy, clean, and soft. It also smells great, but that's no shock. The only, super minor, complaint I have was that the Shampoo didn't lather much in the shower, but I don't really think that's a big deal. Certainly not a deal breaker.

Bottom line, I'm stoked that I received this "sample" in the mail and I will definitely be buying it again when these bottle run out. I might even try some of the other scents! Hands down, best free product sample I've received in a long time. :)

Why I created this blog:

Lately, I have been receiving a bunch of free samples in the mail thanks to websites like Influenster and BzzAgent. I've told the various companies what I thought of their products, but I felt like I needed another outlet to share my opinions, primarily with the public. You might try them for yourselves and find that you completely disagree with my thoughts, that's totally fine, I mean, that's why this is an opinion blog; I just thought I'd take a little time to jot down what I think of the samples I receive and put them on the internet, because the rest of the world seems to be sharing their thoughts, so, why not give it a shot? I am by no means an expert, just a bored girl from Connecticut who likes to write. Enjoy :)