Review: La Roche-Posay Anthelios 50 Daily Tone Correcting Primer with Mineral Sunscreen for Sensitive Skin with SPF 50 @LaRochePosayUSA

Truthfully, having read a few reviews before getting this product, I was a little nervous that this would turn my face orange, but it didn't.

First a few comments:

• It was extremely thick and I had a little difficulty squeezing some out of the tube
• The shade is a medium shade that would not work on very fair people
• There was no obvious scent - a definite plus
• Spread nicely on skin and could be worn alone
• Definitely more CC cream than primer

I have skin color that most cosmetic companies call "light" - not very pale, or medium. So this cream was a little bit dark on me, but only a little. This cream was very thick, and rich, and only had the slightest hint of a silicone feel. Honestly, I thought it looked great on its own. The fact that it's a mineral sunscreen is great - no irritation like you get with regular sunscreen - and it has a fabulous 50 SPF. I have very sensitive skin and was really happy that this didn't cause any itching or irritation. It is a tiny bit dark on me, so I'm sure I'll wear it way more in the summer. This is a great product. Now if only this product was cruelty free, sadly it is not and I won't be able to purchase a replacement after this is gone.

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Beauty boxes I subscribe to – purchased a full year membership to Goodbeing & Lip Monthly (had deeply discounted prices). I’ll still be getting the other three boxes every month in addition to yearly subscriptions:

Ipsy - generous sample size and sometimes full size items, great box
Boxycharm - my favorite box, all full size items worth over $100

Lip Monthly - 4-5 full size items with 1 item that is not for lips, great bag

GoodBeing Box - this is one of my new favorite boxes

Recently cancelled:

Kloverbox

Allure Beauty Box

Birchbox - a great starter box where you can discover great products and occasionally get a full size item

Freebie sites I belong to:

Influenster – when you first join you are more likely to get a box than later on; I almost never

BzzAgent – they politely ask you if you want to join a campaign, I get more from this site than Influentster

Unless otherwise stated in my video or description above, this product was purchased by me. I am not affiliated with manufacturers or any subscription service and am not compensated for the review.  I promise you that you will always get my full and honest opinion.

Marketing: I’m PR friendly and would be delighted to try your products. Contact me if there is something you would like to send for me to try and review. Please be aware, however, that if I don’t like your product, I will be honest with my viewers. Also, I cannot promise you that your item will appear on my videos, and I don’t follow a time table with reviews.

Review of Nature's Guru Organic Masala Chai Tea @NaturesGuru

I have loved tea for years, but got away from it, drinking so much coffee, then I fell in love with tea again. Don't get me wrong, I love that cup of coffee first thing in the morning, but there is nothing more delightful than a cup of tea in the afternoon or evening. I even went so far as to order a tea box for my ever growing tea collection. So I was very anxious to try this tea. I was a bit nervous about the black pepper in the ingredient list, but I don't taste pepper.

First, this comes in a hinged box that holds closed after you open it and close it again. Inside there is a mylar foil bag that holds all of the tea bags, so no, they are not individually wrapped, so they can't be stored in my beautiful tea box. There was one flaw I did find and that was after opening the mylar bag, you can roll the top until the cows come home and it won't stay closed. The cardboard box is just not enough to protect the flavor of this tea, so I had to remedy that situation with a bag clip. You could put a piece of tape on it also, but I would have preferred it if the bag would have stayed closed.

Now to the tea itself.This is strong stuff. The best cup of tea is steeped for 3-5 minutes. Steeping for about 4 minutes make the best cup with these bags. It has a rich, full bodied flavor that rivals any cup of coffee I've ever had. I do prepare my tea with a teaspoon of sugar and a splash of milk, so the sugar give a hint of sweetness, but I think this tea could be enjoyed on its own as well. You can definitely taste a hint of the spices added, but the cinnamon is the overriding taste. I enjoy this tea so much that I'll likely keep buying from now; it adds a bold spiced flavor to my tea collection.

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I really wanted to love this Juice Beauty set, but the scent was too strong

I really wanted to love this Juice Beauty Age Defy Solutions Set. The set is composed of 5 different parts of the system:

Cleansing Gel - 2 fluid ounces

Age Defy Serum - 0.25 fluid ounces

Age Defy Moisturizer (for nighttime) - 0.5 fluid ounces

SPF 15 Moisturizer (for daytime) - 0.5 fluid ounces

Peel Full Strength - 0.5 fluid ounces

I didn't mind that these were deluxe sample size; the kit was only $39, and this is a great starter set of an expensive brand.

I had high hopes for this set since I have Juice Beauty Stem Cellular Repair Eye Treatment and love it. Unfortunately, I have mixed feelings about each of the products in this set.

Green Apple Cleansing Gel - this is actually one of the only two parts of the set that I liked, sort of. It is extremely watery and ran right out of my hand the first time I tried to use it. Seriously, it is very watery. Still, it felt like it cleansed well and didn't have a strong scent. It didn't over-dry my skin like so many cleansers can.

Green Apple Age Defy Serum - this was slightly viscous, more like a thin gel. I followed all the directions to the letter and didn't see any benefit or change at all after using it twice a day for a week.

Green Apple Age Defy Moisturizer - I have very dry skin and this moisturizer was actually too heavy and uncomfortable for me, which is rare. If you have extremely dry skin you may like this, but it was too waxy-feeling for me. Unfortunately, the clincher here was the super strong smell, and no it doesn't smell fresh like apples, it smells almost like sour apple, and not in a good way.

Green Apple SPF 15 Moisturizer - this had the same awful smell that the regular moisturizer had. This was very waxy, didn't absorb well, and had the same heavy white coloring to it that regular sunscreen has and didn't absorb well. Stayed very waxy all day.

Green Apple Full Strength Peel - this is second of two parts I liked. This is a nice medium thick gel that you smooth on and leave on for 10 minutes then rinse off. The saving grace here was that it didn't have the same heavy scent that moisturizers had. Peel is a bit of a misnomer since this is a rinse off product. I didn't notice a difference in my skin when I used this, but perhaps if it was used for more weeks than just two, there may have been some benefit.

So, even though the cleanser and the peel where fairly nice, not great, the moisturizers were the clincher for me. The unpleasant scent was too unpleasant to keep using them.

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Disclaimer: I received this product for free to try and review from the Amazon Vine program.

Use these to decorate the inside of my planner - absolutely love these markers!!

I got these Mead Academie water soluble markers on Amazon and love them!

I've been drawing, painting, and writing all my life, so these markers appealed to me immediately. Yes, you can use these to create a masterpiece like the one on the cover of the tin. I've been using my markers in a completely different way - I use them in my 2014-2015 planner. Yes, I bought a spiral planner that is very plain on the inside, at least until I started decorating it. Rather than buying an expensive planner I opted to buy a $7.99 planner at CVS. I decorated that planner with stickers tape, and using these lovely markers, and every weekend I decorate the upcoming weekly page. These markers write so beautifully and the colors are so stunning. Yes, you can use them to create a masterpiece, or you can use them the way I have for daily and weekly use. These will not collect dust in my home like so many of my other art supplies have.

A couple important points: these are a wide range of colors, the tin give you ideas with regard to using them for art, and the tips are super durable. I worried that they would wear down the way so many felt tip markers do, but they stood the clumsy capping test - I looked up at the TV while capping one of the markers and ended up pushing the tip, hard, into the palm of my hand. No I wasn't hurt, but I worried that I may have ruined the marker. It survived! The same marker, one of my favorite colors, is perfectly fine and didn't get smashed. The tips are super durable and passed my clumsiness test. This is a great set of markers!

CeraVe Baby Wash and Shampoo - Great as an adult face wash

Yeah, that's right. I said adult face wash.

I don't have a baby at home, but I have very sensitive, dry skin. I also have been using other CeraVe products for a while now and love them, especially the CeraVe Moisturizing Lotion, which I have used on my face and body. So, it was a natural thing for me to pick this CeraVe baby wash to try on my face.

I've been using it every day (both morning and night) since I got it (about a week). My skin comes out soft and very balanced - neither feeling dry or oily, which makes this pretty darn perfect as a face wash. This has a different, very light scent from other baby products. There is no powdery baby scent to it. It has a very light, nondescript scent that smells clean, but doesn't linger. The texture of the baby wash is smooth and just one pump is enough for your entire face.

I may have just found the perfect face wash! One other pro on this product, and all CeraVe products, is that it is also cruelty free. Great stuff.


Disclaimer: I received this product for free from Amazon Vine to test and review. My reviews, however, are not influenced by whether an item is free or if I purchased it.

Erica Bauermeister - The Lost Art of Mixing - the Perfect Follow-up to The School of Essential Ingredients

The Lost Art of Mixing by Erica Bauermeister
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book is a perfectly beautiful follow-up to The School of Essential Ingredients. This book could be read on its own, but I think reading the first book helps you understand the characters in The Lost Art of Mixing so much better.

Lillian is a sensitive soul with a complex history. She owns a restaurant where, in the first book, we met characters through a cooking class Lillian hosts at the restaurant. The focus of this book, however, is about the staff of the restaurant and their complex lives and relationships. The book is written in third person limited point of view, where we see only what the chapter's main character knows. Chapters shift from character to character, and deftly delve into their souls and what motivates them to do the things they do. Bauermeister adds a touch of suspense, will their relationships fail or bloom? How quickly will Isabelle lose her memory? These questions are deftly handled.

Bauermeister writes very lyrically. She relies heavily on metaphors, sometimes just a tad too heavily. Also, the voice of each character sounds very similar to the voice of the others. Sometimes there is just an oaf in real life who could care less about others, not so in this book. They are all sensitive, good people and you want to see them succeed.

I had to think about this one before writing this review. The book and all its characters lived in my mind for days. I think my favorite character may have been Finnegan... perhaps because his amazing story lives near the end of the book.

Cozy up with a cup of cocoa and enjoy Bauermeister's amazing story. I can't wait to read the next one.



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