Saturday, August 9, 2014

First Blog Post! Wish me luck :)

Hello. I created this blog since I joined influenster and was chosen to test FREE products in their Surf's Up VoxBox. I've never blogged before and I pretty much don't know what I am doing, but I hope someone finds this and enjoys my ramblings.

I'm in my 30s, married, and have one child (a toddler). 

The first free product I tried was Hawaiian Tropic Silk Hydration After Sun in Coconut Papaya scent. Took a while since I am rarely in the sun so I felt I needed to actually need to product in order to give it a fair try. Well TODAY we went on the train in the redwood forest and neither myself or my husband wore sunscreen but we put sunscreen on our child. Go figure. Anywhooo, I put a thin layer of the after sun lotion on my face, throat, and chest. It smells delightful and not overly like coconut like I expected. It was a bit sticky feeling but that quickly went away in about 30 seconds. It absorbs quickly and no film is left behind. 
I decided to rope hubby in to give me a guy's perspective. He liked the light scent and how it absorbed quickly. He thought the ribbon look of the product made it seem higher end. I have to agree.
After about 10 minutes hubby commented that although at first the lotion was refreshing, the sensation wasn't lasting on our light sunburns. I think this is a great product for hydration, but it isn't the product to use for sunburns. In my experience- pure aloe gel is the best sunburn soother. The blue stuff is best for painful burns. The skin not burned that I put the lotion on feels extra soft and silky.

The other product I tested today was CoverGirl Bombshell Curvaceous by lashblast mascara in Very Black. The tube is HUGE! The diameter of the thing is enormous. I was slightly intimidated. But I went for it. One end has a 1 on it and the other a 2. Today I oped for the 1 side which has a curved brush and is supposed to volumize and curl my eyelashes. My lashes are pretty dark and long naturally, but I have always liked to add mascara. Especially after my child was born. When I was pregnant my eyelashes really thinned out. So volumizing and curling is what I'm looking for! The mascara goop is stored in the center segment of the tube and the wands are the end segments. I found the diameter of the wand a bit difficult to adjust to. The wands I am used to are about half the diameter. The mascara was a bit clumpy at first, but with a bit of wiping the wand on the tube, it was easily solved.
My lashes were definitely thicker, but I am not sure how much more curled they were. I did have to use a qtip to clean up under my lower lashes. The packaging warns the mascara needs an oil based remover. I used a pre-moistened eye makeup remover pad and it came right off. I did have to rub it little bit to get it all off, but nothing extreme.

Tomorrow I plan to try side 2 of the mascara (and take pictures), get the Jamba Juice Smoothie kit with my coupon (it is free) and make whip it up- an excuse to use my VitaMix blender, and to give myself a pedicure to try Sinful Colors Professional Nail Polish in Ocean Side- which looks like an interesting shade of blue.

Here is to tomorrow! I hope you enjoyed my first blog post and my first ever product reviews. I'm sure I will get better with more practice.