December Birchbox

It's finally here. This one took even longer than my November BB. It was sent December 8 and scanned as arrived on base February 13, and another week to be gotten to me. That makes 10.5 weeks for it to arrive. I really wish they would not use the Mail Innovations method as it comes to FPO ridiculously slow. I will say though we had 2 other items sent about the same time that also just showed up, so something might have happened to slow this particular mail shipment down, but their sites says 4-6 weeks for FPO. Anyone else get it sent to an FPO? Tempted to run it through the mail forwarding service and sent Priority. Surely it can't cost all that much since most are under a pound. It would be nice to be able to leave feedback for points I can redeem for cash on the site.

I know by now everyone has long since had their box and is probably getting their February box, so I'll keep it shorter. Maybe my January one will be here soon. It's been 6 weeks on that one already. Just want to add, I'm not truly complaining, just giving some idea for those who are FPO/APO too. It is a little annoying that it takes so long, but not much can be done about it unless Birchbox switches to Priority mailing.

I received these items:
Eyeko Skiny Liquid Eyeliner in Olive and it was a full size (retails for $15, so this alone is $5 more than what the box cost). Will be my first attempt with liquid eyeliner and I'm not sure about this Olive color. My eyes are hazel with some green, so it might not be as bad as I think. It's just 'different' for me.

I was sort of hoping it would just look black/brown, but it is definitely olive. 

Mox Botanical Lip Butter in the Pomegranate & Fig flavor. It's a 0.1 oz sized one (and I see 0.2 is full sized for $16), but still a lot of product for a lip butter. It says it's all natural and organic. It smells and tastes good. I find it to be very smooth too.

Chuao Chocolatier ChocoPod and I got the Salted Chocolate Crunch flavor, and it was pretty delicious. I love dark chocolate though.

Number 4 Clarifying Shampoo which was a sample size. This is vegan, and free of sulfates and parabens. I'm excited to try this one out. Been trying to find a new, good shampoo, but clarifying plus dyed hair isn't usually a good combo, and I'm going to color my hair soon. I see it claims to not strip color on the packaging.

Aerie Shimmer Fragrance which was a sample size. The scent is far too strong for my liking, and the packaging is a pain. Going to see if anyone I know would like to try it.

They also included $50 to Rent the Runway. It's a site where you can rent high end clothing for special events. The code is for $50 off $125 or more. The code expires in 1 week (02/28/2013), but if anyone is interested, it is BRCHBX50

Only stuff I'd consider buying is like the Mox Lip Butter and maybe the eye liner, but in something other than green.

2 week Biotin and Coconut oil update

It's been 2 weeks since I started the biotin and coconut oil for my nails and hair, so figured it was a good time for a little update.

My nails are still peeling a little, but have improved. They seem to be growing in faster. I'm hoping once all the pre-biotin nail has grown out and been trimmed off the peeling will completely stop. I've also been trying to keep the ones that are peeling buffed and painted, so the ragged, peeling parts do not snag and get worse. You can see what parts are still peeling as they are stained red from the very, very bright red polish I had on last week.

I did the coconut oil hair treatment 2 times the first week and one time this second week. I think that will probably be good for my hair right now, so I'll either do just once a week or maybe even once every 2 weeks. It's pretty healthy and undyed. There hasn't been any noticeable growth after just 2 weeks though. There is quite a bit of shine, but my hair was pretty shiny prior to starting this.

Fun new activities for ME!

I signed up with Influenster and BzzAgent recently. Both are sites that look for people with active social media, blogs, or reviews on YouTube or store websites. You take some surveys, leave feedback on products, and wait to see if you get picked to try some stuff out.

I've only been on both a few days and was already selected to receive some samples to review. The first one was through BzzAgent for some facial products. I've got invites for Influenster (if anyone is interested), and you can just go to the BzzAgent website to sign up. I found these on YouTube watching random videos the other night, and thought I'd give them a try. Nothing to lose since it's all free. You don't even pay for shipping of these products. You just need to try the stuff and leave feedback where they ask. They aren't asking you lie and try to up-sell stuff for them. They want your honest opinion about the products.

Then my more exciting news is I joined a roller derby team! Team is Medusa's Minions here on the base. The team is very, very new and just getting established. Everyone is learning together, and having a lot of fun doing so. I've been to a few practices now, but can only observe. I'm waiting for my skate shipment to arrive so I can actually join in. I've skated a lot in the past, but it's been a few years. I'm hoping it is like riding a bike. You know, something that easily comes back to you even after some time has passed.

For now, I'm just reading up on the rules and minimum skill requirements. I'm working on compiling some video examples of these skills to share with the team as well, so if anyone has any awesome training links to share, it'd be much appreciated. I've just been searching YouTube high and low for videos.

Oreo Brownie Cupcakes = heaven in your mouth

Our little girl just recently turned 2 (end of January). We ended up doing her celebration a couple weeks early though so Daddy could also be in attendance. The Navy called, so we made sure to do it early.

I can hardly believe she is 2 though. I can still clearly recall having her and bringing her tiny little self home. Now she is talking up and storm and almost half my height already (an easy feat considering how short I am!). It's amazing watching her grow into her own little person. She definitely is developing her own personality and likes. Turning into a girly girl despite her Daddy's wishes for her to be a tom boy.

I wanted to share the amazing cupcake recipe I used for her birthday though. I could just sit and eat the frosting with graham crackers. The cake part was delicious too, but the frosting stole the show for Amara and I.

It wasn't a hard recipe. Not quite from scratch, but not just right from the box either. I found this over at your cup of cake. Followed the recipe to the T and they came out just perfect. We used Double Stuff Oreos and I just made a simple box mix of fudge brownies a few days prior to making the cupcakes (and stashed away how many I needed for the cupcakes so they didn't get eaten).

Oreo Brownie Cupcakes
 Oreo Cake:

1 box white cake mix

3 eggs

1/3 cup oil

1 cup milk

1/2 cup sour cream

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 cup chopped oreos

Brownie Frosting:

1 cup butter, softened

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

3-4 cups powdered sugar

6-8 brownies (mine were about 2 by 2 inches)

directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line pans with cupcake liners.

2. Sift cake mix into a small bowl to remove lumps and set aside.

3. In a large bowl, gently whisk eggs, oil, milk, sour cream and vanilla extract together.

4. Add cake mix and stir until smooth.

5. Fold in chopped oreos.

6. Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full (they won't rise quite as much as normal cupcakes because of the Oreo pieces).

7. Bake for 17-22 minutes, or until an inserted knife comes out clean.

8. Let cool.

9. Frosting: Beat butter and vanilla extract. Add cocoa powder and slowly add powdered sugar until you reach your desired consistency. Add brownies (crumble them first) and beat only until the brownies are covered in frosting.

10. Frost your cupcakes using a knife or a #809 piping tip and top with pieces of Oreo.

Copyright © YourCupofCake

Coconut oil and biotin: Hair edition

Since I purchased the biotin and coconut oil for my peeling nails, I looked into other uses for them too. You can view that post to see specifics on brand and cost.

The biotin supports not only nail growth, but hair and skin as well. My hair grows faster than average, so it's not anything I'm too concerned about, but I thought it might be interesting to sort of track it and see if this seems to give any additional boost. I'm sure a lot of other factors are going to play in like how much you use heat on your hair and what sort of product your use (shampoo, hair spray, gels etc).

The coconut oil can also be used as a deep hair conditioning treatment. It apparently can penetrate the hair shaft, unlike your store bought conditioners, and repair from the inside out. You can put some in your hair and put on a shower cap and blast with heat for a hot oil treatment, or just put it on and leave it there for awhile. I opted for the second option. I put some on and ran a rat tail comb through it to make sure the oil was evenly distributed. Then wrapped my hair up in a bun, and left it sit for hours. We weren't going anywhere, so it wasn't a big deal. Someone, of course, had to stop by and I hope I didn't look completely disgusting. It also smells nice and some of it melted down onto my forehead and neck, so they got a nice moisturizer too. Don't forget to just rub the extra into your hands instead of washing it off!

Doesn't look too bad. Just like you've got your wet hair pull up.

Then you just wash and condition like you usually would. Make sure you wash it all out. The first treatment, I had a section that I didn't get out with the first wash and had to do it again because it looked like I had one extremely dirty chunk of hair over my ear. My hair looked and felt a lot smoother just with one application. The little fly away frizzy looking hairs were tamed too. I've got some fine baby like hair around my temples that likes to get a little crazy now and then, but this seemed to help tame it.

I've done the conditioning treatment twice now. I think 2 times a week is good until you get it where you want. Then once every 1-2 weeks (or as needed) to maintain. I don't use much product or heat and my hair is all virgin, undyed hair right now. Our water is very hard though and I've struggled with my hair since moving here.

It also is antimicrobial, and can help with dandruff. If that is an issue for you, make sure to really massage it into your scalp too. It would also help with a dry, itchy scalp not related to dandruff.

There looks to be a ton of uses for the coconut oil. What do you use it for? Some I ran across were makeup remover, lotion, cloth diaper cream and even as a diet. The people were eating nothing but the oil to perform a cleanse, and the process didn't sound pleasant.

Not the best photo since it was just iPad, but gives good idea of the length.  It's also just air dried here . NO product/straightening. Just natural after washing it from the oil treatment. 

My hair measures 17" root to longest tip (about 14" root to tip of a single strand). Then I had some side swept bangs, but they hang to my chin now. Need to go get a trim to get rid of any split ends so it can grow healthily. I'm aiming to grow it out again, so hoping this helps speed up the process just a tad bit.

New Zoya Polishes

I'll keep this one short since I already did a long post about Zoya. They recently had a try 3 promotion. You got 3 polishes for free and you just paid the shipping fee of $10. Great deal since they retail for $8. Then in addition, if you spent $25 dollars on other product you got free shipping.

I figured I'd rather spend $15 more and get $25 worth of products than just pay $10 for shipping. I got 6 polishes for $25 (which pretty much works out to buy 3, get 3 free with free shipping).

I got from left to right: Armor top coat, Trixie (silver), Sooki (a blood red), Reagan (purple/pink), Akyra (teal, but looks more green in photo), and Kimber (pink w/ golden sparkle to it).

The links will take you to the color and are Share the Love links. If you are not signed up with Zoya, and open an account through one of links, you get a code for a free polish. Then if you buy an additional 2 polishes, you also get free shipping. I'll get points to redeem as coupons.

I'm very happy with all these colors. Some of them had been sitting on my wish list for quite awhile and I had trouble limiting it to just 6. Hopefully I'll have time to try a couple out this week. I've got quite the little collection going now, and Zoya is the only polish in the house. That's how much I love it. I think we will probably be set for awhile. I'm not really liking their new Spring line, but they are all pastels and you can see from my selections, I'm not really a pastel kind of girl.

Mario Badescu: Free customized samples!

A friend shared this on Facebook not too long ago. You can go here and fill out a questionnaire. Then, based on your responses, they come up with a customized skin care regime for you. If you do not order at that time, and wait a few days, they will e-mail you asking if you want samples of the items they recommended to you.

My friend did post the link with a photo of the items she received, so it is legitimate. I just got my e-mail asking if I wanted the samples. I'm sure it will take another 2-6 weeks before I see them though. I'm really interested in trying the strawberry  face scrub they are sending to me. I'm also getting a drying cream, a cleansing lotion, and an eye cream. I never have tried an eye cream, so that will be different for me too. The full sized products seem to be decent prices too. If I like any of the items enough to purchase, they aren't going to break us.

Looks like they are good as far as ingredients go, most were natural. I just looked briefly at a few of the things I'm going to get, so it may not be the case for all their product. They are cruelty free too.

ETA: They do ship FPO/APO. It says so in their information section. However, these are not options when you go to put in your shipping address. There is no AE/AA in the state drop down. I know for my location we can substitute NY since our mail typically routes through NY to get to us. I know not having that FPO/APO selection at checkout can make you leave a site quickly if you aren't sure what to do. I am not sure if all FPO/APO locations can use NY though, so check for your location to see what state you should use.

Winter and the no good, brittle nails

My nails have been driving me bonkers since about the first week of December. They have been peeling off the tips in layers. Google gives you all sorts of crazy reasons why this happens. Everything from deficiencies, to just the weather being cold/dry. I tried keeping them shorter and painting them (you know to 'glue' them together). Go figure, that logic didn't work and I ended up with polish that also peeled in a day or 2. This was the Zoya I raved about (and still love), but clearly it's not meant to be a nail 'glue' .

Apparently I'm doing several things wrong that could also contribute to this issue. I'm using a metal nail file, which is apparently a no, no. I also file back and forth when you should just file and buff in one direction. The metal files sound to be too harsh for most nails. The back and forth sawing motion just causes damages and weaknesses. 

Then cue cold weather and dry skin/cuticles. This also makes things brittle, as will having your hands submerged in water too long. I was doing a lot of hand washing around the holidays when the dishwasher was too full. I also just hand wash my pots/pans as I feel it helps keep the nonstick coating in better condition for longer. 

Now the nails just seem unable to get back to a good place. I don't think I fall under the deficiency category for this issue. I've not changed my diet, and this is a new problem. If it were diet/deficiency related I'm thinking it would have been an issue long before now. I'm assuming it was a combination of my bad filing habits and elements (cold, dry and being submerged in hot water too long). 

I got some biotin which supports nail growth and some coconut oil to use as a cuticle oil/hand moisturizer. I also have some hand lotion that I should probably actually use. This stuff is only really going to help with new growth though, so might be awhile before this troublesome problem goes away.

I got the biotin and coconut oil at the grocery store. The coconut oil is USDA organic unrefined oil. I got this brand (link to Amazon, but this doesn't appear to be the best deal around), but it was the only option they had at our tiny store on base. It was about $6 for 14 oz. You need such a small amount for your hands, so if this is your only use of it the bottle would last for quite some time. Brand shouldn't matter here either, just look for USDA organic unrefined and it will be the same. The oil is a solid at room temperature, but melts at body temperature. Just scoop a little out and massage into your cuticles and hands. It will feel greasy at first, but it absorbs quickly. My hands already feel a little softer and I only purchased it yesterday (so have only done a couple applications). 

Then I got Nature Made biotin. It is one 2500 mcg soft gel a day. I have read blogs where others were taking 5000 per day. Since most people do not have a deficiency, there is a very low daily recommendation of about 30 mcg for adults (see here for more information or consult your doctor to make sure it won't interfere with anything). Seems that even at high levels it is safe, but I'm going to stick with the one pill a day. It was about $5 for the bottle I do believe (so once again, Amazon link not the best deal, just an example). 

I'll update later on for any interested to hear if it helped, or didn't seem to make much difference. 

Amara's Bath Gets a Makeover

The kiddo has gotten some new bath time goodies. Not just toys, but I overhauled her bubble bath, body wash, and shampoo too. I've been slowly changing things out for greener, healthier options as things run out.

We have finally used up the last of her Johnson & Johnson lavender baby wash and shampoo that we got as gifts before she was born. Yes, one bottle of each lasted us 2 years. I hate to waste stuff, but I was very tempted to just dump it. I read many articles about parents up in arms over the unsafe ingredients in this 'oh so gentle' baby product. Here is an example article with some of the information, and there are many more if you Google the brand name, shampoo, and cancer. I am not sure if they ever agreed to reformulate, but the bottle we had would have been made prior to this article, so would have had these ingredients in it. It's also disturbing that they wouldn't easily agree to removing the ingredients when they had done so for other countries and were aware of the potential problems/risks.

The bubble bath she had wasn't any better. It had Elmo on it though, so you know it was the one kids would be picking out. It was 'watermelon' scented, but it was definitely a chemically smelling watermelon, so not very watermelon scented after all. I can't remember what brand it was, so can't link or look up ingredients.

Her shampoo and body soap are both by Little Twig (we ordered from drugstore.com and used Ebates). It's an organic and cruelty free line. EWG rates it a 2, so it is quite safe to use (the lower the number the better). The harshest item in the shampoo is a foaming agent/conditioner, and the second is a preservative. They present allergy concerns for the most part. That said, it still has a shelf life of 12 months once opened. It's sulfate, paraben, free of artificial scents, and artificial dye free. I got the shampoo and body wash in the tangerine scent. So far so good. It is not as foamy as your typical drugstore shampoo/soaps. It's left her hair very soft and manageable. The scent is very nice and refreshing. I did see they have a conditioner too. Might get it since Amara's hair is getting pretty long and surely will start tangling more easily any day now.

Then I got her some glycerin based bubble bath from My Beauty Addiction (looks like it's is currently only in their Etsy store, but I'm pretty sure I had ordered it from their website in November). I got birthday cake scent, so obviously it's not 100% natural since there is no birthday cake essential oils, but I'm not too worried about it since none of us have ever shown even the slightest sign of being allergic to fragrance. It also makes more bubbles with a smaller amount of the bubble bath. I found it easier to clean after the previous kind left a film on the tub if you didn't really rinse/wipe the tub down afterward.

We also recently got some cute new tub toys for Christmas. One of the best ones has been Little Tikes Butterfly Net toy. It's 3 little butterflies and a net. You pull on the butterfly's tail and they 'flutter' in the water. They actually move around pretty well and are very simple for Amara to use. The wings stop moving when they are sitting against anything, so they stop moving while in the net, or sitting in your hand. They float well, and don't just sink. They do have little holes and can fill up with water, but drain easily. We have another toy that 'swims' and it doesn't work all that well, so I didn't really have high hopes for this toy (it was a gift). It's not a bath time favorite.

I also had to finally put up the baby wash cloths and hooded towels. She got big girl purple towels and neon wash cloths for her bathroom. The hooded stuff just wasn't big enough or absorbent enough anymore.