Posts Tagged ‘swaps’

In the mail: a prize, skincare, and a ton of trades

laelene Posted in general blog,Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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Yesterday was an excellent day for my mailbox. I received my July Ipsy bag, a reimbursement check, and two trades I set up last week! Before I started sending and receiving packages, I never knew how good a Monday could feel. Let me recap the items I’ve gotten in the past few weeks:

a magicalmom box giveaway collage

Even Missy wanted in on the box!

This box I won from Leigh of Whimsical Adventures of a Magical Mom. It was originally supposed to be a CraveBox, but then they shut down! Leigh was kind enough to put together a nice box for me anyway, one that is similar to what I might have gotten from CraveBox. Thanks lady! I absolutely LOVE that card – it is so beautiful. As you can see, the box is filled with some great items in the bath, body, and beauty departments. It’s so nicely packaged too!

origins skincare samples collage

I think I saw an ad for the Origins Top 10 Skincare Sample Pack, or maybe I came across when I was just browsing their site. I’ve always been interested in the Origins brand and got to try their A Perfect World face wash for an Earth Day trade a few years back. I also purchased a face moisturizer and used that all up. When I came across this sample pack, I decided it was a good deal because I get to try a bunch of their products to see which I might want full sizes of AND I get a code to use for $10 towards my next purchase, so I basically get to test these for the $0.50 in tax that I paid. That’s a pretty awesome deal! I’d share a link with you, but apparently they are no longer offering it. Sad times.

juice beauty 30-day skin-clearing kit collage

Another brand I’m super interested in is Juice Beauty. I learned of them sometime in the past year, from all the bloggers sharing their subscription boxes. When I got a chance, I did a trade for the Juice Beauty lip gloss and hydrating mist. Still, I coveted the Green Apple Blemish Clearing Peel so when I found the 30-day skin clearing kit I sprang for it. Major bonus that the kit includes a super soft bamboo washcloth – face towels are awesome! I didn’t realize at first that this signs you up for a subscription to get it sent monthly, so I’m going to have to cancel that until I’ve tried out this set and seen what it does for me.

collage of various trades including zoya polish, earth therapeutics foot scrub and lotion, butter london lacquer, lash food, cailyn eye liner, julep dd creme, lip gloss, nail polish, bliss and korres samples

What I got from the trades.

Finally, trades 5 through 9 that I haven’t shown before. A Zoya polish in Neely (from a previous trade) for the one in Julie (purple) that I really wanted. The Cailyn gel eyeliner in Iron for the one in Purple (from Ipsy June). Jane Iredale lippies (from Yuzen spring box) and the J.cat glitter palette (from Ipsy June) for Butter London nail polish and Lash Food. A Bath & Body Works lotion and Nivea lip balm for the Earth Therapeutics foot scrub and lotion. L’Occitane Hand Cream, Island Girl Hawaii cuticle oil, Pangea Face Mask, Bath & Body Works medium candle, and three Bath & Body Works small candles for Julep DD Creme, lip gloss, nail polish, and samples of bliss incredi-peel & Korres yoghurt facial.

collage of items traded for swaps including island girl hawaii cuticle oil, bath & body works candles in small and medium, pangea face mask, jane iredale lippies, bath & body works lotion, and l'occitane hand cream

Some of the items I traded out.

I’m about to set up trades 10 & 11 now so I have even more to look forward to! So now that you’ve seen what I’m getting, tell me: what have you been getting in the mail?

In the mail: kitty toys, free stuff, and the SunVoxBox

laelene Posted in general blog,Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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In addition to the subscription boxes and trades I already mentioned receiving, here’s what’s been filling up my mailbox!

powerbank backup battery in boxI did a review of this external battery and charging accessories I got from nomorerack so you can read more there. When I first got this I was concerned whether it’d be some knock-off brand that is shoddy work that won’t last, but I’m happy to report that while the packaging is “meh” the item itself and its performance are great.

cat feeder and toy collageSince I was given an Amazon gift card as part of a focus group (mentioned in this post), I decided to splurge on my cats and get them these fun toys. One is a feeder where the cats need to paw around through the holes to push the food so it falls through the holes in each level until it is caught at the bottom. I’ve included a video below at the end of the post so you can see Missy at work! She really enjoyed it at first but I think both cats are lazy now and just wait for their daily wet food feeding to get them through the day. Maybe if they are desperate enough they will learn to use this properly. At least I know they aren’t overeating now, right?

The other item is a pretty standard track with ball that you can piece together in many configurations. Once again, this is something Missy has enjoyed and will play with, but Molly kind of just looks at it and walks away. Alas, Molly is like 14 and declawed, so it makes sense she wouldn’t want to play with this. At least Missy likes it!

sample of pad, l'oreal revitalift miracle blur, and pampers sensitive wipes
I got a couple of random samples that I had requested from various sites, including a sanitary pad, L’Oreal’s Revitalift Miracle Blur finishing cream, and Pampers sensitive wipes. I’m always on the lookout for free samples to help me find products that I want to adopt into my life! That’s probably why I love subscription boxes so much. 🙂

physicians formula bb powder and letterA long time ago, I entered to receive a free BB powder from Physician’s Formula. This was similar to the first contest I entered (which I wrote a tutorial about), but suddenly there were a lot more people contending. When I went to submit the form, it froze on me and I never got a success message, so I crossed my fingers hoping I was one of the lucky 1000, but I didn’t count on it. Then just a few days ago, what shows up in my mail but this?! I was pretty thrilled since I’m obsessed with trying BB creams and I’ve never seen a BB powder. Can’t wait to test it!

trade with skin, hair, and body products

I already wrote about my previous trades, so here’s just a quick look at the last trade I got. A bunch of lovely samples that I am looking forward to trying. I sent over some L’Occitane stuff and a set of Angry Birds lip balms that I had in exchange for these.

influenster sunkissed voxbox

And finally, my Influenster Sunkissed VoxBox, which I’m sure I will write about coming up. I am very happy with everything I got and I am so thrilled to try them out!

cat eating from food maze from Mary Qin on Vimeo.

 

On My Mind, episode 7

laelene Posted in on my mind,Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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Thursday Thoughts

It’s Thursday Thoughts time with Jennifer!

eight bottles of nail polishes lined up in a row

These are the ones I chose to send in.


~I finally, finally mailed off the nail polish I was trading in for the Zoya Earth Day Exchange. I know, I’m over a month late, but hey they didn’t say I had to mail them in by a certain date! I kept putting it off because I didn’t like the hassle of trying to mail in nail polish, but then as it turns out all I needed to do was wrap them tight and take them in to the post office. I guess when you know there are a ton of regulations around something, sometimes you make it seems worse than it is, you know? At first I had put them all into a USPS Small Flat Rate box, but then I found out you can’t mail them Priority, so I had to repackage into another box, but that one weighed over a pound and anything over 13 oz is supposed to be mailed Priority. This was quite the dilemma for me, but as soon as I took it to the post office, they gave it a proper stamp or something and it was all fine.

~After getting my May Ipsy bag and having some items I wanted to trade, I decided to also gather all the other things I have that I won’t really use. I put up a trade list on Makeup Talk and wow, it’s been great! I loving swapping/trading and I’ve already arranged 5. It feels great to get products I actually want and will use and send off things to someone else who will appreciate the products more than I would. There are a lot of things I’d like to try that I haven’t because online shipping always costs too much, so this is a way to save on the overall cost and try those products. So much fun! In fact, I put up my For Sale or Trade list on this site too, just in case you’re interested.

makeup talk trade of products from ipsy bags

My very first trade was of items from Ipsy bags – I sent a lipstick and perfume and got a lip gloss, spray mist, and nail polish plus samples.

makeup talk bb cream and massage oil trade

The second trade where I sent massage oil and socks and got BB cream and samples.

makeup talk trade with various hair care, skincare, and facial care products

The third trade with my sent items on the left and received items on the right.

~I have this tendency to want to know everything and not miss out, so when it came to Ramblings of a Suburban Mom, I decided to start from the beginning and get all caught up on her blog. There were 149 pages of posts to go through when I started about a week ago and I finally made it through them all. I admit, I mostly skimmed, but it was cool to see how her the blog has changed. Perhaps I should do that for my own blog sometime. I used to write a lot more and have less pictures, but now I make to try to include a picture with every post. There was also a period where I cycled through a text, photo, and video post to mix things up. Nowadays I have too much to write about to include as many video posts. How has your blog changed over the months and years?

sitting looking down at cat sleeping on my chest~I cannot get enough of my cat Missy! I just love how she responds to my touch – when I pet her while she’s sleeping, her tail will twitch, her arms will stretch out, paws will spread out, and I swear she’s smiling a little bit. 🙂 She’s such a happy cat and she’s happy to sleep on me/next to me/near me, which is exactly what I want. She also lets me rub and scratch and pet her any way I want. What an easygoing nature! Lately she’s been learning to tug at my heartstrings to get her way though, the sly fox. She’ll meow and meow in this sad little “feed me” voice until I give her the tasty (and more expensive) treats. She gets up on the island in the kitchen and then reaches out her paw to “grab” me. Those adorable little eyes look into mine and I give in almost every time. She’s too cute!!

~What do you do to keep hair off the carpet? Between my cousin and I, I’ve found we shed a ton of hair and it’s so annoying to find strands EVERYWHERE. Vacuuming doesn’t get it all out and I don’t have time to go around picking them up all the time. Sometimes in bed I’ll stretch out and get a strand in between my toes and for some reason that feeling really grosses me out! It’s funny how hair can be so wonderful and beautiful when it’s on your head, but the moment it falls out it’s icky. If you shed a lot of hair too, what do you do about it??

~I’ve been in a funk lately, bumming around. :-/ It’s been hard to get motivated to do anything and it makes me feel like a bad person. I see all these super high-achieving people around me and I wonder if there’s something wrong with me because I don’t care to be overworked like them. I used to be super ambitious and also want a fantastic career, but now I’m more inwardly focused and establishing a good family life has become my priority. Unfortunately, that side of things means spending money rather than making it and well, you still gotta make a living, right?

So what are your thoughts on this very fine Thursday?

In the mail: a trade, a Kickstarter backing, a bonus gift, and more!

laelene Posted in general blog,Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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You know, I love mail (mostly when it’s packages, but free samples are good too) and I think there are a lot of people who love getting mail too, right? And I don’t know if you’d care to see what I’ve been receiving, but that seems like a fun way to share some of the random things that don’t make it into blog posts. I’ll skip some things I’ve already mentioned so it’s not too repetitive. Everything here arrived within the past month or so!

trade items including juice beauty lip gloss, juice beauty hydrating mist, zoya nail polish, la fresh oil-free face cleanser sample wipe, benefit the porefessional sample, and urban decay moondust eyeshadow sample with sephora baggieI got some items in my May Ipsy bag that I mentioned I wanted to trade and I was able to complete my very first successful trade recently! I sent the Pacifica perfume roller that I had not intended on trading, but since the girl wanted it and she had other things I wanted, I happily parted ways with it. The other item I sent her was the Mirabella lipstick that I knew I would get out of my hands one way or another! Lipstick is just not my thing. In exchange, I got the Juice Beauty lip gloss in Fig, Juice Beauty Hydrating Mist, and Zoya nail polish in Neely (mint greenish). She even added a few bonus samples! There was a La Fresh Oil-Free Face Cleanser wipe, a small sample of Benefit’s “the POREfessional” balm, and an Urban Decay Moondust Eyeshadow sample. Oh, and a cute little plastic Sephora baggie. 🙂 I’ve already got trade #2 underway with another girl! If you’re interested, maybe we can trade too.

kate funk the world's most super amazing 100% awesome cat calendar and cards from kickstarter backingI don’t quite remember how I stumbled across this Kickstarter for The World’s Most Super-Amazing 100% Awesome Cat Calendar, but I’m sure glad I did. As a major cat fan, I couldn’t help myself. The scenes and costumes created for the photo shoots are really amazing and I had to support Kate Funk as an artist and businesswoman and AC as a hard-working, ever-patient model. I mean, my cat would never sit so nicely! I chose to get the calendar and 5-card combo. I let my cousin choose a design she liked, which happened to be one I had chosen for myself so that’s why one of the designs is hidden here – it’s just a repeat. I love how much care everything was created, packaged, and sent in. This is quality stuff that I will really enjoy using!

welch's purple nalgene bottleWelch’s is offering these cute 12-oz Nalgene water bottles for free if you bought three of their Refrigerated Juice Cocktails (59 oz size in any flavor). You have to buy them between March 18-July 31 of this year and send in your receipts for the purchases to redeem. Then you just print and fill out this form and mail it in by August 30. A few weeks later, you’ll get a bottle like mine! Totally adorable, very high quality, and a great size for kids or those who want a smaller bottle to keep around. If you’re interested, hurry up before the offer ends! You’ve got less than two months now, which should be ample time to drink three cartons of juice, don’t you think?

brand new google nexus 7 in box with exterior boxWhen I decided to bundle our home internet and phone into one while adding on TV service for a total package from AT&T Uverse, they were offering a bonus product. I got to choose between a Nexus 7, an Xbox, and some other electronic product. As you can see, I opted for the Nexus 7. I figure it’d be perfect since my mom’s the only one who doesn’t have a tablet. It’ll be good for her to learn and have something portable to use on the go! I think it would be cool to use both it and my iPad, but that’s completely unnecessary. Besides, Panda has a Nexus 7 so whenever I move in with him I can just use his as I please. 😉

Have you gotten anything cool in the mail recently? Do share!

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