Posts Tagged ‘sweets’

Treatsie June 2015 review

laelene Posted in reviews, subscriptions,Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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With the hot summer months upon us, it’s time for some snacks that won’t melt in the heat. There’s a good variety in this box.

Treatsie is $15 per box + $4.95 shipping and comes with artisan candy from 3-4 brands. That means about 6 or 7 different flavors of treats. Boxes are sent monthly with no option to skip. They offer a referral link program to earn store credit. Use my referral link to get your first box FREE!

treatsie june 2015 box contents with salem baking moravian cookies, the art of caramel artisanal caramelized popcorn, and nutwhats confection crunch treatsie june 2015 info card

Salem Baking Co Meyer Lemon Moravian Cookies: Mmm, the fresh lemony taste of these are a nice, light treat. Plus, the cookies are super thin and crunchy! Definitely a nice summer snack to have. I’ve never heard of Moravians much less their cookies, but I’ve learned that it’s a style that comes from those belonging to that church.

The Art of Caramel Artisanal Caramelized Popcorn in Vanilla Bean Cocoa NibBananas Foster with Dark Rum: I don’t care for popcorn much, but I did try the Vanilla Cocoa one, which was a somewhat strange combination of flavors for me. I’ll pass on the other since I don’t particularly like bananas or rum. Luckily, I’ve got plenty of mouths willing to eat my snacks at work.

Nutwhats Peanut Butter Crunch & Almond: I’ve got to say, smothering nuts in sugar is one way to get me to like them! I enjoy the crunchiness of these treats and the uber sweetness too. They’re rather addicting and can be quite dangerous once you get started.

The popcorn was meh for me, but the rest is all delicious! I really liked trying out a new style of cookie. Which snacks do you want from this box? To get Treatsie, sign up with my link and get your first box free!

[This post contains affiliate links. Signing up through them helps support my subscription and I’d be ever so grateful. 🙂 All opinions are my own and I received no compensation for this review. I just purchased this box and wanted to share what I got!]

Treatsie May 2015 review

laelene Posted in reviews, subscriptions,Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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For a long time, I was grandfathered in to the original $15/box price. This is the first box since they discontinued that and have everyone on the same plan now. I’ll have to evaluate if I feel the extra shipping cost is worth it over the next few months. The box arrived on a hot day and sat in the mailbox for a couple of hours. Summer treats are carefully chosen to be types that don’t generally melt, so everything was fine!

Treatsie is $15 per box + $4.95 shipping and comes with artisan candy from 3-4 brands. That means about 6 or 7 different flavors of treats. Boxes are sent monthly with no option to skip. They offer a referral link program to earn store credit. Use my referral link to get your first box FREE!

treatsie may 2015 box contents with hard crack toffee cookies, fudgeez gourmet brownies, bequet assorted caramels treatsie may 2015 info card

Hard Crack Toffee Cookies in Mocha, Chocolate Chip, & Original: What fun! Toffee cookies? Now that’s different. I like the taste of these cookies in general, though I’d love them if they were a little more sticky. I really like a toffee that gets stuck in your teeth. These are nice for a crunch and when you want something that doesn’t feel too heavy.

Keena’s Kake Designs Fudgeez Gourmet Brownies in Dark Chocolate: I like making brownies, so I’m not sure about this treat. I’m saving it for a snack or breakfast one day and I’m hoping it isn’t too dry for my taste. It does look good!

Bequet Confections caramels in Chocolate, Cinnamon Swirl, & Salted Butterscotch: Caramels are some of my favorite sweets. The caramels did get a little melted and stick to the plastic wrap, but it’s easy enough to lick it off. All the flavors are good and I’ve kept this in my bag for work! Great morsels to have around in the afternoon.

I like all these treats and will eat everything except the mocha-flavored toffee cookies. It’s nice trying some unique treats that I’ve never seen before. What items do you like from this box? To get Treatsie, sign up with my link and get your first box free!

[This post contains affiliate links. Signing up through them helps support my subscription and I’d be ever so grateful. 🙂 All opinions are my own and I received no compensation for this review. I just purchased this box and wanted to share what I got!]

Treatsie October 2013 review

laelene Posted in reviews, subscriptions,Tags: , , , , , , , ,
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Trick or Treatsie!

Treatsie is $15 per box and comes with artisan candy from 3 brands. That usually means 5 or 6 different flavors of treats. Boxes are sent monthly with no option to skip. They offer a referral link program.

treatsie october box with halloween-themed trick or treatsie label

This time it was Halloween-themed! So cute.

treatsie october box with halloween-themed tissue paper and sticker inside

Even the tissue paper and sticker inside were themed.

treatsie october box contents with chocolates, chocolate bar, and toffee

I was too excited to try it all that I forgot a picture of all the items together, so this is the best you’ll get!

collage of alma peanut butter cup and salted caramel chocolatesAlma Chocolates Thai Peanut Butter Cup & Salted Lavender Caramel: These are super cute little chocolates that are reeeeeally rich. The peanut butter cup was very smooth and definitely wasn’t your normal American peanut butter flavor. I’m not sure I could eat these normally since it was so creamy. The salted caramel is delicious and I wish I could eat more but it’s very strong too so half a piece is already more than enough. These taste like high-quality treats and I’d totally get more caramels.

collage of taza crispy crunch chocolate bar collageTaza Chocolates Organic Stone Ground Dark Chocolate Crispy Crunch Bar: This is an excellent crispy chocolate bar. It’s like a healthy version of Nestle Crunch bars. I didn’t even know they used brown rice in these! This is more of a dry taste, probably due to the bitterness of the dark chocolate and the crispiness of the rice.

collage of craftmade toffee almond toffee with milk chocolate and craftmade toffee caramel corn toffee with milk chocolateCraftmade Toffee Almond Toffee with Milk Chocolate & Caramel Corn Toffee with Milk Chocolate: O.M.YUM I looove toffee and these are just fabulous. The perfect kind of sweetness and crunch with extra bits to balance out the flavor. The almond one is good but the caramel corn one is heavenly. Amazing! I must get more of the caramel corn one. Noooom…

I like that Treatsie’s back to focusing on chocolates as the weather cools down. These are all wonderful fall candies that I can see myself eating with a nice mug of hot chocolate and a book by the fireplace (not that I have a fireplace). What do you think of these snacks?

[This post contains affiliate links. Signing up through them helps support my subscription and I’d be ever so grateful. 🙂 All opinions are my own and I received no compensation for this review. I just purchased this box and wanted to share what I got!]

365great Day 223: desserts

laelene Posted in 365great,Tags: , , , , , , , ,
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365great challenge day 223: dessertsI’m a sweets kind of person. That’s why my favorite course is dessert and I often don’t wait until the end of a meal to enjoy it. In fact, in high school my best friends and I would go out to restaurants and get our dessert brought out first. It confused many a waiter, though I’m not sure why they made it such a big deal. So what if we wanted to treat the dessert like an appetizer? I figured we may as well start with the best part and work our way from there. I also find desserts to be really fabulous breakfast items. My favorite is a giant cone of vanilla bean ice cream to kick off the day. I did that many a morning in middle and high school and I thought it was great!

Yuzen Fall 2013 edition (August-October) review

laelene Posted in reviews, subscriptions,Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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Yay it’s Yuzen fall time! I’m glad that the weather is still acting like it’s summer since I haven’t gotten enough of the warm days just yet. But hey if fall has to come then what better way than with a lovely Yuzen box? 🙂 I got this before my UK trip but didn’t have time to review it until now. As you can see, the lighting on my pictures got worse and worse as I lost sunlight. Ah, the new challenges of working away from home. So are you ready?! Here are the wonderful products from the August-October box (unboxing video coming).

Yuzen is now $33 per quarter (it was $26 before but now they started including more products with the seasonal frequency) and each comes with around 7 or 8 eco-friendly beauty, skincare, food/snacks, and home products. Boxes are sent quarterly (Feb, May, Aug, and Nov) with no option to skip, but you can get one-time gift boxes too. Sometimes there’s a waitlist to get the subscription. They do not offer a referral program.

*Disclosure: As a super fan, I was invited to be the Yuzen Ambassador to help them spread the word about their brand. Starting with the October box, I began to receive them for free. I was not compensated otherwise and all opinions are my own, irregardless of my relation to Yuzen. I just happen to think they’re awesome (as does everyone else I’ve heard from). :)

This is the first time they’re using the new packaging, so I wanted to show you that first.

new yuzen box exterior box in rectangular shape with blue flowers on brown cardboard

The new box keeps the same coloring as the previous, but with larger flowers and a narrower shape.

new yuzen interior box fits perfectly into exterior box

Now there is an interior box, which fits just right into that exterior box.

new yuzen interior box in rectangular shape with white flowers on aqua background

The interior box is a nice cardboard perfect for reusing!

yuzen box fall 2013 warm red theme with red tissue paper and red and pink yuzen paper

The inside remains similarly packaged. No more ribbon tying the box together.

yuzen box fall 2013 contents in organza bag

The dimensions of the box now match the organza bag size quite well!

yuzen box fall 2013 with info cards and business cards on bottom

Each brand’s promotional material can be found underneath the products.

collage of unboxed fall 2013 yuzen boxes

Two of the variations for the fall box.

Click on the pictures for the full sizes so you can enjoy all the details of each product!  You can even zoom in to read all the messaging.

collage of verve organics soul sister lavender nut sugar scrub tubVerve Organicssoul sister scrub: I love me a scrub! This is the first one I’ve gotten that is dry like this, so that was a change. They have large grains of sugar so you can rub and rub and rub. I wasn’t sure what to do with it – put some in my hand and get it wet or get the area I want to rub wet and start scrubbing. It was a new experience for me and I really enjoyed the nutty sweet scent. I do wish it was a little more held together by something liquid since it was hard to keep the grains from just falling away unused.

collage of coola organic face mineral sunscreen unscented spf 20 sample tubeCOOLA Suncareface spf 20 unscented: I’ve used their cucumber facial sunscreen from one of the earlier Yuzen boxes and I have a similar sample of the rose scented sunscreen from Ipsy, so it’s nice to have the unscented as well. I’m keeping this sealed until I’ve worked through more of my current sunscreens (which I’m not very good at doing since I always forget to apply them). If it’s anything like the cucumber one, then I will like it because it absorbs really well for a light layer that doesn’t grease up my skin.

collage of ajara skincare ayurvedic beauty tridoshic bath tea bag sachetAjara Ayurvedic BeautyTridoshic Bath Tea: This smells really healing! It’s such a pretty combination of flowers and plants that it’s a shame all of that is hidden in a muslin bag. I love that everything is organic and it’s all plants that I recognize. I just took a tea bath recently so I’m not quite ready to use this one, but if I ever have a long day where I need some healing, this will be my first choice.

collage of torie & howard organic hard candy in blood orange & honey tinTorie & Howardblood orange & honey hard candy: Yes! How could you go wrong with blood orange and honey in a candy? Make it organic and it’s even better. I appreciate the individually-wrapped pieces since I was afraid I’d find one giant clump of hard candy (you know what I’m talking about). I love the packaging and the tin can is very well made. It’s not hard to open yet the lid doesn’t fall off. Great design right there. The candies have a cute little TH imprint on them and you can throw a few pieces anywhere you want them handy, or just take the whole tin along. 🙂

collage of juice beauty organic green apple peel for sensitive skin tubJuice Beauty – Green Apple Peel Sensitive: I have the Blemish Clearing version of the peel so I did a side by side comparison on my face. One half was covered with my original one and one half was covered with this one. At first the Sensitive one tingled more than the Blemish Clearing one, but then it soothed while the BC one continued to feel warm and tingle a bit. The formula for this one is milkier/creamier, which might be part of the soothing action. It smelled creamier to me too.

collage of acure cell stimulating body wash bottle with moroccan argan stem cell, argan oil, and sea buckthornAcureargan cell stimulating body wash: I really need to try a different scent from Acure! In the January Yuzen box we got the shampoo and conditioner in almond scent, which I found just didn’t suit my fragrance preference. This body wash also smells like that so I’m going to have to pass on it and have Panda try it for me. I do like the concept of argan stem cells, though I have no clue what that means. I’m also just a little obsessed with sea buckthorn after the Sibu product in the December Yuzen box, so I wish I liked this scent.

collage of sanitas vita-rich serum bottlesanitasVita-Rich Serum: Part of their Moisturize line of products, this is a super rich serum. A single squirt was way too much for my face so it really packs a punch. I think two drops would have been more than enough for my entire face, so you can imagine that this would last a long time! Since I accidentally over-applied I had to rub it in for quite awhile. It still left my face a bit shiny since I couldn’t absorb all that, so definitely be careful when dispensing it. This is probably best used at night for your bedtime routine.

collage of sphatika with elixir of quartz crystal rose cleansing foam bottle face washSphatikaRose Cleansing Foam: Ok, this already wins because it’s a foaming dispenser. I get such a kick out of these and I really enjoy washing my face with pre-foamed cleansers. Elixir of quartz crystal sounds super fancy but of course is something I know nothing about. Nonetheless, I liked this product and found it to be very soothing. It’s supposed to be gentle enough for babies so that makes sense! Apparently the Bulgarian Rose Oil they use is rare (and hey I’ve never heard of it, so it must not be that common).

collage of sphatika with elixir of quartz crystal vitamin a night creme bottleSphatikaVitamin A Night Creme: If you didn’t get the foaming wash then you would have gotten this Sphatika product instead. It’s a rich night creme with a nice light scent I can’t quite place. I enjoyed the slightly flowery slightly herbal smell of it and found it to be very relaxing. It’s anti-aging too, which is a nice bonus. I’m so glad I got to try both Sphatika products! Being a Yuzen Ambassador rocks. 😀

What a lovely healing box we got this time around, perfect for the transition to fall. These products offer more protection for your skin as the seasons change and your skin adjusts to colder weather (unless of course you live in a tropical or desert region!). I really get a sense of warmth from this set of products that’s totally fitting for the change to autumn. I also love the new box design! The inner box is now going to house my nail polish collection and I’m sure I will find many uses as I accrue them.

Did you get this Yuzen box? Which version did you receive? What was your favorite product?

 

365great Day 89: The Buttercup LA

laelene Posted in 365great,Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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Learn more about 365great here.

365great challenge day 89: the buttercup laI was recently introduced to this lovely new shop on Sawtelle. At first I was skeptical of “amazing macaroons” – they just aren’t my type of dessert. But there’s something about these that is just fantastic. Perhaps it’s that rich creamy filling that isn’t too fluffy but has some real meat to it, so to say. I’ve got to say, I have found a new appreciation for these treats and I’d definitely recommend anyone in the area to swing by! The people at the shop are super friendly and I love that the store features local artists – you can get canvases for your walls, greeting cards for special occasions, even jewelry for your favorite lady! They’ve got some pretty amazing candles too, which are shaped like cupcakes and look so good you could practically eat them. This is a gem of a place tucked away in the Olympic Collection building; everything about it is great!

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