Posts Tagged ‘tools’

DANI Naturals: a hard case to crack

laelene Posted in lifestyle glimpses, photo blog,Tags: , , , ,
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For secret santa last year, my pledge bros and I did a long distance exchange. Most of us are distributed around the world now, so it was a fun way to reconnect and send each other gifts. I got a lovely bottle of DANI’s lemongrass lavender reed diffuser. When my most recent reed diffuser ran out, I eagerly opened up the box for this one. Little did I know how challenging opening it would be! Since Panda and I don’t drink, we don’t have one of those wine bottle openers that might have helped with the whole process. Instead, this is what happened…

First we tried using pliers and other tools to grip the stopper and wiggle it out. It was the soft rubbery kind though, so it would just bend out of shape and wouldn’t budge. Eventually it started to break apart so I knew we needed to try other methods.

dani naturals reed diffuser bottle with paperclip trying to move stopper

So then I got a paperclip and started shoving it down the side of stopper. It was so tight I couldn’t get any sort of hook shape going.

dani naturals reed diffuser bottle with paperclip inserted at two points to leverage popping out stopper

I tried putting in the other end to leverage them against each other.

dani naturals reed diffuser bottle with nail trying to release stopper

After bending the paperclip until it was near the breaking point, we decided to get a nail and screw it in the top.

dani naturals reed diffuser bottle with nail to slowly move stopper

After MUCH wiggling, we saw progress! The dirty part is where we’d tried pliers and such. The bit of clean below that is how much slowly came out.

dani naturals reed diffuser bottle with stopper finally pulled out

I had to keep screwing the screw back down since it would start ripping out, but eventually we got that satisfying ‘pop’ of freedom!

tools used attempting to open dani naturals reed diffuser bottle

Can you believe it took all these tools and a good half hour or more to get this silly thing open? They really need to redesign the stopper.

At least now I get to enjoy the lemony smell of my reed diffuser!

Julep August 2014: The Wanderlust Collection review

laelene Posted in reviews, subscriptions,Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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I skipped July’s box, so this was the next one I received after the Memorial Day mystery box I got about two months ago. This review is a long time coming – I’ve been sitting on the box for two weeks, but when I got it, an item was missing. I emailed them about it and got a replacement sent out – and then I saw they’d sent to the wrong address (the billing one that I haven’t used for months!). So I emailed again and they sent me another one, this one to the correct location. So finally, I have the full box to share.

While I liked the colors of this collection for their vibrance, when I saw the Happy Mani-versary special edition being offered for Julep’s 3rd birthday, I couldn’t resist. It offered this cool cleaning tool that will really help with my polishing efforts (I’m a big sucker for tools) and the Ta Da! Quick Drops I’ve had on my wishlist, PLUS a bonus polish shade that is just purple enough for me to want. The nail and cuticle serum is a nice extra to have along with everything else, though I already have one.

Julep is just under $20 per box and comes with 2 nail polish colors and a beauty product, 3 nail polish colors, or 2 beauty products (depending on your style profile choice). They offer plenty of upgrade and add-on options too. Boxes are sent monthly unless you choose to skip (skips are earned every six months for subscribers Dec 18th, 2013 and later). You also have the option of gifting your box to a friend. They offer a referral program that earns you points towards free boxes.

julep maven anniversary exclusive august 2014 wanderlust collection box contents

August’s Anniversary Exclusive Happy Mani-versary Wanderlust Collection box

julep mighty nail & cuticle serum, queen anne polish, ta da quick dry drops, and cleanup tool

Mighty Nail & Cuticle Serum
Queen Anne polish
Ta Da! Quick Dry Drops
cleanup tool

Mighty Nail & Cuticle Serum: I’ve tested this before so I might just trade it. I still have a lot of the original left, but maybe it’ll be good to have the next one ready.

Queen Anne polish: I probably don’t need any more purple polishes, but I can’t help it! This is a festive, sparkly polish that is very befitting a birthday.

Ta Da! Quick Dry Drops: This smells a bit like aromatherapy and it’s so fun to drop them on your nails. I think it works quite well! It’s not instant, but it’s pretty fast.

cleanup tool: One of the main reasons for getting this box and now I’ll have two due to the shipping fluke! It was smaller than I expected, but a nice sturdy metal and perfect size for handling.

julep wanderlust collection card and quote card

The Wanderlust Collection and quote cards.

julep gel eye glider eyeliner info card, discount offer card, refer friends card, and julep app info card

The info cards.

I’m very happy with the items in the box and the value of the combination. It’s even better that I ended up getting an extra cleanup tool out of it, which I might gift or trade. I kind of wish I’d gotten some of the polishes, but I really can’t use up that much nail polish so I’ll console myself by painting my nails with that I do have. The bonus item is a nice screen cleaner that I’ll totally have to use. I’ve already downloaded the Julep app for use and I’m glad I have an easier way to making sure I don’t forget to skip a month.

Join as a Julep Maven to get polishes and/or beauty products sent to you monthly! Use code FREEBOX or FREEMAVEN to get the first box free (you pay shipping).

[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!]

Julep May 2014: The Fresh Twist Collection review

laelene Posted in reviews, subscriptions,Tags: , , , , , , ,
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It was a tough choice between my default profile of Boho Glam and the fun bright colors of the Bombshell profile, but ultimately I decided to stick with Boho Glam. Sort of wanted both! Many moons ago, I decided to contribute to the crowdfunding for the Plie Wand that came out this month and I was happy to receive it.

Julep is just under $20 per box and comes with 2 nail polish colors and a beauty product, 3 nail polish colors, or 2 beauty products (depending on your style profile choice). They offer plenty of upgrade and add-on options too. Boxes are sent monthly unless you choose to skip (skips are earned every six months for subscribers Dec 18th, 2013 and later). You also have the option of gifting your box to a friend. They offer a referral program that earns you points towards free boxes.

julep plie wand crowdfunding thank you card

Aww a nice thank you note.

julep referral card, discount offer card, fresh twist info card, and plie wand info card

Some of the info cards.

julep quote card and brilliance glycolic hand scrub info card

Their hand scrub gets a new name.

julep plie wand info card unfolded

Everything you need to know about the Plie Wand usage and maintenance!

julep maven boho glam may 2014 fresh twist collection box contents

May’s Boho Glam Fresh Twist Collection box

julep plie wand nail polishing tool and extra cap and brush

The Plie Wand and extra cap and brush. Works really well!!

I’m really happy with this box and feel like I got a great value even without the bonus polish. I’m really glad to have the extra cap and brush, though I don’t think I really need the brush part since the wand works quite well for me as is. At first I thought those brushes were superfluous, but then I read the card and it turns out they’re shorter than the ones you’d find on a polish. Now I regret not getting the fun dotting and striping tools, so when I get a chance I’ll have to add them to another order. 🙂

Join as a Julep Maven to get polishes and/or beauty products sent to you monthly! Use code FREEBOX or FREEMAVEN to get the first box free (you pay shipping).

[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 348: WordPress

laelene Posted in 365great,Tags: , , , , ,
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365great day 348: wordpressMy absolute favorite blogging platform is WordPress. It’s simple enough for anyone to use, yet extremely powerful for more robust needs. I’ve been maintaining my blog with it for years and the features just keep growing. It’s professional and constantly improving. You can create and manage your own website through their interface, sharing whatever content you please. You can go with WordPress.com if you just want to dabble and don’t need your own domain. Or if you’ve got your own domain, WordPress.org makes it easy to put together a wonderful site. Best of all, it’s all for free! Such great offerings. 🙂

365great Day 198: Facebook debugger

laelene Posted in 365great,Tags: , , , , , ,
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365great challenge day 198: facebook debuggerOk, this is probably something most people have no need for nor care about, but for my purposes, I’ve found it to be a useful tool. Facebook’s debugger detects any errors that may be on a page, which makes it easy to see what might need fixing. This is really helpful when, say, a blogger wants to post a link to their blog post but the image isn’t being pulled correctly. A quick check on this site can pinpoint the issue (or at least eliminate other factors) without having to trudge through the code trying to figure it out. It’s simple and provides a service that really eases a pain for those of us who have to deal with it. Great way to enhance our operations and save time and hassle.

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