Reviews

In a former life (aka 10 years ago) I worked in a salon for about 2 years. There was a little station up in the front reception area with a small sink and an amazing sugar scrub that clients could use while they were waiting. Every time Brett would visit me while I was closing up the salon, he would use the sugar scrub and so would all the employees…men and women. Our hands were so soft!

Over the years after not working at the salon any longer, I kinda forgot about it. So when I was contacted to try Dermesse Natural Sugar Scrub, it brought back memories and I had hoped this scrub would provide the same amazing benefits…and it definitely did, and then some!

Go Green with Dermesse Natural Sugar Scrub, a mild skin cleanser and customer favorite. This natural based preservative free product combines mild sugar based non-ionic detergents with natural sugar, for a gentle exfoliating rinse-off treatment that leaves your skin softer than ever.

Especially suited for the face as well as the feet, knees, and elbows to produce maximum gentleness with deep cleaning, for the removal of excess dead epidermal cells.

Benefits of Dermesse Sugar Scrub:

• Sugar is a natural and safe preservative
• Sugar is a mild abrasive that rinses off cleanly leaving the skin soft and moisturized
• 98% of the product is made-up of natural based ingredients

I prefer to use this on my hands and feet. Simply take a small scoop of the scrub and rub it into your skin in a circular motion.

They don’t specify an amount of time to rub the scrub in, but you won’t want to stop! I probably did it for about a minute.

Rinse the scrub off and immediately notice how soft and smooth your skin is. My hands were still soft hours later, even after washing them a few times and doing stuff around the house.

This is a perfect first step during a manicure or pedicure because it removes dead skin cells and even makes your nails moisturized and soft. I actually like this sugar scrub more than the one I used in the past because there is no added oil layer that you have to mix in and the smell of this one is nice and light.

I put mine right next to the sink and use it on my hands every few days…I bet Brett has used it too!

To learn more about the entire Dermesse Line and Buy: Dermesse Website

I received this product in exchange for a review. All opinions are my own and honest. Thanks for reading!

I love coffee. I love beauty products. So it’s no surprise I was excited to try frank coffee scrub! To be honest, I had never heard of it before, but after a quick search online, I found a lot of reviews. Had I been living under a rock? Nope, just busy wrangling a toddler, being tired and pregnant, and doing the working mom thang…I suppose.

Have you heard of frank? Here’s some more info:

frank is an all-natural coffee scrub for your body- an exfoliator that targets skin conditions such as cellulite, stretch marks, eczema, acne, and psoriasis. He’s made with fresh coffee grinds and other natural ingredients.

When I first opened the package, the aroma was wonderful. As much as I like coffee, I don’t always like the smell, but frank had a light coffee smell mixed with an almost chocolaty smell…which is the only way I can think to describe it but it was probably from the sweet almond oil.

frank really is a coffee scrub, made with natural ingredients, so you really are getting a bag of coffee almost! I received the original formula, made with coffee, sweet almond oil, brown sugar, vitamin e and orange oil.

When caffeine is applied topically to the skin it can stimulate blood-flow and circulation, this may help to reduce the appearance of cellulite. Ground coffee beans are also a natural exfoliant helping to reduce dry skin, as well as target eczema and psoriasis.It’s packed with Vitamins A, E and D to moisturize your skin, as well as linoleic and oleic acids to promote skin healing. Basically lots of good stuff that hydrates your skin and makes it appear to glow.

That sounds amazing! But how do I use it?

Pretty much. Here are the official instructions:

• Get naked and get in the shower. Turn the shower on and dampen your skin.
• Get dirty by using approximately two small handfuls of scrub to cover your body.
• Get rough with circular massage motions, concentrating on problem areas.
• Leave scrub to dry for 5 to 10 minutes. Get clean by rinsing the scrub from your body.

So since I am pregnant and this is made of caffeine, I didn’t exactly slather it all over, but I did test it out on my legs.

The part that sounds troublesome to me is having to let frank dry while you stand in the shower for 10 minutes. Since I was just putting it on my legs, I didn’t do it in the shower, just by the tub.

I won’t lie, this stuff is messy. Take this photo and multiply that by 20 when putting it all over your body.

After rinsing, my skin definitely felt smooth, soft and moisturized. I didn’t even feel like I needed lotion afterward, they felt that nice. As for the rest of my frank package, I am saving that for after this pregnancy to see if it will work it’s magic on the few stretch marks I have been blessed with this time around. If you look at their website, they have some amazing before and after photos of skin conditions being treated with frank, and stretch marks are one of them. I’ll have to let you guys know how that works out!

To see for yourself, search social media using #thefrankeffect

You can learn more about frank and purchase any one of their varieties by going to their website: http://frankbody.com

Connect: Facebook

I received this product in exchange for a review. All opinions are my own and honest. Thanks for reading!

I received two Montagne Jeunesse Renew You Sleep Spa Masks as part of a Clever Girls Collective campaign. I was not required to write a blog post, but I wanted to write one anyway so I could share the fun with you guys! and so you can laugh at me…we’ll get into that in a bit.

Here’s a little info about these masks:

Montagne Jeunesse Renew You Sleep Spa Mask

• 100% Natural Bamboo Mask.
• While you were sleeping, our natural ingredients were working the overtime throughout the night to bring you healthy, beautiful skin. Mornings have never been brighter.

How Sleep Spa Works

• Cleanse your face then snuggle up under the duvet.
• Apply the fabric mask to facial contours and relax for 10 minutes.
• Remove the fabric mask and massage excess product into skin.
• Don’t wash off, that’s the beauty of it!
• Wake up to amazing results

Why You Should Add a Mask to Your Skincare Regime

• The daily stress skin takes from the environment, diet and application of various personal care products call for even the most well-turned skincare regime to be boosted weekly to provide therapeutic, deep conditioning to repair and fortify.
• Face masks offer a deep-down action that helps nourish, cleanse, remove impurities, keep skin healthy and vibrant as well as adds essential nutrients to your skin.
• Depending on the mask you choose to use, it can help to remove dead skin cells and unclog pores so toning, hydrating and protecting products work more effectively.
• Delivering added hydration to the skin through a mask can also improve the overall condition of the skin. Well hydrated skin equals fewer breakouts, less fine lines and dullness.
• Massaging skin when removing a face mask can also help stimulate blood circulation leaving skin smoother and softer.

The unique thing about these masks is that when you open the package, it’s not a cream that you rub onto your face…it actually is a full mask with eye and nose holes cut out and all the beneficial ingredients all packed into it. You just place the mask onto your face and press down to make sure the mask is in good contact with your skin. Then, you relax and let the the mask and ingredients do their thang for 10 minutes.

Oh and trust me, you will look ridiculous.

Trent’s used to me looking ridiculous by now. In fact, once he noticed me, he pointed, smiled and then ran over to touch it.

I chose to start with the fruit enzyme mask with papaya & pineapple and ohmygosh, it smelled delicious.

So after the mask works its magic for 10 minutes, you take it off and then DON”T RINSE! I know, crazy right? You are supposed to massage those leftover ingredients into your skin and then let them sink in and really improve your skin overnight while you sleep.

At first, I had to fight the urge to rinse. Every other mask I’ve ever used requires you to rinse or scrub it off afterward. But it actually felt nice to massage those ingredients in and not “waste” them. The mask itself smelled so good and the ingredients felt amazing. I woke up the next day with skin that was soft and beautiful.

hashtag nomakeup (yikes!)

I definitely recommend these masks. I’m used to using clay-type masks, which are good for acne-prone oily skin, but it was nice to feel like I was treating my skin to moisture and nourishment.

Product Availability

• Montagne Jeunesse Renew You Sleep Spa Masks will launch in US Ulta stores beginning July 2014. The kit retails for $14.99.

Kids are expensive. Their stuff is even more expensive. amiright?

So when your child has something, you definitely don’t want them to lose it…or have it accidentally taken. Toys, clothes, school supplies, lunch boxes, etc. The last time we went to the beach with family, we spent a few minutes trying to determine whose sand toys belonged to whom before we could leave. My quick response was to just write a big S on most of the toys with a permanent marker so we knew they were ours, but for most other items, I don’t want to take a permanent marker to them…I wondered if there was a better way we could label Trent’s items and even help them get returned to us if they were lost.

Enter Kidecals!

Kidecals specializes in waterproof name labels and other products including keyboard labels, chalkboard labels, pantry labels, canning labels, and gift labels. Here are some of my favorite selections!

As you can see, they have a wide range of options. You can use their labels to make return address stickers. You can also place allergy info on items, letting others know what your child can’t eat.

They also offer popular monogram labels and even stickers to place on your front door asking people not to ring the doorbell and wake your sleeping baby inside! Their website allows you to easily search their entire selection by gender, use, age, style, best sellers, etc.

We chose a waterproof label with a firetruck on it and we customized it to include Trent’s name and Brett’s phone number. The phone # below isn’t ours, but it has been marked out on the rest of the photos in this post But keep in mind, you can put other information there too, as long as it will fit!

We chose the Mega Set, which includes 24 two inch labels and 48 one inch labels = 72 total.

All their products include the most durable waterproof laminate on the market. They’re virtually indestructible! The adhesive is highly aggressive and long-lasting but it won’t damage surfaces. They guarantee your labels will stay securely fixed to any surface without peeling; and your pretty design will always remain scratch free. Their labels are dishwasher, washing machine and dryer proof and are water, heat and cold repellant.

These labels are so cute! I had to resist the urge to label ALL THE THINGS! and just focus on items that could leave the house or get mixed up while playing with other kids. Here are some ways we used the labels…

On Trent’s fireman backpack - how appropriate!

Art supplies, like packs of crayons and markers.

Books are also good items to label…we wouldn’t want him to lose his current favorite book!

I can think of so many uses for Kidecals labels. Sending your kids to camp this summer? Use Kidecals to make sure they come back with everything they left with! That long list of required back-to-school items? Label it all so you don’t have to buy things twice!

Buy: http://kidecals.com/

Kidecals is also currently holding a giveaway for $500 worth of decals! Go here to enter!

What will you be labeling?!

I received this product in exchange for a review. All opinions are my own and honest…especially the one about me losing everything. Thanks for reading!

Two summers ago, over the course of several weeks, we often found ourselves unusually hot or cold, even though we had the temperature set to the same degree we always do. This was right after Trent was born, so we needed to constantly adjust the thermostat to keep it at a comfortable level for our new baby. After seeing a higher than average electricity bill, we decided that something wasn’t right. Since the main unit was fairly new, we figured there was a problem with our thermostat not being able to accurately detect the temperature of the house.

We purchased a replacement, but just as it arrived in the mail, our local electric co-operative announced that they were giving away Nest thermostats to the first 1,000 people in our area to sign up for one in order to improve efficiency and reduce usage. Free stuff - Woot!

We signed up and returned the thermostat we had just received (Thank you AMAZING Amazon return policy!). Within a couple of weeks, someone came out to install the thermostat (even though most people could probably install it themselves relatively easily, they just wanted to make sure everyone’s units were properly connected).

We absolutely love it. Not only does it look sleek and modern, but we haven’t had any issues with temperatures in the house ever since we got it, other than the occasional disparities between the first and second floor, which is typical for a 2-story house anyway. It’s easy to program and offers some pretty neat features.

-It learns your habits. Over time, the Nest learns what temperatures you like at what time and will adjust itself automatically. For example, if you turn the temperature to 70 degrees around 10pm before you go to sleep every night, the Nest will learn that and turn to that temperature automatically. You can adjust what the Nest has learned if you want it to do something different (like if you wanted it to change at 9:30pm instead of 10pm). You can also pause the learning if you are going on vacation or changing your habits temporarily so that it doesn’t learn a random schedule.

-It senses when you walk by and the screen turns on so you can see the temperature and current settings without having to press a button. Yep, I’m lazy.

-You can set a range of temperatures, not just cool or heat. Florida temperatures are super wonky, especially in the winter. One day it’s 55 and the next it’s 80, I love it and hate it at the same time. You can set the temperature to a range, such as 69-75, so that the heat kicks on if it goes below the range and the cool kicks on if it goes above the range. You don’t have to flip the switch from one type to another. Score another point for us lazy people!

-You can set an Away temperature. We like to use less heat or a/c when we aren’t in the house, whether it be a trip to the grocery store or a week-long vacation, we set an away temperature that we are comfortable with given that time of year. You can either set the Nest to Away, or it will set itself to Away if it hasn’t sensed any movement in some time. You can turn this feature off if needed.

-You can view everything and adjust anything from your Apple or Android device. This is one of our favorite features. If we forgot to set it to Away and we don’t want to wait for it to set itself, we can go onto the app and set it to Away, or we can change the temperature when we know we’ll be home soon. We are extremely forgetful, so the app gets used quite a bit, and this saves us money because we would have otherwise had to let the temperature remain where it was instead of using less while we’re gone. And yes, we have changed the temperature from our phones on the couch or in bed with the thermostat just a few feet away. Don’t judge me.

-You get emails detailing your monthly usage and efficiency. Instead of just relying on what the electricity bill says, we get to see what the Nest reported, including reasons for why we might have used more or less than usual, as well as suggestions for improving usage next month. They use a “leaf” to signify if you are being efficient given the outside temperature.

We have definitely noticed a difference since the Nest was installed. We feel like the temperature is what it says it is and not unnecessarily turning on or off like our old one. Of course, with Brett home all day instead of away at work, our bill has stayed slightly increased, but has decreased from us being able to utilize the extra features, like the automatic adjustments and away feature.

Also, since I have been extremely hot this pregnancy, I want to reiterate how much I love being able to turn the air down from my phone while laying in bed at 2 in the morning.

Here’s their official video which gives you a preview of what it has to offer:

Buy a Nest Learning Thermostat on Amazon!

I was not paid or perked for writing this review. I did receive the product for free, but as part of a local resident efficiency program. I just wanted to share our honest take on a product we personally have and love.