Folgers Flavor Coffee Enhancers

I recently joined Crowdtap a few weeks ago. I am still fairly new to the site so I am still trying to figure it out so I will do my best to describe what it is. Crowdtap is kind of like Influenster and PinchMe where you receive samples to test out for free and then provide them honest reviews. There are Crowds, Missions, and Polls. The Crowds are the brands which then is broken down to what category they fall under, such as beauty and grooming, creative concepts, financial savvy, etc. Missions are activities that you do on social media regarding those brands or products. Then there are the polls, which are basically surveys about the brand or product. For each one of these items that you fill out, you earn points towards winning gift cards to Amazon, Sephora, Walmart, eBay, etc. So far I have won several $5 gift cards to Amazon and Walmart. It may seem like that's not worth the effort filling out a bunch of surveys, but it does add up!

The first product samples that I received from Crowdtap to test out are the Folgers Flavors Coffee Enhancers. I was so surprised that I received 12 bottles in my box when I first opened it. This has definitely been the most generous sample I have tested as of yet. There were 3 of each 4 flavors, mocha, caramel, hazelnut, and vanilla. The bottles are 1.62 fl oz with a flip cap. Once you open the cap, you just squeeze the product out so that it squirts into your cup of coffee. I like to squirt it onto a spoon so that I know just how much I'm adding to my cup. On the label it says, "Add one squeeze to 5 fl oz o prepared coffee. Adjust to taste." I personally feel like one squeeze is not enough for you to really notice any of the flavor at all. I've stepped it up to spoonfuls, which is about two really long squeezes. This may just be a personal preference, but I like to drink my coffee sweet.

Apparently there are 24 servings in each of these bottles. I've gone through 1.5 bottles so far of the hazelnut flavor, and that was only about 4 cups of coffee. So maybe I do get a little too happy with these coffee flavor enhancers... But if you think about it, when you buy coffee at the coffee shop, they do add a lot of these flavor syrup/enhancers also, probably even more than my 3 spoonfuls.

Since I've only tried the hazelnut flavor so far, I'll focus on that part now. You definitely can smell the hazelnut after you squeeze it into your cup of coffee! It definitely made me feel like I was at the coffee shop, except I'm in the comfort of my home instead. I'm not very good at describing flavors at all... It tastes smooth and just like a cup of hazelnut coffee you can purchase at the coffee shop. I'll just leave it at that for my description for the flavor. I would definitely recommend these coffee flavor enhancers if you are a coffee lover! It's great for on the go also since the bottles are small enough to fit in your purse.

As noted above, I received these samples in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion.

Maybelline #BetterSkinChallenge Foundation

The past 3 weeks I have been testing out the Maybelline Superstay Better Skin foundation. I received this product complimentary from Influenster for testing purposes. Prior to receiving it, I took a prequalifying survey, which included a section with three different shades of the foundation. If I remember correctly I picked the medium shade out of the three. I received the shade called "Warm Nude." When I swatched the foundation, it seemed a little bit too light for my face. Once I applied it on my face it seemed to be a pretty close match to my skin tone on my face though. The product label also states that the foundation has SPF 15 and is oil free.

As of the packaging, the product is in a glass bottle with a plastic pump and cap. I think most foundations (drugstore and high-end) come in a glass bottle. Although the glass makes the packaging heavy, it makes me feel like the quality of the packaging is better - which makes me think the product would be of high quality also. The name of the shade is on a sticker on the front of the bottle and also on the ingredients list on the back so you won't forget what shade you have.

The actual foundation is quite thick, not liquidy or runny at all. So far I have tried applying this foundation with my Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge. The foundation sets pretty fast like the Covergirl Outlast Stay Fabulous foundation so you have to work it in quickly. I noticed that the foundation accentuated my dry patches, pores, and acne A LOT. It probably did not help that I applied a mattifying moisturizer prior to this application. This foundation can be layered to a medium coverage, I wouldn't say that it is high coverage since I could still see my acne scars through the foundation. I first wore this foundation without any powder to set it to get a true time frame for how it wears on my skin. I think I would categorize my skin as oily combination, so I usually always wear powder on top of my foundation. I also did not use any primer, concealer, blush, or contour products to get a true test wear.

After about 4 hours of wearing this while I was out running errands, I noticed that my face was oily around my T-zone. This was not a surprise to me really since my face gets oily so fast. I just used the back of my hand to kind of blot the oil and it looked okay, not the best. I probably could have used some blotting paper but I didn't. At this point I really regretted not using a powder to set the foundation.

Overall, I would not recommend this product to those who have really dry skin. Even though I have oily skin, I do have a lot of dry patches from acne. I would recommend that you exfoliate your face very well and use a moisturizing moisturizer before using this foundation. As for the better skin claim, I don't think this is a false and gimmicky statement. I haven't noticed anything different or improvements in my skin. It would be pretty hard to narrow it down to this foundation to be the sole reason why anyone's skin is getting better, you would have to stop using your other beauty products. My skin is always all over the chart so I can never really narrow any faults down to just one culprit. If one product were to make me break out madly then I would definitely know for sure which new product I'm using is the culprit. However, for skin improvement, that's a little more difficult to pin point on.