Pure Leaf Tea

It's been a long time since I last posted. Anywho, here's what's new!!

I've received some new products from Pure Leaf Tea to try out. It is their green tea with citrus and black tea with vanilla. They come in plastic containers with 16 tea bags in each. The cap is sealed with a sticker and once you twist that open, there is another tin/paper seal there. Unfortunately the tin/paper seal for my green tea with citrus container was sealed to part of a tea bag. That wasn't that big of an issue though. I was still able to use the tea in that tea bag. I just emptied it into my Teavana Perfectea Maker. I'm sure if you had a regular tea infuser or just even a coffee filter you would be able to do the same thing.

I am personally still fairly new to drinking tea. It reminds me of drinking herbal medicine that my parents would give me when I am sick. So it took me a while to try out tea. If I had it my way I like to make my cup of tea sweet, like really sweet so that it disguises the bitterness. The green tea with citrus tastes a bit too sour for me. You can definitely smell the citrus and a bit of lemongrass along with the green tea. The aroma is not too strong, which is nice. Although the label does say iced tea, I have been drinking it hot since it is winter after all right now. I don't really like drinking cold beverages when it's winter.

In terms of the black tea with vanilla, I'm not as much of a fan compared to the green tea with citrus. This one reminds me too much of that herbal medicinal tea I mentioned. The vanilla is really strong so you can smell it right away when you open the seal. I think if I were to really try and finish all the tea bags for this one, it would take me a lot longer. Note that I have not had black tea before trying this out. I'm not sure that I'm a fan after tasting this. I would give black tea another try but we'll see.

Thanks to Influenster and Pureleaf for giving me the opportunity to test out these new tea products for sampling purposes in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

Cetaphil Moisturizing Cream

The extremely harsh cold weather in the midwest has made my skin extremely dry. Fortunately I've been able to combat this dry skin with Cetaphil Moisturizing Cream.

My troublesome areas tend to be around and on my nose as a result from constantly blowing my nose from the sniffles. This moisturizer is quite rich so a little bit goes a long way. If you use too much it can feel greasy, so don't go overboard. Although it looks like a tiny jar (1 oz), it will definitely last for a while.

I received this sample from Cetaphil via Influenster for free in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

Sweet'N Low

I had the opportunity to receive some Sweet'N Low samples from the brand via Crowdtap. In the package I got 10 sample packets, 5 coasters, and 2 recipe cards.

 I've used Sweet'N Low packets before when I'm out buying coffee or sampling coffee at shops like World Market where they often have tea and coffee samples available. Otherwise I've never personally purchased Sweet'N Low before.

I really liked using these individual sample packets. Usually at home I just use instant coffee and powder creamer so the Sweet'N Low was a real treat. I absolutely love how it has less calories and the fact that it is Diabetic-friendly. I can definitely see myself replacing sugar with Sweet'N Low!

Alina Skin Care Vitamin C Serum

This Vitamin C Serum is in a glass pump bottle. You can twist the pump so that it is locked/unlocked that way you do not accidentally squirt out any product.

The serum is of a light moisturizer-lotion consistency, not thick at all. There is definitely a citrus scent to the serum, so if you are not a fan of citrus scents this may not be for you.

After applying this serum on my face, my skin soaks it up and leaves a velvety, silky texture on my skin.

There is a tingly sensation on my skin as it is being soaked into my skin. I'm thinking that is because of the Vitamin C, not sure. There aren't any redness on my skin from that tingling sensation nor any rashes so I do not think it's an allergic reaction.

I do not have any prominent wrinkles on my face but I do have lots of mild acne scars and hyper pigmentation. So far after a few days of using this serum, I haven't really noticed any drastic changes. I do have very acne prone skin, fortunately no significant increase in acne either. I would have to continue using this longer to see if it really does provide anymore benefits to my skin.

I received this product for free in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

If you would like to purchase this product yourself, you can do so here: Alina Skin Care Vitamin C Serum

Petunia Skincare Professional Blackhead and Acne Remover Kit

This kit comes with 5 dual ended extractors in a zipper case for storage. In the case, there are elastic bands sewn in to hold the extractors in place. The case folds in half with a zipper to keep it closed. This makes the kit take up very little storage space.

The seller also kindly e-mailed me an e-book for instructions on how to use the tools effectively. I have used an extractor before so I am familiar with how to use one. After reading the ebook, I learned more about different types of comedones.

While there are 5 different dual ended extractors to choose from, I feel like some of them looked quite similar. My favorite tools out of this kit were the ones with the smaller loops as it targets the blackhead/pimple directly. I found that the ones with more of a wired loop instead of the flattend out loop works better for extractions. You just have to test them out to see which works best for you. Overall, I would say these tools do perform comparably to those sold at around $10 for just one dual ended extractor.

I received this product for free in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

If you would like to purchase this kit, you can do so here: Petunia Skincare Professional Blackhead and Acne Remover Kit

Water Proof Pouch for Cell Phone

The water proof pouch comes with an arm band and a lanyard (I forgot to include it in the pictures because it fell on the floor when I opened the package) so that you can use it hands free. As a reference, in the second photo I have the pouch on top of a Mac Book that is 13"x9".

It was a little confusing and difficult to work the switches on the clip to open up the pouch, even though there were directions and diagrams about that. 

On the side where it is clear for the phone screen, try using your finger nail or just your fingers to flip the inside part of the switches on the clip. The clip should unclip outwards and then you slide it through the two clips to open up the pouch. 

I have a Samsung Galaxy S4 and it fit my phone just fine. There's also plenty of room for you to add some other necessities (i.e. credit card, cash, keys, etc.). I tested out the waterproof part with a sheet of paper first because I wasn't going to chance ruining my phone. Boy am I impressed by this water proof pouch! I thought that it was going to be a dud and that water was going to soak up the paper completely. The paper wasn't even wet one bit. Just based on that alone, I would definitely recommend this to anybody! The plastic screen doesn't decrease the sensitivity of using your phone. You can still use the screen just fine. 

I received this product for free in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

If you would like to purchase this pouch, you can do so here: Water Proof Pouch

Colowlful Eco Friendly Color Pencils

I'm planning on getting some good quality adult coloring books so I was excited to get these eco friendly color pencils. The box is really cute and is of similar style of packaging as regular color pencils out there.

The 24 color pencils are all of vibrant colors, well at least the color of the pencils. It takes a lot of work pressing down on the pencils to make the color show or get as close to what it should actually look like. Make sure you are coloring on a hard surface, I would recommend on a table instead of on top of a notebook or something similar. You don't really get the best results if you color on a notebook because when you're pressing down it causes an indent on the sheet you're coloring and the color doesn't show as much either.

Since you have to press down so hard to get any color, you will run into the occasion of a pencil lead breaking. This happened to me twice, the very tip of the lead and the bottom of the lead where the lead meets the wood part of the pencil. I tried sharpening the second pencil that broke and it kept breaking each time. I've ran into this kind of situation before with regular color pencils also so this wasn't something shocking. There's a lot of lead pigment from pressing down hard with the pencil, so try not to brush it off your paper with your hand since it might smear and ruin your work. I just blow it off the sheet.

As a side note, you can't really layer colors with these color pencils. (See the 2nd and 3rd triangles in photo below). I tried to do that when one of the lighter color pencils didn't show up. The darker shade only sort of showed on top, but it was not as pigmented as it would have been if it was applied on paper directly.

On the back of the box, you can find the brand's website where you can download and print some pages to color.

Overall, I'm a little disappointed with these eco friendly coloring pencils. Considering that they are eco-friendly and the colors are of some nice shades I would give these a 4 out of 5 stars.

I purchased this product at a promotional discount in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion.

If you would like to purchase these yourself, you can do so here: Colowlful Eco Friendly Color Pencils