March 2014 Healthy Surprise Box Review

I'm becoming familiar with Rue La La faster than I would have imagined. They ran a special recently for a $50 voucher to Healthy Surprise for $25. Now, boxes are $40, but a starter box (which doesn't automatically renew) is $50. 

Health Surprise boxes are vegan. They ship very quickly! I ordered my box one afternoon, and it was showing as shipped less than a half an hour later!

First look.

Quite a few treats! Then again, there had better be, for a value of $50 (even if I did pay $25).

These were so good! They weren't quite as good as the chai spice macarons by Emmy's that Felicia got in her Love With Food, but they were still pretty darn great. I saved a couple, but it was hard to stop eating them.

I'm kind of sick of seeing these in boxes already. Also strawberry banana isn't my favorite taste sensation, but we'll see.

Alright, so I'd already noticed, but at this point I'm really annoyed about the lack of information card in this box. This is mexican chocolate of some sort, and apparently vanilla-flavored. A friend of my mom's used to send us Mexican chocolate, and I haven't had any in a long time, so I look forward to this. It feels much softer than what I'm used to.

Saving this for breakfast or camping, but I kind of wish it had nuts rather than little bits of things. 

These looked really good, so I decided it was only fair to inspect further. They taste very fresh, and the flavor is just the right level. The last covered almonds I had were a little hard, but these are perfect.

I like Hemp Hearts, but not these so much. The shells are very hard and get stuck in your teeth, and just about the only flavor is the sea salt and a wood-like fiber. Ick.

This was part of my breakfast this morning, and it was great. Much better than I'd expected, great flavor and consistency (not that rubbery pressed fruit you usually get).

I happen to like mangoes, but these were amazing. They taste great and it's only 83 calories per bag!

Not what I expected at all. I was expecting something sweet, like banana chips, but these are salty. They're like a more fibrous potato chip.

Saving these for later because I can't eat everything at once. I wish I'd gotten one of the other flavors. I'm imagining these will be something like papadums, but no idea yet.

My favorite thing in the box! I've been wanting to try kale chips for a while, and they were worth the wait. I can't believe there's no cheese in the cheddar flavoring either. My only complaint is that they were very crushed and mostly crumbs when I got them.

Overall, this box had a lot of good, valuable stuff in it, but it's also a $50 box. I would buy another box, but only for a slightly lesser price. 

What do you think? Any good/bad experiences with Healthy Surprise?

-E.S.

March Foreign Grocery Haul

Hola all! Last Sunday, my friend Laurie and I went to see Miniature Tigers in Columbus, and we made a day of it. The pictures didn't come out so great. So that, combined with the fact that I've already reviewed a couple of their shows for my music blog, resulted in my decision to not review the show. I can, however, talk about the cool foreign groceries that I got that day.

This haul is slightly imperfect, since I ate several of the things I got before taking pictures, and some of them, I even destroyed and discarded the packaging to. Nonetheless...

The first place we stopped, I was hoping to pick up some lychee loose leaf tea that I saw the last time I was there, but I couldn't find it. Instead, I got some more of these "mixed nuts," which are really tasty and 99 cents a bag, and some Pejoy (Pocky's friend), which is like inside-out Pocky. It's really tasty and I devoured it before I even got to the show!

Next, we stopped at an Indian grocery, where I spent a grand total of $13.33. I picked up three of these:

Yes, I know this is two. I can count, I'm just a hungry girl.

The one that's missing is Pav Bhaji, I ate it at work. These run $1.99 each, which is less than my local grocery store charges for the watered-down Indian packet curries, and these are really quite good. The Navaratan Korma separated on me for some reason (at the same time as the milk curdled in my tea, like some kind of weird, torturous sign from above), but I'm sure it was my fault. Otherwise, they all tasted great.

I also grabbed this box of Tetley for $4.99, but I goofed a bit. I absolutely love the Tetley I usually get at the local grocery for $7.99, and I kept saying to Laurie that it should be purple, but I trusted my cheapness instead of my ability to see colors, and when I got it home I realized that the purple that I get stands for "British Blend." I have yet to see how close this comes, but Tetley British Blend is the best black tea blend out there.

I also got three kinds of cookies, but you can see what's left there:

These are great, and 89 cents. I saved them for last because I already know I love them. They're like chocolate chip biscuits with orange flavored cream inside, and Felicia even said they taste kind of like a Terry's chocolate orange. The strawberry, which I also tried this time, is not as good. Oh well, live and learn. The third kind of cookies were Jam-In. They were 59 cents and I can't even find a stock photo for them.

So, on the final stop, I spent $9.93.

I also bought a green tea ice cream, which is something I try to get everyone to try. So even though we'd had peach bubble teas, we ate some green tea ice cream with coffee straws.

Mmm. I've got a bit of a thing for green tea flavored stuff right now (99 cents).

I splurged on these for all the wrong reasons. They were $3.29, but I thought they were fizzy candies, which would have been worth it. They're still good, but more like Warheads. The packaging is great though!

As was hinted earlier in the post, lychee is another flavor I'm really into at the moment, and these things are great ($1.49).

They tease me at work about these things all the time. But I love nori, and 99 cents for a three-pack is a steal.

So, just over $20 got me lots of cool stuff to try or to continue my addiction to. This was mostly all stuff I've had before, but I love trying new stuff too!

Has anyone else ever gone to different international groceries? What's your favorite foreign snack?

-E.S.

March 2014 IPSY Glam Bag Review

 This review is long overdue. I loved my Ipsy bag last month so I couldn't wait for this month's to get here! As I sit here and write this I'm dreaming about what will come in next months bag!

I'm so excited!! My first eyeshadow sample!! This is a shadow quad called "Bora Bora" by Be a Bombshell. I was introduced to Be a Bombshell by some other Ipsy Glam bag reviews.

Here's a close-up of the eyeshadow. I wasn't 100% thrilled with these colors. I love bright and shimmery colors so the blue stood out the most, and I really enjoy how pretty it is, but the other colors are kinda boring to me. Some of the other quads they offer look more applying but at $16 a pop I might have to just stick with what I got! 

This is a sample of the "Marvelous Moxie" lipstick by BareMinerals. This sample came with a promo code to receive free shipping on a BareMinerals purchase and a mascara sample with a purchase. I really like this lipstick! The full sized product is $18 a bottle. 

Yay, nail polish!!!! I love new nail polish, I was scared at first to see the dented box and as I opened it I hoped that the polish inside would be safe and sound! I like the O-P-I brand so I was excited to open it up.

It is Nicole by OPI, "Roughles." This is a very pretty turquoise color with dark blue flecks of color in it. I couldn't wait to put it on so I immediately painted my nails and I love the color but the texture is pretty weird. I like smooth and shiny nail polish and this is definatly not either if those. The Roughles comes in 4 colors (I'd love to try the yellow and pink, I'm ready for spring!) and is $10.99 a bottle.

             
                     Here's a side view of the bottle just because it's such a cool looking bottle!

The last product in the bag is Primer!!!! One can NEVER have enough primer so, of course I'm thrilled with this bottle. I like my eyeshadow to stay on all day and this tops the list of primers I've used as my favorite! This small wonderful bottle of Pixi, flawless beauty primer runs for $9. 

 Finally here's a close up of the beauty bag, this months theme is "Streets of San Francisco". It features the work of Klari Art, who started painting ten years ago using cells as her inspiration. I didn't like this bag at first but it has grown on me, especially the colors! It's definitely my style!

So that this months bag! Let me know what you guys think, and if you are subscribed to Ipsy, let me know what you got in this months bag!


                                                                                                                                                   -F.M.

February 2014 KLUTCHclub Women's Box Review

Just recently got my first KLUTCHclub box. KLUTCHclub provides a box of healthy products each month for $18 ($10 plus $8 shipping). I received my first box for only the $8 shipping price.

It ships in a pretty handy little box, with a slide-out drawer. This box was particularly heavy, and I wasn't sure why yet, but I was excited to find out!

Even though I see people talk about these a lot, this was actually my first time trying Pop Chips. They're pretty good! Barbeque isn't my flavor of choice, but I didn't even mind it this time. For non-health reasons, I generally prefer baked chips to fried ones, but I think these are pretty much as good. They're made like puffed rice cakes, but with potato starch.

I got some of these in a Conscious Box a couple of months back. Even though they're really good, I still haven't used them all, but they're definitely something I like and want to use.

I thought this was the same as the Hemp Hearts, but it's a hemp-based protein powder. Some day, I should just mix all my nutrition powders together and make a gross/healthy drink mix. Or, yanno, use them like normal.

Tried this last night and I did have pretty restful sleep, but I'm gonna say it was probably coincidence. The flavor is nice, but I kind of wish it were carbonated.

More new teas! And these look like great flavors, too. Eh, they all look like good flavors! But these say "focused energy" on them, so maybe they'd be good for one of those days when I'm having issues concentrating.

This is a bottle cleaning tablet that will come in very handy at some point, but I'll surely try to use it as far away as possible, just in case of an emergency.

I got burnt by some baby food like this, but this one looks tasty, so I tried again. It tastes good, but still a little like baby food.

I like pomegranate, so I'm excited to try this shampoo. It smells really nice. My hair isn't super damaged, but hopefully it will still do something.

I'm sitting here rubbing my eye, thinking I don't have allergy symptoms much anymore...But in any case, I still might offer them to my dad, who usually gets allergies way worse than me.

I really want to try this, but I want to save it for a breakfast (or concert? It definitely looks marketed toward concert-goers).

Loca turns out to be a pretty good ginger ale, but it tastes a little like the artificial sweeteners I know it doesn't contain. Really not bad though.

Coupons! I'll almost certainly use the Pop Chips one.

KLUTCHclub is a pretty cool box! It definitely seems worth the price. It contained quite a few items I've never heard of, and a nice mix of samples and full-size products. The shipping price is definitely accurate, with a couple of drinks in the box! I've unsubscribed for now, but I would totally do this box again in the future.

Have you tried KLUTCHclub? What do you think? Let us know!

-E.S.

March 2014 Conscious Box Review

Well, Conscious Box rears its head yet again. Conscious Box is $19.95 with free shipping. This is the vegan box, but they also have regular and gluten-free boxes.

Conscious box ships in very cute inner and outer boxes. They ship with DHL and it takes a while to arrive.

Wow, so many sample sizes.

 

These have been in lots of boxes lately. I'm pretty sure Love With Food had a bag too.These chips aren't bad at all, and the texture is a nice change from potato chips. I don't think they sell them anywhere near me though.

I'm getting pretty backed up on skin products and the like that I need to try, particularly ones that I can't reseal.

I still haven't tried the greenery supplement from last month's box, but this one is totally different. Truth be told, I'm new to supplements in general.

At first, I thought this was like hummus, but I guess it's a sweet thing. I was going to try it tonight, before the review, but I've been grazing the last couple of hours, and I may as well hold back a little. 

Tried this one last night. It's got a great, minty flavor, but I've never seen a tea before with doctor warnings printed on the package. Yikes.

More Via Nature lotion. Swiss apple sounds promising, but can I just point out that there was already a moisturizer in this bunch? In a set, but still. I'm at least glad these are different from the types and scents included last month.

More of these, which I still haven't tried from last month. They'll be pretty good for camping I guess, so it doesn't hurt to have a supply.

Not only did I get some of this in last month's box, but I bought a bra on Ebay, and ended up with some from there too! When I finally try it, I'll see if it's worth all the promotion.

I happened to spot some of this at the grocery store today. It's $7.99 a box! I'm excited to try these, they all look like interesting flavors.

An actual coupon in this month's "conscious coupons"! Also a coupon for mineral makeup that I will not use because I don't use foundation.

And finally, a very cute "thank you" card from Smock, pressed on bamboo paper.

I've ended up with another three months of this box, and I really wish I could say I'll enjoy it. Truth of the matter is though, there were no full-size products in this box, all samples, and it still costs $19.95. I wouldn't even value this box at $8. 

What do you think of this box? What kind of value would you put on it? Did you like this month's box? Maybe it's just me.

-E.S.