Gourmet Marshmallow Giveaway!

This is not my giveaway but it is my friend Staci's over at Luker Family Tales.  Free marshmallows for my hot cocoa while gathered with my family and friend around the Christmas tree sounds amazing.  And I'm entering.  You can too. 

But just so you know, I'm rooting for myself.

Enter below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Product Review: Ricola Extra Strength with Natural Menthol



Compare the size of the box to a 3 month old baby.

I came home to what looked like the biggest box of Ricola I had ever seen.  I could only hope it was just one big block of the herby cough drop that I could chip and gnaw at during the cold flu ridden months of winter.  I would know that spring had come when the brick was completely consumed.

Sadly, when I picked up the box, it was so light there's no way I could have been a Ricola brick.

But when I opened it, I was greeted with the Ricola yodel, a big Ricola wrapped candy and my nosy cat trying to get all up in the box.  You can see the video on instagram. (Follow me while you're there.)




Could it be the Ricola brick of my dreams?

When I unwrapped the box, there was two bags of Ricola.  The Original and the new Extra Strength with Natural Menthol. 




That blue makes it look extra mentholy.

I should preface this whole review by saying that my husband gets sick a few times a year and inevitably he asks me to get him cough drops.  Except what he really means in to get him Ricola, the Original flavor.

Early in our relationship, he asked me for cough drops and I foolishly brought home Halls and was met with a deeply disappointed sick boyfriend. Lesson learned.



Wait, that's not Ricola brown.

Naturally, when he saw the blue bag, he immediately said, "I don't think I'm going to like this.  I like the mild menthol flavor of the original."

That packaging really makes the Extra Strength Menthol point.  And the candy is not Ricola's characteristic brown color.  This did not bode well.

But the Hosh is nothing if not an adventurer.  He was willing to try anyway.

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Birchbox, Sample Society and IPSY Bag Review

Ipsy Bag - December

Last Christmas, I gave the gift of Birchbox and Sample Society to my cousins and an Ipsy subscription for myself.  We were all very excited.

Then, as the items started to arrive, I found myself extremely happy with my Ipsy bag while being somewhat embarassed about the less than stellar offerings from Birchbox and Sample Society.

Let me explain.

Birchbox - $10/month.

Birchbox offers a combination of high end and low end products, mainly samples of high end products and full size items of lower end products. And the samples are usually of the in a paper package that could be in a magazine fold variety. 

Sample products include face masks, chapstick, glosses, skin toner, etc.

Unfortunately, the Birchbox often comes with more samples than full size products making the box seem more like a goodie bag you can get for free during a fruitful trip through the beauty aisle at the local department store.  Not something I would like to give as a gift.

Subscribers can expect a value of about 1-3 times the cost of the box.  

Ipsy Bag - November

Sample Society - $15/month.

Sample Society offers a mix of high end to mid size sample products.  The sample packaging is a step up from Birchbox's in that more of their products come in smaller versions of their full size bottles.  The products, however, are not as well matched.  They might send something pigmented that doesn't match the end user's skin tone. 

The resulting gift is ok as a gift.  It's a combination of products that seems a little higher end that Birchbox's offerings but aren't always as usable. Each month is curated with a theme. So one month might be skincare and another month Fall Favorites.

Subscribers can expect a value of 2-9 times the cost of each bag.

Ipsy - $11/month

Every  month, I am more and more thrilled with the Ipsy bag offerings.  Not only do the products come in an adorable cosmetics bag every month (which I usually pass on to my little sister or use to hold gift cards), most of the products are full sized! I rarely get an item that's in a paper sample pack.

The bag contains a mix of middle and lower end products but they're typically very usable.  For instance, in my never ending quest for the best mascara, I've been able to try 3 different types.  Currently, I really like em. by Michelle Phan (who is also a partner at Ipsy).

A particular plus of Ipsy is that it often comes with nail polish so I get to try brands I colors I might not usually even give a second thought.

Subscribers can expect to get a value of 2-5 times the cost of each bag most reliably on the 5 times end.

My favorite box is Ipsy followed by Sample Society and then Birchbox.

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