Influenster Cosmo VoxBox - Forever Red Exclusively at Bath & Body Works Review

One last Influenster Cosmo VoxBox post to share with you, hurrah! This post features the lovely Forever Red Eau de Parfume by Bath & Body Works.

As for the official stuff:

• A touch of red is pure magic! Bath and Body Works introduces you to their new, most luxurious fragrance ever, as you lavishy spray on a passionate blend of pomegranate and red osmanthus with a sexy surprise of vanilla, for a forever enchanting way to fragrance. Everyone will be commenting on how great you smell!

This was a really nice perfume. I have never been so great at picking out those distinct "notes" listed in fragrances -- I usually am good with fruity/floral/something else, and do I like it?/no. However (maybe it because I had my reviewer's cap on) when I sprayed this on my wrist I was able to immediately catch a strong whiff of pomegranate. The pomegranate seemed to stay on top and dominant for not too long - no more than half an hour - gradually settling into the background scent of vanilla. It ended up smelling like a pomegranate-y vanilla (emphasis on the vanilla) for the majority of the wear. Speaking of wear, I think this perfume lasted about as long as comparable perfumes (several hours at the very least), although like I said the pomegranate does fade significantly into the vanilla fairly quickly.

I would classify this as a "sensual" smelling perfume, which is great, but if I am 100% honest, not exactly my thing. It smells great, for sure! But I am more one for the super-girly fruity floral concoctions, or if that won't fly, then a simple clean fresh scent. But if you like perfumes like this, I can't see why you wouldn't love this one too! :)

If you'd like to check out Bath and Body Works be sure to visit their website!~

Have a great day! ♥

~These products were provided for an honest review by me from Influenster~

Influenster Cosmo VoxBox - Ghirardelli Gourmet Milk Sea Salt Escape Review

Yay for another Influenster Cosmo VoxBox review. And... yay for chocolate! ;) In this post I'll be making you drool over the Ghirardelli Gourmet Milk Sea Escape chocolate bar -- yum!

As for the official description:

• Ghirardelli Gourmet Milk Sea Salt Escape: The decadently rich and creamy milk chocolate in Sea Salt Escape is combined with bursts of sea salt and roasted almonds delivering an epicurean chocolate experience. Experience a moment of timeless pleasure with all natural Ghirardelli Gourmet Milk chocolate. Is your mouth watering too?

Yes, yes my mouth is watering! Too bad I gobbled this yummy chocolate bar up almost a month ago; I could definitely use some right now, haha.

This was a really yummy chocolate bar, much better than I was expecting to be honest. I've always loved Ghirardelli chocolate, but I was a bit unsure how the saltiness would go with sweet chocolate - but it turns out, they go together very well! I was nice enough to share with my mom :) to gather more thoughts for my review. The milk chocolate itself was very creamy and decadent -- a distinctly yummy gourmet kind of taste. There was an abundance of little almond bits in the chocolate, which gave it a great crunch. The flavor of saltiness, this chocolate bar's calling card, was definitely there, but it was not too strong at all -- it added to the complexity of the flavor in a very nice, appealing way. As my mom put it, there is a good balance of sweet and salty here, which is great for satisfying both cravings in one go :)

Another thing that I really like about Ghirardelli chocolate bars is that even the giant ones like this are divided into nice little squares, so you don't have to eat the whole thing at once. Though I certainly was not too concerned about that back when I took these photos, haha (you will notice my artistic cropping of the chocolate bar to hide the fact that I had already polished off almost the entire thing!) I am currently on a post-holiday diet, so it's nice that I could enjoy a little bit of this yummy treat easily and guilt-free.

Overall a very, very yummy chocolate bar, one that I thoroughly enjoyed chowing down on! For review's sake, of course ;)

If you'd like to find out more about Ghirardelli be sure to visit them at their website~

Have a great day! ♥

~These products were provided for an honest review by me from Influenster~

Influenster Cosmo VoxBox - FriXion by Pilot Pen Review

Another Influenster Cosmo VoxBox review! In this post I will share with you guys the FriXion by Pilot Pen.

Some official info first:

• Do you want to be mistake free? Now you can be with FriXion bt Pilot Pen. FriXion writes unbelievably smoothly, in expressive gel ink colors, and erases completely with its rubber tip. You have to try it to believe it! FriXion is the newest innovation from Pilot, the #1 seller of gel ink pens in America. So, with FriXion... who's perfect now?

So as a college student (back in school now and everything, just finished my first week of the new semester!) I am pretty much taking notes 24/7. I really hate taking notes in pencil, because it never looks as nice, isn't as easy to review when studying, and can potentially smudge into a yucky mess. However, making a mistake in my notes and not being able to get rid of it because I wrote in pen drives me crazy (bit of a perfectionist here, haha), so I usually just have to pick the lesser of two evils. Not with the FriXion pen!

FriXion by Pilot

Aren't they pretty, first of all? I like the design, I'm always a sucker for cool pens with neat designs.

I figured the best way to test these out was to write out a cute message and do a before-and-after picture each to see just how much erasing action goes on. Writing itself was pretty nice; the grip is fairly comfortable and the ink flows well without bleeding or choking up and not writing or anything.

:) pre-erase

Erasing, I'm happy to say, went quite smoothly as well! The eraser is on the other end of the pen, just like a pencil (of course, this means you will have to take the cap off the end, if you store it there when writing) and it erased almost every trace of my message. Of course, if you get really up close and personal with the image, you will still see a faint outline in places, but for me, it is more than adequate.

post-erase

Like I said, spring semester started up this week, and I have already used these pens a few times for note-taking. I love that I can now take notes in pen like I want without worrying about making mistake -- my FriXion will take care of it for me! Now I just need to get some more colors... pink, anyone? I love me a good pink pen :)

If you'd like to learn more about Pilot Pens check out their website~

Have a great day! ♥

~These products were provided for an honest review by me from Influenster~

Influenster Cosmo VoxBox - Gillette Venus Embrace + Venus & Olay Razor Review

The first of my reviews for my Influenster Cosmo VoxBox, hurray! In this post I will be sharing with you guys my experience with the Gillette Venus Embrace as well as the Venus & Olay Razor.

First, a bit of official info, as provided to me by Influenster:

• Gillette Venus Embrace blade refills provide an ultra-close shave with five blades that hug curves to get virtually every hair. 
• Venus & Olay Razor blade refills feature Olay Moisture Bars that contain skin conditioners to help lock in moisture and with every smoothing stroke, Venus' five blades provide an ultra-close shave.

Sounds great, right? And really, they are that great! I must confess, I have been using the Venus Embrace razor since I was in middle school. Some may call "bias!" there, but I counter with "great product!" Before I used this razor, I used an electric razor that cut up/razor-burned my legs, and on top of that I had to shave every couple days or get that attractive peach-fuzz look. When I switched over to this razor, I was still a fairly inexperienced shaver at the time, and therefore a bit clumsy and ...vigorous, haha -- but from that point on, I was able to go about a week with nice, smooth legs, and only very rarely did I cut myself (only if I was being stupid, which of course happens from time to time, lol). Because of that, I really do vouch for the smooth shave the Embrace promises, because I've been enjoying it for at least 5-6 years now :)

Venus Embrace

Venus Embrace

Venus Embrace

 I knew I would love the Venus Embrace since I've been a faithful user for so long, so it was fun to try out a new type of razor head in the Venus & Olay razor! I was actually unaware that you can switch out all Venus razor heads on any Venus razor, which I think is a really cool thing, since it makes trying them all out and finding your favorite pretty easy. The Venus & Olay is supposed to be moisturizing along with just a great shave, which I was pretty excited about, since my legs get crazy dry during the winter. I think some more adventurous bloggers tried out the moisturizing action without any shaving cream to see what would happen, but I'm not quite that brave :) However, I did try using just a very, very thin layer of conditioner (I've always used cheap conditioner over shaving cream) on one leg, vs. my normal thicker layer on the other. Interestingly, I found that my legs felt way softer on the thin-layer leg when I was done! I think perhaps that this was due to less interference between the moisturizing Olay lather and my skin -- more direct contact = more moisturizing? Either way, my legs felt incredibly nice and soft and smooth when I was done, much more so than a normal shave. It does take some water to get the bars to create a soapy lather - which smelled great, by the way, very light and clean - and then you are ready to go. Due to having five blades like the Venus Embrace, the shave was just as smooth as I would hope for.

Venus & Olay

Venus & Olay

Venus & Olay

I was super-pleased with both of these products, as they did exactly what I wanted them to do - provide a great, smooth shave, and moisturize my legs in the process. I definitely recommend them! Like I said, I've been using the Venus Embrace happily for years, and I doubt that will be changing any time soon :)

If you'd like to learn more about Gillette Venus products check out their website~

Have a great day! ♥

~These products were provided for an honest review by me from Influenster~

Influenster Cosmo VoxBox - Intro Post

Hey guys! So I'm sure several of you have heard of Influenster by now. It's a super-cool website where you can read and write reviews of basically any kind of product you can think of, from food to beauty products to video games and so much more. You may have heard of their VoxBox program, in which they send out special themed packages full of goodies for people to try out, review, and share their experiences through social media. Back in December, I was lucky enough to receive the Cosmo VoxBox, full of all sorts of goodies for me to try out! Of course, life happens (being sick for 3 weeks sure didn't help) so this post is a little late at this point, but better late than never :) Especially if I end up introducing someone to a product they otherwise didn't know of, because there is some great stuff in the package I received!

look at all those goodies!

Since each product is deserving of its own review (and putting them all in one giant post would be crazy and way too long) this post will serve as a hub of sorts -- that way, you can easily access the other posts detailing the products and my thoughts on them.

Included in my Cosmo VoxBox:

• FriXion by Pilot Pen - read my review here!
• Forever Red Eau de Parfume by Bath & Body Works - read my review here!
• Ghiradelli Gourmet Milk Sea Salt Escape - read my review here!
• Gillette Venus Embrace & Venus & Olay Razor - read my review here!

I was really pleased with my very first VoxBox -- both that the products were so great, and that I received one at all, yay! haha -- since I think it is a great thing on both ends of the spectrum: bloggers/vloggers/consumers get to try out great products, and brands get all that feedback and tons of social media exposure. Super cool program! I am happy to have been included and hope that you enjoy reading about my experience :)

Have a great day! ♥

~These products were provided for an honest review by me from Influenster~