Desperately Seeking Bookworm

Time for another BzzCampaign! If you're not familiar with BzzAgent, it's a website that allows you to take surveys and if you're the right fit for the study you may be chosen to participate. So far this is my third study, and I currently have another pending as well. I really enjoy doing these, mostly because I love free stuff! This time I was chosen to test out Green Mountain Coffee's new fair trade line. Fair trade coffee is certified as having been produced and marketed to a states set of standards. In GM's case they are helping coffee farmers provide a better life for their families and communities. Two of the ways they are helping is by providing clean drinking water and building better roads in said communities. Kelly Clarkson has been chosen to be a part of this campaign, if you would like to learn more about it, click the link below.  You can also check out the varieties that fair trade comes in from GM. http://choosefairtrade.com/ I received three d...

I love reading memoirs! Or any type of historical voyeuristic like journey into someone's life. I just think they're so interesting, especially when they're on people who are no longer with us and can't tell their story. So when I was watching CBS Sunday Morning , a couple of months ago, they did a piece on Lily Koppel's new book, The Astronaut Wives Club . Photo Courtesy of www.astronautwivesclub.com What's more American than apple pie, big mac's and astronauts? I was instantly intrigued by the idea of doing a book on the woman who were behind some of America's heroes.  the picture on the cover is of seven impeccably dressed All American women, which is also a picture that ran on Life Magazine in 1959. It was a window into a period of time that I find so fascinating, I was hooked! The book starts out with a simple prologue and background about how this book came to life. It also includes a list of all the women and a short one line description. ...

Another month, another Birchbox. Sometimes I refer to them as boxes of crap, but this one wasn't that bad. I mean it could've been a complete loss, like last months was. I've been getting a lot of hair/face products which isn't what I want. I signed up to get makeup samples, not 70 million different curl serums. October 2013 Birchbox And just a thought Birchbox, just because I have curly hair doesn't mean I wear my hair curly. Anyways, I went into my beauty profile and said I only wanted to receive makeup. I guess they don't pay attention to those things because I received the same old crap that I always do. This months box:  Evologie Stay Clear Cream ($62) : Moisturizer that protects skin and balances oil levels with a patent-pending YS3 complex- I already use an acne lotion as my night lotion (my staple is Clean & Clear's Dual Action Moisture), so this concept is nothing new to me. Evologies is a good brand, I love their spot treatment tha...

Time for another Influenster review! This time its a one product review box, I've only done these for Influenster. I know some people get the themed Voxboxes with all the fun goodies, but I tend to only qualify for the one brand review ones. Its all good though, I still enjoy them and love trying free stuff! Even if I do end up giving it all away like I did my Mary Kay stuff (sans the Lash Primer). For this box I qualified to receive a free pair of Dr. Scholl's Active Series Inserts for Her. They retail for $19.99 at Target and $24.99 at Walgreens.  A little pricey for just one pair of insoles, but then again if you work out a lot or are just a sneaker fan in general, you may want to invest in a pair of quality insoles; not only for comfort, but also to extend the life of your sneaks (trainers, for those across the pond). The 'Her' insoles will be for shoe sizes 5.5-8 & 8.5-11, and the 'Him' insoles will fit 7.5-10 & 10.5-13. They are easy to be shap...

Yay free makeup to try! Woo woo! So excited for this post. I love trying new things and I especially love trying new makeup (I'm kind of a makeup hoarder), and even more excited to be trying a brand that I never have before. As I've said before Influenster is a program where you can take surveys, write reviews on products, and participate in giveaways in order to earn badges. Once you reach a certain level you qualify for Voxboxes. They are absolutely free boxes that you receive from Influenster and various companies, in turn you review the box and its contents. Now that being said my box was entitled 'The Glamour Look by Mary Kay' and I it was filled with some of Mary Kay's top selling products. In my box: eye shadow mascara lash primer brush lipstick Five solid products that I'm sure will have no problem fitting into my already overcrowded train case and varied makeup routine. Product Run Down & First Impressions: Lash Love Lengthening Mas...

I participate in Influenster and like BzzAgent it is a site that allows you to review products, participate in surveys, and connect with social media in order to gain perks. The perk part of Influenster is called Voxbox, which is a free box courtesy of them and the particular sponsor which contains one or more new products to try. In turn for trying, you are supposed to spread the word and be a positive "influence" on the product. Its a very good system, but in order to qualify for the box you have to pass the "test" which is a survey; if you pass you are then invited to participate or sometimes just selected to participate. I was invited to sample a new household product which was going to "change the way I completed my daily routine". Now I was very excited to be chosen and to be able to try anything new (i.e. free), but I must say I was rather disappointed when I read the tagline on the email and it said "pots & pans". My smile droppe...

A Month of so ago I signed up for BzzAgent, which is an online perks site. You take surveys to build up a "bzz score" in good standing, and in return are asked to participate in product tests. After filling out every survey on their site, I was selected to participate in their newest campaign with Covergirl. Covergirl is my absolute favorite (besides NYX) drugstore brand! I eagerly anticipated my redemption coupon in the mail and at long last I received. I hurried off to CVS to try it out and here I am. Covergirl's latest venture into foundation is Outlast Stay Fabulous. Billed as a 3 in 1 product to cut out some pesky extra steps. The steps you are supposed to take out is the act of putting on primer (which helps your foundation stay on longer) and any touch-ups with a concealer. To really test it out I did not use any extra concealer, nor did I use a primer. I have to say that it reminded me a bit of Revlon Colorstay, but it did not dry as fast. Which is great becau...

So I got my Birchbox about a week ago for this month and I thought I'd review it for everyone. Usually I just use things and then say I hate them, I never give them a fair chance. With this box, and this post however, I will be doing full reviews. As always I'm excited about the thought of getting my Birchbox every month, but they very rarely deliver. This month though, wasn't too bad since I actually got things I've wanted to try. For those of you who don't know Birchbox is a monthly subscription service that delivers 5-6 deluxe size samples to your doorstep for $10 a month. It is a recurring charge, or you can chose to purchase gift subscriptions. They also have a points system, for every 100 points you earn you get $10 in the shop. The points can be earned by purchasing boxes, items in the shop, writing reviews on the item, and inviting friends. The contents of my box were: Juice Beauty Stem Cellular Repair CC Cream Beauty Protector Protect & Detangle...

Whenever I’m scoping out makeup on YouTube or on other blogs, people are always raving about Wet and Wild. I too have been intrigued by the brand, because I know that it has come a long way from the cheap makeup you used to get when you were in middle and high school. The formulas have changed, but the prices have generally stayed the same. So when Walgreens was having a bogo sale I thought how could I resist? I didn't pick up much, just some things I've heard good reviews about and the rest was just things that appealed to me. I picked up two bronzers, one eight-shadow palette, one eye trio, one lipstick, and one lip gloss. In all I believe my total came to about $10 before tax, (I bought a couple other things), so not too sure on my final total. For Six items that isn't bad and I was super excited to try out my new purchases! The first thing I picked up was the Coloricon Bronzer with SPF 15 in “Reserve Your Cabana” . This is the lightest b...

So this post is going to be my first "negative" review, and I say negative in quotes because it is, but it isn't. I read Penelope by Rebecca Harrington, and I can only describe it as a bad movie that you cannot tear your eyes away from. I tried very hard to stay positive while I read it, thinking that it was about to get better with the turn of the next page, but it didn't. Was it easy to read? Absolutely. Did it have a standard rise and fall in plot or action? No. This book had absolutely nothing happening in it. And the characters were so utterly weird that you couldn't like them or even want to read about them. Even the "heroine"/title character wasn't great. She wasn't overly unlikable or an underdog, she was just a plain boring girl from Connecticut. I'm going to copy paste the description from Goodreads, so you can pre-judge this baby for yourself. Here we go... "When Penelope O'Shaunessy steps into Harvard Yard for the...

During the blizzard in February, I knew that we would lose power. So to avoid udder 18th century induced boredom, I stocked up on some good books from the libby and made sure I had plenty of batteries for my flashlight. When we did lose power (right in the middle of TMZ) I whipped out my trusty flashlight and picked up my first suitor, Jaycee Dugard's haunting memoir A Stolen Life . The 2011 memoir tells the horrifying and somewhat inspiring story of the kidnapping and life of Jaycee Dugard. Dugard was kidnapped at the age of 11, by Phillip & Nancy Garrido and was held hostage by them for 18 years. Victims in these circumstances very rarely come forward and talk about their experience, let alone do it so eloquently and with a perspective like Jaycee's.  She takes you into the hell that became her life for years, and you feel every moment of it. I believe her intention was not only to get her story out there and told, but to also help other people who may have been in simi...

I don't exactly remember how I came to reading this book, but I'm sure it was because of an automated Goodreads recommendation. I couldn't even remember what it was about, but I still planned to read it. On that note, I am so incredibly glad I decided to give this a shot because it was impressive. Please do read the book, if you're into Dateline specials, Lifetime movies, or are just pining for something to read after you've read Gillian Flynn's entire collection! Still Missing by Chevy Stevens will certainly not disappoint you. I want to warn that if you are reading this, it will contain spoilers and I advise you not to read the rest of the post. I realized that my synopsis was extremely choppy and just all around awful, but there is so much into this book you cannot fit it into 1 or 2 paragraphs. It goes so much deeper than my terrible descriptive nature, but TRUST ME this book was AMAHZING! So, to save you the trouble of telling me it was awful (thanks I g...

I've never been all up on book "trends".  I don't automatically see them talking about a book on The Talk and be like "OMGZ I need to read that!", I usually wait until they make it into a movie and then I think about reading it.  I came across this book when I was going through my recommendations on Goodreads. I thought the title alone was hilarious, and immediately knew it had to be some kind of parody, and that is when I realized I needed to read this book. That is when I picked up Fifty Shames of Earl Grey by Fanny Merkin as my next literary adventure. Fifty Shames is exactly what you think it is, a comedy parody of Fifty Shades , the nauseating "must read" all the girls seem to be into. I read most of Fifty Shades , it was okay. I also read the good parts online, it wasn't anything special. It didn't tug at my morality like The Hunger Games did, or make me bawl like a baby like Oprah's book club selections do. It was simply j...

My name is Steph and I am a hoarder. More specifically I hoard makeup/beauty samples. I subscribe to two subscription services, BeautyArmy & Birchbox (Birchbox is eh and BeautyArmy is decent so far). I got my BeautyArmy kit today and as I was putting them away in my sample stash box, I realized that I have a terrible problem. I can barely close the lid on it and these samples are small. A lot of them are just foil packets so you know there's a problem. So since I'm in between books right now (my current selection is The Carrie Diaries by Candace Bushnell, review coming soon) I thought I'd do a little post to keep myself occupied. I'll only review what I've actually tried so far, that way you won't get bored (or I won't get bored). My 3 Favorite Samples Hot Mama theBalm Hot Mama by theBalm ($20)  - A peachy pink with golden shimmer blush and shadow. I was skeptical when I got this because I have oily skin and some blushes tend to look "rus...

I got busy trying to get my life together and I neglected you. I'm sorry sometimes that's what happens in relationships. One of us gets ignored and one of us has the problem being ignored.Which usually leads to a breakup and I'm just saying you better not be! Anyways I have 2 brand new posts coming your way and I'm super excited about it, because I actually enjoyed these books (i.e. I actually read these books not speed read to get to the good parts). So stay tuned later for my review of Fifty Shames of Earl Grey by Fanny Merkin (AKA Andrew Shaffer) and A Stolen Life by Jaycee Dugard. Laterz!

I finally finished my first book of 2013! Woooo yay snaps! Okay, now that's out of the way, let's talk about my accomplishment and who made it possible. The lucky winner was My Boyfriend Wrote a Book About Me: And Other Stories I Shouldn't Share With Acquaintances, Coworkers, Taxi Drivers, Assistants, Job Interviewers, Bikini Waxers, And Ex/Current Boyfriends but Have by Hilary Winston. Good golly that is a long ass title to type out. So, I finished Hilary's book (there's no way I'm typing any of that out again) and it was okay. I'm not going to knock it too much because obviously she's got her crap together, because I'm sitting here writing a blog and she has a job where someone pays her to write. Hilary 1, Steph BIG 0. Anyways, it was just okay. She talked about her ex-boyfriend Kyle a lot. And "Kyle" if you ever read this you're a DICK! You deserve the inquisition, well no because you weren't that bad. Someone like Chris Brown ...