Dead Sea Mud Facial Mask - Sponsored Post

I am pretty brand loyal to the majority of my facial products; however, I always love trying new masks and treatments.  I received a full-size sample of the Dead Sea Mud Facial Mask by Pure and Essential Minerals to try and I was excited that the sample was large enough to have my three daughters try, as well.  I apologize, but I only have stock photos of the product since my girl children would not let me take pictures of them with the mask on (someone might SEE!!).

Click on the picture to go to Amazon to order!

The mask is billed to be a natural beauty remedy, containing nothing but 100% natural and organic ingredients.  It also purports to tighten pores, reduce wrinkles and lines and promote healthy, natural skin.  Since I am "of a certain age," I was ready to see how much reduction these old wrinkles would see, so I slathered it on applied it carefully to my face and neck.  

This mask at first had an overpowering smell of, well, mineral.  But since it's pure dead sea mud, that makes sense.  Once it went on, my skin tingled a little bit, but not unpleasantly.  I used plain warm water and a wash cloth to remove it after about 15 minutes and found that my skin was very soft and felt very clean overall.  I have used it a few times and don't see a difference in any lines or wrinkles, thought.  My oldest daughter did not care for it, as she thought it made her skin break out (but she's got sensitive skin to begin with).  My two youngest daughters loved this and found that it really seemed to purify their skin.  As a matter of fact, the next two times I used it, I had to demand it back from one or the other of them.  

The Dead Sea Mud Mask is something that I would definitely purchase for our use.  Click above and get some for yourself! 

100% Pure Argan Oil by Radha Beauty - Sponsored Post

My family and I received this full-sized sample in the mail of 100% Pure Argan Oil by Radha Beauty.  It's billed as 100% pure and can be used as a moisturizer for dry skin and hair.  Additionally, it comes with this really cool dropper that you can use to control the amount (unlike some open tops where you get half the bottle in one hand). 

I've long used argan oil in my hair to help control the unruly curls, but not for any other uses.  I did try the product in my hair and found that it did help with some of the frizziness that I usually hair.  My husband also helped me use and review this product and here is his take on it.  He states that when used on his hair (extremely curly, coarse hair), it helped to relax the curl and control it some.  He also used it facially, specifically under the eye area where he had a couple of scars and general middle-aged dry skin and fine lines.  When used in this manner, he saw a decrease in the actual scar and a great softening of the area in general.

Overall, this is a great product and we will gladly purchase this again for family use in all manners.  This isn't my first review for Radha products and hopefully will not be the last.  They offer a money-back guarantee on their products if you are not satisfied, but we have yet to have that issue. 

Click here to get yours so that you can begin to see the wonderful results of this product. 

Seriously Slacking + Chewy.com Review

This month has been one of those where we are flying by the seat of our pants and crazy-busy.  I've been slacking on my posts, but I at least wanted to give a shout-out to Chewy.com for the awesome treats that Khloe and FatBoy received this month.  I'm a horrible brand-blogger this month because while I've been diligent about giving daily treatie-treats (the beasts won't let me forget to), I've been bad about taking pictures of them enjoying said treatie-treats.

This month we chose the Halo Liv-a-Littles freeze-dried protein treats for the beasts to try.  We got the salmon flavor and they look like this:

Stock photo

These are very light, non-dense, and smell great (for kitty treats, anyway).  They are grain-free and 100% wild salmon.  Khloe loves them and will talk to me every morning until I give them to her.  FatBoy doesn't care for them at all and will look all offended until I remove them from his sight (drama-queen??).  I've even given Sandy-dog a couple and she scarfs them down.  The one and only con to all the pros is that some of the chunks are pretty large and need to be broken down before Khloe can eat them.  Overall these were only half a hit (only because of the drama queen mentioned above) and I probably would not purchase them only because I like to have treats that all the cats will enjoy.  Thanks, Chewy.com, for the opportunity to try these out!

While Chewy.com supplied the treats, all opinions are solely my own (with heavy weigh-in from the menagerie).  

Treatie-Treat Time with Chewy.com (Sponsored Post)

Yes, we really call them treatie-treats, (because we're special - that's why) so don't pretend you call snack time something normal-sounding in your house when I know that you still eat pasghetti and read magdazines.

Anywho, we keep our pet treats in the master bathroom cabinet because the little one (Chloe) is a little rat bastage who likes to find anything in a crinkly bag that might be treats and carry them upstairs for her mom to open for her.  Funny side-story -- one time I found one of those little packets of freeze-dried vegetables that go into ramen soup on the stairs leading to my daughter's (Chloe's mom) room.  She had been stalking the kitchen counters for snacks and decided that freeze-dried veggies looked like just the thing.

Back to snack time.  Our animals are trained like Pavlov's dogs so that when anyone walks into the bathroom, all of a sudden there's an audience sitting in front of the cabinet impatiently waiting for treats.  Chewy.com was gracious enough to send treats for both the cats and our ancient Collie in February for us to try.  For the cats, we received Nature's Variety Instinct Raw Boost Minis in the Rabbit Flavor.  

This box ain't going to open itself, you know.

Chloe isn't really a very vocal cat, but whenever she saw the box for these treats, she went nuts chirping and meowing, and in general just begging for them.  Our two foster kittens also loved them to pieces and risked their lives by trying to steal Chloe's from her (MAJOR smack-downs when that happened).  Our oldest cat, Ted, didn't care for these too much although to be honest, he's not only picky but completely toothless.  I think that these were a bit too hard for him to comfortably gum to death.  These were a big hit overall and we'll definitely buy them in the future.

For the aging Collie, Sandy, we received Blue Buffalo Blue Bones Regular Dental Chews. Historically, she has displayed an allergy to anything red-colored (makes her sick) so when I saw these were red, I was a little apprehensive.  I checked the ingredients and found that they were colored with beets and not dye, so we decided to give them a try.  Again, these went over great and didn't make her sick at all.  As a matter of fact, she would take her treat to the back door and wait to be let out to enjoy her snack in peace because the cats would try to steal them from her.   Since she is 15 and ancient, we really couldn't see a difference in the whiteness of her teeth, but her breath was pretty decent. 

Couldn't get one of her with the treats.

The menagerie would like to thank Chewy.com for the opportunity to try these great products out! While they supplied the treats, all the opinions are solely my own (with heavy weigh-in from the beasts).  

Radha Beauty Intensive Youth Eye Gel

This is a sponsored post written by me, powered by BrandBacker.

While I was compensated for this post, all thoughts and opinions are my own.



Radha Beauty Intensive Youth Eye Gel

As I age, I find that the roads that I have travelled in my life start to creep up and show themselves on the map of my face (boatloads of beach time, oodles of outdoor activities, craters of concern and worry, etc.).  As a result, I look for new and improved facial care items to try to counter-balance the damage that living a good and fulfilled life has done.  That's where Radha Beauty Intensive Youth Eye gel comes in.  It purports to moisturize and firm skin, and reduce eye bags, dark circles, and puffiness.  The gel is 99% natural and 75% organic and is safe for all skin types. 

 

I don't think that I've tried the product long enough to see long-term results; however, I will share what I have noticed to date.  I will be straight-up honest and tell you that I prefer creamy-type facial products and I knew before trying this that it was a gel, so I won't count that as a negative since some people prefer gels -- it's just a matter of personal preference. 

 

On first examination, I found that the gel is smooth and has a fairly benign smell -- not strong, but noticeable.  I liked the fact that it's mostly natural and organic and didn't irritate my eyes at all (I wear contact lenses).  It does go on the skin very nicely (especially the delicate skin around the eyes) and spreads easily without pulling.  I noticed after a few days that some of my puffiness and darkness had been reduced some and after continued usage I believe that this will be a continued effect.  I cannot vouch for the claim to firm the skin since I don't think I've been using it long enough to see that particular claim to fruition.  This product also did not cause any redness, bumpiness, or itching, which is always a plus.  One of the few things that I did not care for was how long this took to dry, especially before being able to apply makeup. 

 

I will finish out the bottle of the gel to see how many more benefit I might get from it; however,  I probably won't order it again simply because of my preference for non-gel eye products.  If gels are your thing, though, click on the link on the picture to add this great product to your routine!