Send Me Gluten Free Box Review + Giveaway!

Send me Gluten Free was created for the people of the Gluten Free community who were looking for new products to try that fit their diet needs. While I am not someone who considers themselves to be, 'Gluten Free' I love snacks and trying new brands, and a lot of the times the snacks marked 'Gluten Free' taste great and you can't even tell they have that stamp of GF on there (if that makes sense).

About this monthly subscription:

• Each month you'll get 8-12 new gluten free products! 
• Some products will be full-sized and others may be sample sized! 
• Contents of the box aren't just food based, they can range from food to personal care products to household hold items. All products that support you GF lifestyle!
• Cost is $30 per month if you purchase month to month! 
• Sign up for a yearly subscription and the boxes come down to $20/month (other options available).

With that being said - here's what came in October's box:

1. Mediterranean Snacks Lentil Chips (Sea Salt) $3.49

2. YogaVive Apple Chips (Chocolate) $4.49

3. I Heart Keenwah Quinoa Cluster (Chocolate Sea Salt) $1.50

4. NoGii Paleo Bar (Nuts About Berries) $2.42

5. Coupon for ONE FREE Conte's Pasta GF Product $10.00

6. Nature's Path Organic Granola Bar (Dark Chocolate Chip) $.88

7. Kemnitz Family Kitchen Sample Pack - Couldn't find a value!

8. Primal Pit Paste - $3.95

9. Bonne Maman Preserves (Strawberry) - $.50

10. Country Life CoEnzyme B-Complex Caps & Button - Couldn't find a value!

11. Redd Remedies Supplement - Couldn't find a value!

So, with my research and checking the values of each item (some I couldn't find) the total of the box came to: $27.23!

So with that said with this first box, it doesn't quite equal up to the value of how much you would be paying per month! However, if you purchased a year subscription, the value would be better! 

In my opinion, the price per box is quite high. Maybe it's a better value for someone who is actually GF and may find it difficult to find products that fit their lifestyle. As far as new brands, the only two brands I already knew were Bonne Maman and I Heart Keenwah Quinoa. I may have gotten these in my Love with Food boxes, not really sure. One of my favorite things about these kind of boxes is discovering new brands, so if that's all you care about this is def a great box to explore! 

Sign up here: http://www.sendmeglutenfree.com/category-s/1817.htm and use coupon code BLOG20 at checkout to get 20%!

OR, even better - enter my giveaway down below to win November's box!! 

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Halloween Baking Kits + Giveaway!

Seriously, if Halloween was a year long celebration, I'd be 100% okay with that. I love everything about Halloween - the candy, the dressing up, the Halloween specials (I grew up on the Roseanne specials!) and the awesome baking that comes with Halloween themed treats. I have seen some AMAZING creations out there. Sometimes though you may not have the time to make something completely from scratch and so having an awesome, unique baking kit on hand is the way to go this Halloween.

Simple ingredients you need
from home!

My love for In The Mix came when I first discovered them at World Market. I can't say what the very first kit was, but every season I go back and look for their newest ones. I decided to bust out my google skills and see who made these kits and discovered Brand Castle, LLC not only just made In the Mix, but also Crafty Cooking Kits & Festival. I reached out to them expressing how much I loved their kits and they were so nice and sent me FOUR boxes of their most popular kits for the Halloween season - one of those kits I will be giving away down below! :)

Contents of Kit

I waited all weekend to finally have a moment to make one of these kits. I debated about making all 3 of them, but decided that I wanted to really 'savor' the kits and since it's not even October, I knew I'd be making them throughout the coming weeks! I did, however, make the Zombie Dance Party Cookie Party Kit (which will be the kit I am giving away, too!) and they turned out very cool looking, were super fun and easy to make and actually tasted delicious! Check out my pictures of the process (and don't judge my terrible cookie decorating skills, lol) and be sure to enter my giveaway to win one! I would love to send it out before Halloween so you can make them too! :)

I love that they included 4 sturdy zombie cookie cutters, because they are going to be reused again!

P.S. My BF just asked if these were turtles - told you I have terrible cookie icing skills! 

I really recommend looking at their website! Just in the Halloween section alone they have 64 items listed! Like bloody bone sprinkles or Fright Night Sprinkles! And, not to mention Christmas and Summer goodies, among other seasons in there!

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Purex Insiders: Dial Coconut Water Refreshing Mango Body Wash + Giveaway!

There is not much wrong that can be done to a body wash, in my opinion. The worst thing I feel could happen would be that I'd absolutely hate the scent. Which has happened. I'm not a huge fan of straight up vanilla scents. It makes me think of those body sprays and then it makes me think of high school when I used to douse myself in that kind of stuff from Bath and Body Works. Purex Insiders recently sent me a bottle of Dial's new Coconut Water Refreshing Mango body wash to try and write a review on. Although, never a fan of mango flavoring, scent is a completely different thing. Here is what I loved about this new body wash:

1. The smell. It smells sooooooooooo good! The mango was the most obvious sniff, but once you really used your nose you could pull out the hints of coconut in there. I also applaud the new scent combo - coconut and mango isn't something I've seen before. I love when you get different combos or scents that aren't you typical ocean waters or something like that.

2. Thanks to the nifty information sheet that came with the body wash, I learned how coconut water is "a leading trend known to be rich in antioxidants and electrolytes that help provide replenishing hydration. Mango is known for being nutrient rich and adds a touch of tropical freshness."

3. It's a whole line! It comes in a foaming hand wash, bar soap and one more scent of body wash minus the mango!

4. It does what it says. It left my skin feeling smooth and what I assume hydrated! It had a great lather, which is something I like to see in a body wash.

I'm so happy that I get to giveaway a free product coupon to 2 readers! Enter the giveaway below to win one! Expires 9/30/14! :)

a Rafflecopter giveaway The Dial brand provided me with a sample of Dial Coconut Water Refreshing Mango body wash in exchange for a product review. However, all the opinions shared here are my own. 

One Direction Reader Giveaway! Win Makeup!

Attention all One Direction fans! (Or makeup fans in general!)

Super excited to share more information on One Direction's "Looks Collection" makeup line that's hitting stores in August 2014!

This new prestige makeup line by One Direction is to be fun, bold and tad bit mischievous, that features vivid shades, premium formulas and chic, collectible packaging and components. The Looks Collection will come in 3 different Limited Edition tins: Midnight Memories, Up All Night & Take Me Home.

US Release Dates:
Macy's - August 11th
Stage Stores - August 25th
Dillards - August 25th
Beauty Brands - August 25th
Lord and Taylor - August 25th

**International release dates TBD.

Soon, I will be reviewing one of these collections and sharing with everyone before it hits stores so keep your eyes peeled! I'm so excited that I'll be able to get a sneak peak of this new makeup line and hopefully you can win one yourself, by entering the giveaway down below! 50 winners so awesome chances! Good luck! :)

Also, be sure you "Like" them on Facebook here: Makeup by One Direction

This post was powered by Brandbacker. I will be receiving a sample of this product, but in no way does it effect my honest opinion on the product.  

Product Review: Make Your Own Gummies Kit + Giveaway!

One time I went to a Twitter party where Glee Gum was one of the sponsored prizes. During that chat, I discovered that they had these "homemade candy kits." I was instantly curious because I love trying new stuff and candy is sort of a whole other food group for me. I was so fortunate that I was able to receive this product free from GleeGum to test out and share my opinions on. 

Now, I have seen Glee Gum before, but had NO idea that they made other things besides GUM! Here's a little information on this homemade candy kits:

Available in Make Your Own Chocolate, Make Your Own Chewing Gum, and Make Your Own Gummies, these activity kits are all-natural, educational, and eco-friendly. With pre-packaged ingredients and easy-to-follow instructions, everyone aged 8 and up gets a real kick out of making candy from scratch. Focusing on the history behind and the origin of these candies, each kit is designed to captivate your interest, connect you to the global community, and create something yummy to eat in the process! 

Here's how my experience with this kit went:

The kit comes with 5 packets: sour mix, colored & flavored sugar, powdered seaweed, seaweed, molding starch and of course the instructions to put this kit together! Going into this experiement, I was kind of skeptical, I really had NO clue how a.) seaweed was going to be the secret ingredient b.) it was going to taste c.) and how easy it would be to actually to make this. Could an 8 year old really do this? Nonetheless a 27-year-old like myself?

Step One!

Steps:

Step One says  to Soak the  seaweed (not the powder) in water. No mention of what temperature of water, so I just did cold water.

Step Two is to Choose Your Shapes. I wasn't prepared for this one really went and kind of was stumped on what to select. They DO give a few suggestions, like those refrigerator ABC letters, which surprisingly I had a few left! I had the letter L and A, and I also grabbed this triangle magnet. They also suggest using the back of a tablespoon. 

Step Three!

Step Three!

Step Three is to Make Imprints. Smooth out the molding starch on a plate and place your shapes into the surface. For my huge fingers it was an issue to grab the letters out without messing up the outline. So, eventually I chose more of the magnet triangle shapes because they were the easiest! 

Step Four said to mix the powdered sugar with 1/2 cup water and stir well. Then, add the soaking seaweed into the bowl mixture. 

Step Five is to Heat the mixture for about 2 minutes! I suggest using a larger bowl. I was dumb and did a small bowl and some of it over boiled and I ended up loosing some mixture. Sad face. 

Step Six was to remove the seaweed from the mixture and throw away, because the carrageenan had done it's job! 

Step Six!

Step Seven!

Step Seven was to add the colored sugar packet into the hot mixture and put back into the microwave for another minute!

Step Eight was a difficult one for me. It was to pour the hot mixture into the molds. I tried to pour it but it turned out to be way too blobby, so I ended up not even using the molds and made actual BLOBS of gummies. Was this my error? Or, was it not hot enough? I am not sure! Then pop it into the fridge for 10 minutes! 

Step Eight!

Step Nine was to coat the blobs with the sour mix! And then ALL DONE. You have your very own, homemade gummies to eat and share with friends! Yay!

So, how did they taste? They tasted decent! Of course, I wasn't expecting them to taste like the gummi bears I get in the store that contain god knows what, so if you go into the taste test thinking like that, it will help the situation! I will say that, I, did NOT add the sour mix because for some reason, I forgot it was there, so I am assuming that if I HAD added the sour mix, it would have been even better than what they were, so that was definitely my fault there. I thought this product was SO SO SO fun, and I think a young child would LOVE it. I mean, I am 27 and loved it! I am really curious about the other two kits - Chocolate and Chewing Gum! I think it'd be a fun activity to do with a school aged child because you can learn and go further with the idea of carrageenans! Which I have no clue what are. 

Anyone try any of the other kits? I'm really curious about how those went! Or even if you have tried this Gummie Kit. How was your experience? ;)

 

Thank you to Glee Gum! Follow them on Facebook & Twitter for up to date information, discounts, gift ideas and other goodies! :)

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