Sally Hansen Salon Effects Real Nail Polish Strips Review

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I am sure these have been reviewed a billion times, but here it is, review a billion and one from a new Mom.

For three years I had gel nails. I would go every three weeks and get them done; I loved them. I always feel put together with my nails done (even if I don’t have make up on). When I found out I was pregnant I knew I was going to have to stop getting my nails done, and I did, around the 6 month mark. It was a sad day, but I knew I just wouldn’t be able to step away for a few hours to get them done - also, the cost.

I missed my nails so I tried painting them. I tried multiple times. I waited between coats, I used a base coat and a top coat and nothing I did looked good enough. The polish would bubble or smudge (never have that problem with my toes!) - finally I gave up. No one has time for that and I knew once the baby came I definitely wouldn’t have time to paint my nails anyway. I am now used to seeing my finger nails bare but I still miss having them done. Site note, I guess you really shouldn’t be painting your nails too much anyway while you are pregnant… oops!

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Real Nail Polish Strips
Enter Sally Hansen Salon Effects Real Nail Polish Strips.

A few weeks ago I was at the dollar store and saw them for $2.50. My sister uses them and loves them so I thought I would give them a try. Can you really go wrong for $2.50? The patterns are not my favourite but $2.50.

The application process was pretty simple. I was able to still text and do things while putting them on. No worry about smudges or waiting for them to dry. I did wait for baby to go to bed before putting them on but it was nice to know that if he did wake up I wouldn’t have to cover him (and everything else) in nail polish.

Sally Hansen Salon Effects Real Nail Polish Strips

I got lots of compliments on them. It was probably because of the wild print, but again, $2.50. They did start chipping within a couple days but not too bad. I left them on for about 2 and a half weeks, for picky people it was probably about half a week too long. One was chipping pretty bad but otherwise the only real issue was growth. I probably would have left them even longer but I am thinking about putting on a fresh set because we are going to a wedding.

Removal was pretty easy, I soaked bits of cotton ball in nail polish remover and let them sit on my nails for a couple minutes before wiping them off. I did have to spend a few minutes removing little flakes of left over nail strips that seemed to get everywhere, but overall they didn’t take too long to get off.

Would I spend $10 (regular price) for these? Not sure. I probably would if I wasn’t currently on a budget. But for $2.50 I will buy them again, if I can find them. I also found Essie and OPI strips. Reviews for those will come when I get a chance to try them.

Disclosure: I purchased the Sally Hansen Salon Effects Real Nail Polish Strips myself and I was not compensated in any way for this review. All opinions are my own.

Huggies Rewards vs Pampers Rewards

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Huggies and Pampers both offer a rewards system for buying their diapers and wipes.

Both have plenty of rewards to choose, Huggies seems to have more. However, it seems to be easier to earn Pampers points. The diapers seem to be worth more and they often give out free points online.

A HUGE advantage of Pampers rewards over Huggies rewards is that Pampers has an app for entering codes. That is all it does, you can’t browse rewards or anything, it just makes it super easy to add codes. It would be cool if you could just take a picture of your code to make adding them even easier; maybe in the future.

Every time I want to add Huggies points I have to go to the website and log in - annoying when you are in a hurry! (You just have to tap to open the Pampers app - no logging in required!) I often find the Huggies website very slow and hard to use on a mobile device, even though the website is mobile friendly.

Collecting Huggies points seems to be a lot more work. After using both systems for a similar amount of time and buying a similar amount of diapers I have over 700 Pampers points and under 200 Huggies points.

With my Huggies rewards I can get a $15 Starbucks Gift Card for 750 points.
With my Pampers rewards I can get a Well.ca $10 Gift Card for 840 points.

Comparing just those two items the Huggies rewards seem to be worth more then the pampers rewards, as they should be though for how much harder they are to earn.

Huggies does have some ‘Play to Win’ items, you can use your points to play and instantly win. I tried twice to win a $10 Starbucks Gift Card (didn’t win), it cost me 1 point for each try. Pampers gives you gifts if you enter a product code every month, you get gifts at 3 months, 6 months, 9 months and 12 months.

I have not redeemed any points from either company yet to see how that process works.

Mom Tip #2: Breastfeeding Makes you Thirsty

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Very thirsty.

I feel like I read this before the baby was born, probably in one of those apps or in a baby book or something but nothing really prepared me for how thirsty I would be. All. The. Time. I mean wake up in the middle of the night and drink a bottle of water thirsty. I can’t leave the house without a bottle of water or six.

My tip for you, buy a nice water bottle (if you don’t have one already) and be prepared to take it with you everywhere you go. Heck, buy yourself two water bottles. Maybe even three. I bought three.

I bought myself a three pack of Contigo bottles from Costco. They are really nice water bottles, I love them. I love them so much I have thought about buying another pack but what would I do with six water bottles. They are $20 for the pack of three.
contigo water bottles

One of the bottles is actually my husbands but I use the other two. That way one is in the fridge getting cold while I am drinking the other, assuming I actually drink one slow enough to let the other one get cold.



Easy No Bake Oat Bars [Starbucks Copycat]

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I miss baking. I miss eating my baking. Baking just takes too much time right now. Time I don’t have.

For the last couple days weeks, I have been wanting to bake. Yesterday, I was looking up oat bars (like they have at Starbucks). My husband loves oat bars and I have a Costco amount of oats. When I came across this recipe I thought it was worth a try. First of all, it gave me a chance to use my Blendtec and second, it looked simple and fast - no baking required!

Easy No Bake Oat Bars [Starbucks Copycat]

They are delicious! They took me no time at all, I had the bars pressed into the pan within five minutes and the chocolate took a couple minutes longer. I think it actually took me longer to clean up the mess then actually make these bars.

Gluten and Dairy Free Oat Bars [Starbucks Copycat]

I used butter in replace of the coconut oil for both the bars and the chocolate, I wasn’t looking for a coconut taste but I think I will try it next time. I also used an 8×8 pan, I wouldn’t use the 7×13 they recommend, they bars would be pretty thin. The texture was different then Starbucks (less dry and crumbly, probably because of the no baking) but they were just as delicious.

I don’t want to turn this into a cooking or baking blog but I had to share this recipe because it was so easy and yummy. Any quick, easy and delicious baking is a win for this new Mom.

Update 7/7/2014 - I made these again today, this time I used the coconut oil and they were just as delicious. Just a slight coconut taste. I will defiantly keep making these, probably with the coconut oil as it is a healthier option. Husband says they are okay but “not Starbucks”. I also timed myself today, they took about 20 minutes from start to completely cleaned up.

Mom Tip #1 - Hand Soap

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Hand soap.

bath and body works hand soap

It seems like such a simple thing but I seriously was not prepared for the amount of hand soap I would start going through once the baby arrived. I have always been a big hand washer or so I thought, but now I am washing my hands twice as much, scratch that, ten times as much. Seriously.

I have used more bottles of hand soap in the last three months then I have in the last year. Sometimes I find myself washing my hands two or three times in a row just to make sure my hands are clean; especially after handling something spicy or using diaper cream.

So my first tip is to stock up on hand soap. I recommend something moisturizing because your hands are going to be dry from all the washing and using hand lotion just makes me want to wash my hands all over again. I also recommend something lightly scented, I do not recommend the Bath and Body Works soap I have pictured (it is all I currently have to take a picture of). I find the BBW soap a little too strongly scented to be using with the baby, if I find it strong I imagine it is worse for baby.

Mom Tips

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I have decided to share some things that I have learned and am learning about having a new baby. Things that have surprised me, things I didn’t even think about when I was pregnant. These posts will be titled ‘Mom Tip #’ - they will appear in no particular order, I will just be blogging about them as I think of them. I hope that some of these tips will help other new moms or soon to be moms out there.

Skinfix Diaper Rash Paste Review

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I originally received a small container of this cream in the V.I.B box from Shoppers Drug Mart. You can sign up for the Shoppers V.I.B program here.

Skinfix Diaper Rash Paste
Skinfix Diaper Rash Paste

I liked the sample enough that I went out and bought the cream as soon as my sample ran out. It is a bit on the expensive size, I paid $15 for the 112g jar. I really love the feel of the cream and it has a really nice light scent and washes off my fingers easily. I find some of the other diaper creams (especially Desitin) hard to wash off and they leave behind a (not so nice) smell.

Baby has only had a small rash so far but the cream seemed to help quickly and I have been using it on an almost daily basis to help keep his bum clear.

I do find that the Skinfix Diaper Rash Paste does absorbs more then other creams so I prefer to use a thicker cream (like Desitin) at night.

My biggest complaint is that the cream is hard to find. Even though it came as a sample from Shoppers Drug Mart only 1 of our 3 carry it and of course it is the one I hardly ever go to. I like the Skinfix Diaper Rash Paste enough that I would make a special trip there to buy it again. Skinfix does have an awesome store finder on their website - it lists what stores carry their products but you can also search by your postal code to see the exact stores. You can buy it on Amazon (affiliate link).

Ingredients: Allantoin, aloe barbodenis leaf juice, myroxylon balsumum, cera alba (beeswax), styrax benzoin resin extract (benzoin), ethanol, paraffin, petrolatum white, butyrospermum parkii fruit (shea butter extract), glycine soja (soybean) oil, helianthus annuus (sunflower) oil, liquidambar orientalis (styrax), prunus amygdalis (sweet almond) oil, buxus chinensis (jojoba) oil, tocopheral (vitamin e), zinc oxide 20%.

Disclosure: I purchased the Skinfix Diaper Cream Paste myself and I was not compensated in any way for this review. All opinions are my own.

Time for a fresh blogging start

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This blog is about to see a change.

It probably won’t get a new look, at least not for a while. I am not going to delete old posts or change the name but I am going to change the topic. Hopefully now people will find my site for reasons other then burning their eyes with contact lens solution.

There are a couple reasons for this, the big one being that I am no longer couponing. I haven’t been for a while. A long while. I gave up on it - I was sick of shelves being cleared and the amount of time I felt like I was wasting looking for coupons (that were gone or didn’t exist) and deals simply to buy more shampoo or deodorant when I already had 10 bottles of each. How much shampoo and deodorant does one need? The answer is not that much because I am *still* using up all the stuff I bought and I really didn’t buy that much. Recently I have been thinking I would like to start couponing again but I just don’t have the time or energy because of the baby.

Oh did I mention I had a baby? Well I did. In April. That is actually the real reason for changing this blog around. I am going to start blogging about baby things and writing reviews on all the different things I purchase.

Before I get started let me say this. You won’t find any baby pictures on this site. I don’t believe in posting my baby on the Internet for the whole word to see. If you want to look at cute baby pictures search Google images.

Having a baby doesn’t mean I am not deal shopping. I have managed to score some awesome deals on baby products. I am just not driving all over town collecting coupons to buy 10 bags of (crappy) toilet paper because it is only $0.99.

I am also no longer subscribed to any beauty boxes. I actually had my Topbox subscription until just recently, I loved it but after having it for two years I have a huge collection of samples I haven’t even used yet.

I imagine I will mostly be blogging about baby stuff but don’t be surprised if you see me blog about something else.

Glymm 2012 Holiday Stocking Stuffer Bag

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I know it has been months since I last blogged. But it is a new year and I am trying to get back into the habit. I thought I would start by blogging about the Glymm Holiday Stocking Stuffer Bag I received.

I had some Glymm points to spend and this looked pretty good, especially since it included a $40 gift card. I figure I had nothing to lose and I was right - my bag was full of fun samples. It would have been nice if it had of included some more makeup or nail polish or something but it was still great. I was really happy to see the Burt’s Bees Tinted Lip Balm and Naked Princess Naked Shine Luscious Lip Glosses - I love lip gloss!

Glymm 2012 Holiday Stocking Stuffer Bag

Gold Glymm Accessories/Cosmetic Bag
$40 Glymm Gift Card
Lash Card (2 cards)
Burt’s Bees Tinted Lip Balm in Rose (full size)
Naked Princess Naked Shine Luscious Lip Gloss (4 - 0.25 g each)
Joico K-Pak Revitaluxe Bio-Advanced Restorative Treatment (50 ml)
Villainess Dulces en Fuego Whipped! Body Cream (5 g)
Caudalie Gentle Conditioning Shampoo (30 ml)
Caudalie Cleansing Water (30 ml)
Clark’s Botanicals Soothing Marine Cream
Clark’s Botanicals Intense Radiance Mask
Cyberderm H20 Hydration (5 ml)
Cyberderm PM Anti-Age (5 ml)

I haven’t tried anything from the bag yet. Another one of my resolutions for 2013 is to try and use up some of my samples!

glymm stocking stuffer gold bag

This fun little gold bag had made me think about subscribing to Glymm again but I am not sold yet as their website is still FULL of technical problems. Sad to see they haven’t fix these in the last 6 months. I am still receiving Topbox but I cancelled my Glossybox. Glossybox was my favourtie but when they recently raised the price to $21 a month I could no longer justify it. I can buy a lot of stuff I want for $252 a year.

This was a really fun little Christmas gift to myself and a good way for Glymm to use up all their extra samples from the year. I hope to see more of these in the future.

If you are looking to sign up to Glymm here is my referral link - you get 100 points for signing up with it (worth $10 in their store.)

FREE Fibre 1 day!

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It is also free Nature Valley day but I choose the NEW Fibre 1 100 calories Chocolate, Caramel & Pretzel bars because well I love chocolate, caramel and pretzels! All three of my favourite things mixed together in a delicious 100 calorie bar. Well I hope they are delicious.

FREE Fibre 1 day!
Paid: $0.00 - Saved: $9.87 - 100% Savings

While getting my free Fibre 1 bars I thought I would check out the clearance section. I found a bottle of Visine for $1.39 of course I didn’t have my $2.00 off coupon with me but I figured that price was pretty good so I grabbed it anyway. When I went to pay it rang it at $2.80 so I was able to SCOP it. SCORE! I still got free Visine even though I didn’t have my coupon.

Hope everyone to remember to use their free Fibre 1/Nature Valley coupons today!