PEVA (Non-Toxic) Mildew Resistant Shower Curtain Liner: Review

I was sent a PEVA Shower Curtain Liner to review, which is great because my husband's bathroom needed a new shower curtain. First a little back story. Our home is almost 100 years old and a Bungalow slightly in the country. It was built a bit haphazardly and over the years had various remodels and repairs from buyers. It seems everyone who bought it were young couples or young families with modest means and so the updates were modest, and cheap, and sometimes a bit strange (loose ends and awkward craftsmanship). Our master bedroom is really a normal sized bedroom downstairs with a tiny bathroom attached to it. That bathroom my husband showers in as the shower is only a stand up stall and the stall is economy sized. I am not sure why it is so tiny, but I never can fit all my oils, and shower fancies in it with there being only two small shelves that are about 3 inches each and the elbow space is minimal. The toilet is about 1 foot from the shower and the tiny bathroom is L shaped. So that is my husband's bathroom mainly.  My bathroom is the only other bathroom which is really the main bathroom for guests that is next to the kitchen, across from the laundry room, which is somewhat close to the "master" bedroom. Our home is about 1700 square feet.

Anyway, back to the shower curtain. I had the opportunity to review a shower curtain which I was happy about as his shower curtain was almost 4 years old and in need of an update. I was able to choose a frosty cream colored one or clear. Just for kicks and because I never would buy a clear on on my own, I requested a clear one. It is see through. It makes me laugh. It is a clear vinyl, reinforced with metal grommets, magnetic weights and is said to be mildew and mold resistant, and odor free. The size is 72" x72." His shower is barely 28 inches wide, and leaning closer to 27 1/2 inches. I was surprised that the shower curtain fit as well as it does. There is obviously excess at the edges, but it fits fine. We have only tested this for about a month, however it is still clear (not fogged or water stained) and looks to be staying clean. It is suggested to wipe it down frequently, however since we have a handheld shower nozzle, I can rinse it that way when cleaning. It seems sturdy and although it is not the best shower curtain I have seen, it functions quite well and looks like it will hold up. I like that it is PVC-free, and uses rust-proof metal grommets, and it claims to be mildew and mold resistant. I am hoping that is the case as our bathroom vent and fan system does not always dry up the excess moisture in the bathroom. It has encased magnets, however since our shower is a plastic resign like mold, the magnets do not do much for keeping the liner against the wall. The nice thing about the stall being smaller and the curtain wide, is that we do not have cool air come in the shower. The company has a 100% satisfaction guarantee which is nice. This is currently working well for his stall and he likes it.

This PEVA Shower Curtain Liner is available on Amazon.

*The company sent one liner for my review.  All opinions are my own.

Organic & 100% Natural Seaweed Powder by Insta Natural Review

I was recently sent some seaweed powder to review from InstaNatural . I had very little clue on what to do with it as I was at first thinking it was intended for smoothies. Luckily I did not taste it as I am not sure this particular powder was intended for consumption. I decided to use it for face masks since I love the at home spa treatments I concoct. I knew that seaweed has lots of vitamins and minerals and figured it would be fantastic for skin.

Seaweed Kelp Powder is an excellent way to beautify skin while enjoying a pocketbook friendly, yet luxurious, spa treatment at home. The vitamins and minerals provide nourishment for skin and detox and tone, while relieving aches and pains.

High end spas use seaweed and seaweed powder for for body wrap treatments to reduce the appearance of cellulite and create a slimming effect. This powder absorbs excess water and can detoxify the skin, making skin and body appear more toned, tightened and firmer. I have not used it for toning, but I like it as a facial mask. I have mixed it with essential oils, rosewater, and bentonite clay to create a skin detoxing, skin healing, and skin clearing mask.

Ingredients in the Seaweed Powder:
Certified Organic, 100% Natural & Kosher Certified Seaweed Powder (Ascophyllum nodosum)

Ingredients in the Seaweed Bentonite Clay Mask:

I made a mask that was enough for 1-2 people (husband and wife or 2 friends/sisters) to use a couple times. You can make this amount and store it in the fridge in a seal-able food container for a week or two or make just enough for one treatment.

I used a plastic spoon and bowl (VERY important for the bentonite clay as you don't want it to draw out metals)and put 2 tablespoons each of Bentonite clay and Seaweed powder, 8 of the small cap-fulls of rose water, about 5 drops each of lemon essential oil, lavender essential oil, and manuka essential oil, and some filtered water (just slowly added until it was a smooth whipped cream consistency). I applied this to my face and left on for about 20 minutes. I rinsed and then applied my Vitamin C and Hyaluronic Acid serums and antt-wrinkle cream. I think I will do this 1-3 times per month. I did not have any irritation or dryness. My skin felt cleaner. I like this seaweed powder a lot, and as you can see from my comparison picture of another seaweed powder I was sent from another company to try, this Insta Natural brand is CRAZY generous in size. It is enough for me to do some body wraps too if I feel like it. :) I have yet to be dissapointed with Insta Natural, they always seem to WOW me.

This was sent to me free from the company, all opinions are my own.

You can connect with the company on Facebook and on Twitter to learn  of upcoming sales and new products.

Please follow me on Facebook for updates to this blog, reviews, and giveaways. You can also find me on bloglovin , Twitter, and on Instagram.

LAVO Facial Cleansing Oil: Makeup Remover: Reviewed

I always clean my face with oil and mix up a batch of oil in my hand before putting it on my face and massaging in.  It really does not take much thought or effort but I do need to gather my oils and then put a few quirts of each into my palm.  I was recently sent a bottle of an oil mixture from on of my favorite skincare (mask) companies.  The oil is actually a mixture of some of the oils I use so having them together in a easily portable bottle is nice.

Lavo Cleansing Oil comes in a bottle with a easy dispensing squirt top.  It  deep cleans, yet gently massages away makeup.  I wear waterproof black winged, cat eyeliner and the blackest mascara.  This oil removes all traces of waterproof mascara, my foundation, BB cream, mineral powder,and my bright fuchsia or red lipstick.  I have used it as my oil cleanse sometimes when traveling as it is more conveineint than brings 3 or 4 bottles of oil and the lid and squirt top make it easy to use.  I actually packed it for a 3 day weekend trip when we had to stay somewhere recently due to our water pipes freezing a few weeks ago.  The bottle did not leak and the oil worked so nicely.  My husband forgot to pack his hair cream for his natural curls, and I had him use a few drops of this in his hair.  We both agreed that it works well to tame his frizz pron waves and curls, and yet made his curls soft and not greasy.  I had him to lightly apply it and it worked wonderfully. This oil can even be used to clean your makeup brushes according to the company.  I have yet to try that as I always use castile soap, but I bet this will work nicely as well since castile soap is oil based.  This oil is excellent for all skin types, whether it be normal, dry, oily, sensitive, or combination.  I have combination skin and this is fantastic for me.This is a very lightweight oil and feels nice.  It rinses cleanly and my face stays clear with frequent oil cleansing.  This bottle contains a blend of 5 top quality, organic oils. I love how this is manufactured in USA

Ingredients:
 
Organic Safflower Seed Oil, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride (From Coconut Oil), Organic Avocado Oil, Tocopherol (Vit.E), Organic Chamomile Oil, Organic Lavender Oil, Organic Rosemary Leaf Oil

Directions:
 
1) Pour a few drops of oil onto palm  and massage onto dry skin for 60 seconds. Massage oil into face and eye area, taking care to be gentle around the delicate eyelids and under eye area.

2) After oil is fully applied, add warm water to your face and massage for an additional 60 seconds. Oil will instantly emulsify into a milky cleanser. 

3) Rinse off oil thoroughly with cool water to close pores.

4) Pat dry face, then I apply a witch hazel toner, Vitamin C and Hyaluronic acid serum,and Retinal Moisturizer or Anti wrinkle cream

I have been using this oil almost every day, and am loving it.  You can see from the picture that it is on my list of favorite items I have tried recently.  I will be getting more when this runs out.  I would have liked this to come in a larger bottle size, as since I use this almost daily, it will not last me long. 

You can connect with Lavo on Facebook to be the first to hear about new products and upcoming sales. 

Please follow me on Facebook for updates to this blog, reviews, and giveaways. You can also find me on bloglovin , Twitter, and on Instagram.

I received a sample bottle of the Lavo Cleansing oil for review.

Painting with LuLu Crayon Stylus and Coloring App Reviewed

Our daughter is almost 4 and has not really used our ipad 2 at all except for watching a few PBS cartoons on long 3 hour plus car trips.  Luckily she does not have much interest in digital toys and electronics, but I know a lot of little kids like playing on ipads, tablets, and phones.  Often they will need a stylus to use if they are using the tablet for a game or app.  Many stylus's are difficult for little hands to hold or are not real safe for a child to use in a moving vehicle (I know I worry about poked eyes or poked siblings.)  I was sent a special stylus that looks almost like a real crayon and is rubber.  It is small and thick, allowing easy and comfortable grasp of little fingers and hands.  It allows children to color on digital pages and use touch screens with ease. 

The Painting Lulu Digital Crayon stylus comes in different colors and is compatible with iPad, iPhone, Kindle Fire, Galaxy and many more.  I was sent a stylus in the orange color.  The Painting Lulu Digital Crayon can be also used with the Painting Lulu coloring app (available to download on Google Play) for Android, Apple and Amazon devices.

Scan the code located on the front of the stylus package using any QR scanner app.  The Painting Lulu coloring app will then be loaded on your device.   This is a neat app that offers coloring pages, painting tools and much more.  There are 5 coloring books to choose from.  Your child can color a picture, then can erase it and start all over again.  Saving the picture is easy, and you can email it to yourself or a family member.  This would be a great way to color a picture for someones birthday as a ecard.  It is also possible to upload your own coloring book pages, which I think is quite nice.  My daughter loves coloring, and I do not want to use this all the time, but for a long car trip this is great as only one "crayon" is needed to provide color, which means less chance of dropping certain colors in the car while driving or having to be able to hold several crayons in the car while she sits in her booster car seat. 

I personally won't have her use this at home as we like using real crayons and coloring sheets.  The child's experience of using crayons, smelling the familiar crayon scent, getting the little waxy crayon bits on the table (the crumbs) and selecting colors is magical for a child and I would not want to take that away from my daughter.  This crayon stylus is a wonderful idea and it is useful.  I just personally want to let her enjoy real crayons right now for the most part.  Maybe we are old fashioned, but both her and I like crayons.

The stylus is cute and great for travel.  We will use it for long car trips if she gets bored with car games.  I also think keeping it in my diaper bag might be helpful in case we are somewhere like a doctors office where we have to wait and it is taking much longer than expected, she can "color" on my phone.  Now to be honest, she currently is at the age where she is happy looking at the giant fish tank at our pediatricians office, and would be happy with looking at it for an hour or more most likely.  This crayon stylus is nice to have on hand, but won't be used as often as her real crayons.  It functions great, and the coloring app is fun for her.  I just prefer her to use real crayons when possible.

This was sent to me for review, all opinions are my own.

You can connect with the company on Facebook.


Please follow me on Facebook for updates to this blog, reviews, and giveaways. You can also find me on bloglovin , Twitter, and on Instagram.

Pure Body Naturals Pure Luxe: 100% Pure Peppermint Oil

I recently was sent some pure peppermint oil from Pure Body Naturals.   This came with a dropper for ease of use, and is housed in a dark amber glass bottle.  The size of this bottle is generous, at 4 ounces! I have used this peppermint oil for many uses.

Peppermint Oil is known to relieve headaches, which is how I use if quite frequently. I mix a little peppermint oil with some jojoba oil (carrier oil) and dab some along my temples and hair line with a cotton ball. It also helps ease respiratory and cold symptoms, so I add it with Eucalyptus, Lemon or Lavender essential oil, and put it in our diffuser. The scent is very calming and helpful for aromatherapy. You can make a homemade chest rub using peppermint oil and other natural ingredients. I do not use the store brands or the well known vapor rub brand as it is laden with harmful chemicals, contain petrolatum, parabens, diazolidinyl urea (a formaldehyde releasing chemical)PEG-100 Stearate, and other nasty ingredients.

3 tablespoon cocoa butter or shea butter (I have both, so I use about equal amounts of each)
6 tablespoons coconut oil
50+ drops of high quality essential oil(s) (I have used various combinations)

I usually like to use a combination of Lemon oil (Stimulates immune function, aromatherapy / smells cheery and uplifts mood), Peppermint oil (Helps to open nasal passages, cooling to skin), Chamomile (calming, and sometimes sleep inducing for the cranky and sleepless patient), and Lavender oil(antihistamine, aromatherapy, antiseptic and antimicrobial). I sometimes make a separate batch that is a bit stronger than the previous mixture. The other recipe has Tea Tree oil (antimicrobial, expectorant and antiseptic), Peppermint, Lavender, Eucalyptus (antiseptic, antiviral, and decongestant). Some people like to melt beeswax pellets into the buter base, but I never have that on hand and I worry about potential staining, so I leave it out. The beeswax does help the mixture be more solid.

I have used peppermint oil for joint, muscle, and arthritis pain. I actually had some sort of Charley horse or bad pain in my upper right leg and thigh a few weeks back and rubbed the oil on my leg. I also ate a banana (helps with cramps and contains potassium) and took some Glucosamine and MSM vitamins.

We live in the country and have used peppermint oil as an effective repellant for insects and spiders. We also clean our counters with it. We mix Lavender, Peppermint, Tea Tree, and Eucalyptus oil with water and put in a spray bottle. We have not used traditional cleaners for almost 2 years.

I like this peppermint oil , it works like others I have tried and the bottle is generous in size. I recommend it if you are looking for a nice brand.  It is available on Amazon. I was sent a sample bottle for purpose of this review, however all opinions are honest and my own.


Connect with the company on Facebook to stay up to date on new products and upcoming sales.   

Please follow me on Facebook for updates to this blog, reviews, and giveaways. You can also find me on bloglovin , Twitter, and on Instagram.

Ezy Chef Milk Frother: Reviewed

I was sent another milk frother to review and it is a nice one.  I use a milk frother almost every day for a variety of tasks.  I find that it scrambles eggs really easily and I use my milk frother as an immersion blender frequently.  The brand I have been using recently is from Ezy Chef.  It is a stainless steel frother with a large ergonomic handle.   It has 2 speed buttons which makes it easy to use without having to keep pressing the power button during operation.  This little frother takes 2 AA batteries (which are sadly not included) and has a nice bit of power and is not overly noisy.  I had really would have liked the batteries to be included as we never seem to have batteries on hand when we need them.  Even though we have small children and you would think we would always have batteries, the majority of our toys that we get for them are non electronic as we like them to use their own imagination instead of use flashing light or song toys. Having to buy batteries to get this working was a slight inconvenience.  We seem to have 20 or more AAA but the AA are always scarce.  But we do like this frother.  To change batteries, slide the black door to the side (housed on the bottom of the unit inside the handle).

I fix a lot of my frothy drinks at night when it is midnight or later so it is important to me to have this be quiet in operation since the bedroom is across from our kitchen.  This frother gets used for lattes, hot chocolate, coffee, green matcha lattes, and many more beverage treats.  I have even used it to add froth to my already blended smoothies.  To clean this, I just rinse really well under the hot water of our sink.  It is important to take care in keeping the handle dry.  Never immerse the handle in water or put the unit in the dishwasher as it will damage the unit.

It has an incredible amount of power for a small unit.  I do like this a lot.  The only 2 things I would want to improve is the placement of the button, to be closer to the top to make it easier to use, and for the battery compartment to be easier to put back on.

I have 2 frothers currently, the Easy Chef is the heaviest, but froths the best.  It is not the most comfortable to hold and operate.  My other frother has a nice button on top, and is easier to use, but it does not make as much froth.

*Sample Ezy Chef Frother sent for review, all opinions are my own.