It's A Haul Y'all! - Lush-o-ween

Hey There!

I went to Lush for Lush-o-ween! I was excited because I love indulging in the bath products that they have. I'm a bath girl so I really enjoy bath bombs and bubble bars and bubblers. The new Halloween Lushes came out on October 3 (in some places before that date). I try to high tail it into Lush when new collections come out. Halloween was no exception.

I made it out of the store $42 poorer. Or, 5 Lush-ious products richer. You decide. Whichever descriptor you decide on, I ain't mad at it!

The first thing I picked up isn't a Halloween item. It's their Bubble Gum Lip Scrub ($9.95). The kiddo and I split one of these between us. I love using this scrub. It smells good and tastes good and exfoliates your lips gently. I only use the scrub about once every two weeks. I find that more than that is too harsh. I exfoliate and then slather with aquaphor. Ta-da! Smooth, sexy lips.

The Sparkly Pumpkin ($7.95) is the prettiest, sparkliest, orange pumpkin I've ever owned. And it's a bubble bar. And it's supposed to turn your bath water into a gold, glittering pool of energized joy. I wonder how I'm gonna clean that outta the tub.

The Lord of Misrule Bath Bomb ($6.95) is a green ball of herbal fizz. One word - Patchouli. I wasn't sure what Patchouli was until I started spending time (and money) in Lush. Now every time I walk in, I leave with something with Patchouli as an ingredient. It smells fantastic and because this is a bath bomb, it's a green, fizzy foam and it's fun and refreshing.

Yuzu and Cocoa ($7.95) smelled like orange chocolate. It's sweet and is supposed to make frothy bubbles. It's a bath melt (similar to the bubble bar). I am excited to use this because it reminds me of Terry's Milk Chocolate. I love Terry's Milk Chocolate.

Avobath ($6.45) is a lemongrass bubble bar. I love the smell of lemongrass. It's such a fresh scent. It reminds me of clean and fresh mornings. Now the shimmery water, again, how am I going to clean the tub?

No one thinks about cleaning the tub when they use Lush products. The only thing they think about is how wonderful a soak in the tub is going to feel and how fragrant the bathroom is going to smell.

Did you pick up the Lush-o-ween products? Have you used them yet? What did you think about them?

It's A Haul Y'all! - Trader Joe's

Hey there!!

I have been enjoying my new place and I have been loving all of the grocery stores that are near me. There is your standard (in Georgia anyway) Publix, Kroger and Ingle's but I have an international farmers market near me, several smaller farmers markets from different countries, a Whole Foods, Green Sprout, Earth Fare and a Trader Joe's. I've been taking advantage of all of the great grocery stores.

For sure I've been taking advantage of Trader Joe's.

Trader Joe's is one of those grocery stores that works for me. I try to eat natural, organic, healthy foods (TRY! I said try! Don't judge). I also know that I don't have to read between the lines on food packages. They have Vegan, Vegetarian, Gluten Free etc., labeling that is very easy to decipher.

So this past rainy Saturday morning I trekked to the Trader Joe's and "made some groceries". I was actually just purchasing some bonus items. I go to the grocery store once every two weeks and in between I pick up a few extra things.

The kiddo and I like bagels in general. Trader Joe's is big into seasonal foods. They are a pumpkin wonderland right now. These TJ's (Trader Joe's) pumpkin bagels were awesome. It was just the right amount of spices for slathering with cream cheese. I've had them and it's a thumbs up. The kiddo hasn't tried them yet but I bet she gives them a thumbs up too.

I've heard great things about the TJ's Harvest Blend Herbal Tea. I like herbal teas because they are usually great right before bedtime. I like to cuddle up with some tea and a good book right before bed. This tea is good but strong. If you use a Keurig, go for 2 hits of the 8 oz button. It's a warm, spicy drink with hints of apple and cinnamon. At $1.99 it's a must have. 

The Mini Ginger Pumpkin Ice Cream Mouthfuls are really good. They are drops of decent pumpkin ice cream sandwiched between a spicy, ginger cookies. They are, in fact, the spiciest ginger cookies I have EVER tasted. They are almost too spicy. They are also pretty soggy. Not sure if that was just the box that I picked up or not but it was a tad bit messy...but good. 

Salad is salad when it comes to regular lettuce leaves. I picked up this regular bag of salad to mix with the Dole Barbecue Ranch Crunch that I have been LOVING! It is the best salad ever. I'm late to the party but so glad I showed up!

I always keep taco seasoning in the cabinet. I get the low sodium one. I noticed that the Trader Joe's brand has about the same sodium content as the low sodium pack of the regular brand. Score! I'll let you know if it's just as good.

I thought I'd try the Penne Pepper & Pasta and the Ricotta & Spinach filled Ravioli with tomato basil sauce. The kiddo and I like quick and easy meals. I'm tired after work and just generally feel lazy in the evenings. I hope these two meals will help me continue my laziness. I see using spicy "soy"sage in the ziti and trying the ravioli by itself (or maybe with spicy "soy"sage too. 

In case you missed it when I threw it, I'm a pescetarian. I only eat seafood and meat substitutes. That's why I'm super concerned with food ingredients.

I really enjoy shopping at Trader Joe's. I might do a two week period of only shopping at each of the grocery stores near me and see if it's cheaper, better, different or what. I normally hop from store to store but only going to one store, exclusively, sounds fun...restricting but fun.

I'll let you know how that turns out!

Empties!

Hey there!

I have really been working on finishing up my bath products. I had waaaaay too many and I felt guilty buying more. I have a 4 shelf standing rack for my bath items and when I was packing to move, it really hit me like a ton of bricks that that bugger was over flowing with shower gels and bubble baths. It was a problem. Now I am down to a third of what I owned. Now I can buy more but very slowly.

I used up a Suave Naturals in Tropical Coconut. I love the Suave Naturals shower gels. They are moisturizing and they lather very well. This particular scent was light and very nice. I would certainly purchase it again.

I found a Philosophy Fresh Peaches with Cream shampoo, shower gel and bubble bath at either T.J. Maxx or Marshalls. This smelled sooo good. Most of the Philosophy shampoo, shower gel and bubble baths smell good. This one certainly was fresh but even discounted, they are kinda pricey. Not sure that I'm going to purchase another one unless it's discounted on top of a discount.

The empty tube is a Lancôme freebie that I received almost a year ago in a gift with purchase pack. I almost didn't like it because it reminded me of a manly scent, which is fine but not on me. I used it because I didn't want to waste it but I'd never purchase the full size.

There is a Bath & Body Works shower gel in Honeycrisp Apple & Buttered Rum. Yummmmmy! It smelled delicious. I enjoyed wearing it.

The Naturally For You Bubble Bath in Milk and Honey came in a holiday set. It smelled nice but it didn't lather at all. I ended up just using it as bubble bath so that I could use it up. Don't buy this. It's not good.

And now onto the regular stuff. There's some Crest toothpaste (I float between Crest and Colgate), a razor to keep my eyebrows tame and some Pure & Gentle Make-up Remover Wipes. I've been liking these and using them along with my holy grail Wet n Wild makeup wipes.

I finished a base coat and top coat in my nail polish routine. No, neither bottle is empty but if you know nail polish, you know that base and top coats tend to get goopy before they run out. Yes, there are drops that you can use to extend the life but I don't find that they work well, and my Sally Hansen Insta-dri (that red bottle and the top coat love of my life) is only $5 or $6 so if you get $2.50 or $3 out of it, that's ok. I use one every six or so months so that's not a bad deal, all things considered.

That said, Sally Hansen Insta-dri is my holy grail. I will always repurchase. The Nail Envy by OPI was not worth it (review here). I didn't see that it did anything special and there are many base coats that are cheaper and do the exact same thing. It wasn't worth it to me. And the EOS in watermelon isn't used up, it just went rancid. It's fine but not amazing. I prefer the REVO brand better and that's only if I have to pick up one at all. They are odd shaped so they don't easily fit into your purse. That being said, they are ok. REVO is more moisturizing but not that much cheaper that EOS. Not sure that I'd repurchase.

And here you see 4 different body butters that I had every intention of using and didn't. I just fail when it comes to moisturization. I should do better but I don't. That's why I tossing almost full containers of body butter. Shame on me, I know.

This NSpa Super Fruity Cranberry Rich Body Butter came in a holiday pack. It smelled fine but it was closer to lotion than body butter. The Village Naturals Aromatherapy Energize body butter smelled really nice. I liked it but it was just a tiny tad bit too thick and a tiny tad bit too oily. The Tree Hut Shea Body Butter in Tropical Mango smelled fantastic and had the perfect moisturization factor. I enjoyed using it, the times that I remembered to use them. All of them are at least half full  and I've owned them long enough that they started to turn. That should tell me that I should have left all but one alone. This isn't something I need to have in bulk.

I also had to toss a Pomegranate Noir Body Scrub. This one didn't turn rancid or anything it just didn't smell that good. I expected a sweet pomegranate smell. Nahhh, it didn't smell that way. It was kinda stinky.

And that's my trash! I emptied fewer items this month (I think) but I'm still working on getting my stashes down. What are you empting this month?