Ispy Spring Fling May box

Ipsy is another monthly beauty subscription that I decided to try.  Every month, you'll receive a beautiful Glam Bag with deluxe samples and full-sized beauty products. Getting a different makeup bag every month seems to be popular with subscribers, but I'm not sure what I'm going to do with all these different bags as I'm happy with the one I already carry in my purse. It's only $10 a month, so overall I think it's a good deal.

Was going to cancel Ipsy as I went a little overboard and subscribed to too many beauty boxes, then they send me this. My favorite bag ever! Well played, Ipsy. Well played.

Have heard nothing but rave reviews about Zoya nail polish, so was excited when I found out they were including a bottle in this month's bag! Was hoping for purple, and that's what I got! I'm a sucker for purple nail polish, and absolutely love this shade!

The makeup boards were all atwitter about Pacifica products being included in this month's bag as well. I'm not familiar with Pacifica, but was pleased when I pulled this perfume out of the bag. I love perfume, but haven't been getting any in my boxes. And it's vanilla, which I love! So happy it wasn't one of the other scents, as I don't really like flowery perfumes. 

I was hoping for a lipstick this month, but received lip gloss instead. I'm not big on lip gloss, but like this color so will probably use it during the summer. I received Fig, which is the color I like best from this month's selection. So yea for the color and meh for lip gloss.

Another Pacifica product: Coconut Crushed Pearl body butter. Love the smell of this one! And out of all the scents I've seen, so glad this is the one I received! Love the smell, and I keep sniffing my hand. DH thinks I'm nuts, but we knew that already so no big deal. 

This is the only product that I'm not thrilled with, but I don't normally use concealer so it's no big deal. Yaby concealer in Pecan, which is a little too dark for me. It's a tiny sample, so I don't know that I would use it even if it was the correct shade.

Really love my bag this month, so have decided not to cancel my subscription. I even like the makeup bag, as it's colorful and fun! Now I just have to figure out what I'm going to do with it!

Do you have an Ipsy subscription? What did you think of your bag this month? I've read several reviews that aren't happy, but I think Ipsy nailed it this month!

*post includes referral links

Love With Food - May Box

Love With Food* is a monthly subscription service which delivers gourmet foods directly to your home, some sample sized and some full sized. A nice plus is that for every order, they donate a meal to a hungry child! How great is that? You get to try great new foods, and help feed the hungry to boot!

First look! The info card is for Mother's Day and has a cute picture of a mom with her two children in bed. Guess they gave her a Love With Food box for Mother's Day!

My goodies!

Tomato crunch from Snapz Crisps and Pumpkin Crunch snacks from Mrs. May's. I don't care for tomatoes, so will be giving them to DH to try, but I do like the sound of the pumpkin snack!

Caffe Borsa single serve hand-dripped coffee and a vegan sweet potato wellness cookie. Pass and pass, as I don't drink coffee and don't like sweet potatoes.

Almond biscotti from Biscotti Bari and strawberry preserves from Bonne Maman. Not a coffee drinker so have never tried biscotti, but maybe I'll try it with some hot chocolate or tea? I've gotten the preserves before and while good, I couldn't tell the difference between this and other brands.

Latte Candy from Bali's Best and original cajun seasoning from Slap You Mama. Pass and pass, as I don't like anything coffee flavored or spicy.

I actually liked last month's box better, as this month had too many items I won't even try. While it's always good to try new things, I know I don't like tomatoes, coffee, or cajun spices. Decided to cancel this one and keep Goodies for now. But will probably resubscribe if they ever have another awesome curator like Andrew Zimmern! Did you get May's box? What did you think?

*affiliate link

My Birthday!

Yesterday was my birthday and we had a great time celebrating!

DH gave me a really nice card with a bag of Twizzlers, my favorite! Inside the card was a handmade coupon, redeemable for a cat. I love cats but he's not a fan, so this was really sweet of him!

Received a gorgeous bouquet of daisies from my parents. My favorite flower!

Chocolate cake with chocolate icing. Another favorite! This was dinner. Well, DH made us a salad first, but cake for the main course and Twizzlers for dessert! Yea birthdays! 

DH always manages to find awesome gifts for me! I'm a t-shirts and jeans girl, so love my new shirt! Too many books? There's no such thing. The man knows me well! And check out my new clock! Time to read! 

Had a wonderful day and received lots of birthday wishes from all over the world. Love my blogging buddies and Facebook friends! 

Color Me Monthly - April

Color Me Monthly is a subscription service where you receive a bottle of nail polish every month, delivered straight to your door. The color is a surprise, but will be in-season and in-style. I love nail polish, so couldn't resist signing up for this one! 

The polish came in a plain brown box. I liked how they wrote that you shouldn't have to pay for fancy shipping on the inside of the box cover. I do enjoy the extra package touches like pretty tissue paper and ribbon, but don't want to have to pay for them.

Clear Skies Ahead

April's color is Clear Skies Ahead, a pretty sky blue for Spring. The polish was in a small plastic bag, which makes sense as you don't want polish all over everything in case the bottle somehow breaks. It was pretty well cushioned in the box, but better safe than sorry!

I received a bottle of top coat in the box as well as the regular polish. When I hadn't received my box by the second week of the month, I emailed them to see if there was a problem (their FAQs said boxes go out the first week of the month). Received a prompt reply that there was an unexpected delay at the lab, but the shipments should go out soon. She was nice enough to throw in the top coat for the inconvenience.

please ignore the sloppy manicure

The first coat went on thin and streaky, but I got better coverage with the second coat. I really don't like having to use three or more coats, so tend to stop after two. While not normally a fan of blue polish, this is a fun Spring shade that grew on me. 

Ultimately, I decided that this subscription box wasn't for me. While the polish was okay, I didn't like that there was no email about the original delay. I was also expecting a shipping email, but the only communication I received was in response to my email. I understand that they don't use tracking to try and keep costs down, but a simple email to say the polish is on it's way would be nice! I'm going to stick with Julep to feed my nail polish habit for now. 

Anyone know of any other nail polish subscription services out there? Are you a Color Me Monthly subscriber? What do you think of their polish? How about their lack of communication? Am I being too harsh, or reasonable about wanting a simple Heads Up email? I think that Wantable has spoiled me!

*links for Julep and Wantable are referral links, which give me rewards if you sign up for a box. I appreciate any and all referrals!* 

Love With Food - April Box

Love With Food is a monthly subscription service which delivers gourmet foods directly to your home, some samples and some full sized. A nice plus is that for every order, they donate a meal to a hungry child! How great is that? You get to try great new foods, and help feed the hungry to boot!

info card

I really like their info cards, as they don't bore you with too much information. Just tell me what the product is and I'm good to go!

first look

April's goodies

Aprils's goodies:

• Mini Pops sorgham grain - a healthier alternative to regular popcorn, no one in my family cared for these and we threw the remainder out. 
• The Good Bean Smoky Chili & Lime Chickpea snacks - another healthy snack that we didn't care for. We're not big on chickpeas, so that might have been why.
• Original & Sea Salt cocomels from JJ's Sweets - really enjoyed the coconut milk caramel candy! Finally, something we liked!
• Creamy Buffalo Ranch Dip from Buff Lo Dip - a nice blend of buffalo wing sauce with creamy ranch dip, I used the entire jar as a carrot dip! Yummy!
• Somersalt Snacks Salty Pepper Nuggets - While I like the idea of nuggets of sunflower seeds, this was a little too peppery for our taste.
• Organic Fennel Pollen sample from Pollen Ranch - couldn't get past the smell, so never even tried this one.
• Lemony Lover Olives from Oloves - love olives, and really enjoyed the lemony garlic flavor of this snack! I put them in a bowl in the fridge and snacked on a few at a time. Might buy this one!

Even though there were a few items we didn't care for, I still think we received our money's worth as we were introduced to new foods we might never have tried otherwise! If you're interested in giving Love With Food a try, the embedded links use my referral code. Please let me know what you think!