B&BW new Bubble Bath gets a HUGE THUMBS DOWN!

I got an e-mail the other day advising Bath & Body Works had $3 wallflower fragrance bulbs which was a pretty awesome deal & so I wanted to go get some.  That plus they just released a new signature collection guaranteeing the world's best fragrance & so if you purchased $10, with a coupon you could get 1 signature item for free.  I already wanted to go to Sephora for my free birthday gift, as I had 1 day or so left to get it, so I had my boyfriend cart me to the mall.

I was so excited to see that they are transitioning their wallflowers & candles to their winter scents already.  So after about 1/2 hour of sniffing all the new candles the wallflower bulbs were picked out.  My boyfriend bought those & used a 20% off coupon, making them even less than $3!  WOO!  Plus we used another coupon to get a free mini Snow Day candle!  For my coupon I got a small Cranberry Woods candle at $10 exactly & then, when looking for my free signature item I got SUPER EXCITED to see they came out with a Pink Chiffon bubble bath!  Love the scent & I think I already have everything else in that scent that they make, so the bubble bath it was for my free item!

I get home & decide I want to use it right away.  The 1st thing I notice is that the consistency is very runny.  It is also clear, not shimmery, opaque, and thick like their old bubble baths.  I dissolve it into the running water & it bubbles up, then almost immediately the bubbles start dissipating.  By the time the bath was full almost all the bubbles were dissolved.

I looked at the bottle again because I could have sworn I bought the shower gel instead of the bubble bath.  Nope.  I got the right product, or so the bottle says.  The scent is fine, doesn't seem any stronger or better than their old products.  So I'm really not understanding what they are advertising with these being so new or better.  Scent is the same, lingers the same, overall product is much, much WORSE!  And so what if the look of the bottle changed.

Just to make sure, the next night I pulled out an OLD bottle of their Carried Away bubble bath & used that.  Just as I thought.  It was thicker, it bubbled up thicker & LASTED THE WHOLE BATH!

So, here is your WARNING!  DO NOT BUY THE NEW BUBBLE BATHS FROM B&BW!  They retail $14 compared to their shower gels only at $12.50 and both are 10 oz.  You will be wasting your money when you can get the same bath experience by just tossing in a cap of the shower gel instead.  Seriously!!!  Why pay more for a product when it doesn't provide what it's supposed to & there's something else that costs less, smells the same, and will give you the same results?  I also noticed their priced had increased.  Shower gels went up by $1.50 & the bubble baths increased by $2.  I'm thinking this may have been within the last year though I'm not really sure.

I am so glad I got this for free otherwise I would have taken it back.  Whatever they did they really need to go back to how they made their old bubble baths.  I hope they do.

Now onto other things...

September is usually the month in Western NY where you start to see dramatic fluxes in temperatures and you start to anticipate the arrival of fall.  Then comes October, the temperature drops, we have cold rains, air that smells of burning fireplaces, occasionally snow (that doesn't stick), & just the perfect autumn weather.  This year we've had a few of those days that make you say, "I love this time of year!"  Oddly enough, with the leaves changing and falling, we were hitting temperatures in the 70's and even 80's.  So it feels like a never ending Indian Summer.  Even through the next week the highs are being predicted in the high 60's & low 70's.  What our average temperature should be for October are highs around 59º & lows around 43º.  I feel like I'm back in Los Angeles.

Now that I'm off the prednisone I'm still waiting for that day that I start feeling normal again.  All my doctors kept saying to me was that I'll probably start getting the results I'm (they're) looking for once I'm off of it.  It's been only a week & I still don't feel any different.  I kind of wish right off the bat, before & after the surgery, they would have told me that this recovery could take a long time.  Instead, everyone kept saying 6 to 8 weeks.  So 6 to 8 weeks was drilled into me & my expectations of this were high.  Upon talking with others who have had a thyroidectomy, some advised it shouldn't be long before I felt better, and others have been suffering the awful side effects of hypothyroidism for years.  I don't want to be one of those people.  Still trying to find my normal after years of suffering.  I've already been suffering for years being incorrectly diagnosed & treated.

I haven't really been having night sweats anymore.  Yay!  Except they have kind of become more random throughout the day.  Boo.  Still having a hell of a time getting a full night's sleep.  My patterns are all messed up.  I'm exhausted & can't seem to sleep more than a few hours at a time, though I'm sleeping all the time.  Since the day after my birthday I've felt awful.  In pain, tired, cold, hot, diarrhea, acid reflux, nausea, sneezing.  I've pretty much been confined to my couch & this is the 1st time I've really sat at my computer desk for this long.  Though the couch & another nap are calling for me right now.  Also, randomly the skin on my fingertips, no where else, decided to peel.  I have no clue if this is associated in any way to my hypothyroidism, though it's not unheard of.  It doesn't hurt or anything, it's just annoying.

Looks worse than it actually is.

I'm almost wishing the temperatures would drop here so I know what to be expecting with my hypothyroidism & the cold.  I already have a hard enough time handling food in the freezer.  It feels like my fingers get instant frostbite when I touch frozen stuff, & no I do not attribute my peeling skin on my fingers to handling frozen food.  The other day I curled up under a blanket on the couch & just couldn't get warm.  I could have sworn the temp inside my home was in the low 50's & my furnace was broken so I got up to check the thermostat.  Heat on, inside temp & set to temp the same, 69º.  What the flip!?  Now, remember how I've complained before about how 71º was too cold for me.  Ugh.  I knock the temp up a degree & am able to get a few hours of sleep, wake up, then get another hour of sleep in.

I feel like crap.

MIA. What's new?

Let's see if I can make this post short & simple.  I seem to not be able to do that whenever I want to.  I like to elaborate, or go into details on things.

Where have I been?  What have I been up to?  October is a busy month with the 1st 1/2 full of birthday get together & celebrations.  Also I am still battling complications with my health.  So, I know I am not dying (yet) and it's nothing serious enough that they can pick up on any of their normal tests but it's bad enough to keep me out of work at times, from seeing friends & doing daily activities at times.  They can treat it, but we don't know the cause.  So, I am sick of being over medicated & am now going to see a pulmonologist at the end of the month because my doctors feel this is the next step.

2 of my major problems are asthma and migraines.  The mystery of the asthma is why is my allergist is always telling me that my breathing tests are coming back above normal, yet I feel like I still cannot breathe & I ended up in the hospital in August with symptoms that could have been either (a) a heart attack, (b) collapsed lung, (c) or a blood clot & it was none of those.  Something came up on the blood test that concerned them which made them do a CT scan but that came back clear also. So I was put on prednisone & lortabs then released.

Last weekend I started getting the same feeling in the left side of my chest that put me in the hospital in August.  Every now & then I can still feel it lingering & it has not progressed to the severity in which it had previously but I am being very careful about it.  I have upped my asthma steroid medication & keeping my activities at a slow pace.  Tried heating pad & epsom salt baths but because it's more internal those didn't work all that well.  This caused a doctor appointment on Monday, decision on the new specialist, fasting blood labs today which resulted in an awful migraine for most of the day.  Now I have a sore throat that's bugging me.  Unrelated.

Overall, I am doing better.  After work though I pretty much come home, sleep, wake up, get online & e-mail, try to work on mail or chores, have my bath, then fall asleep again until Chris comes home & we have dinner.  Then I fall asleep again.  So I have been very fatigued.  I am working on tapering off another medication so it may be a result of that.

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Another thing about me is that I work for GEICO in the customer service department.  I really love my job.  I love it when I can find people savings, when I make people happy, when I connect with people.  I have licenses in, I think, 8 states now. (I have a folder full of them!)  I mostly handle the New England states.  PLEASE do not ask me about car insurance on here!  This is not what this blog is for.  Call your local company.  I am sure they are great.  Or if you are insured with us call any of our agents & they will be happy to help.

So we do a lot of charitable things within the company for local & world wide organizations.  I recently donated to a local animal shelter through our company & now we are making up baskets for a raffle that will have the money donated to the United Way.  You can only imagine why I would be posting about it here!  Because it is going to be filled with bathing goodness!

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See?  I am already writing too much & I am very sleep, not feeling all too well, & must make a Betty trip to Rochester tomorrow to see Brown & Deenok for a meeting of the minds & to also celebrate the Libra's of our group.

So tonight's bath consisted of milk & honey bubble bath & Philosophy's Pink Cotton Confection, which reminds me exactly of Aquolina's Pink Sugar.  Philosophy is coming out with their winter items now.  I am getting excited looking at their site!

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Want to try Bath & Body Works new 2 oz. Be Enchanted lotion for FREE?  Print this coupon or show it on your phone in stores, or use code FBF114231 online.  Good only October 14-16, 2011.

New infestation. Columbus day big co. deals. Try something new.

So the victory roses I received had fungus flies in them.  Now the tea roses I have received have what are called spider mites!  I just cannot win with indoor roses!  I thought I just may have a little spider in the tea rose but I noticed tiny, VERY tiny white-ish insects milling around in the webbing, & so after some research, found out what I had.  So the roses have been secluded to the back porch for now.  I don't want to throw another plant away though so I did some reading & it seems that horticultural oils are the most effective at ridding them.  I have no clue where they came from as my father had this plant for a while w/no infestation & my other plants are fine.  We are starting to get frosts though also so I'm afraid that one nay get to the plant before the other.  There was a bud really to bloom also & then these darn mites came!  I have a feeling this one may not survive also with all that I need to put into it this time of year.

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Well, it being Columbus Day weekend I have received a few e-mails of some deals going on.  1st off with Bath & Body Works.  I'm not a huge fan of theirs.  They aren't very interactive w/their customers, they are just a big mish-mosh of companies & products.  But they do carry a few things I really do like.  Online they have 50% off their sweet shop candles which are pretty awesome for the most part, only a few of them I wasn't too hot with how the smelled when in the store.  B3G3 on their signature collections, & a bunch of summer, Halloween products, & lip glosses at 75% off.  AND using code EVENT25 will get you $1 shipping on orders $25 or more.  Of course there's other things, but these were the note worthy items for me.  I'm not sure if there are in store or not but I may drop by one today because I have a coupon for a free item & 20% off my entire purchase.  Been pretty good w/not buying much from them anyway.
*EDIT - same sales in store.  Already pretty picked over.

Now The Body Shop is having a B3G2, B2G1 or Buy 1 Get 1 1/2 off.  But, if your like me, & have almost the entire store because they don't change their line up 1/2 as much as B&BW does, then it's meaningless.

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This time of year brings pumpkin to death for soap scents.  Really.  A lot of times I go out on limbs to try new things & I think others should also.  So, this is actually uncommon but it is MY new autumn scent thanks to Two Oakes Soapworks.  It is carrot cake soap & she has 2 bars left for sale on eBay.  If I didn't have so many other soaps to try right now I would snatch these up because they are scented so perfectly.  The carrot cake has been spiced right & just came out of the oven.  It should come with a disclaimer not to attempt to eat it!

I hope to have more on this company soon!

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Got my flu shot yesterday.  Hope to run a few errands today w/a bit of retail therapy today.

Free Bath & Body Works lotion!

Bath & Body Works is giving away a free bottle of their Charmed Life 2 oz. lotion w/this coupon.  Sorry this is so late as tomorrow is the last day it is good to use!  Valid in USA only.  Online or in stores.

If you "like" them on facebook they usually post stuff like this all the time.  Usually the problem is they post things that can only be used for one day so I can't take advantage of them.  Boo.  Like I really need anything else!  You'll agree when I post pics of my stash!

I was able to scope out some of their new fall scents.  Chris, my manpanion (I'll explain later) really likes the Marshmallow Fireside & we both really liked the Cinnamon Sugared Donut! YUM!  There were a lot of lovely smells to be had but I was good & resisted temptation.  Even though I was tempted I also didn't buy from the 50% off table which had some nice summer products that are going away.  Picked up my free lotion & then went to Yankee Candle to sniff candles there! *Which, BTW their tarts & samplers are all $1 & tomorrow is the last day!  Also, I was good & didn't buy anything.  I just bought some stuff there last week!

More later!