Daily bath October 6, 2011, Sweeps, & why I LOVE The Body Shop.

Yankee Candle actually posted about this or I never would have noticed it.  There's a lot of really neat & different things that are being given away & it's not junk like some other sites.  The YC Perfect Pillar giveaway is what caught my eye & this ends October 12th.  So, if you blog & are reading this, there's a lot of ways to get entries for a lot of different things.  I think I even saw something for some soaps that ends later I will need to check out.  I will most likely be using my twitter account to update more on available sweepstakes because I don't want this blog overloaded w/them.  I'm not all that hot on using twitter yet anyway.  I've been blogging for years but it has been more of a personal blog.

• Red Velvet Cupcake as bubble bath & shampoo from Philosophy.
• Strawberry dream bar soap from Brandon Essentials.
• Coco Latte body wash by Savour.
• Brazil Nut body butter by The Body Shop.

I smell like a cafe. 

Now.  I said how I am bored w/The Body Shop.  How I went in on my birthday, I'm just not excited with their products.  I want to see more bathing items like salts, oils, bubble baths.  How I am bored to death w/pumpkin scents this time of season & that's what they picked to win.  Well, I write.  And I wrote about how I do love their company but I am getting bored with them on their Facebook page.

I've only ever really had a problem with the company once when I had bad customer service over the phone.  It really turned out to be my error but I wasn't made aware of that because the woman on the phone never even brought it to my attention.  It had to do with my Love Your Body points on their website, what I was seeing, wasn't matching what she was seeing.  She was focusing on that & not the actual problem I was having.  So I complained on Facebook about it.

They are always on the ball on their Facebook page.  Always replying to people.  Asking questions, seeing how they can make things better.  Now in the situation I previously had, they sent me an e-mail right away, I sent them my contact info, they called me, explained what the other agent didn't & as soon as I realized I was in the wrong & all apologetic, they were still trying to do whatever they could to make me happy.  In this post I made to them about being bored with their products they asked if I had submitted something for the contest (which I think I didn't) but was curious what I would have submitted & advised of a new scent for the holiday that will be coming out, besides the normal vanilla & cranberry.  They are very interactive & I praised them for that but told them to still work on more bathing type products.  They need to stop focusing on the body butters, lotions & shower gels.

Daily bath October 5, 2011 & disappointment in The Body Shop.

• Cinnamon Buns as a bubble bath from Philosophy.
• Hot Spiced Chocolate (hot chocolate & brandy soaked pudding) shower gel by Korres.
• Honey shampoo from The Body Shop.

Just a F.Y.I. the pictures I use on my sites are either picture of the products I own, taken by myself, or pictures directly from the URL sites of the manufactures.  So that's why I link directly to the product.  All the other photos are mine, like the plants, insects, etc.  So if I find they are being used by anyone else w/out permission, for sale, or w/out credit...  expect trouble because I have an awesome attorney.

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Anyhoo.  Today I received an e-mail from TBS & they were having a contest to have a consumer come up with a new scent for a body wash of theirs & it was about their winner.  Awesome.  Now, leave it up to the general public to decide & be brainwashed into what it's going to be, or what their marketing department think what will sell the most this time of year.  Let us see as it was down to 3 scents, espresso, rhubarb, & pumpkin.  I'll give you ONE guess which one won.  The pumpkin.  Ugh.  Yes, I KNOW it's October but you are a huge company & everyone in the world is doing this scent right now & I'll be honest I think the only reason they did it was for marketing because of the time of year.  I have enough pumpkin stuff going back last year, maybe even the year before so I'm not even going to go back to even see what I think of it.  If it was one of the other 2, I probably would have, especially the rhubarb.

Like I posted the other day, I'm getting bored with them.  I go into their store, it's all body butters, lotions, soaps, body washes, same products but different scents but not by much.  I'd really like to see more bath products, salts, bubble baths, bath oils, oil beads.  I'm really hoping they expand their holiday line this year also & not keep it all the same cranberry, vanilla, orange & plum crap they seem to recycle through year after year.  Ok, I did really love the orange line they released last year but some of the products in it were limited or hard to get.

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So the last few days I have been using the Cinnamon Buns in the bath more for the scent, like I had noted before, Philosophy products really don't bubble well.  They might do better if you have a jet tub.  I have been mixing it up w/these Korres shower gels that I got last year for the Betties.  They came in a pack of 3 & I have a bit left of each.  The 1 I listed above & then also Honey Spice (honey cookies & roasted pecans), & Sugar Glazed Clementine (candied clementine & star aniseed).  I think my favorite is the clementine but they are all amazing, & natural but they do contain sodium laureth sulfate.

Products w/SLS or SLES tend to dry out my skin a little more so I usually use lotions after.  Autumn is kind of hit & miss if I want to or not, winter I usually do all the time because of where I live.  Cold, dry, snow!!

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To end, here is a moth I saw the other day.

Daily bath October 3, 2011 & ramblings

• 2 bath oil beads of unknown scent from The Body Shop.
• Heavenly type soap from Two Oakes Soapworks. (eBay)
• Ibiza Party shampoo from Lush.

The awesome thing about bath oil beads is the have an insanely long shelf life (if they are made by a good company).  I'll be honest that TBS has been kind of boring me with their products lately.  I went in ON my birthday so I could get my free $10 on my Love Your Body card plus some other things.  Chris really likes their exfoliating skin towel (& they are much better than the drug store ones.  There really IS a difference.) so I got him one of those.  I got the berry Natural Lip Roll-On.  Still don't know how I feel about it yet.

The bath oil beads were something TBS came out with years ago & they came in a small plastic box of about 20 with 4 different scents.  These weren't normal scents either like something you would find by the checkout at Ulta.  I can't remember any of them except the grape seed one but they all smell fantastic!  I had purchased about 2 boxes & have them all in a small container now so I can't really decipher which is which so I just pulled out 2 today & threw them in the bath & it was wonderful.

Before that I had a few consistent baths of:

• Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream bubble bath also used as shampoo from Philosophy.
• Lay It On Thick shea foaming bath from Bath & Body Works.
• Mint Cookie Milkshake (in set only) body wash from Philosophy.

I guess there is some underground water leak somewhere in the area & they had to shut the water off this morning very early.  So when I came home I didn't really think about it, used the rest room & when I went to flush I was like, "Oh poo."  Ha!  Not much later the water was working again as I could hear the pipes clanking so I ran the water a bit from the faucets & flushed the toilet..

Unfortunately, the toilet started backing up & it seemed more dark, almost black.  Oh how sometimes I wish I was still renting for free inside maintenance!  Thank goodness my father is such a handyman.  Of course when he came around, whatever was backing up was done & over with & a flush cleared it all up.

This underground leak is not fixed though.  Tomorrow will be more of the same.  Ugh.

Insects aren't always creepy.

Well, to some people they are no matter what they are.  I just don't like arachnids.  Or insect that look like arachnids.  Or ones that I know that bite.  Small insects really don't bother me.  Well, small spiders really do & small insects in swarms do.

The 1st time I encountered springtails was on my back porch ledge.  They were extremely tiny, jumped when I went close to touching them & there were many of them.  They had probably been there since I purchased the place & I just never noticed them until leaning over the ledge one day I huffed a breath out & I saw these tiny things go scattering all over!  It took forever to figure out what they were also considering I don't have a microscopic lens on my camera & I had to study where they were, what they were doing, the environment, size, & behavior to figure it out.  It was really the jumping that did it.  They have what's called a furcula attached to their bums which allows them to "sping" short distances.  What I learned about them, I let them be & the association eventually came & painted the porch ledge & they have since been gone.

A few weeks ago I woke up in the middle of the night & went in the bathroom & I thought Chris left some beard shavings in the bottom of the sink.  Until I realized they were moving.  I looked closer, went to poke the, what seemed, almost microscopic insect & sure enough, it bounced about an inch away.  We had elongate-bodied springtails in the bathroom sink.  Not too worried because of what I had read before, they do not cause damage, but they can migrate & in great numbers.  What I was worried about was we were getting more & more each day and if we were getting them, because they are really outdoor insects & coming from the pipes, our downstairs neighbors were getting them also.

Now, we live on marshy land & there's a creek in our backyard so these are expected.  The way you are supposed to rid of them is to find the outdoor source of moisture or leaks, fungus, algae, decaying vegetation & so w/my atmosphere, I don't think I will ever find their original source.  They're kind of fun to watch them mill around aimlessly & jump when poked anyway.  I told my downstairs neighbor about them yesterday in the event him or his wife sees them to not freak out that they are, if anything, a nuisance & nothing more.  So to get rid of them in the pipes, the eco-friendly way would be w/vinegar, & if that doesn't work, bleach.  These are temporary solutions though.  Chris went right for the bleach.  Haven't been back since.

Unfortunately the roses he got me that I re-potted were infested with fungus gnats & I had to just get rid of them.  I had tried to get rid of as much as I could of the old soil when I re-potted it but I guess I just didn't do a good enough job & I am praying they didn't get into the daisy.  My dad gave me a tea rose to put in the pot & my mom gave me an antique turtle that I put a moon cactus in.  Looks so cute!

  

I've been feeling the best I've been in a while.  I swear the year before my gallbladder surgery was hell & this year after has been also.  Except the year before the surgery they were sure it was my gallbladder & now no one knows what's wrong with me.  Got myself off 1 prescription & working myself off another.  Being sick on & off had depressed & scared me greatly, especially when I ended up in the hospital.  I have been trying to stay positive through it all though sometimes it's so hard to.  I have my sanctuary (bath), my love (Chris), my support (fam & friends), my confidant (my cat who is also my cuddle buddy though he objects with claws & teeth sometimes because he is a grumpy old cat but he does purr a lot), & things that keep me sane (crafts, cute things, blogging, shopping, making people happy.)

Take care everyone.  Until the next bath! :)

Daily bath September 27, 2011.

• Yuzu & Green Tea bathing salts.
• Adzuki Bean & Rice shower gel.
• Yuzu & Rice body milk.
• Apricot & Rice finishing mist all from The Body Shop.

Really love this line & I really do love TBS but I know w/being a huge company & wanting their products to be sustainable, I still feel they could be doing more to make their products & packaging a bit more eco-friendly.

I was running around all day today & wanted to write a bit about some of the insect problems we've had around here.  Not much problems but more of annoyances.  I have obtained solutions but, unfortunately, my roses are gone.  Maybe tomorrow I can share my story about that.

To end, here's a mantis I found hanging around outside the other week.

Daily bath September 26, 2011 & a review.

• Honey Please natural bath fizzer by One.
• Honey I Washed the Kids soap from Lush.
• Honey moisturizing shampoo & conditioner from The Body Shop.

So this is another steal I picked up at my local Target the other day that was 1/2 off original price of $5.99.  I have always wanted to try One products because of what I have read about them being a very eco-friendly brand, but never really knew anyone else who had tried their products.  Also being a bit skeptical about the price & the fact they were being sold at this mass merchandiser, I just held off.

If you actually go to their site you'll notice a huge difference in the way the product looks there compared to what I obtained in my package.  I personally don't care but there's either a possibility I have an old product, or their marketing needs to get consistent.  The packaging is recyclable & the plastic that the fizzer is wrapped in is noted to be 100% biodegradable per the top of the packaging!  Awesome!  What's really great about this also is once you remove the wrapping, it's made to have the 2 pieces so you do not have to split it yourself & you can use it for 2 baths.  Another plus!

I decided to use the bottom 1/2 only.  Really not much of a "fizzer" & it pretty much sunk to the bottom like a rock & just kind of fizzled a bit.  I got kind of annoyed so I ended up crushing it after a bit & mixed it around in the water until it dissolved.  It was still extremely delightful, the honey & floral scent, moisturizing oils.  1/2 was definitely enough.

I would say I would buy this particular product of theirs again, regardless of the fizzing or not, even at full price.  Unlike Lush bath ballistics where you could be paying up to $7 for 1, they're a bitch to cut into halves, and usually 1/2 of theirs just doesn't cut it on a bath. (I still love Lush!)  Just keeping it real.  I did also buy a shampoo bar of theirs that I haven't tried yet & this experience had opened up the door to wanting me to try more of their products!

Check them out if you can! 
One Bath & Body can also be found on Facebook.

Daily bath September 25, 2011

• Coconut Bath Shimmer Sensation bubble bath from The Body Shop.
• Strawberry Dream Bar soap from Brandon Essentials.
• Choco Latte body wash by Savour. (purchased at Target)
• Choco Latte lotion by Savour.

The majority of the Savour products were 1/2 off at my local Target on Transit in Williamsville. I'm kind of hit & miss with what I like & don't like as far as their scents go.  I'll go more into detail about my stash later.  The whole place is a mess because they are going through a huge redesign.  New products!  More products!  More food!  It will be like a Super Walmart but not even remotely as trashy as one!

Oh!  A lot of the One brand items were 1/2 off also!  Good deals!

Daily bath September 21, 2011

• Baby Bee Bubble Bath from Burt's Bees.
• Heavenly type (smells better to me) soap by Two Oakes Soapworks.
• Ibiza Party shampoo from Lush.

I'll mostly be linking to Lush's UK site because if you order a lot from them (I'm talking hundreds of dollars) like I can, you can actually end up saving hundreds just by ordering overseas, even with shipping.  Unfortunately, The only product I seem to have trouble with, time & time again is their bath ballistics.  The very 1st order I placed with them everything came absolutely perfect.  Year after year after that, the bath ballistics are now coming crushed.  Think I will try just a few new products & stick with a few old favorites but no stocking up anymore.  Time to move on & expand my horizons to all the amazing products out there.

I try so hard to support the USPS but sometimes....

Sometimes they just piss me off so bad.  So when one of my eBay packages, being shipped from AZ, ended up in NJ, I knew something was wrong.  Normally stuff ends up in Rochester before it gets to me.  & it was in NJ on the date that the package was supposed to have been delivered on.  So there's something wrong.  I called & sent an e-mail.  When I called USPS, the woman on the phone was no help & a jerk about it even though that package stayed in NJ for 2 days.

Monday I received a call from the postmaster at my local office, who I have talked to before.  I noticed at that time that package tracking said it was in PA so he told me that was a main hub for us & I figured that it was finally on its way to me & I should have it any day.  It was for 2 bottles of Philosophy Cinnamon Buns.

Then today, this is what I received!

 

Since I have a box they throw it in I didn't get this until about 1/2 hour ago.  If I would have had to go to the post to pick it up I would have had them just do a return to sender.  So I got 1 bottle, God only knows what happened to the other, & since the package was opened I was hoping what was in there was salvageable, but it was not.

So, I snapped these photos, tied the bag back up, sent an e-mail to the person I got the items from.  It was free shipping but this was not a good way to ship products of this type & I am surprised there is not more feedback as far as busted items in shipping.  I always try to get things resolves 1st & the feedback seems like I shouldn't have a problem.  I still want the items & even offered to pay for small box priority because it's, I think just under $5 to ship it that way & it would still be worth it.

I'm sad because one was for me & another was going to be a gift.  Poo.

In addition to that I am having terrible tum issues, we have a new insect invading our bathroom sink (nothing destructive, more on this later!), our new DVR is not working in our living room & it may be a wiring issue so a tech will be coming out on Friday.

Sometimes it's not always about soap.

So today I came home from work & the kitchen smelled like sausage & things were a mess & I was disgusted & I knew I had a lot of things I had to do & I didn't want to do them & I felt myself getting in a rut & I was getting tired & I was ready to fell asleep on my comfy bed but my cat wanted to play rough & bit me.  Yes, I can complain & complain. So I decided to be productive.

We have a mat outside our front door in our common area that had salt crusted on it from last winter so I took it down to the laundry area & washed it off.  I took all the newspapers & bags they were in from the laundry garbage out for recycling.  I cleaned up all the loose cat food on the floor, put Milton's food in an easy access plastic container, & put the large stock back in the back of the pantry until it actually needs to be used because it was in the way & becoming a mess.

Then I did something I have been meaning to do.  Last year for my birthday, Chris' sister & mother got me a beautiful red gerbera daisy in a red pot.  I have kept it in the common area because there it is safe from my cat & gets more light.  Since then they have redone the common area walls and carpet & Chris also got me a small victory rose pot last week.  I needed a good pot to put the roses in but I wanted something to go well in the common area & also with the daisy.  So we went on a hunt for new pots.  We ended up finding these at Home Depot:

Unfortunately the daisy hasn't bloomed since I got it.  Maybe someday.  Maybe.  This is what The 2 looked like before they were re-potted.  You can barely see the roses.  Once I removed it from the wrapping it was mostly dead leaves anyway.  Poor thing.

Here I am putting the daisy into the pot with some new soil.

 

Here is the finished product!

Very nice!  Now, I also had a vision of tearing down some walls to open up some space between my kitchen & living room.  Then also moving my bedroom furniture into my small bedroom & making the master bedroom like a lounge.  Why waste all that space if all I really do is sleep in that room?

And did I mention (I know I didn't so I don't know why I am even asking) I got 25, YES TWENTY FIVE, bars of soap yesterday?  Only a few of them are duplicates and they all smell fantastic!  I cannot wait to try them out.

I think I will have my bath now & then a nap.  Still feeling quite exhausted.  Here are my flowers at their new home in the common area.