review to come: Hairmax products!

Won these cool Hairmax products and can't wait to fill you in on how they work! It's a 4-part system and I want to give it some time to work, but check back later and I'll post a full review for you.

Hairmax products are made to help you grow hair. They are probably best known for their laser device that helps people who are losing hair or have thinning hair. I don't have the laser (sorry) but I do have the products, so I'll let you know how it goes!

I the meantime you can follow Hairmax on twitter @hairmax or visit them at Hairmax.com .

Review: Secret Clinical Deodorant

I'm smelly. And greasy. I admit it. And I often find my deodorant to be, well, lacking. I got this great trial pack from klout.com to see if Secret's Clinical deodorant worked any better than the other brands.

Let me tell you: it did. And now I know why. They added more of the main ingredient that most deodorants have, so it works better. They call it "clinical" because you used to not be able to get this strong of deodorant without seeing a doctor. But they changed that, and now you can buy it over the counter.

Secret clinical costs more but it is SO worth the expense. I can even feel the deodorant still working when I'm in the shower, 1 or 2 days after I put it on. It's really incredible.

If you are super sweaty like I am, you should give it a try.

Review: Riega Gluten Free Cheese Sauce Mix

Thanks to another fabulous twitter party win, I got to try a sample collection of Riega's Gluten Free Cheese Sauce mixes. They come in a bunch of flavors like PepperJack, Alfredo, White or Yellow Cheddar. Now I am not the biggest mac and cheese fan, but someone (who will remain nameless ;) ) LOVES the stuff. And he has been buying the boxes for at least 1 dollar a piece for a while. But this stuff is more economical and better for you!

The first thing I liked is that the packets let you make your own pasta. Making your own pasta from dried, boxed noodles is so easy and cheap, and we always have some on hand. Plus we mixed in some whole wheat pasta, so the mac and cheese was already healthier than the traditional boxed versions.

All you do is boil the water, cook and drain the pasta, mix the packet of powdered cheese sauce with a little milk (optional butter) and dump the pasta on top. Voila! Mac and Cheese! The sauce is a little bit runnier than your usual boxed mac and cheese, but you can add more or less milk as you see fit and that will change.

Now we are not gluten intolerant in our house but I realize this is an issue for a lot of people, including some of our friends, so I would be comfortable feeding them a recipe using this cheese sauce. Plus you can use it for more than just mac and cheese-- popcorn toppings, for example.

I can't wait to try all the varieties (I tried the cheddars first) but I expect they will all be as yummy as the first!

You should check out all the options at Riegafoods.com and see what else looks good to you!

Review: Supercharge Your Life NOW! XS Energy Drink

The folks over at Supercharge Your Life Now held a cool contest on Facebook and I won! They sent me a whole case of the XS Energy Drink to try, and I wanted to take a minute to tell you about my experience with it. All good things!

So they offer this energy drink in a bunch of flavors, like Citrus Blast, Tropical Blast, and Rootbeer Blast. I chose the Cranberry Grape blast flavor because we drink a lot of cranberry juice at our house. As you can see, they sent a whole box full of them, so I sure hoped I liked the flavor! When they arrived, I put a couple in the fridge and then waited for the to chill. I forgot about them until the next day when I realized I had a mid-morning meeting and was running late. I usually start off my day with 2 or 3 cups of coffee, but I had barely drank 2 cups and had to run. I grabbed one of these XS Energy Drinks and brought it with me. I drank it in the car on the way to my meeting and was pleasantly surprised by the flavor. A more grape flavor than cranberry, but still good.

I made it through the meeting and felt great! While I wasn't doing aerobics or anything, I did feel more alert and happy. Plus what I loved is I didn't feel at all jittery like when you drink too much coffee.

I probably felt so good because of XS Energy Drink's B vitamins. Once I looked at the ingredients I realized-- this was a powerful punch of vitamins! Just what I need!

Now XS Energy Drink is one of my top choices for energy and concentration boosts on the go. The little cans are just the right size. Oh, and I forgot the best part--- they aren't filled with sugary calories like other energy drinks! Actually XS Energy Drink has only a couple measley calories to worry about. Now that is something to write home about!

I would recommend XS Energy Drink from SuperCharge Your life for anyone who is athletic or students who need some help studying. I think it would even be good for your average person who just needs a mid-day pick me up without a crash at the end. You should check them out at www.superchargeyourlifenow.com and see all the other stuff they offer. I would love to try out some of their other products, like the Glister toothpaste or oral rinse. If this drink is this good, I bet other stuff is good too!

Thanks for the sample case of energy drinks, Supercharge Your Life Now! It works!

Review: Costume SuperCenter!

I love playing dress-up, even though I'm a far cry from a kid these days! I think Halloween is one of the most fun holidays ever. Not only do you get to pretend to be someone else for a night, but you get to gorge on candy while you do it! I can't think of much better.

I was lucky to be contacted by a representative from a company called Costume Super Center and they offered to send me a costume to review for this blog! I'm very excited to be able to offer my opinion.

I checked out their website Costume Discounters and took a look at all the variety. I was totally blown away by how many kinds of costumes they had! I was somehow expecting more for kids, but I was happy to see so many for adults. They had pets and kids and mens and womans Halloween costumes to choose from. What I loved best was the costumes they had by decade era-- 50s, 60s, 70s, etc. I was laughing out loud as I scrolled through the 60s costumes on their website. As soon as I saw it, I knew it was the one for me: The First Lady costume. You must check it out.

Thrilled, I told the rep that I wanted the First Lady. I mean, who doesn't want to be Jackie O for Halloween? So I was so excited when the UPS man came by today with a package for me. It came in a large plastic bag. This is what it looked like once I opened it:

So according to the insert, it seems that they offer free exchanges for products and sizes! I have to say I was impressed by that, as it seems most companies these days make you pay for returns or don't take them at all. Anyway, the actual costume was packaged in plastic too and looked like this:

You can see how cute it is, and why I picked this one! Bright pink, with a hat, jacket, and skirt. The optional accessories-wig, pearls, gloves-seem like they would be easy enough to find. I probably have some old fake pearls around here somewhere, and white gloves too.

The costume was nicely folded inside the plastic sleeve and was easy to take out. It was made of 100% polyester, which smelled a little bit too polyester-y for me. I checked and it said it could be hand washed, though, which I would probably do before I wore it out of the house. Just to get rid of the fresh-clothes smell.

I went ahead and tried it on. Here I am, dressed as the first lady:

As you can see, the jacket fit perfectly, though the skirt was pretty snug. I think I would try to let out the skirt a little bit at home before I wore it out. Otherwise I thought it was adorable. I can totally picture myself faux-waving with that cupped-hand beauty queen wave as I walked into a Halloween party dressed like this. How fun!

Overall I would say that the costume was as expected and in spite of the tight fit of the skirt, it was a success. (Anyway, the skirt's tightness has more to do with the size of my butt than the size of the skirt!) According to the invoice, the costume is priced at 13.65, which I'd say is a great deal for a full-on, ready-to go real costume. And there's no reason you couldn't keep it and wear it for more than one year.

Final word: pros were it's cheap, cute, and pretty convincing for a Halloween costume. cons were it sort of smelled like polyester, and the size was a bit small. But since the company offers free exchanges, I have the option to send it back and get another size anyway! This would only be a con, then, if I had ordered last-minute and didn't have time to wait for a replacement to arrive. So the moral is-- go buy your costumes from the Costume Super Center early!

I'd love to hear your comments about the outfit. What is your favorite Halloween costume? Do you like the sexy costumes or traditional witchy costumes? Do you make your own or buy them online?