Update and Apologies

Hi everyone!

I'm sure some of you have noticed my absence the last week and a half. A lot has been going on in my personal life and I just didn't have the capacity or capability to try to take on more stuff, including blogging and working out (which is basically my life). As you know, we moved on the 17th and there was that whole debacle that happened with that (we are living in the apartment until mid-September when we'll have to move again). The following Saturday, July 20th, I was to fly home and spend a week with my sister before we flew to Maryland for our sorta family reunion for the weekend. What I didn't expect on Saturday morning after a week of stress, was a phone call from my sister saying my dog had been rushed to the emergency vet. He had gone blind and started having frequent seizures. This was told to me an hour before I was to head to the airport. After one night of observation, his condition didn't improve and he seemed to be in a comatose state. I didn't expect to have to say good-bye to my beautiful dog the next day. That was the hardest thing I've ever had to go through. I've had pets pass before, but mostly when it was their time after a longer than average life span (I've had many pet rats in the past who usually have a life span of around 2 years, it's always hard but I always know they've lived a long, wonderful life), my poor baby was only 8. I spent the next few days in a daze, mourning and grieving over my beautiful dog with my sister. We had planned to spend so much time together this trip happy and doing things we like to do together, but the trip we'd been looking forward to for so long definitely did not turn out the way we were hoping it would. I'm just now trying to get myself to get back to a usual routine, but every now and then I'll think about my Shay, and I won't be able to get myself to do anything.

After my time in Chicago was up, we had to fly to Maryland to celebrate a new marriage and have a mini family reunion. This definitely helped me get my mind off of Shay, until a relative would ask about him and I'd choke up. Shay was part of the family, and still is. The weekend was super fun and definitely what I needed. It felt so good to be around so much family, and a lot of family I hadn't seen in about 6 years. Rob and I definitely had a great time this weekend and were sad to see it end.

Yesterday I just needed a day to myself. I didn't do anything or go anywhere. I'm trying to amp myself up to get back to my usual, perky, energetic self. I'm going to try to get back to posts this week.

I'm so sorry that I didn't have any posts up the last week and a half, I just didn't have the energy or motivation. I didn't go to the gym, I gave up caring about what I ate, I didn't study for the MCAT, I didn't even touch my computer. I was basically just existing.

So slowly, but surely, I'm going to get back to my usual self!

I just wanted to give you all an update.

I hope you've all been having a better time than I have been recently!

Balms I've Got My Eye On 7.19.13

Hi all! Thank you SO much for being so patient with me this week. I can't even begin to explain how much of a nightmare this move has been for us. I'm a perfectionist so I had everything planned to the T. I knew what time we'd go pick up the keys and see the apartment, how much time we'd have to pack last minute things before the movers came, when the furniture guys were coming, when the movers were coming, when we'd need to rush to the second apartment to let the movers in, and when everything would be done and I could start unpacking and bring the cats over from the old apartment. I knew all of that because I'm psycho and like to have everything planned out. What I did not plan for was walking into the apartment and seeing that it was completely wrong. It wasn't the right apartment! We were shown one floor plan which we signed a lease for without seeing it because we loved the floor plan so much (we had less than a month to get out of our old apartment because the lease was almost up and this was the only one that fit our time frame), but when we got here it was the wrong floor plan. They also didn't have any more apartments in our price range open unless we wanted to go much smaller, the next one doesn't open for about another two months. So basically, we're really mad, we don't know what to do, and we're just SO stressed about this. This was supposed to be simple. I'm leaving for Chicago on Saturday morning which also kind of made this more stressful. Oh also, we didn't have Internet or cable yesterday and we weren't supposed to until next week (when I'd be out of town anyway), but the leasing office pulled some strings and were able to get us an appointment this morning. Ugh. So maybe I was able to explain a little bit of the chaos we're going through right now. Anyway, I'm looking at these balms this week as kind of a reward for how crappy this week has been:

Aqua Blossom's Tangerine Lime

(via)

Ripe Shop's Ambrosia

(via)

ForGoodnessGrape's Strawberry Grapefruit

(via)

Thanks so much for being patient and for enduring my little rant. This week has just been too much for me.

Thank goodness this week's just about over!

Happy Friday, everyone!

Haul of the Week 7.17.13

Today is moving day! I'm sorry I've been so MIA lately, it's been hectic over here since we were preparing for our move today. Today and the next few days until I leave for Chicago will all be about getting unpacked and settled and then I'm out of town for about 8 days. Why do I feel like I'm always going from one thing to another with no rest in between? Ugh. Anyway, I've got a pretty sweet haul to share with you this week. I hope you enjoy!

Orange Thyme

Epically Epic

The Gnarly Whale

Ripe Shop

Country Blossom

Everything I received this week has been seriously amazing!

What did you receive this week?

Happy Wednesday!

Mini Monday 7.15.13

Happy Monday, everyone! I hope your day is off to a great start! Why does it always feel like weekends are never long enough? I spent the entire weekend inside my apartment packing, and we're still not done! I don't know how two people (and two cats because let's be honest, they pretty much run this house) could have acquired so much stuff! I hope you all had a more exciting weekend than I did. I tried to scrape together the best Mini Monday I could since I accidentally packed almost all of my lip balm away. I hope you enjoy!

Aqua Blossom's Watermelon

When I asked Rob what this balm smelled like his first response was "deliciousness". He loves the smell of this balm. I put it on the other day and he immediately asked "what is that amazing smell?" Seriously, Rob's right, this balm is pure deliciousness! This balm has an amazing juicy, sweet watermelon scent. It's fruity and just amazing!

Epically Epic's Watermelon Peach

Can you tell yet that one of my absolute favorite fruits is watermelon? Seriously I eat about two watermelons a week by myself. I love them so much! This balm has a yummy watermelon scent combined with the scent of sweet, ripe peaches. It's not a punch-you-in-the-face kind of scent, just a lovely, fruity scent that's definitely perfect for summer.

Orange Thyme's Sugared Grapefruit

Okay, this balm kinda blew me away. It's amazing! The bright citrusy scent of fresh grapefruit, sprinkled with an extra bit of sweetness; seriously, what is there not to love about that? I'm in heaven whenever I wear this balm.

There you go! I hope you enjoy the rest of your day!

Balms of the Week 7.14.13

Happy Sunday, everyone! I hope you're having a super relaxing weekend! We are having the most crazy busy weekend this weekend since we're finalizing everything for our move on Wednesday and trying to pack up all of our stuff this weekend and just living out of a suitcase until Wednesday. In my haste to pack up my office and lip balm, I somehow aimlessly packed up all of my lip balm without setting aside any for reviews this week. I like to review older balms before I get to the new stuff, so I need to figure out what I'm going to do about this week! We also managed to block off my desk so pictures this week will also be a problem. I'm going to figure it out though! So since I managed to pack up everything minus a few tubes of balm on my nightstand, I don't have some individual pictures of the balms I've been using this week, so I'm trying to make do. I'm sorry this week is so jumbled and hectic and this post is so long, everything is just crazy on my end this week! Anyway, on to the balms of the week!

Aqua Blossom's Mango Spice, Mango Papaya, and Watermelon

Aqua Blossom's Citrus Sangria

Ripe Shop's Mexican Horchata

Vintage Sister's Pina Colada and Lemon Essential Oil

What balms have you been using this week?

I also want to wish my baby sister a very happy sixteenth birthday! Love you, Britt!

Have a wonderful Sunday, everyone!

Balms I've Got My Eye On 7.12.13

Happy Friday, everyone! I can honestly say I could not wait for this weekend to get here. This week was just not my week. I lost my motivation to work out (although I still made sure to put in 2-3 hours a day), I felt so under the weather, I let the apartment go to crap (we literally had about five piles of recycling we had to take down), and I was just overly stressed about our move next Wednesday. Blah, anyway, I hoping today will be a better day! I'm also hoping to make up for a lot that I didn't get done this week, during the next two days, so I'll probably be quite the busy bee this weekend. Anyway, checking out these lovely balms has been keeping my mind off this slightly lousy week, at least for a little while:

Ripe Shop's Honeyed Peach

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I'm super curious to try this balm to see if it's similar to Long Winter Farm's Honeyed Mango which I surprisingly liked!

Orange Thyme's Lemonade Set

(via)

Okay, so if you've seen this already, you probably guessed that I already picked this up (and you'd be right!). But, I did spend the greater part of this week oohing and aahing  over this set so I had to share it.

Live Beautifully Body's Triple Berry Burst

(via)

I've been super into berries lately, so this balm definitely has popped up onto my radar. 

What balms have you had your eye on this week?

Have a wonderful day!

Nivea Lip Butters

I know I've had these wonderful lip butters for quite some time now, so I thought it was about time I shared with you what I thought about them! When I first got these wonderful tins (which were a little hard to track down when they first came out), I couldn't stop using them!

Company: Nivea

Flavors: Smooth Kiss, Caramel Cream Kiss, Raspberry Rose Kiss, and Vanilla & Macadamia Kiss. The Smooth Kiss is the plain, unscented version of these lovely lip butters; so if you're not a fan of scented products, this may be the one you want to try! The Caramel Cream Kiss has a rich, ooey-gooey caramel scent to it. It has an uber decadent scent to it! The Raspberry Rose Kiss has a ripe, sweet raspberry scent combined with the fresh scent of rose. The Vanilla & Macadamia Kiss is my absolute favorite of these lip butters. This lip butter has a rich, decadent, creamy vanilla scent combined with a little nuttiness.

Wear: These lip butters have such a lovely consistency. They're super creamy and melt right upon contact with your lips, making your lips feel super soft almost instantaneously. They last through some drinking and light snacking too which is nice.

Packaging: These come in round metal tins that weigh 0.59oz (16.7g). Each tin's lid has images on it depicting the flavor of the lip butter inside which makes it super easy to find your favorite flavor (if you keep them all in one place like I do).

Price: I think I paid $3 to $4 for one of these tins which was definitely worth it! It's hard to believe that these tins contain almost 4x as much balm as your average tube (.15oz) so I definitely think it's worth it!

Overall
Pros: Flavors, Wear, Packaging, Price
Cons: Not natural

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 twists. These tins were super lovely! If they were to come out with any more scents, you know I would be all over them in a heartbeat. I really love the consistency of these, I often use them before bed as my night balm.

Ingredients: Petrolatum, Polyglyceryl-3 Diisostearate, Shea Butter, Castor Seed Oil, Sweet Almond Oil, Water, Glycerin, Glyceryl Glucoside, BHT, Titanium Dioxide

Have you tried these Nivea Lip Butters yet? What did you think of them? Which one is your favorite?

Haul of the Week 7.10.13

Hi all! I hope you're all having a wonderful week so far! I have been feeling super off this week and I'm not sure why, I think it's just been more difficult than usual to bounce back to my usual routine. I had a few surprises show up in my mailbox this week which definitely made the last couple of days better. I'm super excited to share them with you!

Aqua Blossom

Seriously, have you tried any of Ashley's new balms? They're freaking amazing! I use them daily!

Canfield Crafts

Why is this a business card you ask? Because I was totally surprised with two awesome new balms from Canfield Crafts! They're super amazing, but not in shop yet, so I don't want to give anything away about what flavors are coming. But, I promise, you're going to love them! Thank you so much, Canfield team!

ChapStick

How awesome is this MixStix box from ChapStick? I can't believe all the goodies that are in this box! There are six tubes of their new MixStix, a wonderful insulated tumbler, an iTunes giftcard, and some new headphones! Thank you so much, ChapStick! I can't wait to review these for you guys (and host a giveaway!).

What balms did you receive this week? Was there any one in particular that was over the top amazing?

Happy Wednesday!

Country Blossom's Balm of the Month: June 2013

Alright, alright, I know that it's not June anymore, but I just never got around to it at the end of last month. I honestly can't say enough how much I love having these lip balm of the month or season because it's just so neat getting to try balms I normally never would. Sometimes even if I think a balm sounds good and sounds like something I'd like, if it's not similar to the usual balms I get, I tend not to venture out of my comfort zone and try it. I don't know why, I guess I'm just not brave enough haha!

Company: Country Blossom

Flavor: Sangria. Okay, seriously, this balm smells wonderful! It smells just like a glass of sangria., which happens to be one of my favorite drinks. It smells of red wine and fresh fruit, like an adult fruit punch! It's sooo lovely and will probably be one of my go-to balms this summer.

Wear: I really love the consistency of all my Country Blossom balms. They're so creamy and smooth, and just go on so wonderfully. They go on a little thicker without being too thick and provide a wonderful protective barrier on my lips. I feel like this balm automatically fills in all the cracks and makes my lips instantly smooth.

Packaging: This balm comes in your average sized lip balm tube with a white label. The label has a sunflower with the shop's name in it and below that the flavor of the balm is printed nice and clear. Below the name of the balm is a picture depicting the flavor of the balm, this one has an image of a glass of sangria.

Price: $3 per tube which is a heck of a deal for how wonderful this balm is!

Overall
Pros: Flavor, Wear, Packaging, Price
Cons:

Rating: 5 out of 5 twists. This balm is seriously wonderful! I'd definitely recommend this as a balm to use this summer (or all year round!).

Ingredients: Beeswax, Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, Vitamin E Oil, Flavoring Oil

Have you tried this balm from Country Blossom yet? What did you think of it? What are some of your favorite summer drinks you wish you had in lip balm form?

Mini Monday 7.8.13

Happy Monday, everyone! I hope you're having a wonderful day so far and that your day only continues to improve. We had a really nice relaxing long weekend and I hope you had the same. Today we're trying to get back on our usual schedule, which may be a bit hard since we've had such a long time off. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this week's Mini Monday!

Long Winter Farm's Coquette

This balm smells very perfumey (just like the roll on perfume). It smells of bright citrus with a slight floral scent to it, it's really lovely! 

ForGoodnessGrape's Orange Rose

This smells of sweet, citrusy orange combined with a little bit of fresh rose. It surprised me that I actually really like this combination!

Live Beautifully's Cherry Pepper Jelly

I knew this balm would be super interesting, I've never had Cherry Pepper Jelly before, so I knew I'd be in for an experience with this balm. You can definitely tell that there's sweet, ripe cherry combined with spicy peppers!

There you have it! Have you tried any of these balms yet?

Have a wonderful day!

Balms of the Week 7.7.13

Hi all! I hope you're having a wonderful (long) weekend! We've been trying to be productive, but I think we've been doing more relaxing than anything else. Also, Rob actually went to his first Bikram class on Friday, and he liked it! Well...he didn't hate it...so we're going back today to see if he really likes it or not =). After that, the rest of today will probably involve sitting around because Bikram kinda takes it out of you. Do you have any special plans for today? Here are the special balms I've been using this week:

Aqua Blossom's Rainbow Love

This balm has definitely been my go-to balm this week, I can't get enough of it!

Chapstick's Strawberry Banana MixStix

I love these new MixStix from Chapstick!

Long Winter Farm's Honeyed Mango

I love that the honey isn't crazy strong in this balm, these new flavors from LWF are so wonderful!

Vintage Sister's Pina Colada and Shangri-La Shea Butter Relief with Lemon Essential Oil

Okay, seriously, the Pina Colada lasts through eating and drinking, and then some! The Lemon balm is also super soothing on my lips.

Epically Epic's Shamrock Shake

I've been taking this Shamrock Shake balm with me to Bikram everyday this week, it's super lovely!

What balms have you been using this week?

Happy Sunday!

Balms I've Got My Eye On 7.5.13

Happy Friday, everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday (or regular day) yesterday! For those of you who have today off in addition to yesterday, I hope you're enjoying your long weekend! Rob was lucky enough to have yesterday and today off, so we've got a nice long weekend this week. We'll mostly just be packing and cleaning though, so it won't be filled with doing nothing (which is Rob would much rather do). For those of you who don't have today off, I hope that this post can distract you for a little while =):

Moody Sister's Pink Grapefruit

(via)

It's been a while since I've had a really great grapefruit balm, maybe it's time for me to give this one a shot?

Long Winter Farm's Sea Sprite

(via)

I usually don't like lavender at all, but this balm is really intriguing me!

Ecolip's Restore (Coconut Ginger)

(via)

I've never had a Coconut Ginger lip balm before, but this one sounds divine!

There you have it! Some lovely balms to drool over =).

Happy Friday, everyone!

Wrangler's Monthly Wrap Up: June 2013

Happy 4th of July, everyone! I hope you have a wonderful (and safe) holiday! Apparently June ended so fast that I didn't even realize I hadn't posted my normal monthly wrap up! I hope you aren't too upset that it's being posted today instead of a review. June was a wonderful month, even though it felt like it was only about two weeks long! Here are some of my favorite parts from this last month:

Hawaiian Bath & Body

Epically Epic Limited Editions Round Two!

ForGoodnessGrape Part VIII

Guest Review: Mirasol Farm

Filthy Farmgirl

Tracey Gurley Bath & Body

Vintage Sister's Lip Lickers

What were some of your favorite parts of June? Do you have any super fun plans to celebrate the fourth?

Have a wonderful holiday!

Haul of the Week 7.3.13

Hi all! I hope you aren't too disappointed by my super small haul this week, as I've been saying, I've been trying hard to cut back on lip balm (and other expenses) since we have a big move coming up in two weeks. Money is a little bit tight this month, so my hauls may not be getting much bigger than this, no promises though ;).

Long Winter Farm

I bought Amanda's Coquette perfume oil a few weeks ago and fell in love with it as well as her Mango Tea and Sangria perfume oils, so as soon as I saw Coquette in a lip balm form, I knew I had to have it! I've also had my eye on Amanda's Peach balm for a while and am super happy to have it as part of my collection now.

What balms did you receive this week? Anything from any new shops?

Happy Wednesday!

Symbolic Imports Part II

I've had these balms for a little while now, I meant to review them a few weeks ago, but so many things came up that I wasn't able to. I'm glad I finally get to share these lovely balms with you today! I also wanted to let you guys know that I think I'm going to change up the amount of reviews I post on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I think I'll post just one each day. I'm trying to figure out my new schedule (my workout, my Bikram class, and my MCAT studying [yeah, I'm studying for that again]), and I think that lessening my load on those two days will help me a ton. Anyway, onto the review!

Company: Symbolic Imports

Flavors: Pink Lemonade, Lemon Poundcake, and Salted Caramel. The Pink Lemonade smells of sweet strawberry and refreshing lemonade, a perfect treat for your lips this summer! The Lemon Poundcake smells just like a baked good with the scent of sweet lemons. It has a rich scent and smells absolutely delicious. The Salted Caramel has a super rich and decadent scent to it. It has a rich, warm caramel scent with just a little bit of saltiness. It's just wonderful!

Wear: These balms go on soooo smooth and creamy! They glide right on to your lips and melts right into them. My lips feel soft as soon as this balm goes on. There's really not too much else you could ask of these balms!

Packaging: These come in your average sized lip balm tubes with labels that have colors pertaining to the flavor of the balm. The flavor of the balm as well as the shop's name is presented nice and clear right on front.

Price: $4 per tube which is just about the most I'm willing to spend on a balm, but there's usually a Saturday Night Special or a sale going on that I can snag these for cheaper! These particular balms were buy two, get one free.

Overall
Pros: Flavors, Wear, Packaging, Price
Cons:

Rating: 4 out of 5 twists. These balms are pretty wonderful! Each balm I've tried from this shop has had a wonderful scent and a great consistency. I'd definitely recommend trying a few balms from this shop!

Ingredients: Coconut Oil, Beeswax, Sweet Almond Oil, Avocado Oil, Flavor Oil

Have you tried any balms from Symbolic Imports yet? What did you think of them?

Mini Monday 7.1.13

Can you believe that June is over already? I feel like it had just begun! Is it me, or does everyone feel like this year has been going by crazy fast? I apologize for my tardiness with this post, last night I had missed the sun to take the pictures for the post. Yesterday just didn't turn out even close to what we expected to do. We ended up walking down to the parade, realized that I couldn't see anything no matter where I went because I'm so short and really tall people kept shouldering in directly in front of me which made it absolutely impossible for me to see anything. So after thirty minutes or so of that, we decided to return home and take care of some stuff that we need to do before we move to our new place, which we didn't and couldn't do because we forgot that on Sundays everything is closed (yesterday seriously just wasn't my day). And we didn't do Bikram because we were just so exhausted and really just wanted to relax, the last two or three weekends have been crazy busy for us as we've been out of town or had people from out of town come in, so we just wanted to finally clean our apartment and then relax the rest of the day. We relaxed so much that that's how I forgot to take the pictures for the post, and thus forgot to write this post last night. ANYWAY, long story short, I apologize for the tardiness, but let's start this week off right, here's this week's Mini Monday!

ChapStick's MixStix Strawberry Banana Smoothie

This balm is seriously amazing. The strawberry smells sweeter than their usual Strawberry ChapStick, it's almost candy-like in its sweetness. The banana has a light, true banana scent; it's not like the banana candy scent that I usually get in my banana balms. When you mix them together, it's just wonderful! I really love the packaging with these new MixStix, I think it's just such a neat idea!

Aqua Blossom's Rainbow Love

This balm is filled with bright, fruity scents; perfect for summer! It's seriously got every fruity scent under the rainbow. Love this balm!

Symbolic Imports' Buttercreme

Okay seriously, I could smell this balm before I even fully opened the package or the tube! It smells incredible! It's so rich and decadent and just amazing. It smells just like rich and creamy buttercreme frosting, seriously, this is the best buttercreme balm I've ever tried.

There you have it! I hope you enjoyed this week's Mini Monday!
Happy Monday, everyone! Have a wonderful day!