[Tea Review] Kusmi Tea Sweet Love

Kusmi Tea did a special for Valentines day, with any purchase you got a free .88 oz. tin of their Sweet Love tea. I was running low on their Strawberry Green Tea, so I took this as an opportunity to try out a new tea! I figured since it is February why not review a tea that has to do with love!

 Now I am going to start off with this is not your normal, everyday, breakfast tea. Unless your normal tea is spicy.... or has a licorice kick to it. The OK, it is. However this tea is a good change when you normally drink bergamot or fruity teas.

This tea does have a licorice taste to it. More so than a spicy taste. The spice taste comes as an after taste once you have had time for all the flavors to sit. The smell I can best describe as "hot licorice" it has that pepper smell, but also that black licorice smell to it as well. Just from the smell of this tea you really know what you are getting! I will say, that when I say this tea is spicy, it is not hot spicy, I have had hotter, and this is very very mild in the spicy hot taste scale. 

The small tins from Kusmi are loose tea, and the tea in their tins always looks amazing! They packed this tin full too! The tops go on very tight and stay on, so the tea stays fresh! They also sell this tea in tea bags as well! Tea bags cost $16.70 and then the tins go up from there. You can find it online here.

[Ipsy] February Ipsy Glam Bag

My February Ipsy bag is here and I got some really awesome products this month! The last few months have been really awesome for Ipsy and I am so excited whenever I get my sneak peak each month from their webpage! 

The Bag!

I love this months bag! It has a Pixel look to it, and that makes me happy! I think it is my second favorite bag, the Space one being my favorite!

Paula Dorf Baby Eyes Enhancer

Another brand I had not heard of. This one the top did not want to stay on (even though it came with a plastic shrink wrap to it.) This eye enhancer/highlighter went on very smooth and has a nice brightening look to it! I got a .02 oz. one in my bag. A full size retails for $20 and can be found here.

Luxie Beauty Flat Definer Brush

I got a brush from Luxie last February (A cheek brush) so I was excited to get another brush from this company.The bristles on the Flat Definer Brush are soft and it does not shed. It gives you a great defined line. I really love these brushes! (plus you can never have too many brushes)

It retails for $12.00 and can be found here!

Smashbox Cosmetics Photo Finish Primer Oil

Smashbox makes some great products, so I was really excited to get something from them in my glambag! You put primer oil on, let it soak into your skin and then apply makeup, you can also use this at night after taking your makeup off since it helps with moisture. Skin oils help your skin, even if you have oily skin, so do not let that scare you away from it. I am super excited to see how this stuff works over the next week or so. My first impression of trying it was it soaked into my skin quickly and didn't leave a residue at all. The size I got in my bag is .13 oz. a full size goes for $42 for a 1 oz. bottle. You can find it here

Chella Lipstick Pencil

I had never heard of Chella before getting this Lipstick Pencil in Passionate Pink. First thing I noticed about this color was the smell, it has a very pleasing smell to it, and anything I am putting on my lips I do not want to smell bad, so that was a great plus. The color was also very pretty, not super bright and it went well with my skin tone. The color went on smooth and had great coverage!
I got a 1.35g size pencil, a full size retails for $18 and can be found here.

Jersey Shore Cosmetics Vanilla Bean Anti-Aging Lip and Hand Polish

This is what I was most excited about in my GlamBag this month! I had seen the Pumpkin Spice Lip conditioner they had as a point perk a little bit ago, and missed it. So I was excited to get something from this company. This stuff is interesting. Its for lips and hands, its a lot like a sugar scrub, you use damp water and scrub it on your skin and rub it in then rinse off. The smell is great, wonderful vanilla smell. I really liked this, I had to smoosh it around so it was mixed properly in the tube before I used it, but it worked really well and has a great exfoliating feel to it. 

It comes in a 1oz. container and can be found here. 

I am loving Ipsy, and each month it is a fun surprise! I have been getting these bags for just over a year and have gotten so try so many awesome products I would have never known about if I had not! Ipsy is $10 a month and you can find out about it here.

[Tea Review] Tea and Absinthe "TARDIS-Nine- Fantastic" Tea

Tea and Absinthe was at RegenerationWho 1 last March, and I picked up some of their TARDIS-Nine-Fantastic tea! It comes in a super cute package with a TARDIS sticker on it. They have a ton of different varieties of tea, some themed, like the Doctors ones. 

The tea I purchased was TARDIS-Nine-Fantastic. It has a light floral/spiced smell to it and a floral/spiced taste with a lemon state as well. I enjoyed this tea hot, but really enjoyed it once it had cooled as well. The rose hip taste came out a lot once it was cooled. This tea had a light taste to it and very refreshing!

I really loved the packaging for this tea! It was simple, but very cute and fit the Doctor Who theme for the tea! 

The loose tea is also very lovely looking! You can see why it has floral scents to it. The chamomile is what stood out most to me when I was putting the tea in my infuser. 

Tea and Absinthe also had a lot of fun tea accessories and fun containers like this blue tin that they made to look like a TARDIS! I have been using this to store some of my tea bags in! 

I would highly suggest checking out Tea and Absinthe's webpage or visit them at a con! They visit a bunch all over the U.S.

[Geek Beauty Product] Hello Kitty Softlips Cube

After a little bit of looking I finally found one of the four Hell Kitty Softlips Cubes! Softlips released four of these super cute Hello Kitty themed lip moisturizers in the colors Red (apple), Pink (Strawberry Banana), Purple (Passion Fruit), and Blue (Cupcake). They released them individually and as a set of four. 

The packaging for these is super cute! They each have a little theme, Red's is smart, so Hello Kitty has glasses on. Purple (Pretty) is winking, Pink (Cute) is just regular Hello Kitty, because how can you get cuter than that! and Blue (Sweet) is just regular Hello Kitty too!

The design on these is nice, its not just a regular sticker that will peel off easily, I ran my finger and nail over it and its staying on there, so woot for quality!! (and cuteness!!)

The lid for the Softlips Cubes screw off and on, so you do not have to worry about the tops coming off in your bag, which is good. I have used the regular Softlips Cubes before (I got my first over a year ago in one of my Influenster Voxboxes) So I already knew they were good quality, but was happy the sticker wouldn't peel off easy. 

The smell is very nice. It's apple, and not super overpowering. The lip conditioner goes on smooth and stays on your lips (unless you eat or wipe at them, then not much will stay on well.) It also has a fruity taste, but not a strong one at all, very pleasing. I really like these, and the fact that I can now have cute Hello Kitty faces on them too makes me happy! 

To show I have used these in the past, the regular two that I have in my purse and at my computer!

I found mine at Target for $3.49.

You can find the Softlips webpage for them here

[Loot Pets] Loot Pets January Crate - Invasion

January's Loot Pets is out! The second box in the super fun pet crate has lots of awesome stuff in it. One item this month made Jimmy a little sad, but all together still a fun crate of geeky pet goods for my favorite little Pug! This months crate came with a super cute lease, pet tag, shirt, treats and a flying disk!

We will start with the treats this month! Sweet Potato Crisps! Jimmy was SUPER excited for these, I opened the box and he went right for them! I had to break them up because they were huge but he gobbled the one I gave him up and wanted more! Also I freaking love the artwork on these bags!

Loot Pet treats? YES!

Jimmy has loved these treats! I also like that they are made in the U.S. 

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The shirt this month has an X-Files theme (same as the Human Loot Crate shirt.) Jimmy is wearing a Large and it fits him well, this one also washed up great since he wore it outside and it needed to be washed after him getting it wet because of rain. 

Jimmy wants to believe! 

The one item that made me a little sad was the Battle Star Galactica flying disk. Jimmy LOVES flying disks, his favorite type of toys to play with, he was brutal on this one, it took about 10 minutes for him to do this. He was so sad when I took it away from him. I did cut out the logo and made it a coaster for my side table so it didn't go to waist. 

But I want to PLAY! Give it back Mom!!!

My favorite item from this months Pet Crate! The Space Invaders 6 foot leash! I was excited for a cute leash to go along with the cute collar from last month! This has great colors and is very well made! I love all the little space invaders that are on it!

The new collar tag! A little bone shape space ship! This went on his collar with the other tag (that is right above it in the photo!)

And this months Loot Pet Magazine. I love love love the doggy Mulder and Scully on the cover of this! It has info about all the items in it and some photos of pups from last month as well as some of the dogs of the staff at Loot Crate!

Even with the flying disk flub (which I still made into something useable), I am still very happy with Loot Pet and am excited for February's Crate with the theme of  "Dead". I am excited to see what cute stuff they have in store for my cute little Puggy! Loot crate costs 24.99 a month (19.99 plus shipping)

Check out Loot Pet here!

Check out Jimmy's and my un-boxing video!!

[Tea Review] Lavender Pu-erh Tea cake

I was given a gift of two tea cakes of Lavender Pu-erh over the weekend. I have never used the caked tea (just bags, loose tea and the pearls/flower tea.) So I was excited to try out some caked teas that my friend got from China!

I love the simple, but colorful packaging with the name of the tea on it! (the characters on the top 薰衣草, means Lavender in Chinese.)

Opening up the small packages that are wrapped in a wax type paper you have a small tea cake that is shaped like a birds nest. It was just the right size to fit into my tea infuser too! So didn't have to break it or anything!

The tea cakes are about as round as an american quarter, and fit great into one of my tea infusers, I basically made it the same way I made loose tea, put it in the infuser and then poured hot water over it!  

After I made my second cup of tea with it I was curious how the packed cake looked once it had steeped a bit. Just the same as loose tea! I got many many more cups out of the one tea cake, and the tea was strong and not watery for all of them! 

The tea cake itself did not have a smell when I smelled it after opening. Once I brewed the tea it had an earthy, musty smell to it. The taste was good, the first few cups had that strong bitter taste (which i like in a tea), it had a small hint of lavender in the taste. After my first cup I needed a little bit of sweet and added some honey to mine though. 

The tea also had an incredibly lovely shade to it once brewed.

Overall I would be interested in trying other types of tea prepared as cakes. The lavender Pu-erh was good, I would drink it again when I wanted something with just an earthy taste and not a fruity or other flavor added. Just a nice, warm tea to enjoy and relax too. 

You can find this tea online sold through an ebay seller (where my friend got theirs) This is the exact person they ordered from so they sent me the link to their store which has other varieties and even a set of different teas!

[Geeky Bath Products] Fortune Cookie Soaps: Magic is Coming

On February 5th Fortune Cookie Soaps released a throwback collction of their "Magic is Coming" Collection, a fairy tale inspired collection of soaps, perfumes, shampoo bars and hand sanitizers. I was able to get two of the products before they all sold out (and oh buddy they sold out quick! two of the items I had in my cart sold out before I could pay......)

I was able to snag the Evil Queen Bar Soap and the Prince Charming Hand Sanitzer. I had never tried Fortune Cookie Soaps (I missed the Doctor Who set they did sadly.) So I was excited to try these out! 

First thing I got out of my box was the Evil Queen Hand Soap. This was wrapped up nicely in a bag with a cute printed sticker on it. One thing I have noticed by looking at their webpage and their photos on Instagram is Fortune Cookie Soaps are all about the presentation of their products, which is great for a company to show pride in their quality and the display of their products. 

The soap looks lovely! It is a black heart with a red splatter over it. I really liked the smell of this soap. It is not fruity or sweet, since it is the Evil Queen. It has an eloquent must smell to it. Which makes sense since the webpage says this soap has Sandalwood and a spicy musk scent to it. I was weary about purchasing this, thinking I wouldn't like the smell, I really like this though.  This soap was $ 4.99 and you can find it online here, it is sold out right now but hopefully they will bring it back in stock soon!

The second item I was able to get a hold of was the Prince Charming OCD Hand Sanitzer. I keep a bottle of hand sanitzer in my purse all the time, since I am generally around a lot of people. I was excited that one of the items that Fortune Cookie Soaps make is hand sanitzer. I could smell citrus scents in this hand sanitizer and a bit of mango as well. You could also smell the alcohol in it as well, which is common in hand sanitzers since that is an active ingredient. Not my favorite item out of the two, but it will definitely get used. This 1 oz. bottle was $2.80 and can be found on their webpage here.

I will say I am very impressed with the quality of the items I did get from this set. I am really excited to try more of their products in the future. They also do a quarterly soap box that I want to try and snatch one up and check out too! Check out Fortune Cookie Soaps webpage here. 

[Makeup Review] Island Girl Hawaii Nail Polish

Island Girl Cosmetics is a brand of nail polish, lip gloss, and grooming tools sold through ABC Hawaii stores. If you are not familiar with ABC, they are a line of convince stores in Hawaii (and a few in Las Vegas as well.)

I purchased some of their nail polish years ago on my last trip to Hawaii, but picked up two colors on my trip I just took to Las Vegas.  A pretty glittery purple and a shiny blue color. 

The Nail polishes are 2.99 a piece for 2 for $5 (many of their products had a two for price at the ABC stores.) They come in 0.65 fl. oz. sizes (they also sell multi packs of smaller bottles as well)

I needed a purple nail polish to touch up my nail polish for the character I was acting as for the weekend at Otakon Vegas, and her signature colors are black and purple, so I chose this glittery purple to use! I really liked it, it went on well and took 2 coats to give me a good coverage, I did notice though after about 4 days the glittery nail polish did start to get brittle, which I can understand because it has a bunch of glitter in it! The purple glitter color is 1403A (this one didn't have a cute name)

I chose this lovely blue because it reminded me of TARDIS blue. It is a beautiful blue with a shimmery look to it. The color was M1803 or "Tropical Magic". This one stayed on for longer than four days before it began to chip, it was very smooth going on and didn't have the brittle feeling of the glitter polish (which I am guessing is because of the glitter itself.) 

For the price of this brand, I would recomend trying it out if you see colors you like! I wish I had grabbed one of their cuticle oils to try out since they looked rather pretty and I am always up for trying out new (to me) nail products. Oh well I guess that is somehting to check out next time I am in Hawaii or Vegas! You can see their line of Island Girl products on the ABC webpage here

As with any dark nail polishes I wear, I suggest wearing a clear base coat before putting on dark colors, since they do have a habit to stain your nails, but I say that for any brand of nail polish.