Healthy Baby Home Party!

What is a Healthy Baby Home Party?
Seventh Generation's home parties are powered by people like you who are focused on creating a healthy environment for the next generation.  Developed with input from non-profit partner, Healthy Child Healthy World, they are a great way to get together with friends, share helpful information, and make an impact!

Healthy Baby Home Party kits are provided to all selected hosts and are filled with educational info about our environment, helpful tips, a fun game, and samples and coupons from Seventh Generation and other family-friendly brands like bobble, Plum Organics and Zarbee's Naturals.

What is the Application Process?
Sign up at www.generationgood.net to join the Generation Good community, or log in if already a member.
Accept the Healthy Baby Home Party Application offer on your Generation Good dashboard and complete the application.
Applicants will be notified by end of March if they have been selected to host a party, via an email to the email address assigned to their Generation Good member profile.
All selected applicants will then need to confirm their participation by accepting the Healthy Baby Home Party Mission in Generation Good and confirm their shipping address.
1900 FREE party kits will be distributed in this round.
Hosting spots are open to US residents only at this time.  Canadian parties are planned for later in 2016!
Full terms and conditions are available within Generation Good in the "Healthy Baby Home Party Application" offer.

Review: St. Ives Skin

I guess this blog has become my review blog...don't really sit down to write anything personal anymore.
Well, I'm still here, still pregnant, very tired, sore and moving tomorrow from apartment to house!  Yay us, right?
Well, today was spent cleaning ALLLLLLL day, and let me tell you, as if my hands weren't dry enough before, they're killing me now!!!  Luckily, a couple weeks ago I got this great box in the mail from St. Ives Skin and Influenster!  Perfect time to use and review, eh?

First up for review, the St. Ives Nourished & Smooth Oatmeal Scrub & Mask.  On a scale of 1 to 5, I'd give it ***
It arrived just hours before my regularly scheduled soak in the bathtub, so I decided to check it out immediately.  The instructions say it can be used as a scrub, or you can leave it on as a mask.  As I was going to soak in the tub, I figured a mask would be more beneficial.  I'm used to a nice mud mask, which gets dry but washes off rather easily.  This dried even faster, but was not easy to wash off (I'm 8 months pregnant, so leaning forward to drown myself in the tub is not easy, and this was not something a couple splashes would take off).  Also, the oatmeal scent is true to form...having the mask on sent me through flash backs of oatmeal baths for poison when I was a kid!  It did make my skin feel soft at the time of rinse, but did nothing as far as moisture or deep-cleaning was concerned.  Decided a few days later to try it as a scrub, leaving it on as I shampooed my hair and then rinsing it quickly...still had the soft feeling, but again nothing to help long-term moisture effects.  It's a decent scrub (I used to swear by the apricot scrub growing up), just not the best product from St. Ives!
Would I recommend it?  Probably not.

Next up?  St. Ives Even & Bright Body Wash.  On a scale of 1 to 5, I give this one *****
This body wash is amazing!  I love it!  Normally I purchase Dove body wash with the exfoliant beads to help scrub away dry skin and make me feel refreshed.  St. Ives did the same thing, but with an amazing scent of pink lemonade with a slight hint of orange.  It awakens your senses as you bathe, so it may not be the best choice for a late-night shower before bed, but definitely helps wake me up in the morning and leaves me feeling clean and refreshed!
Would I recommend it?  Absolutely!

Lastly, the St. Ives Refresh & Revive Pear Nectar & Soy Body Lotion.  On a scale of 1 to 5, I give it ****
For a lotion, it is decent.  The scent is definitely more pear, which I'm not sure I like for a body lotion.  As far as moisturizing, it does an ok job for normal skin, but right now my hands are really dry and this lotion just isn't cutting it, I feel like I'm applying another layer every 10-15 minutes.  It goes on creamy, not greasy, and it doesn't make me itch like some scented lotions do.
Would I recommend it?  As an everyday lotion, sure, unless you've got really dry skin!

Get Unsafe Chemicals Off Store Shelves!

Tweet & email the U.S. Senators from your state to let them know that you want meaningful change to the chemical regulation standards last set in 1976.

Step 1 - Email your Senators NOW to tell the senate we want strong TSCA (Toxic Substances Control Act) reform!

Step 2 - Find your Senators' Twitter Handles HERE.

Step 3 - Copy and paste their handles into the Twitter Sharing tool below with your message and tweet them to show how much you care!

Sample tweet: @senatorsname I'm a mom who wants toxic chemical laws fixed! Support stronger TSCA reform, please!

Welch's Refreshingly Simple Juice

As most of you probably know, Schylar (my 4-year-old) is a juice-a-holic.  I try to find nutritious options for her because that is literally all she will drink.  We were chosen by BzzAgent to try Welch's Refreshingly Simple free for our honest opinions, and were given the option of what flavor we wanted.  I decided to try the Strawberry Raspberry flavor.
Schy was quite excited when the bottle arrived of "strawberry" juice and once it was chilled, she got to break out her sippy cup!  She chugged it down quick, just as she does her normal favorites and said it was yummy and tasted like strawberries.  I was nervous about the raspberry addition being there, but she made no mention of flavors besides strawberry, and has been asking for more since.  It's a nice replacement for her normal favorites.  It doesn't seem to be too sugary, there's not a sugar rush and crash that occur with other brand name juices.  All in all, we love Welch's Refreshingly Simple!
If you'd like to try some out, I have some coupons for $.75 off to share!

YSL Black Opium

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I was lucky enough to score TWO Influenster Vox Boxes in the last couple weeks.  The second one I received, I'll be reviewing today.  The second box was from Yves Saint Laurent, their new perfume Black Opium.  Even the name of it had me intrigued.

This perfume boasts of scents of vanilla bean, white flowers, and black coffee.  Upon reading that, my nose hesitated.  Not a coffee drinker, so just the thought of smelling like a coffee shop had me nervous to try it.  Don't hesitate like I did!
The "coffee" scent is minimal, I wouldn't have even guessed that's what it was.  I do love the combination these scents make together.  It's a very feminine, sexy scent.  Perfect for special occasions or romantic nights out.  If you get those, that is.  As a mom of 2, soon to be 3, date nights usually consist of "Netflix & Chill" as kids these days are calling it (and by chill I mean literally, pig out on junk food and fall asleep).
A small bottle runs $25, which is equivalent to what I'd normally pay for a small bottle, so this may be on my list next time I need to replace perfume!

Apple & Eve Review

As most of my readers know, I am a part of one of the coolest sites out there, Influenster!  This site offers great products for free, in exchange for your honest review.  In the past couple weeks, I've actually received TWO VoxBoxes from them.  The first, what I'm going to review today, is the Apple & Eve VoxBox.
My two daughters are always happy to be my guinea pigs, but when they found out this box was all for them, they were ecstatic!  My 4-year old even helped me film the unboxing video!

With our box, we received three Quenchers (the size of a normal Hi-C juice box) and a one-liter bottle of Apple & Eve Organics (ours was Tart Cherry).
The girls impatiently waited while we put the juice in the fridge to get cold, and were quite pleased that they were ready to drink at dinner time.  They each grabbed a Quencher, and shared so the other sister could try her juice.  They said they could not pick a favorite, but based on how quickly it was chugged down, I'm thinking the Razzberry Apple Splash was definitely the winner!  

Sorry for the dark picture...
The tart cherry juice went quickly as well, the whole liter was gone within a day (I did mention my 4 year old loves juice, right?).  I personally wasn't a fan of the flavor, but my daughter was, and has changed her ways of picking juices at the store now.  I was a big fan of the after party of Apple & Eve juice drinking...there was no sugar rush, and therefore no sugar crash!  And because it was 100% organic juice I don't feel bad about it being all my 4-year-old insists on drinking!
Apple & Eve juice is a great choice for moms with kids who are picky and won't drink milk or water, like Schy.  It's also a great treat for kids who constantly choose milk to be able to have a drink of juice and still be healthy!

It's Not Photoshop, It's Airbrushed!

Recently, I was given the opportunity to try out a new product available in stores, Sally Hanson Air Brush Legs.  Most of the products I receive to review I receive free, this product I did have to purchase at a reduced price.
The original product was listed in my local Walmart store at $11.74 for a 4 oz bottle.  Financially, this a lot better deal than the Bodyology bottle of tanner I have that costs $27 for 2.8 oz.
There were many different airbrush products in our store:  legs or face, lotion or spray, 5 shades for each (Fairest, Light, Medium, Tan, and Deep).  I chose the Medium Leg Lotion to try out.
I normally stray away from self-tanners because I dislike the orange-glow that they usually give.
The first thing I noticed about this airbrush tanner was the smell.  It did have a rather unpleasant smell to it.  Something I didn't experience with my Bodyology tanner.
The bottle says to use a quarter-sized amount and rub in to legs.  When I squeezed some out, I had my doubts; the color looked dark.  As I spread it out on my legs it seemed to lighten and ended up being not much darker than my tan is now (you know, the tan that I'd been hitting tanning beds and sitting outside for hours since April!).  It spread easily without getting clumpy so my legs ended with a nice even tan.  Dried quickly, within a minute or two.
I was concerned with smearing so I have been checking my black leather couch and my shorts for marks (I applied a few hours ago) and so far no rub-off!!  I also want to note that the original odor out-of-the-bottle went away after application..
I'm pleasantly surprised by the tanning effect of this product.  It doesn't make me look orange, and it's less than half the price of my favorite tanner!
As you can see in the picture, the colors aren't too far off.  Leg on the left is au naturale, I've been tanning since April leg.  Leg on the right is the airbrushed legs.  Nice even tan and it seemed to fade some of my scars!

If you'd like to try this product for yourself, I've been given permission to share this coupon with you for $2 off.  Hope you enjoy it as much as I do!!
Leaving tomorrow early morning to go on our mini-vacation for my birthday.  We finally decided on a destination.  Bushkill Falls in the Poconos.  We originally said about Niagara Falls, NY but Bushkill is half the distance for us and is considered the "Niagara of Pennsylvania."  We're staying at the Budget Inn overnight tomorrow and then coming home sometime Saturday.  Plan on having a nice full day of hiking through the waterfalls, mini golfing, paddle boats, mining for gems, yummy food.  Perfect birthday!!  Full review with pictures at a later date, promise!