Lorna Jane - my first Sweat Pink event!

Disclaimer: I received merchandise credit as a Sweat Pink Ambassador in return for attending this event, writing a blog post, and promoting on social media. All opinions are all my own and do not represent those of Lorna Jane, Sweat Pink, or Fit Approach.

MOVE ~ NOURISH ~ BELIEVE

I had the opportunity to attend the grand opening of Lorna Jane in Bellevue Square last night, and while I knew they sold super cute active wear I had NO IDEA what a positive experience the evening would be!

For those of you not familiar with the brand, Lorna Jane is based in Australia and is an active wear line DESIGNED by a woman, FOR women. Disappointed by the selection of attractive and well fitting workout attire in the market, Lorna Jane Clarkson started making her own workout clothes while working as a fitness instructor, and started selling her designs to her students. Her designs became so popular that she started the company Lorna Jane, which she still owns and manages (along with her husband), as well as still serves as the designer for all the clothing. Not only are the designs specifically made for the female form, but they also embody Lorna Jane's philosophy of MOVE NOURISH BELIEVE. This quote from the Lorna Jane site says it all - 

Move Nourish Believe is about feeding your mind and spirit with new learnings and exciting experiences to keep your blood pumping and inspiration flowing. It makes you want to create an amazing life for yourself by making every second of every day truly count 

From the moment I walked in the store I know I was in for something unique and fun. Bright colors and inspirational quotes surround you, delicious gluten-free cupcakes are being served. Ladies of all shapes, sizes, and walks of life are excitedly picking out items and trying them on.

 

 

 I had the joy of hanging out with Jessica, who shared with me the story of Lorna Jane and their philosophy, then she whisked me away to pick out just the right items for me to try on based on my preferences and workouts. Then I was off to the dressing room to try them on and see just what makes Lorna Jane different. Imagine my surprise when not only did every item fit PERFECTLY, but each one was cuter than the last! It was very tough to leave any of the beauties behind, but I managed to restrain myself to only bring home a sports bra and top for now. (woke up this morning to an email letting me know that the capri pants I sooooo wanted are on sale today only on their website, so I may very well be hitting the checkout button as soon as I publish this post).

Since it was their grand opening each attendee received a swag bag with coupons for local health & fitness clubs/classes, a pack of Jelly Belly Sports Beans, a homemade body scrub, and a homemade lip scrub. When you made a purchase (and how could you not?!) you also received a hot pink MNB bracelet.

The place was PACKED, folks are certainly excited to have them in town and I for one will be back soon!

Disclaimer: I received merchandise credit as a Sweat Pink Ambassador in return for attending this event, writing a blog post, and promoting on social media. All opinions are all my own and do not represent those of Lorna Jane, Sweat Pink, or Fit Approach.

Do you Bulu?

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Have you tried Bulu Box? Bulu Box is the first health, nutrition and weight loss discovery box designed to help you feel your best. Each month, you’ll get a custom box filled with a new mix of 4 to 5 premium samples from top brands to try, and the Box comes in two versions - a general heath & nutrition box and a weight loss focused box.

I signed up for a 6 month subscription for the weight loss box, and my first one arrived today! My box contained:

GU Chomps - high performance energy chews in Strawberry 

PowerIce - frozen electrolyte bar in Orange Blast

EatGreenTea - organic whole leaf edible green tea

Twinlab Power Fuel - pre-training formula drink mix in Electric Blue Raspberry

Thera-Gesic Pain Relieving Creme 

Shapeology Burn Blend - weight loss supplement

There was also a card with a checklist of healthy items to keep in stock for your kitchen, as well as a couple yummy sounding recipes - but as a vegetarian I won't be trying either of them. 

Overall I am pretty thrilled with this month's box, though I am unable to use the Power Fuel or Burn Blend due to the caffeine content so I will be passing those on to the hubby. The energy chews will be perfect on my 3-Day next month, and I will likely also take the pain relieving creme 'cause my knee will likely need it. I look forward to enjoying the PowerIce after my next run or bike ride, and as I love to green tea I am looking forward to adding the edible tea leaves to my next smoothie!

I should have expected that a "weight loss" box had a high probability of having stimulants in it, but it was certainly still worth the value I paid, especially since I picked up my 6 month subscription for only $30!

So have you checked out Bulu Box? If so, what do you think?

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Lifeway Kefir

Disclaimer: this product was provided by Influenster for my honest review and opinion.

I recently received a voucher from Influenster for a free product of my choice from Lifeway Kefir (as well as a second coupon to save $1 on two products). I was pretty excited to give it a try to I walked over to the Target across the street and picked up the Low-Fat Raspberry Smoothie as I thought that *might* be the flavor that my husband would also enjoy the most. I could not have been MORE correct, we both LOVED it! The first taste was a little odd as it's a very thick consistency (not quite yogurt, but certainly thicker than the average smoothie) but the taste is marvelous. The bottle I thought would last us a couple weeks was gone in less than a week, and I'm now looking forward to trying more of their products. I am especially intrigued by the frozen kefir and will be looking for that next time I journey over to Whole Foods for sure.

Did you also receive the Lifeway Kefir voucher? If so, which product did you try, and how did you enjoy it?

Disclaimer: this product was provided by Influenster for my honest review and opinion.

Update on Palmolive Fresh Infusions

I have been using the Palmolive Fresh Infusions Lemon Tyme dish soap for a couple weeks now and I have to say I am impressed so far! The smell is quite nice (no strong chemical or soapy smell) and it gets the job done nicely. It even works well to let the crockpot or large pots & pans soak for a while - and let's face it I am HORRIBLE about letting things 'soak' for far too long.

I have not tried it for anything but dishes at this point - my regular blue Dawn gets used all over the house for spot removal and laundry - but for a dish soap it does the job without making my hands dry and it smells nice so I call it a win! I have yet to try the other scents, I let the hubby pick out which one to try and this was his choice.

Now available at Walmart!

Disclaimer: this product was provided by Influenster for my honest review and opinion.

Palmolive Fresh Infusions

A few days ago I was cleaning out my spam folder and found an email from Influenster telling me that I was selected to try out the new Fresh Infusions line from Palmolive. Imagine my surprise today when I opened my mailbox to find not one but THREE full size bottles of dish soap!

The three scents are Lemon Thyme, Ginger White Tea, and Lime Basil and they all smell incredible. When I first opened the box the lemon thyme had leaked just a tiny bit (the lid was not completely closed) and I was quite surprised by how good it smelled, more like fresh cut citrus than soap or a faux/chemical lemon smell.

I can't believe I'm actually looking forward to doing some dishes so I can try them each out! It will take my ages to get through all this dish soap but at least my kitchen will smell fresh and clean in the process ;)

Let me know if you are interested in trying out Influenster, and I can send you an invitation! This is the second time I have been selected to test out new products and it's a lot of fun, plus it introduces me to things I wouldn't normally tried (I'm pretty loyal to the original blue Dawn so I don't know that I would have picked these up) and I've found some new favorite items that I now can't live without.

January Julep Maven - It Girl

This month's Julep theme was Neons & Nudes - neither of which are my favorites - but I liked the It Girl offerings so I made a switch from my usual American Beauty.

Inside were three polishes (2 neons, 1 nude), a sheet of the new "swatch me" stickers, and three neon pony tail holders. The bottles also have one of the stickers on the lid, which is a new feature from Julep that makes it easy to swatch the top of each polish bottle so you can easily see which bottle is which color when they are stored standing upright in a drawer or container. I love the concept, but I already swatch my bottles with contact paper and a hole punch (paint the polish on the contact paper, and when it dries punch out a circle to stick on top of the lid) so the extra sheet will likely never get used. I've read that they will be including the stickers on all new bottles from now on,  so we'll see if my compulsion to have everything match will get the best of me since the stickers are difficult to remove! Yep, I might be a little C-D-O (like OCD but with the letters in alphabetical order - as they should be!)

Quick swatches of the new polishes:
2 coats of Amelia
3 coats of Nina
3 coats of Nikki
2 coats of Color Club's Tweet Me (since it arrived the night before)

Nina and Nikki both tried to a satin finish, not quite a matte but not the usual Julep shine either. They are not nearly as NEON as I was expecting, and I'm honestly quite happy about that fact as I wanted more bright cheery color than in your face, day-glo 1980s style so they work quite well in that regard. I'm interested to try them over white "undies" to see if that makes the color pop more as well as to avoid having to do three coats - especially since Nikki still has a visible nail line after three coats in the swatches above. The only minor complaint I have at this point is that I had painted my toes with Nikki and the removal left a pale yellow tint all over, it looked like a highlighter had leaked all over my fingers! Nothing that a good scrub with soap and a nail brush couldn't fix, but it took a surprising amount of remover to get the bulk of the color both off my toes and my fingers from using the cotton balls. I'll be sure to go with my usual method of soaking small bits of cotton in remove and leaving on each nail for a minute method, rather than trying to use one cotton ball for more than one nail, as that's how the transfer occurred.

Since receiving this order I also got my "end of the year" sale order of Olivia and Mischa, so expect more swatches soon!

*Disclaimer - links contained within this post are referral links, and I will receive credit for anyone who signs up and makes a purchase.

Quick and easy nail art

My Mash nail art dotting tool set arrived today, so of course I had to try them out!

I used the largest tool for this quick and easy mani, with Zoya Zuza and Julep Georgia.

Just a little something to brighten this damp cold weather and remind me of summer!

The kit comes with 5 tools, each with two different size ends. Quite the deal at $3.98! MASH 5 X 2 Way Marbleizing Dotting Tool Pen Set for Nail Art Manicure Pedicure

*Disclaimer - links contained within this post are referral links, and I will receive credit for anyone who signs up and makes a purchase.