RiverTree Life Essential oil gear review and giveaway

RiverTree Life sent me the following products to review. Rivertree Life is a family-owned business in Siloam Springs, Arkansas.  They have a love for essential oils and wanted to enjoy with attractive bottles, accessories, tubes and storage. In my quest for healthier living, I find that the neat bottles help me use the concoctions that I make.

Here is an overview of my first thoughts after opening the package.

110 Masculine Poly Weatherproof Labels

The masculine poly lables are weatherproof and a great way to label your products! I wish I had some other styles now. All 110 (2 sheets) are peel and stick. You can use them on any container to label your blends. I used a permanent marker (sharpie). They are not meant for laser or ink jet printers. The labels measure about 1” tall and 1.5” wide. To insure a good adhesion, wash and dry hands prior and give the bottles/containers a quick wipedown.

Set of 3 Blank 10 ML Brown Amber Roll on bottles - I learned something new about the amber bottles. The amber color protects against UV rays and helps your product last longer. Awesome!! The 10 ml bottles are the perfect size for your purse or diaper bag. My daughter keeps one of these filled with a focus blend. She applies it in the morning before school. We have it in a pouch in a seat cover on the back of the seat in my car. She loves having her own bottle. This is great to empower and teach kids about healthy living and promote conversation. The lid screws on and is plastic.

Set of 3 Yasmine 10 ML Brown Amber Roll on bottles. These are the same as their blank brown amber bottles with gorgeous gold metallic printed on the bottle in 3 designs. It has a stainless steel roller ball. After using other brands, I find the stainless steel the best choice in most brands. These allow for even application of your oil product.

Aluminum and Glass refillable essential oil Personal Nasal inhaler. Here is a previous review as well.

I have actually done a review of this before and I find it very helpful. It is great in warm areas like a docking station at your desk if you can’t plug a diffuser in, or in a car. I find this additional use very helpful to help reduce anxiety in situation where you cannot use traditional means. This also makes it to where you don’t have to make it obvious that you are using it. These are the Mink Brown and light purple.

Here is an infographic from RiverTree Lifes website.

I wanted to make sure to remind you, when making blends that you apply (such as with these rollers) make sure you always use a carrier oil.

Enter to win an the purple inhaler!

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True citrus review

I'm terrible at drinking water. Not the mineral water or naturally flavored water, but the plain fluid that courses through our veins comprising 80% of our body.  I try to squeeze lemon and lime into a water bottle and keep it portable. However mid-day I get the visions of infomercials showing how hard it is to squeeze a lemon on the go. Yes, you can just cut a lemon and squeeze, but who wants to keep a knife and lemon in their purse?

Queue True Citrus products. I initially tried true lemon, true lime, and true grapefruit a few years ago and it was simply crystalized lemon, lime and grapefruit. I do remember my water consumption increasing exponentially.

In this sample pack I received their true lemonade, raspberry lemonade, orange mango, summer berry, watermelon fresca and black cherry limeade.

These are made with  all natural stevia and sugar. My verdict is still out on Stevia and I do limit my sugar intake, but these are great for those REALLY hot days that are coming up! I added one packet to a batch of black tea and that was fantastic! Nice and refreshing in water as well.  The packets have between up to 30 calories and 6g of sugar, however I only use a half packet per glass.

Vermitek Worm Farm Review

Vermitek sent me an ITower to review. VermiTek designs, manufactures, and distributes multiple items from Worm Compost Bins and Bokashi Compost Kits to barrels and gardening accessories.  

The Itower Accessories includes: 1 thermometer, 1 coconut brick, 1 coconut fiber mat, 1 fertilizer cup, 1 worm bed handling claw, 1 scraper, 1 tong, 1 pc of working tray support board, and 1 user's manual

Little Crazy Life decided she wanted to start a worm farm for her summer project. I figured this is an awesome project for her and dad. LOL. I am learning A LOT about worms, and this will be fantastic for her as well as my feeble attempt at gardening.

The coconut fiber mat reduces fruit flies from the feedings.  A plastic board on the bottom supports the working trays. Using this prevents the worms from dropping out of the working tray.

Step one is to place the legs into the base, step 2 is to put the spigot on the front of the unit. From there you put the support board for the working tray, and one tray.

We soaked the coconut fiber in water, and then lightly mixed in newspaper scraps.

 We then added the worms (we purchased from Uncle Jims) and covered with newspaper, sprayed with water, and then put the coconut mat on top.

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After we topped with damp newspaper we layed down the the coconut mat and put the lid (pictured on the left).

We now have the Itower into the garage and checked on it every two days. After three to four weeks we are now feeding them food scraps every other day or so. In three months they will double in count. Looks like we might have to buy another one of these next summer!

I love not wasting all our food scraps! There are many of their products and accessories are made from recycled materials. 

The iTower is the third generation in the Worm Compost Bin series. It contains the basic features of the VermiHut and iHut with additional features. There is an elevated tray that allows more air flow. This is an increase of 25 times the air flow.
New features lowers the worm bed temperature several degrees lower than VermiHut and Worm Factory for those in warm,  humid conditions. 

Nick Sticks Snack Sticks review and giveaway

Nick sticks sent me some of their meat snacks to try.

I’m not a huge fan of meat snacks or processed food in general. Perhaps during the apocalypse only if I needed to eat. I'm a huge proponent of eating real food.  That being said, I do keep emergency snacks in the car.

With the weather warming up I need to switch items that are shelf stable and won’t be a mess. Each day If we are out for extended periods of time I pack a small cold bag with snacks and water.

Things I LOVE about Nick Sticks is they are 100% grass fed and free range beef and free range turkey!

·         No MSG

·         No Nitrates

·         No Antibiotics

·         No Hormones

·         No Sugar

·         No Red Dye

·         No Gluten

Did you know that the industry standard don’t require snack sticks to label red dye as an ingredient? I didn’t know that! With so many food sensitivities these days, it is important to know whats in our food.

 

If you want to know more about Nick, check out their page. http://www.nicks-sticks.com/about-nick/

He’s from Iowa, has a year of culinary training, cancer survivor and look at that adorable family!Nick Sticks supports the fisher house. It’s a private-public partnership that supports the military in their time of need! https://www.fisherhouse.org/ How incredible to give back to the soldiers and their families in their time of need. As a military family, this is awesome to know that companies care. 


Enter to win!

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Hard Candy Fierce Effects Lipstick Review

Hard Candy Fierce Effects Lipstick This is a line that is geared to be daring. It has highly pigmented lip color paired with a great smell and very soft texture.  To me it smells like berries. The product feels very light on your lips and has argan oil to help moisturize and adds a little shine.

Here is the unboxing video. I try to do some of the videos without reading up on the product to give you my first impression.

  

It comes in 18 colors. The colors pictures appear to be sly-lac and heart breaker. My oldest claimed these lipsticks FAST. She actually likes to put one color on each lip and then mix the two colors.  The colors are beautiful, but not for a middle aged woman. ;)

I think my favorite colors from the swatches on paper are galactica, prowler, glisten to me, and Nudist.

These are exclusively at Walmart and run right around $5. 

Nonda IHere 3.0 review

Nonda has sent me the iHere 3.0 Rechargeable Bluetooth Key Finder . You can find the manual here.

The IHere is a triangle about the width of most of my keys. It has a center button on one side, a small pinhole for a red/green light, a speaker and a charging port.  The top of the triangle is open to attach to your keys.  Nonda previously sent me the Zus which you can read about here.

Once you download the app and pair with your smartphone you can see the available options. There is a separation alarm which will set the IHere beeping if it’s out of range from the smart device. This could be useful with young kids or those with special needs. The alarm is connected to your smart device so if you walk a specific distance from your IHere, it will beep. If you are like me, you have a set space for your keys. You should be able to turn this separation alarm off.

When you look at the app you see a few options; Call phone, take selfies, car finder, and voice recorder. Below those options there are the words FIND and CLICK. The find option will actually find the last recorded location of the item it is attached to. We have had this for about a month now and switched it back and forth between our keychains.

It really holds up well and the battery life seems quite impressive. I suppose that is also due to the few key features it is able to do. The car finder is one of my favorite features as it can be difficult to remember things when you have kids. Like, you know, your name or what day of the week it is. ;)

Its not a huge issue for me, but I have read that people prefer a smaller button on the device as well as something other than a USB charger. To me neither are a huge drawback. I like the simplicity of this product.

In 2015, nonda won "The fastest growing startup" and "The best 10 smart hardwares" from SVACE and SVIEF, respectively; and in early 2016, two of nonda's products, ZUS smart car finder & USB car charger and Hub+ won iF design Awards.

The company Store comforter review

The Company Store sent me their Full/Queen St. Tropez reversible TCS Down Free comforter in Ginger/Walnut. I honestly was expecting the same quality I get at the department stores. I was wrong, and will be updating our master. I absolutely love the patterns they have in their sets and after all we spend so much time in our beds, why wouldn’t I? I'm curious to see if this promotes better sleep now.

The color is gorgeous and matches our room perfectly. I love how the quilting pattern keeps the down in place. The cotton shell has a 232 thread count and has a complementary color on the other side. This is great to change up your room during different seasons.  This is the lightest weight comforter in their product line, so you can use it all year. It is available in both 500-550 fill power TCS® Down or TCS® Down-Free™ polyfill, a hypoallergenic alternative. I have allergies, so the down free version is perfect for me. However, for those that prefer down, there is a 6 step quality process to ensure the down used is hypoallergenic.

We do our best to not use chemicals in our house and I love that this comforter is Oeko-Tex® certified. This means the shell is free of all harmful substances and chemicals. The St Tropez also has corner loops that attach to the corner ties in our duvet covers to hold it in place. It is machine washable and has a lifetime guarantee.

We have a queen bed and this is the queen/full size. I think I would prefer the King size as it gives a bit more length on the sides. Other than that I have no issues with the product itself. It is a great product and looks great as a top comforter.