Yays and Nays

Okay, I'll admit I mostly wanted to grumble about the first item, but clearly the world needs my opinions on more than one product...

• Natural Instincts Shine Happy - NAY!

I've never dyed my hair, but I've felt itchy for a change of late and have found myself glancing at the home color aisle.  I didn't want to pay for a salon color job and also wanted low commitment, so much preferred something that would wash out in a month (vs have a demarcation if I didn't keep it up).  I only really wanted to bring out a bit of the red I'd had as a kid....I call my hair dark brown but others insist it is black...but wasn't finding anything that felt like what I envisioned. 

Then I saw this product.  The process is like a dye...mix two parts, apply, wait ten minutes, rinse and condition.  It said it would add shine.  It did note it might lightened dark hair a bit.  Sounded good either way...  It did absolutely nothing!  I did not realize it contained peroxide, a complaint I saw in reviews when I was looking for a link (the reviewers said it lightened some folks hair).  My hair does feel a bit "rougher" than it had of late (it has usually felt rough but had improved of late w/ other products)...hoping I didn't do any damage, especially since it was otherwise pointless.  If anything, I have LESS shine.  Definite NAY!

• Jabebo Earrings - YAY!

I was walking the short distance from my eye doc to CVS and spotted some earrings in a shop window.  I wandered in and learned it was a fairly new store, although the business has existed for a bit.  They make earrings out of cereal boxes (they had a sign asking for boxes...I promised them many boxes in the future...a good use for my cereal addiction!), the left and right are different but on the same "theme" and all are miniature images.  I got the penguins (#185 on this page)...adorable, a reasonable $11.50, and supporting a local business and artisan (who supports some great causes himself).  For othe Centre County folks, the store also sells some other cute products.

• Coco Lites - NAY!

I'm a sucker for end cap displays at the grocery store.  Especially when the product looks like it a filling a low-calorie snack.  I actually like most variations of rice cakes, but these tasted like cardboard.  Stale cardboard.  The Military Man agrees.  I rarely just give up and throw a food out, and he's even more likely to try and salvage a product (he'll add spices, hot sauces, whatever it takes to make something edible), but these hit the trash. 

When I was looking for a link, I noticed the Amazon review page....only 6 reviews, but ALL five stars (well, until I added mine!).  I snooped and noticed a couple of the reviewers had only reviewed this item, making them a wee bit suspect.  The others seem to genuinely enjoy the product.  I'm honestly shocked.

• Pure DKNY Touch of Vanilla Perfume - YAY! (and an added YAY! for Kohl's perfume section)

I've never worn a perfume regularly.  I own one bottle that I bought at least five years ago, I'm a bit embarrassed to admit it's Antonio Banderas' Spirit...I had gotten a tester someplace and decided I liked it enough to buy it despite the celeb name.  It always faded fast and I never wore it regularly, though I still like spritzing it on my brush occasionally, it seems to stay better in my hair.

Anyway, I've been wanting to find a scent of late that I could wear on a semi-regular basis.  I can't say what inspired the interest, but I've been trying one on each time I'm around a beauty counter.  I've always found a really high percentage interact poorly with my body chemistry, smelling nice in the bottle but almost foul on me.  A recent trip to Kohl's with MM left me with a bit of time and I appreciated that they have a ton of testers without a pressure-adding salesperson hovering around (though the tester strips were hidden in the corner of only one shelf despite there being a couple of aisles of perfume).  I got lucky, although I sniffed about ten on the testers, this was the only one I tried on my skin and it stayed a "yay."  Fresh, clean, and a hint of vanilla without making me crave cookies! 

And a tip -- If you do get scent at Kohl's, walk around and look for gift sets.  The gift set I found was the same price as the bottle in the perfume aisle for the same size bottle of perfume plus a small tube of lotion.