review – Page 121 – Luv Saving Money

Novica.com: Fair Trade, Hand Made, absolutely beautiful

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Mom Blog Society. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

I’m no stranger to Novica.com. I had heard about it prior to writing this review. My husband had order a few pieces of jewelry for me from the site. I had ordered a few things myself. Everything I have received has been quality, well made pieces.

Novica connects buyers from all over the word to artisans from all over the world. You can read about the artist that’s hand crafting the item you buy. The artists are highly skilled at their craft. It’s particularly moving to read how the artists, who were barely getting buy, can now have a better life for their families working through Novica. It makes me feel better knowing exactly where and who my purchase is coming from and that someone took their time to create the piece I ordered.

The jewelry section is amazing. I particularly like the Jade necklaces on the site. I remembering being told at one point that depending on the color of Jade jewelry that you have it is supposed to represent something different. Green Jade, I believe, was supposed to represent good luck.

If you’re looking of unique gifts but want it to be affordable and something exciting to give, Novica has a good selection of artisan created gifts. They’re even broke down into price categories, gifts for her, gifts for him, and more.

An Alpaca wool sweater is sure to keep grandma warm. Or what about a beautiful pair of Amethyst Dangle Earrings for the February birthday ladies.

I’m partial to the hand blown glass section. I’ve always been interested in the process of making hand blown glass creations. I’ve watched shows on tv about it and I think “wow you’d really have to know what you’re doing” to create some of the beautiful pieces I’ve seen. On a previous order I had ordered a set of 4 hand blown, etched wine glasses. I’m so happy with them.

With hand blown glass, each and every piece is unique, from the bubbles in the glass to small differences in each one. When I did this review I couldn’t help but go back to the hand blown glass section after the excellent craftmanship on my wine glasses. This time I picked out the glass pitcher called “Emerald Spiral“. Then I saw they had matching tumblers to go with the pitcher so I just had to get those too. The tumblers are also Emerald Spiral and come in a set of 6.

When I received my package, everything was packaged with care. I received a postcard from the region (Mexico) with a hand written not on the post card. Here is the picture of my lovely pitcher and tumblers I received.

You could see the bubbles inside the glass and the area at the bottom of each glass and the pitcher as well where it had been broke off the device they use to blow the glass. Javier and Efron do beautiful work. I can’t wait to make some home made lemonade or sun tea in the pitcher and see outside with the family in the warm summer sun.

While I was on Novica I also found a beautiful marble tic tac toe set. I thought my kids might enjoy playing it with me. It’s so pretty though it would be wonderful to set out on a coffee table (once my toddler gets a little older). I snapped a picture of this before we started playing with it.

This is made with natural stone and marble. It has the smooth cold feel of marble. I’m not entirely sure what the pieces are made out of, but they are some type of stone as well. The circles seem to be made of something like a quartz. The black X’s, i’m not entirely sure but the whole set is very nice.

I’m very happy with my order from Novica.com. I will certainly keep going back. My husband loves shopping the jewelry for gifts for me and for his mother. I don’t have any complaints 🙂

You can also follow Novica on twitter: @NOVICA

and on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/novica

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Mom Blog Society. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Imagination Movers Rock-O-Matic CD/DVD review

You may have seen Disney’s Imagination Movers show on Disney Junior. If you haven’t you should really check it out with your little one.

The Imagination Movers Rock-O-Matic CD/DVD was just released in February. Imagination Movers are an Emmy winning group geared for family fun. A group of 4 guys that make getting up and moving fun for kids.

The DVD includes fun clips for kids including The Yuck Yuck Comedy Funny Ha Ha show where the guys take turns sharing kid friendly jokes. Catnip and Catnap (two cat puppets) interject between segments. Then of course all the fun songs with videos to go along with them. My son was so intersted in the Animal Dancing song. The video showed cartoon renderings of each guy in the group. Lots of bright colors and movement. He also had fun naming the cartoon animals that came up on the screen.

Before I talk about the CD, I have a question to ask you. Have your kids every had a kids’ song cd that you kinda hoped might get lost somewhere? You know, the songs a maybe slightly annoying and your kids want to listen to it on repeat every time you get in the car? I know I have. It got to the point where I would hide it when we got in the car . Hoping, as the old saying goes, “out of sight our of mind”. Well thank goodness for the Imagination Movers CD because this CD is NOT one of those annoying CDs.

Imagionation Mover Rock-O-Matic CD has catchy music that sound almost like something you might hear on a main stream radio station (with kid friendly lyrics and content of course). I’ve actually listened to the whole CD twice and find myself getting into the groove of the songs. The CD includes the song “Dear Old Dad” just for fathers. Then there is the catchy Rock-O-Matic song itself.

If you’re looking for a fun Kids’ music CD that you can stand to listen to too, this would be a great choice.

***I received the above name product as a US Family Guide blogger. I did not receive any monetary compensation for this post. Any opinions expressed are my own.***

With Seasonal Allergies, Let NEOVA help your skin

How many of your have seasonal allergies? I know I do. My nose itches, my eyes itch. On a bad day (or week) my eyes puff up and my skin can even get blotchy. I’m very thankful for the beautiful weather we’ve been having here in Pennsylvania for March but I have to wonder if my seasonal allergies will start to rear their ugly head a little sooner than normal.

Dermatologist, Dr. Helen Torok has some advice for those that suffer from seasonal allergies that can effect the skin as well:

–Be gentle when cleaning your skin. Use a mild, moisturizing cleanser
–Use that natural anti-inflammatory properties of copper to reduce redness and inflammation.

NEOVA line of skincare products offer these benefits.

I’ve had the pleasure of trying NEOVA skincare products in the past. You can read that review HERE.

NEOVA Creme De La Copper (pictured far right) is a restoring treatment for your skin that helps repair photodamage to skin. It includes the Copper Peptide Complex which Dr. Helen Torok was recommending above. It also includes ceramides, antioxidants, and DNA Repair Mitosomes.

NEOVA is the 1st skin care line to bring innovation to the photoaging category of skin care lines with the Copper Peptide Complex.

The Creme De La Copper comes in a 1.7 fl. oz pump-style bottle. There is no noticable scent and has only a pale blue color when dispensed from the bottle. The directions recommend applying daily. Which I did. As with my previous experience with other NEOVA products, I noticed my skin feeling firmer within a few days. I have sensitive skin and these products have never bothered my skin.

On thing I’ve noticed about the NEOVA brand is that all it’s products are unscented and without color.

The next product was the NEOVA Eye Therapy. This product I actually reviewed previously as well. I was rather excited when I saw that they sent me another bottle. As stated in my previous review of the Eye Therapy, it’s meant to reduce puffiness, dark circles, fine lines, and wrinkles. I definitely noticed a difference with the puffiness and a slight difference with the darkness under my eyes in just over a week of use. The last time I used it, I used it for over a month and notices a decrease in the definition of the fine lines by my eyes. Reducing puffiness is great around seasonal allergy time. Anything I can do to calm my skin down and ease some of the discomfort is alright with me.

Lastly, I tried the NEOVA Antioxidant Cleansing Milk (pictured above far left). It comes in a 8.0 fl. oz bottle with a snap open top. This product has the consistency of a body lotion. It’s meant to be used on wet skin. To be honest, I’d never used any type of cleansing milk before. I tried to apply it with a washcloth but it didn’t work out so well. I was better off using my bare hands and smoothing it on like lotion. There was no scent to this product and the Cleansing Milk itself is white. My skin felt very soft after my shower.

The description of this product is that it’s a “Rich soap-free formula that gently removes impurities, detoxifies skin of damaging free radicals, replenishes moisture, and calms irritated skin”. Yep, that sounds perfect for someone like me that has sensitive skin and seasonal allergies.

I needed to use about a half dollar size about on each part of my body so I could see this product getting used up rather quickly. At a price of $42 a bottle this one might be better suited for those with a little extra cash to spend. It works nicely but the price is will turn many off I believe.

While I find NEOVA products expensive, they do work. If you’ve been wanting to try them but hesitant to fork over the money I’d suggest starting with one product or try one of the kits available.

You can find NEOVA on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/officialneova

You can actually purchase NEOVA products from Physicians OR online. For a list of dispensing Physicians or places to buy online you can go here: http://www.photomedex.com/neova/index.htm

As a blogger for Apothica.com I’m happy to say you can also purchase NEOVA products there, just search the term NEOVA.

***I received the above mentioned products at no cost. I did not receive any monetary compensation for this post. Any opinions expressed are my own. I was under no obligation to complete this review.***

Picasso Hair Feathers easy to apply, fun to wear, cruelty-free

Have you seen women and girls walking around with the really cool colored hair feathers in their hair? One of my coworkers had a cute hot pink hair feather added to her hair when she last had her hair done. I’ve been wanting to try them for a while.

Picasso Hair Feathers are flexible, kink-free, feather hair extensions that can be added to your hair or up do to add color and flair.

Did you know that Picasso Hair Feathers are the 1st supplier of cruelty-free feather hair extensions? You can even wash, blow dry, or straighten your hair feathers once they’re in (can stand up to 180 degrees). The feathers come in an extra long length of 16 inches. They can be cut to any length you’d like.

An artist and hairstylist has customized each color combination to make sure each one will look great in your hair.

I watched the Youtube video from Picasso Hair Feathers that shows how to apply the feathers. You can watch it for yourself here if you’d like.

The pre-loop system really did make it very easy to apply the hair feathers. The loop helps to pull your hair through the metal loop at the end of the hair feather extension. I tried to show a close up of what the pre-loop on one of the hair feather extensions look like.

Once my hair was pulled through. All I had to do was take a pair of pliers and pinch the metal loop at the top of the hair feather to apply it to my hair.

The first time I tried to apply these I don’t think I crimped the metal loop enough. One of the extensions slid out within a few hours. I lost another one overnight in my bed. Still haven’t found it. The good news is, I kept my loops as they tell you to do and I was able to reapply them very easily. This also good for if you place one and you decide you don’t like where you placed it in your hair. I made sure to crimp it tightly the 2nd time I tried to apply it. Since the second application I’ve actually left them in for about 3 days now. I’ve been able to wash and dry my hair as normal. I haven’t been as aggressive with brushing my hair to make sure I would pull them out that way.

Here is a pic of what they look like in my hair.

I trimmed them so they would work with my new hair cut. And here’s another view:

The color combo I reviewed here was the “Breaking Dawn” 5 pack. It included 3 purples and 2 blues. Picasso Hair Feathers has lots of cool color combos and different size packs. I had such a hard time choosing one color pack. The 5 packs are $19.99 on their website and go up to 25 packs for $59.95. The hair feathers are resusable. Put them in for one night, take them out then put them in for a weekend, take them out, you get the idea.

Here’s one of their model picks with the feathers on blonde hair. Looks great with blonde hair too:

You can also find Picasso Hair Feathers on twitter: @Picassofeathers

on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/PicassoHairFeathers

and on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/PicassoHair

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Antioxidant Berry Masque from Lady Soma: review

Lady Soma offers a line of health and beauty products that are made with natural and healthy ingredients. They only use high quality and high potency ingredients in all their products.

This includes the Antioxidant Berry Masque I tried from LadySoma.com. The Antioxidant berry masque is made with blueberries, cranberries, and pomegranate. This team of berries make up free radical fighting antioxidant complex that contains vitamins A, C, and Amino Acids.

The glycolic and alpha lipoic acids create a microderm like effect that removes dead skin cells and reveals the healthy layer of skin.

When I first opened the container the sweet scent of berries was lovely. It smelled just like a berry smoothie. In the container it almost looked like a berry smoothie too.

It had a lavender tinge to it. It was the consistency of a body souffle or whipped body butter. You could actually see all the pulverized berry seeds in the mixture. I applied it to my skin. Within 1 min I could feel it tingling on my skin. I’m guessing this was the microderm effect from the glycolic and alpha lipoic acids. When I removed the masque after the recommended 8 minutes my cheeks were a bit rosy but my skin felt amazing. They recommend following up with a serum like their Lady Soma renewal serum or a moisturizer. I tried the sample of the serum I received too. The serum was clear with a soft gel like consistency. It calmed my skin down pretty quickly.

This masque smelled so good on my face. I kept thinking about berry smoothies and wildberry pie. Had I needed to leave it on much longer I may have decided to lick it off lol.

This masque was a nice treat for my skin. At a price f $32.99 per 4 oz jar though, it is a might expensive. You get free shipping from LadySoma.com for orders over $50.

You can find Lady Soma on twitter: @LadySomaHealth

and on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/LadySomaHealth

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.