Gardeners and Survivalists Will Love This

We all have friends that we feel are authorities or your “go-to” person for advice on certain subjects. For me I have 2 friends who have green thumbs. They know when to plant what, they can make things grow from something I probably would have thrown and long thought dead.  They know which parst of plants to cut off to give to someone else to regrow. That’s not me.  If it came down me growing vegetables for my family to survive…I mean if it really came down to it, I would figure it out fast but for me just to plant a garden and grow it….I might have a few things survive.

Which brings me to the Ark Survival Gear Heirloom Seeds Pack that has 7500+ seeds to plant your own survival garden.  I got this packets with an overwhelming amount of seeds.  There was like, 3 or 4 different types of lettuce alone in this pack. I had honestly wanted to plant a vegetable garden.  My mother had a decent one growing up and we’d have tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans, etc all summer.  She knew how to can and she’d can some of it. Trying to get my family to eat fresh fruits and veggies too, I thought this would be and enticing way to do it.

ARK survival seed pack

 

Now I’m not a survivalist but in a survival situation this is supposed to have a lot of things you’d need to sustain.  I was bewildered by some of the seed packets in the pouch.  I mean, why on earth would one need catnip in a survival situation?  So I turned to my gardening friends.  As they helped me with what I could plant at this time of year in Pennsylvania, they also told me that catnip can be used as an herbal tea.

ARK Survival Gear Heirloom Seeds have a lifetime guarantee.  They come packaged in a breathable envelope for safer and long-term storage.  They also have the safe seed pledge tested and proven for germination.  Non-GMO American seed.  They also offer a free beginners gardening guide and survival guide with gardening instructions.  So it’s even for people like me that have no idea what they are doing.

I have a small garden in the back so we planted some squash and lettuce with the space we had available to see how these seeds performed.

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We watered them a few times when we remembered (probably why my plants die a lot) and would periodically check for signs of life (hoping but not expecting with our gardening skills).  We didn’t buy any more soil.  We just weeded the are we were gonna use and plunked them in.  This is what we saw about 2 weeks after.  Look signs of life!!

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If I can get these seeds to grow then these are good seeds.  My husband was talking about doing a vegetable garden next year. I’d like to try out the rest of the seeds then.  Love me some fresh cucumbers!

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Are you a gardener?  What do you like to plant? ARK Survival Gear Heirloom Seed Packet is available on Amazon:

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.

Azure Naturals Ultimate C Serum

I started noticing some fine lines on my face around the time I turned 30.  Incidently it’s also the first time I noticed gray hair..yep turning 30 was a rough year for me.  I’ve gotten used to some of the changes but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to try to do things to keep my skin looking healthy.  If it also reduces some wrinkles in the process, I’m cool with that.

Azure Naturals Ultimate C Skin Repair Serum is a all in one type of serum in my opinion.  It contains 20% Vitamin C, Hyaluronic Acid, Vitamin E, and Ferulic Acid and is professional strength.

Azure Naturals Vitamin C serum

 

Vitamin C works as a collagen booster and is a anti-oxidant for your skin.  Combined with the Vitamin E and Ferulic acid (which are also anti-oxidants) they team up to (according to Azure Naturals) 96% reduction in sunburn skin cells and prevent the formation of free radicals in sun exposed skin.  The serum is a thin, liquid consistency which allows your skin to soak in the serum letting the vitamin C penetrate deeper into your skin.  It’s 100%  guaranteed to be the fastest working Vitamin C serum on the market.  It’s safe for all skin types even dry irritated skin, acne, and eczema.

Azure Naturals Ultimate C serum comes in a brown glass bottle with a glass dropper top. It’s a clear liquid that absorbed easily into my skin.  The dropper makes it easy to drop onto your hand or directly onto your face if you prefer.

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Azure Naturals serum is made in the US with natural and organic ingredients.  It does NOT contain alcohol, parabens or GMOs.  It also has a 1 year money 100% hassle free guarantee.  They’ll not only give you the money back for the product but for the shipping too, no matter where you bought it.  I think that’s pretty cool.

After using this product for week I did notice that my skin appeared brighter.  It also seemed to have a moisturizing effect on my skin.  The only thing I didn’t care for is it had an odd scent out of the bottle that kind of reminded me of a combo of lotion and vitamins.  But the scent didn’t last long once applied.

Azure Naturals Ultimate Vitamin C Skin Repair Serum on Amazon

It’s available in a 1 oz and 2 oz size

GIVEAWAY

1 Luv Saving Money reader will win

a 1 oz bottle of Azure Naturals Ultimate C Skin Repair Serum

US

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.

Add Sparkle to Your Desk with PenGems

**I received the below mentioned products in order to complete an honest review. No other compensation has been received. Any opinions expressed are my own**

I use pens constantly.  I’m particular about my pens because I need to use them at my job outside my home and at home.  I need a pen that’s comfortable to hold, writes smooth (I shouldn’t have to fight with it or press too hard), and I use black ink because it’s required at the hospital I work at.  Another thing, I’m a girly girl so if my pens can look cute too, that’s a plus. I had first seen PenGems at the gift shop at my hospital, believe it or not.  I thought it would make a thoughtful and useful gift for someone to write down things the doctor tells them in their room, signing papers, writing thank you notes, etc.  Honestly, I wanted one for myself because they’re very eye catching.

PenGems logo

PenGems is all that and then some.  They have a selection of 21 different PenGems colors.  Each pen contains 120 Swarovski Elements crystals.  If that’s not enough sparkle for you, I don’t know what is.  Each pens comes with black ink but you can purchase blue, pink, or purple ink refills.  I’m seriously thinking about the pink refills for home!  These gorgeous pens are both functional and fashionable.  I was asked to choose two PenGems to review. That decision was harder than I initially anticipated with the 21 color selection. There are two different types of PenGems so I decided to go with one of each.

In the Signature PenGems selection I went with the Antique Rose Ball Point pen.  I just loved the color.  These pens have a larger Swarovski crystal on the top of the pen making this a really eye catching pen.

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The 2nd one I chose was from the Stylus PenGems selection.  These differ in that they have a stylus tip at the top of the pen rather than the larger Swarovski Crystal so not only can you write with them but you can use them on your touch screen phone or tablet.  I chose the gold Stylus PenGems pen.  Just look at the way the gold Swarovski Crystals seem to glow in the light!

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The next important question to answer is, “So how do they write?” These pens are smooth to hold and to write. It sat comfortably in my hand when writing.  You reveal the ball point writing tip by twisting the silver tip at the point of the pen.  The ink is uniform and glides well on the paper.  The pen is a sturdy metal with, which seems to be, plastic encasing the Swarovski crystals. It has a metal clip attached which allows you to easily clip it to a shirt, clipboard, or anywhere else you may need to.

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These are great pens.  At $9.99 per pen it would make an affordable and unique gift for coworkers, pen pals, or business professionals.  I bet the teens girls going back to school would love it too.  Be careful though, if you have a pen klepto in your office, it might disappear fast!  You can purchase PenGems on their website: PenGems.com

You can find PenGems on the following social media sites:

Facebook: facebook.com/pengems1

Twitter: @PenGems

Instagram: instagram.com/pengems

Pinterest: pinterest.com/pengems

PenGems Signature

GIVEAWAY

1 Luv Saving Money reader will win 

2 PenGems of their choice

US and US territories only

**Product received to complete review. Regardless I only complete honest reviews**

Zim’s For Summer Skin and Muscle Relief

Products received to complete an honest review. No other compensation has been received

My husband was doing lawn work: cutting the grass, weed wacking, and was also teaming up with my father in law for some brick work on the front porch.  He felt every bit of that for a few days after.  My oldest son has been lifting for middle school football conditioning.  If he misses a few days he tells me how sore he is.  Then there was me, I was weeding my garden and ended up with a light rash on different parts of my body.  It itched for a few days, more of an annoying itch that a concerning one.  What do all these things have in common? They could all get some reliefe with Zim’s products.

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I had never tried either product before. I had heard of Max-Freeze though and had heard positive things about it.  This is a muscle spray that has the cool tingling sensation to help with muscle aches and joint relief.  I loved the idea of it being in a spray form.  We use other muscle ointment frequently and the issue with the balms and rubs is that you have it on your hands.  You probably know, you def don’t want to touch your face or anything else by accident unless you wash that stuff off first.  This spray takes that issue away while still offering temporary relief for sore muscles.

My son wanted me to spray some on his shoulders and back the day after conditioning one day.  You can see it sprays out clear. It does have a bit of a smell to it but it dissipates fairly quickly.  My son and my husband both expressed how cold it was when initially applied.

 

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The Zim’s Advanced Crack Creme with Aloe and Arnica with Hydrocortisone took me a little longer to use.  I didn’t really have any cracked dry skin this time of year (that’s usually my winter skin) but it said it’s good for bug bites, eczema, rashes, and psoriasis as well.  I figured it was only a matter of time until we got to truly try this out.  Then, as I mentioned in the first paragraph, I was weeding my garden. That night and the next day I noticed  a light rash that was itching. It was patchy and barely noticeable but I felt it.  It was more of an annoying itch.  I decided to give the Zim’s Crack creme a try. It’s a thicker lotion type consistency. It’s off white in color.  It has a scent that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. Something of a medicinal smell.  It took a couple minutes but I did start feeling relief from the rash.  I tried to take a picture but my rash was so subtle (visibly) that it didn’t show up well in the picture.

Zim’s Crack Creme uses an organic formula.  It’s available in a 3 oz. flip top tube.

You can find Zim’s on these social media sites:

Twitter: @Zimsusa

Facebook: facebook.com/zimsusa

Pinterest: pinterest.com/zimsusa

You can purchase these Zim’s products and others they have to offer on their website: www.zimsusa.com

GIVEAWAY

1 Luv Saving Money reader will win 

Zime’s Advance Crack Creme and Max Freeze to help with your summer aches and itches.

US only

 

I received the above mentioned products in order to complete an honest review. No other compensation has been received. Giveaway is sponsored by Zim’s

Pedi-Derm Bum Paste Review

**I received the below mentioned product in order to complete a review.  No other compensation has been received.  Any opinions expressed are my own**

Being a mom of 4 and a blogger, I’ve tried quite a few diaper creams since the early days of me being a mom.  I’ve learned what kinds of creams work(ed) well for my kids and which ones don’t.  I’ve learned that more expensive doesn’t necessarily mean better and I’ve learned that expensive brands can sometimes be a better value depending on the product.

I had the opportunity to try Letourneau’s Pharmacy Pedi-Derm Bum Paste. With  my 15 month old daughter in diapers and her sensitive skin, she seems to get diaper rash more times than I care to admit. So I said yes to the opportunity.

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The Pedi-Derm Bum Paste comes in a 4 oz container with a twist off lid.  It uses an age old recipe that’s “tried and true” according to the video on the website. It has a 30 day money back guarantee.  It’s compounded in Andover, MA.

Opening the container was easy with the twist off lid and ridges along the lids that made it easier to grip.  Once opened you see a thick white paste.  I pressed my finger tip in to get some out of the container.

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For my kids, I’ve found that thicker pastes like this seem to work well because it creates a more effective barrier for moisture.  Just a tip though, I’ve also found it’s not just moisture or the irritants in urine and feces that cause the diaper rash.  My daughter was getting terrible diaper rash almost weekly for a while.  We didn’t know why.  We stayed on top of changing her diapers, we applied diaper creams at each change, we let her crawl around without a diaper for a while to let the air get to it, made sure to use unscented wipes, gave her a bath each night.  We ended up figuring out it was the diapers.  For whatever reason, we could not use Pampers brand diapers with her.  We started using LUVS and the diaper rash incidents reduced dramatically.  The diaper creams thought helped to heal the damage already done.  Thick creams like this , I believe, helped her skin from getting much worse than it was until we figured out the cause.

The Pedi-Derm Bum Paste is a great example of a good barrier cream.  Perfect to put on for overnights, diaper rash that’s already present, or as a preventative with each diaper change.  My daughter had a light diaper rash on her bum so I started applying this almost as soon as I got it. It worked well to heal her mild diaper rash.  Then after a week or so my daughter acquired a diaper rash that was more moderate.  I applied this and after only 2 days it was almost completely gone.  The only thing  about this product is the price.  It sells for $19.99 a jar.  Yes it is a good diaper rash paste but the price tag puts it out of reach for those of us on a budget.  I’ll tell you this though, I have about 5 different diaper rash creams sitting around the house.  This is the first one I go for if I want to heal it in a hurry.

You can find Pedi-Derm Bum Paste on:

Facebook: facebook.com/PediDermBumPaste

Twitter: @PDBumPaste

**Product received for review, regardless I only complete honest reviews**