I'm very excited to see on my BzzAgent account this status for my Burt's Bees Sensitive Skin campaign:

"Shipped via U.S. Mail on 02/23/2012"

Yay!!!!!! Hopefully it will arrive by the end of next week!

Burt's Bees(R) Natural Skin Solutions for Sensitive Skin

Yay, I got another BzzCampaign invite as a BzzAgent!

I am happy that this one is finally open and available to Canadians.

It looks like as part of the kit I should receive coupons to share, plus samples of the sensitive facial cleanser, daily moisturizer, night cream, and eye cream. Estimated arrival time is three weeks. I am slight disappointed there is no toner included (maybe there will be a discount coupon for it?) and I am most excited to try the moisturizer. I have yet to find one that leaves my skin moisturized but non-greasy and doesn't cause it to break out in a day or two.

My Bzzguide says the products contain cotton, rice, and aloe. I've heard of aloe, of course, for sensitivity, but not cotton or rice so I am curious to see how these work with my redness-prone skin. I hope it works on t-zone blemishes, too!

All in all, it was a good day to get the campaign invite email!




Update:
Unfortunately, I didn't really like this particular Burt's Bees product.  It was too heavy/greasy feeling for my skin, especially the moisturizer.  If I had dry, sensitive skin I think it may have worked well.  However, I have combination skin, so it left a feeling of slickness on top and never felt quite clean.  I do love other Burt's Bees products, especially their spot blemish treatment and Lemon Butter Cuticle Cream, so I was disappointed with this product.  Most friends I gave the moisturizer sample to had the same experience.

Stouffer's Saute Sensations Review

Last year, Stouffer's had a reward system where you would enter PINs from specially marked boxes of Lean Cuisine, Stouffer's Bistro Panini & Crustini, and the like. Once you reached a certain number of PINs you were sent an envelope via regular mail with a $10 gift card to a store of your choice (limited selection at the start of signing up for the reward account) and several coupons for free products. One of these coupons was for Saute Sensations.

Saute Sensations are found in most grocery stores' freezer sections (Safeway, Superstore, Wal-Mart are the ones I have checked) and in some food-enabled Shopper's Drug Mart locations.

I decided that the Mediterranean Chicken flavour was the safest to try. After hanging around in our freezer for a few months, a night came where we had nothing quick for dinner and were both tired. Saute Sensations to the rescue!

The above photo is of the package contents straight out of the freezer. A good start as all the food looks like food.

Saute for about seven minutes and it turns into this:

Food still looks like food!

The package contained enough to feed two regular adults. Our meal could have been supplemented by a small green salad, but not much else. There are probably just under two servings of vegetables per person in the package.

There were plenty of coloured peppers and potatoes as well as chicken. It tasted real and reasonably new and unprocessed.

I was impressed. I'd say Saute Sensations are a good instant emergency dinner to keep on hand in your freezer. The latest sale price I saw was $5.99, regular retail is about $8.99.

Style Find - Hair Dos!

As mentioned back in September, I am participating in a Bzzagent campaign to increase awareness about the StyleFind.com website.

Right now, the website still has "holiday" looks and tips on it and their editors' pick gallery is still the Fall 2011 one. I hope they update it to Winter 2012 soon. I do like looking at their photos and trends.

What I have found today is hair up-do instructions! Yes, something useful! The instructions are found under the "Trends" tab and are for a loose up-do and are short and easy-to-follow.

Various products are recommended to aid in pulling this 'do off, such as the Kerastase Double Force Controle Ultime Extra-Strength Hold Multi-Protective Hairspray for Weakened Hair. This stuff goes for $36 USD for 300ml so its not cheap, but I'm sure you can find a drugstore brand that would work just as well as long as you're not walking down the red carpet.

Sephora snag-free hair bands are also suggested which are priced for the average consumer at 8 for $3.50 USD on their website.

The other style helper is Sally Hershberger Root Boosting Spray - Salon Shape Up Styling Spray - listed at $24 for a 5 oz. pump spray.

Of these three, the easiest to find would be the Sephora hair bands as they have retail outlets in most major centres. Online shipping is reasonable plus you get three free samples with each shipment. Kerastase also gives three complimentary samples with shipping, with free shipping if you purchase over $85 of product - which shouldn't take long at their prices. The Sally Hershberger product link took me to the Home Shopping Network site.

Well, its been ages since I have last posted, but that doesn't mean I haven't been enjoying my freebies.

An update on the OXO Candela Glow, they work well and look really good lit up among my Christmas decorations. My toddler nephew likes them as well and can push the on-off buttons easily without doing any damage to himself or the lights. They would potentially work well as a nightlights in a child's bedroom.

I cashed in all of my free Multibionta Vitamin coupons that were leftover from a BzzAgent campaign. I gave them away to friends and relatives who were excited about getting them for free. There was some confusion as to WHY I got them for free - "What is wrong with them?" and "What do I owe you?" were common first remarks. I think the next time I get free product coupons from BzzAgent I will collect some first myself to have the actual product to give away for people to sample. They sure went much faster than just the coupons when the campaign was on! As a side note, the manufacturer no longer lets London Drugs double up on coupons for Multibionta products and the same for Scrubbing Bubbles. As far as I am aware, everything else is still a "go".


I also cashed in my somewhat-free coupons from my Kraft sample pack. I had to pay $9.99 plus tax for a box of new-er Kraft food products. Included inside were boxes of Chips Ahoy Middles, Applewood Smoked BBQ Triscuits, Kraft SMART Dinner, many packages of different Trident layers gum and other gums, and more. Also included were coupons for free perishable items: Philadelphia Cream Cheese Dill, their A-MOO-Za cheese twists (love the name pun), and a jar of Kraft's new Pure Refrigerated (fresh) Dressings. These I found in the bagged salad section of Superstore. I chose the BBQ Ranch variety for my husband.




For the cheese twists I chose the mozzarella-cheddar combo. We both really like them and they are very portable and easy to put in adult lunches. The other two items we haven't tried yet but it is worth noting that the salad dressing was named one of Canadian Living's Best New Products of 2011 (http://www.canadianliving.com/life/best_new_product_awards/2011_best_new_product_awards_winning_products.php) so a well worth-it almost-free product.

Style Find

Style Find is a website that I was invited to join for free as part of a Bzz campaign.

There was an initial incentive - I think $10 off your first purchase for a limited time? But I honestly can't remember. The first few times I clicked on the site I was blown away by how expensive the products were plus shipping, and then of course taxes and duty from most places so $10 wouldn't have been any incentive to me.

Since then I have noticed that there have been more reasonably priced items. For example, while there are still the $299.95 purses that are marketed as a steal - they are also showing the $39.95 purses that are actually affordable for a person in today's economy that wants a new style every season. I can't imagine ever affording $300 on a purse, or a shirt or skirt for that matter every season. If I want to stay trendy, the stuff has to be cheap. And I mean CHEAP for normal people, not $150 000 salary-a-year-people.

I'll try to post some "real" cheap examples in the next few weeks from Style Find.

The pictures are always great, even if the prices are not!

LunchBots - Hope to get in on this one

LunchBots is the latest daily Bzzz campaign I hope to be invited to join. Once again, I would be receiving a product FREE from BzzAgent.

I have been looking at tiffins, which is a similar product but more like several undivided steel containers that are stacked on top of one another and secured together with steel strapping. The LunchBots seem like they would serve the same purpose, in a slightly more stylish manner.

Plus, I would get to do cool things with them like this: