Preview: Holiday Bath Products!

Does anyone else get excited when the holiday soaps/body washes and candles come out? I know I'm not the only one!

The Muse had posted up about Softsoap releasing the holiday scents. I hadn't known this before but they're only Wal Mart exclusives. I tend to avoid Wal Mart as much as I can but when it comes to peppermint, it's hard to stay away. So I made a little haul.

I grabbed both the hand soap and body wash in Wintermint Wonderland. I skipped on Sugar Plum and there was a third scent that I don't remember at the moment but I've only seen it once. I also picked up a cone air freshener from Renuzit in Chocolate Covered Cherries. Which I will talk about very soon because friends, it needs to be discussed!

Snacking: Williams Sonoma Spooky Sour Pumpkins

If there's one thing I'm incredibly attracted to during the turn of the seasons it's Williams Sonoma sour candies. During the Spring/Easter season they come out with these sour bunnies in 3 different flavors (Grapefruit, Lime and Lemon) and I was surprised to see they came out with something similar for the Fall/Halloween season so of course I jumped up and grabbed one!

Don't mind the Spiced Pecan Pumpkin mix (and mini sample muffin), it just happened to be there when I snapped this picture in the store :P

First of all, I really like the packaging for the Spooky Sour Pumpkins it reminds me of a potion bottle! And the label really matches the whole thing. I'm a sucker for festive packaging. 

The pumpkins are orange flavored and slightly dusted with sugar (though I swear it's sour sugar, if that is a thing) and the pumpkins are chewy. They're not thick and sticky like the sour Easter bunnies are, they're much softer and less sticky. But they are sour and that's what I love about Williams Sonoma sours, they're make-your-jaw-sweat sour!

Keep in mind that these are a seasonal time.

Happy snacking!

Snacking: Caramel Apple Sugar Babies

One of my favorite candies since middle school are those apple lollipops that are legit dipped in caramel. I haven't bought a bag of those in over six years because every time I do, no matter where I store them ants find them. Every single time. It never fails and it baffles me every single time! So I avoid buying bags of them but I still haven't had one since like 2004.

Every year I see Caramel Apple Sugar Babies and every year I just walk right by them. I've never had Sugar Babies and even though this is in a "caramel apple" flavor I just never really bothered. Until this year.

 

As you can see, they're little green pebble looking things. Nothing fancy. They almost look like peas. Except you can see the caramel peaking out from some of them. They're all in odd shapes, some are bigger than others but for the most part, the bigger pieces seem to all be the same general size.

While Caramel Apple Sugar Babies sure do taste like caramel and tarty green apples, they're also incredibly sweet. Like someone just over did it on what tastes heavily like Brown Sugar. I could totally be wrong but that's what it sorta tastes like and that's what the texture feels like after you've gotten down to the last bit of your piece.

I like this enough that it satisfies my caramel apple lollipop cravings but I don't like the fact that after about two handfuls my stomach regrets consuming so much sugar in so little time.

If you're craving caramel apple candy I would definitely say give these a try.

Happy snacking!

Bookin' It Sunday | Review: After Hello by Lisa Mangum

After Hello by Lisa Mangum

Published: September 4th, 2012

Genre: Young Adult

Source: For review via NetGalley

 Buy: Amazon* || BookDepository*

Summary:

What if the first day of your relationship was the only day you had?

Seventeen-year-old Sara is a seeker. She’s always on the lookout for the perfect moment to capture with her ever-present, point-and-shoot camera, especially on her first trip to New York City.

Sam is a finder. He has a knack for finding what other people can’t—a first-edition book or the last two tickets to a sold-out Broadway show. In New York, there is always something interesting to find.

When Sam and Sara’s paths cross, neither one of them is prepared for what they will find out about each other—and about themselves when they form an unlikely partnership in search of a seemingly elusive work of art. They have one day to find the impossible. Fate brought their talents together, but what happens when time runs out? Will love be able to overcome fate? This new novel from award-winning author Lisa Mangum explores what happens after hello.

After Hello was a hard book to get into in the beginning. I just didn't really understand what was going on. Like the blurb states -- Sara is a seeker and Sam is a finder. The more you read into it, the more their roles begin to make sense and once they unravel themselves, you find that Sara is seeker because she's looking for answers and Sam is a finder because he's lost his way. For Sam, finding things for other people and making them happy is what he does best, to make up for things that are too late. He's confident that he can find almost anything anyone is looking for by trading. It all starts with a sugar packet. Yes, a sugar packet. Impressive, right? 

What surprised me the most about this read was even though I was pretty close to giving it a DNF (Did Not Finish) rating, it surprised me by being one of those books that really make you think after you've flipped the last page. There's something comforting about telling a stranger all your secrets. Maybe it's because they have no prior memories or knowledge of you, so you can be whoever you want to be. After Hello I felt was also about letting go and moving on from things you can't change in your past. From things you didn't understand before and from things that aren't going to change no matter how much you wish they would.

Preview: New E.L.F summer products

I use to blog about E.L.F a lot on my previous beauty blog but lately there hasn't been much new with E.L.F enough to impress me to write up some reviews. I got an email from this this morning about 50 new products but you know how sometimes they claim these things so I wasn't expecting too much. Jokes on me, looks like they're releasing a ton of new products!

I'm really interested in the Baked products (for $3 I'm hoping I'm getting a great deal here), the Mist, the Nail Polish Set, the new mascara there on the bottom (with the weird ball thing going on) and I'm a little curious about the new Little Black Beauty Book (even though I haven't had the best experience with their previous ones).

E.L.F currently has a promo for either $10 off the entire site (ends 6/11) or $2.95 shipping (ends 6/11). I have a feeling I'll have a haul to share next week (:

What are you looking forward to // curious about?

Snacking: Archer Farms Freeze Dried Strawberries

A granola from Whole Foods I'm pretty addicted to has bits of freeze dried strawberries. They provide a nice tart to things. Since I find myself always picking out the strawberries, I figured why not just buy a whole bag? So I did.

I found these at Target, I'm not completely sure how much they were but I'm pretty sure it was under $3. 

These freeze dried strawberries are so tarty! It's much different having it sprinkled around to just being full blow there but they're still delicious. A nice healthy snack especially for the summer months (I wonder how they would taste if I dropped them in lemonade)!

The consistency isn't like Astronauts freeze dried ice cream but it's not like marshmallows either. It's a little hard to explain but they sort of remind me of strawberry pillows. That's the best way I can describe it lol.

If you're looking for a new healthy (and tarty) snack, I'd definately recommend these. But I don't recommend the apple ones. I had those last year and hated them! The strawberry ones are much better!

Happy snacking!

These were purchased with my own money.

Review + Swatch | Essie: To Buy or Not to Buy

Essie is a brand that I fell in love with late last year. I'm always on the search for the perfect nail polish formula (then again who isn't?) and when stumbling on Essie, I immediately fell in love!

I buy about 50% of them from Macy's since I'm always hanging around there before class and I stumbled on their Spring Collection awhile back, I picked up three colors one of them being To Buy or Not to Buy.

 

PROS:

• Drying time
• Doesn't chip after a week with no base or top coat
• Smooth formula

CONS:

• A bit pricey at $8
• The little glitters were a pain to take off

This is a gorgeous color and I fell in love with it in the bottle. In the swatch it looks better than it did in person. While I loved the color, on my skin tone it wasn't that nice. I'm starting to think that pretty pastels just aren't for me lol. I don't know if you can really see it here, but this color had small pink glitter flecks in it that gave it a nice touch when it hit the light but they were a paaaainnnn to take off! Who knew tiny glitters would be so stubborn?

While I do still love this color, I'm sad it wasn't for me.