Thursday, January 31, 2013

Influenster Review: Palmolive Fresh Infusions

UntitledAs I mentioned, I recently got a chance to try out Palmolive Fresh Infusions thanks to Influenster and Palmolive.  I received 3 bottles, each a different scent: Ginger White Tea, Lemon Thyme, and Lime Basil.  Upon initial inspection, each bottle smelled fantastic.  The scents are light, and clean smelling, and do not smell artificial.

I shared a bottle with my friend Erin.  The scent she chose was the Lime Basil.  She was super excited, and really seems to like it.  Like me, Erin cooks a lot, so she ends up washing a lot of dishes.  This soap can really perk up this unpleasant task.  She was also excited that the soap matched her kitchen, which is a soft lime green color.  I think that the Lime Basil scent smells a little like Lime Lifesavers, and Erin agreed!

I also got some coupons to share with my friends, which I was excited about.  In fact, one of my friends on Facebook was so excited about the Fresh Infusions picture I posted, I sent her some coupons in the mail!  It was really fun to be able to share this product in a tangible way!

While I like all three scents, I have to admit the Lemon Thyme scent is my favorite for a lot of reasons.  When I was a kid, the dish soap we always had our house was lemon scented, so the Lemon Thyme scent reminded me of my childhood and happy memories in our family kitchen.  The Lemon Thyme scent is so bright and sunny, it has really helped pep up my mood on these cold, dreary winter days we have been having lately.  Everything about these scents is bright and uplifting (and make me crave summertime!).

In terms of performance, I really thought the Fresh Infusions did a great job.  My dishes are clean, with no residue.  Also, true to Palmolive form, the product is really gentle on my hands.  I wash a lot of dishes, so between the hot water and the cold winter weather, my hands can get cracked and sore.  Palmolive Fresh Infusions does a great job of keeping my hands soft and moisturized.  With this product, I was able to tackle my dirty dishes, with no gloves necessary!

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The product is reasonably priced, and is available at WalMart, which is pretty convenient!  All in all, I am really happy that I got to try Palmolive Fresh Infusions and share it with my friends!

Disclaimer: I received a complementary sample from Influenster for the purposes of testing and reviewing the product.  All opinions are original and honest.

Influenster First Impressions: Palmolive Fresh Infusions

A few weeks ago, I received a VoxBox from Influenster and Palmolive, containing 3 bottles of the new Palmolive Fresh Infusions dish soap.  You can watch me open the box in this video:



Initial Impressions:

  • My first reactions to the different scents were, wow, these smell great!  


  • As part of the Influenster review process, we were encouraged to share a bottle with a friend, and I really loved that aspect of the campaign.  It was fun to share a new product with someone else in a real, tangible way.


  • I thought the bottles were bright colored and fun looking, and I was excited to try the dish soap out (full review in the next post!).


  • Palmolive is a brand known for being gentle on your hands, so I was also curious to see if this new product would be as gentle as the older products had been.


  • We were given coupons to share with friends, so I was excited about that, as some of my friends already use  Fresh Infusions and love them!
After gathering my first impressions, the only thing left to do was use the product for a while and see how it went!







Wednesday, January 30, 2013

The Genius at the End of the Tweet

Whomever is in charge of the social media accounts for Sesame Street exhibited a stroke of sheer genius this afternoon.  While I was browsing on facebook, I was alerted, thanks to a post by Wil Wheaton, that the Sesame Street Twitter account was in the midst of a truly awesome undertaking.

Are you familiar with the book "The Monster at the End of this Book"? It was a childhood favorite of mine, my dad read it to me all the time.  I still own a copy of this book.  It features none other than Grover, the cute blue monster with the Sesame Street address.  Well, today, the Sesame Street twitter guru recreated this book with live tweets, as a Twitter conversation.  It quickly got dubbed with the hashtag #MonsterAtTheEndOfThisTweet.  And it was.....awesome.

grover 1
(Read from the bottom up)

From a "social media as marketing" standpoint, this was a really brilliant move.  In less than 10 minutes, the Sesame Street account got A TON of positive PR.  Countless retweets, follows, and favorites occurred during this little endeavor.  What a way to bounce back from some negative PR after the whole Mitt Romney vs. Big Bird battle, and the Elmo puppeteer sex scandal embarrassment.

For a few moments on this rainy Wednesday afternoon, thousands of grown ups sat in rapt attention, staring at their smart phones and computer screens, as the mystery of the monster at the end of the twitter conversation unfolded.  Each retweet brought us closer to the end of the conversation and solving the mystery.  Grover begged us not to RT, so that we would not have to contend with the scary monster.  Anyone who knows the books knows how this is going to end up.  And yet we all still followed along. (**SPOILER ALERT** The monster at the end of the conversation is none other than lovable old Grover). Wil Wheaton was particularly excited and even got a shout out from Grover personally.  It was so cute, and incredibly fun to watch it all unfold.  For a complete view of the tweet timeline, in order, check out this article  over at GeekDad.

I read along with every single tweet.  For a few moments today, I was 5 years old again.  Thanks for that, Sesame Street.

Thursday, January 17, 2013

In The Big City: The Oven Pizza Co. in Wexford

Having not lived in the immediate Pittsburgh area (read Allegheny County) for more than three years now {has it been that long?}, I am slightly out of touch with where the new, cool places to drink, dine, and socialize are.  Thank goodness I am a part of the Pittsburgh TweetUp group.

January 2013 TweetUp

You might be wondering, what is a TweetUp?  Well,  it is an event where people who are active on Twitter can get together to meet, socialize, network, and generally have a nerdy and fantastic time.  Often times, these events also involve charitable work or organizations.  We have attended quite a few TweetUps over the past 2 years, and recently, we have been interacting with this group a lot more.  There are a lot of great people in the group, and through them I have gotten to know a lot more about Pittsburgh businesses and organizations.

January 2013 TweetUp

Last night, we attended a TweetUp event at a business in Wexford called The Oven Pizza Co.  This is a restaurant serving brick oven pizzas as well as so many other delicious foods, and an assortment of drinks.  We had never been to this place, so I was excited that the TweetUp was giving us a reason to go.  First off, the ownership, management, and staff at The Oven were so accommodating and welcoming to our group.  They had prepared a list of specials for us, including some half price menu selections and drinks.  They had a designated area for us, and helped distribute the food to our table.  They even came out after we had eaten and gave us samples of gelato, which was beyond delicious.  Furthermore, the staff came out and interacted with us, being social.  It is people and events like this that really put the "social" in social media.

January 2013 TweetUp

I just cannot say enough wonderful things about the staff, service, and food at The Oven.  Last night, I tried the gluten free Winter Walnut Fig Pizza.  Holy moly, this pizza was so delicious.  I paired it with a Sweet Potato Bisque, also amazing.  We had a wide array of food at our table, and the consensus among all of us was that the food was incredible.  The atmosphere is warm and inviting, suitable for a family pizza night or hanging out with a group of friends.  Already, hubby is suggesting the place to his coworkers.  All the highest praise.

Now, I know what some of you locals are thinking "Wexford, that is not really in the big city" to which I would say,  technically, you are correct.  But the "In the Big City" series on my blog refers to Pittsburgh specifically, and, to me, Pittsburgh is bigger than city lines.  Pittsburgh is a state of mind, a specific type of person, an incredible combination of great food and great friends.  So, regardless of the fact that The Oven Pizza Co. is located in Wexford, they are Pittsburgh through and through.  Also, it's my blog and I can do what I want :).  But in all seriousness, check out The Oven, both online (their website, Twitter, and Facebook) and in person.  You will not be disappointed.

Also, check out the Pittsburgh TweetUp page too, and hopefully I will see you at a TweetUp soon!

Monday, January 14, 2013

Naturally Sweet Holidays

Last week, I attended a workshop led by the amazing Emily Levenson regarding detoxing from sugar.  Because December is a month full of Christmas cookies, fudge, pie, candy canes, and a general array of sweets, the workshop talked about safe ways to detox from sugar, as well as how to find, and eliminate, hidden sources of sugar in your diet, and how to deal with sugar cravings.

Emily said something I found to be really profound.  She said that when we crave sugar, it often means we are craving sweetness in our lives, and by increasing the sweet moments in life, we can reduce our cravings.  It got me to thinking about how our holidays played out this year.

We did nearly all of our shopping online this year, and almost all purchases were made by December 10th.  All gifts had arrived and were wrapped by December 15th.  I had to do exactly one day of shopping in stores, and had all the food shopping done well in advance.  Hubby was on vacation from December 21st to January 2.  All of these things came together to form the most relaxing, sweet holiday season we have had together.  We got to spend all of Hubby's vacation relaxing, snuggling, doing fun holiday activities, visiting family and friends, and savoring a lot of quality time together.  And as a result, we hardly ate any sweets at all.  Our Christmas cookies got stale.  Our stocking stuffer candy is still in it's wrappers.  Our Christmas dinner did not even include dessert.

We had a blast

I am convinced that Emily is really on to something.  When we have sweetness in our lives, our need for sweetness is satiated.  So, the next time you find yourself craving a cookie, candy, or cupcake, before you reach for that sweet, try adding a little sweetness to your life instead.  Kiss your partner.  Snuggle your pet.  Call a good friend.  Do something kind for a stranger.  And maybe, just maybe, you will feed your need for sweetness, naturally.

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Influenster Review: NYC Liquid Lipshine

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Yesterday, I received a package from Influenster, because I had been selected to receive a product from NYC New York Color.  I really like NYC makeup, I have several of their products in my makeup bag.  The makeup looks nice, and is very affordable.

When I opened my package, I was excited to see that I had received a tube of clear Liquid Lipshine.  Anyone who has had a chance to peek in my purse will tell you that I love lip products.  I love them so much, I now keep a little makeup pouch full of lip products in my purse.  I am not ashamed to admit it contains about 25 lip products, including lipsticks, stains, glosses, and liners.  That is some serious pucker power in that pouch.  So, the Liquid Lipshine was the PERFECT product for me to get to try.

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I even decided to get adventurous and record a video review.


In summary, this product is affordable, smells great, looks great, and pairs well with other lip products.  Sounds like a win all the way around.  And, I can tell you, after the video, I did not need to reapply the product until I drank a cup of hot chocolate 3 hours later.  Had I not had anything to drink, I think I would have gotten even longer wear out of it

You can bet that this will be staying in my lip product collection!

This product was provided courtesy of Influenster and NCY for the purposes of reviewing.  All opinions are honest and original.