Moving Over

When I started this journal, my email was with hotmail.  I had since changed my email but on blogger, I couldn’t just change my email account and keep the same blog address.  For about two or three years now, I’ve been signing out of my email and signing in to here to post things.  It was a hassle but I like my blog address. 

I have given up.

I’ve decided to move this journal over so that I don’t have to sign in and out and in and out from my account in order to post entries. 

The new blog address is: http://jennifer-theansweris.blogspot.com/

Basically it’s the old address without the “and.”  I feel like this new one has a more arrogant tone to it, as if I’m going to be answering all the tough questions like “What is the meaning of life?” or that I even KNOW all the answers.  I don’t.  I have few answers to anything. 

It’s supposed to be viewed in connection to the journal title of “Who I Am.”  As if someone were to ask me, “What’s your favorite color?”  Then I would say, in quiz show-like fashion, “And the answer is…..  YELLOW.” 

In the theater of my mind, that totally makes sense.  So now you know and knowing is only a quarter of the battle when it has to do with knowing me.  I’m not even sure if that makes sense.

I thought I would do a complete restart, and I was going to move it over on December 31^st, I could clean up all the labels and such. 

But there’s a history here.  There are some entries that I think are still pretty good, ones I might want to reference in the future.

This is who I am.  For me, completely starting from scratch again, when I’ll be writing from my style and perspective, it would be lying.  I’m still going to struggle.  I’m still going to celebrate.  I’m still going to do the wrong thing from time to time.  I don’t want to keep doing the same wrong thing over and over. I want to continue learning from those rough times and have the hope that I would do better. 

Like this post, I wish I could forget it.  I wish it hadn’t happened.  I wish there had been no cause of it.  There’s some truth in it, but I was wrong.  I was unmerciful, I was crying, and I grieved God by it.  I think God is grieved by broken relationships and I was tired of being the one actively trying to heal that particular relationship, but who would I be if God had given up being the one actively trying to heal my relationship with himself?

And then there are posts like this one, championing a cause, trying to bring more awareness to an organization which is doing a lot of good.

And posts like this, showing how I’m getting involved in doing good for others and hopefully inspiring more people to take action also.  It’s so easy to get involved.  There’s so many things to be done.  Do the something that YOU can do!

And posts full of ridiculosity like this one where I had a secret to keep and you learn NOTHING but that I am a bad liar.

And I write poetry: http://jennifer-andtheansweris.blogspot.com/2010/11/to-fan-flame.html

And I love taking pictures: http://jennifer-andtheansweris.blogspot.com/2010/12/2010-image-it-2-of-3.html

And I’m stronger than I know: http://jennifer-andtheansweris.blogspot.com/2010/11/i-got-up-there.html

And I’m weaker than they know: http://jennifer-andtheansweris.blogspot.com/2011/01/untitled-01032011.html

And this is who I am.

I am full of faith, full of doubts, full of chicken, full of passion, full of humanness.

So friends, old faithfuls and new, continue the journey with me at the new address!

http://jennifer-theansweris.blogspot.com/

Still the same crazy me, hopefully getting better with time!

Thank you and have a MERRY CHRISTMAS!

The Scent Is On

Last year, Jenn picked me up and we went early to the shopping center to meet her other friends for her birthday dinner.  Her friend L had gotten Jenn a gift card or… makeup session from Sephora, so that’s why we went early, for Jenn to get her makeup done for her dinner. 

After the session though, there was something strange about Jenn not having the gift card with her or something since L had paid for it or… I don’t know.  We were both confused about what the lady was saying.  So Jenn had to buy like $25 or $50 worth of merchandise? 

Well, Jenn couldn’t really think of much that she wanted.  She did get a Clinique thing, I think, that she needed a replacement of or something.  So she asked me to pick something out for myself.

At first I was like, what?  It’s YOUR birthday.  Still she kept insisting.  Something around $20 or so. 

I decided it would be good if I could have a purse-sized bottle of perfume.  I have a travel size of the Calgon Morning Glory body mist, the scent that I use almost every day, but it’s a daily scent and I might want something more sophisticated and slightly stronger for a date or night out.  I have a couple perfumes, but they’re in medium sized bottles and are not easily carried in a bag- I’m always worried that I might forget it’s in my purse and that I’ll crack the bottle.

I thought I might get a purse-size of DKNY’s Be Delicious Fresh Blossom, of which I had gotten the medium bottle a couple years ago.  I really like the scent for special occasions.  The mini comes as a rollerball duo with the regular Be Delicious.  The regular smells good too but I wasn’t sure. 

Then I thought that since I have this chance, I’ll go with something I normally wouldn’t purchase for myself.  I finally decided on Juicy Couture’s Viva La Juicy Roll-on.  Here’s the description from Sephora.com: “Juicy Couture presents Viva La Juicy, an enticing scent of wild berries and mandarins, honeysuckle, gardenia, and jasmine. To round it out, amber, caramel, vanilla, sandalwood, and praline add just the right touch of sweetness.”

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With that being done, we had a great time at Jenn’s dinner.  Then she drove me home. 

And I forgot to get the perfume from her bag.  Sigh.

And then Jenn moved and lost it for a bit.

So then I finally got it this year at Jenn’s birthday dinner! 

And I still like the scent of Viva La Juicy very much.  I can’t wait to wear it!

[Oh look what I found- a scent by fresh called "Sugar Lychee." I like lychee.  I wonder if it smells good?]

Thank you for reading.

*To buy Juicy Couture products,  start here.

**DKNY Be Delicious, Viva La Juicy, and Fresh photos from Sephora.com.  Morning Glory photo from Calgon.

A Diamond in the Rough… Candle?

I think I’m finally getting around to writing about some stuff that have come my way because it’s the giving season of Christmas and all.  So maybe these entries can give someone a gift idea in time!

It is getting rainy and sometimes cold over here.  This is when I get out my heating pad for my bed, just in case, and thicker blankets and drink hot tea more often.  Still cozier and more fun than all of that are my candles! 

When it gets cold I love lighting candles.  It keeps my whole room warm, gives off wonderful scents, and just helps me feel more at home.  I would light candles year round if it didn’t get so hot here most of the time.

You can read a previous entry on tricks I’ve used to keepwarm and candles that I like here. 

I still love the Apple Slice candle from Melaleuca’s Sun Valley Soy collection.  If you would like something from Melaleuca, I can get it for you or you can sign up under me to get things for yourself; it’s one of those companies where you can build your own business from it and so far Melaleuca is the best one for my family that my mom has had us try.

What was I…? Candles.  Yes. 

I have decided that I do not like the Citrus Grove scented one so much.  Melaleuca used to have a Café Caramel candle from an old collection that they don’t sell anymore.  I only have one left and I’m kind of sad and saving it for later.  If you find a good smelling caramel candle, please let me know from where?  I’ve looked online but haven’t found one I’m willing to try and for the price.  I would burn the Caramel and the Apple candles at the same time and the combination smelled OH SO GOOD.

This year I decided to try the Meadow Mist candle, also from the Sun Valley Soy collection.  I like it.  It smells just like meadow mist, or rather just like how I IMAGINE meadow mist might smell.  Overall, it smells like just-washed laundry, something I enjoy very much.

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Last year for the Christmas season, I stopped by The BodyShop  for some stocking stuffers.  They had a great deal going on [which they probably have every year at that time, I just don’t go to malls often] and so along with gifts, I also picked up some fragrance oils of which I’d been waiting to get more.

I picked up [for myself]: Satsuma, Cranberry Joy, and Exotic.  I had a cranberry scent from them before and I don’t know if this is the same one, but I liked the first one so I thought I’d get C-Joy this time and I’m glad. 

I had Exotic before also and had liked it; I don’t know how to describe the scent.  The website says: “Best if you want to: Perk up your spirits with an energetic and fruity aroma in a scented oil that can be used several ways to fragrance your home and help create your desired atmosphere.”   Not the best description job I’ve seen but it is a fruity scent.  It’s more crisp than creamy.  I don’t know about energetic.  Still, I like it.

And then Satsuma is an orangy citrus scent.  Love it.

Previously I have also had Black Cherry and Mandarin Peel, both of which I liked. I don’t think they have cherry one anymore and the Satsuma is a good replacement of Mandarin.

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One of my YouTube subscriptions is to Elle Fowler’s AllThatGlitters21 channel.  It is mostly about makeup and such: hair care, nail care, etc.  She did a recent haul video on candles.  Here’s the link to the video: Candles on AllThatGlitters21.

If you’d rather not watch the video, I’ll just tell you about it.  She reviewed candles from a few companies [listed in her video description] but I thought that Diamond Candles had an extra little fun factor to it. 

Diamond Candles are soy candles that comes with a diamondring inside!  It’s like a CrackerJack box with a prize inside!  I used to love having CrackerJacks and I always wanted the fake tattoos or the plastic ring from it.

Well, here is the description from Diamond Candles:

Foil with Ring Inside

“We are so glad you are here! If you don't know much about us yet we have real rings worth $10, $100, $1,000, or $5,000 in every single earth friendly, all natural soy candle that we make. 

The combination of highly fragrant premium quality soy candles, an exciting and fun 'ring reveal' experience (what ring will you find?), and a ring to wear for months and years to come means making something as boring as burning candles in your home something to look forward to.”

They have several scents that I think I would enjoy.  So for my first Diamond Candles, I decided I would try Strawberry Bliss and White Chocolate.  From the day I purchased them to the day they arrived was 7 days, pretty good.  I couldn’t wait and burned them right away!

Like the caramel and apple combination, I had decided on the strawberry and chocolate candles to maybe make another great combination.  I’m a good strawberry person and usually not much of a chocolate person as scents or flavors.  When I burn these two candles together, the white chocolate dominates I think.  I have a hard time picking out any strawberry hints.  Not a bad thing but at least I tried.

The white chocolate on its own is okay but like I said, I’m not much of a chocolate person overall.  The strawberry one on its own I like better.  Neither is an overwhelming scent.  For some reason, I can smell them more in the hallway or the other bedroom than when they’re close in my own room.  I think both have a kind of buttery undertone to them.  There are other scents from the company that I would like to try eventually but I would get these two again as well.

And the rings in both candles were near the top.  I think I got them out the second day that I burned the candles, so after about 5 hours of burn time or so?  The rings were in little bags and then wrapped in foil before being put into the candles.

Ring in the Little Zip Bag

Ring in the Foil

I got the pink ring from the strawberry candle and the purple from the chocolate candle.  I like pink more than purple, actually I was hoping for a blue or a yellow ring.  I think they’re both either $10 or $100 rings but definitely not more than that.  Anyways, it was still fun to get them like a prize!  Well, fun for someone like me.

And to further the fun, I’m thinking about what I’ll use the jars for after the candles have been burnt.  I’ve used the Sun Valley candle glasses as a little vases so far.  I saw this and it has sparked a desire to possibly be a little more creative…  Idea for Candle Jar Second Life.  I think I will also use one of the jars to hold some of my Lush products.

So consider giving away a candle for a gift- and if the person doesn’t actually like the scent that you chose for them, it makes a great gift for them to give away!  And so on, and so on, the candle will find a home eventually…

And PLEASE BE CAREFUL AND SAFE ABOUT BURNING YOUR CANDLES!  Especially in trimming down the wicks periodically to keep the flame height low- I’m definitely doing this regularly with my Diamond Candles.


Leave a comment below if you a) find a caramel-scented soy candle, or b) would like me to get you a Melaleuca candle, or c) get/give someone a Diamond Candle please?  You can let me know which candles/scents you use which you think I might like to try!

Thank you for joining Who I Am for this candle-and-diamond-filled fun reading.

Next!

Sleeping Lush Products

Along with using mostly fresh and natural ingredients, Lush is also a rather eco-friendly company regarding packaging and such.  Whatever product does NOT need formal packaging is sold loose and given in yellow bags that will disintegrate and can be used for compost.  Read more about their eco-friendly steps here.

As one can imagine, it becomes a question of how to store Lush unpackaged products while they are not being used for the moment.  The oils from the products will start to leak through the yellow bags.  If one leaves something really natural out, one might find critters around and on one’s products [I’m only saying this part because I found a roach hiding inside a bag of lush products, which the products were protected in their individual Ziploc bags; otherwise, I don’t find ants and things crawling around the products].

So, what to do?

I started with putting loose products into Ziploc baggies.  Even though it kind of defeats the purpose of being eco-friendly, the bags were what I had on hand. 

Recently I started to put as many soap chunks as possible into the containers that the samples had come in once I had used up the samples.  Here is a picture of the Sexy Peel and the Honey I Washed the Kids soaps in the two sample containers that I had.  One can see the bottom label says “Flying Fox”- that was the sample but the picture has Honey I Washed the Kids soap in there.  Some people on YouTube label their containers but I only have a small collection of products and know what they are just by looking.  Still, it could be fun and decorative to make labels for the containers if one would like to.

For the solid products that I use currently, I keep them in the square body butter travel tin.  I carry the smaller chunks of soaps and solid shampoo in the tin to carry back and forth from my room to the shower.  When not in use, I like to keep the tin in my room and opened so that the products dry out and stay better.

Also note: the solid shampoo is rather softer and can break apart easily if left damp.  So I drain excess water from the travel tin before taking it back to my room, and I make sure to stand up the shampoo on its edge instead of flat.  This way, more of it will dry faster and the shampoo stays mostly as one piece; some smaller pieces might get soft and settle on the bottom of the tin anyway but not much. 

Related note: I don’t remember if I’ve said this before but I’ll say it here with photos also.  I use the solid shampoo and the soaps on their thinnest edges and wear them down that way.  I find that if I use them on their flattest, broadest surface, as I normally would if I used other brand soaps like Dove or Irish Spring or Melaleuca, etc., then the Lush soap/solid shampoo tends to break up a lot as it wears thin and I end up with a bunch of little pieces.  So to keep the soap/ solid shampoo in one piece longer, I wear it down on its smallest edge and it starts to become like a ball.

The picture shows an unused Godiva solid shampoo to the upper right- it looks like a hockey puck.  Then on the left is what the Godiva looks like as I wear it down on its narrow edge- the bottom of that piece where it looks flat is the edge that I use to lather it into my hair.  The small ball is a piece of Sexy Peel soap- I put it in the middle of my washcloth, cover it up, and sort of rub it into the washcloth, then I can put it in the tin and continue rubbing the washcloth together to lather up more.

I keep an unused fresh Godiva solid shampoo in its tin.  When you buy 2 solid shampoos or body butters or massage bars, you will get a free tin, a small round one for the shampoos or a medium square tin for the body butters, and some of the massage bars come with an oval tin. 

And as part of Lush’s recycling program, one can “bring back 5 [empty] black pots and get a fresh face mask free.”  Says so on the black pot label.  Nice.  So far, I’ve only gotten the R&B that comes in the black pot, so it’ll be a long while before I get to try a mask.  

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I also have a storage idea coming up.  I will have to burn up a candle first.  Then when that is done, I'm going to clean out the candle jar and turn it into storage for various Lush products.  I'm going to post soon about the candle itself and then also the storage idea.

Thank you for reading.

P.S. When I've been adding on that Lush products make great gifts, I wasn't hinting about me but just to give anyone an idea for week-before-Christmas gifts for your loved one.  To find a Lush store near you or to shop online, visit http://www.lushusa.com/shop.

Wander-Lush

This Lush visit was caused by the sample I got on the previous visit.

So on the first store visit, I had been given a hand lotion sample that I ended up forgetting about when I got home and so threw it away.  This time I decided I would actually try the sample of....

The Flying Fox shower gel.  Here’s what Lush has to say:  "Share a shower with our Flying Fox to ground and calm you. Our Foxy shower gel has the stunningly sensual scent of jasmine, ylang, cypress and palmarosa. It's is so relaxing that even the most frantic, frazzled person will relax into a restful mood after a warm shower.”

I wasn’t looking forward to trying it based on the scent.  I don’t know exactly how to describe it other than… a little on the musk side?  Like pure flower extract.  I’m mostly a citrus-scent kind of person and sometimes berries too.  Flying Fox is not citrusy nor berry-like.

After the first use, it worked well in lathering, then cleaning and softening my skin but I still wasn’t too crazy for the scent.  After the second use, I went to bed later that night and caught a scent of it from my skin and thought it’s actually a little pleasant.  Then I used it again and decided to like the shower gel all around. 

It was gone after the fourth use and I found myself wanting more of it.  Off to Lush I went… after a few months.  I got the 250 mL bottle of Flying Fox and I am happy!

I let the sales associate try to sell me on a few of the liquid shampoos and conditioners.  I decided to try one of the conditioners as I have an abundance of shampoos to use up at home but not as much conditioners.  I bought the smaller 100 mL bottle of American Cream conditioner.  From Lush: “The scent of honey, vanilla, strawberries and oranges is so sexy and sweet that dates can't stay away. If your hair gets a bit messed up, American Cream makes it easy to brush through and smooth out again.” 

American Cream does look and smell a bit like a creamy milkshake.  I think it makes my hair feel a little… waxy in the shower.  Then after doing my usual hair routine of straightening and drying, my hair didn’t really feel soft.  Plus, I should have read the bottle a little more because the overall lingering scent is of vanilla- not a bad thing except that I don’t personally like the scent of vanilla; I couldn’t smell the vanilla when it was in the store, I don’t know why.  Also, none of the other Lush products I've used so far have a strongly lingering scent except for R&B.  So I guess it works okay for me and it might work better on someone else’s hair.  Good thing I got the small bottle of it yet I’ve already used it about 15 times and am only halfway down to using it up. 

Oh and if I use R&B on my hair after using the American Cream, my hair smells like coconut!  Haha- I didn’t know that vanilla + orange blossom = coconut!  Well, R&B does use coconut in it, it just doesn’t smell like coconut on its own.  And this doesn’t help American Cream’s case with me because… I don’t like the scent of coconut either.  Too bad.  I like eating and drinking fresh coconut but I don’t like processed coconut products.

This time the salesperson gave me a sample of Rehab Shampoo.  Lush says: “Olive and jojoba oil shampoo to restore strength and flexibility to abused hair. Rehab is shampoo for hair which has been abused and needs some rest and relaxation. It doesn't take long for this shampoo to restore your hair to youth and vitality. Enzymic papaya cleanses, while almond oil softens the follicles. Once your badly conditioned hair has been put into Rehab, you'll never look back.”  Well, whether on its own or used with American Cream, Rehab is okay.  It didn’t impress me nor disgust me.  The scent after use is not much and so I guess I could use it and mask any scent of it with R&B.  I think I’ll be sticking to Godiva and other shampoos that work as well or better and smells better to me.

I decided that I wanted to try another solid soap; I still had Sexy Peel at home.  I got a wedge slice of Honey, I Washed the Kids soap.  Lush says: “The irresistible toffee and honey. Once you've unwrapped this mouth-watering toffee scented soap, you'll immediately want to wash yourself all over with it - and then wash your honey, and then the kids and maybe even gran if she's lucky.”  It looked like cheesecake with a honeycomb pattern on the top.  When I got it home, it quickly started turning brownish, like a cocoa color- remember, it’s made of fresh natural ingredients so this is okay. 

I like the Honey soap too!  It does smell like toffee and honey, both of which I like very much. In the shower, it gives off an extra little sweetness to the scent.  My skin feels good after the shower too. 

And lastly, I bought one of their gorilla perfumes.  They are mostly inspired by signature Lush scents, like the Karma perfume to match the Karma soap and Karma body cream and Karma bubble bar, etc. 

I was considering the Orange Blossom which I liked but decide on the Lust perfume because it matches the scent of the Flying Fox shower gel that I was getting, as well as the Godiva shampoo I already use.  It also doesn’t smell like any other perfume that I already have.  I love the scent of Lust!  Lush says: “It's a very heady perfume that's not for the shy and retiring. It starts off as strong, pure jasmine and warms on the skin to a seductive floral scent. It lasts for hours and hours. Unlike some other things we could mention.”

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So… a summary update:

Like and would buy again: Godiva solid shampoo, Sexy Peel solid soap, R&B hair treatment, Strawberry Feels Forever massage bar, Flying Fox shower gel, Honey I Washed the Kids soap, Lust perfume.

Need to use more in order to decide: Sunny side bubble bar.

Would not buy again: American Cream (scent), Rehab shampoo (free sample item; average).

Note on costs: some of the products might seem expensive, but at least for the ones that I’ve used, you won’t need a huge amount of product for each use; you’ll need very little of the product and so you should be able to get more uses out of it than from other cheaper, common products. 

Lush online

If you've tried a Lush product, leave a comment below and let me know how you liked it.  Also leave a comment if you have an opinion on the blog layout- I changed to it only a few days ago.


Thank you for reading and check out Lush products [they also make nice gifts *wink wink*].

Lush Run

Earlier this year, I made a visit to the Lush store in Ala Moana. I was running out of the Sexy Peel soap and Godiva solid shampoo, both of which I like and have written about here, so that is what I went to pick up. Short story: they work well and would be good if one likes citrus scents (Sexy Peel) or jasmine scents (Godiva).

The solid shampoo are usually sold “Buy 1, get 1 free” so I got 2 Godivas. I am going to give one to my friend who likes being outdoors. The solid shampoo is great for taking on travels as they dry out and so one doesn’t have to worry about spills all over one’s bag. I hope my friend will like it.

Godiva

Sexy Peel

The store associate sold me on trying out their new R&B hair care product. “R&B” stands for “revive and balance.” Lush says: “Enjoy some smooth R&B stylings. The tropical butters and candelilla wax will help to moisturize and control frizzy, flyaway hair, but this works to soothe dry scalps, too, with calming oat milk. And once you smell the orange blossom, your hair will truly get its groove back.” 

I am delighted with R&B. It really softens and smooths my hair, leaving it smelling wonderfully of flowers. After showering, I get a small amount of R&B on my fingertips and warm it up just rubbing the fingers together, as the associate had demonstrated in the store. Then I run my fingers along the ends of my damp hair. I like my hair straightened so I use a straightener that’s good to use on damp or dry hair. The heat from the straightener seals in the scent of the R&B; even after the next shampoo, my hair will still have a hint of the scent.

My friend keeps asking me if I'm wearing perfume because I smell so good. It's the R&B.

I have shoulder-length thick hair. The 3.5 jar of R&B has lasted for several months already with frequent use and it’s only halfway through. I enjoy the scent so much that I sometimes use it to soothe dry skin on my hands and legs.

When one makes a purchase, Lush will throw in a free sample of one product. This time, I received a sample of the Flying Fox Shower Gel. I will review it next Lush entry.

From watching a few Lush haul videos on YouTube, one will also receive free samples of things with online orders.

Lush Online

Their products make great gifts! *hint hint*




Thank you for reading.

PS. How do you like the new layout and design?