2/365 Days: L’Oréal Paris® Lash Boosting Technology — Week 3

I have been using L’Oréal Paris® Lash Boosting Technology for the past three weeks (you can check out week one here) and according to L’Oréal Paris®, they only need four weeks to completely transform your short, almost non-existent eyelashes into phenomenal, longer, stronger lashes. Thanks to BzzAgent, I was able to give L’Oréal Paris® Lash Boosting Technology a try and in the past three weeks, have definitely seen a few slight differences.

• My eyelashes don’t fall out by the multiples when I wash my makeup off at night. Big, big plus.
• My eyelashes are most definitely longer and more defined, even with no eye makeup on at all.

There are two products in the L’Oréal Paris® Lash Boosting Technology line–the Lash Boosting Serum, which retails for around $12 and the Double Extend Lash Boosting Mascara, which retails for for around $10, or you can buy them both together. While I have been applying the Lash Boosting Serum at night for the past three weeks, if you don’t want to buy the set, I would definitely opt for the Double Extend Lash Boosting Mascara of the two. It is, hands down, the best mascara I have ever used. It goes on evenly and stays there all day long and I really love it.

If I Only Had More Time…and $250 More Dollars

At least once a week, if not once a day, a woman will proclaim that if she only had more time, she could get one more thing on her never-ending list of duties done.

As we have mentioned quite a few times before on Woman Tribune, Alice is an amazing web service (and iPhone app!) that will help you take and keep stock of all the household products you use and need on a daily basis. It gives you a super easy and convenient way to order new household items and have them shipped directly to your house, and Alice will also alert you to let you know when something is running low that you may not have noticed. Gone are the mornings when you realize you’re out of shampoo and walk into work with a mop on your head. Typically, an Alice user eliminates the chore of going to the store for these much-needed items, saying them 30 minutes per week. Of course that’s according to Alice, because I’ve experienced shopping trips that last much, much more than 30 months and that is more than once a week; but nevertheless, you are pretty much guaranteed to save a half hour of time usually spent in the store when working with Alice.

Because Alice is the awesome household friend that just keeps giving, they are asking What would you do with more time? Your answer could very well give you $250 extra dollars to use on Alice.com and save a pretty penny on your household items.

To enter this contest, all you have to do is submite your story detailing what you would do with 30 extra minutes a week. Would you play with the kids, make an extra special dinner for the husband, take a bike ride or a yoga class, or maybe even take a nap? Whatever it is, Alice wants to hear about it. You can also submit a video, for no other reason than to accurately portray your desperation for $250.

L’Oréal Paris® Lash Boosting Technology — Week 1

I have never been one to wear a ton of makeup; I am a big fan of natural beauty and most often, I can be found wearing only some eyeliner and mascara. I love accentuating my eyes, I’ll dab on a little lip gloss or if I’m going out somewhere special I’ll apply a classic red lip, but that about covers me and makeup’s relationship. Needless to say, I go through a great deal of eye cosmetics, especially considering you should update your mascara once every three months; something I had not known until just a few months ago. Lucky for me, just around the same time I needed some updating, BzzAgent sent me a brand new mascara product from L’Oréal Paris®–their Lash Boosting Technology.

Of course, because I’m well, me, before even reading my literature on the product, I ran up to the bathroom and put it on, since I was getting ready to leave the house already anyway. With just the very first application, I was amazed. I ran into my partner’s office and started saying, “Look at my eyelashes! Look how much bigger and fuller they are, they look amazing!” He agreed, of course, and started comparing the literature on the product to how it really worked, such as the fact that it really does separate and accentuate each and every single lash you have, which let’s face it, most mascaras do not do without some major clumping. I was absolutely overjoyed with the product, but completely forgot that they are currently hosting a 4 week challenge to let you see just how much your lashes will change in 4 weeks while using L’Oréal Paris® Lash Boosting Technology.

So here we are at the beginning. Week 1. Here is a picture of me with absolutely no makeup on whatsoever. In fact, I have been sick with pneumonia for the past 10 days and this is what being sick, just waking up and having no makeup on looks like:

As you can see, without mascara, my eyelashes look nonexistent until I close my eyes. Hopefully this lash boosting technology fixes that. So be sure to check back here every Tuesday until February 9th to see if it really works!

After doing some research when it comes to lash boosting technology and eyelash growth cosmetics and products, L’Oréal is definitely one of the cheapest ways to go about lengthening your eyelashes in a safe, comfortable and easy way. Some products sell for up to over $100 and the entire product line of Lash Boosting Technology sells for up to $21.79. You can purchase it at Walmart and Target for pretty cheap!

Get Alice on Your iPhone

With the amount of benefits Alice provides to busy folks shopping for household essentials and the oh so excellent deals they have to make sure you’re getting the lowest price, it was only a matter of time before Alice had her very own iPhone app.

If you’ve never heard of Alice before, it’s a website that makes it easier and cheaper for you to shop for your household essentials like Q-tips, toilet paper, laundry detergent and more and even get reminders of when you’re running low and need to order more–and not only that, but Alice will ship your order right to your house so you don’t even have to go to the store. From a personal perspective, Alice is a hermit’s dream. When you download the Alice iPhone app (for free, I might add!), you will have full access to product lists, coupons, reminders and shopping cart. You can access price comparisons, ingredients, customer reviews and coupons for the top 50 daily deals on Alice.com.

Get the new Alice.com iPhone app

Trade in Your Wedding Notebook for a Website

While we have all seen the tremendous impact personal and business websites and blogs have had over the internet and internet surfers, engaged couples have found that wedding websites have been extremely helpful and convenient in not only their wedding planning, budgeting and reference, but also for just about everything else.

Wedding websites are the new reference point for the bride and groom and also for their attendees and wedding party. The websites that couples can make range from simple to complex and can be used purely for getting the word out to your friends, family and colleagues along with your online friends and everyone else in the world or for just about everything that goes into planning a wedding complete with interactive sections for your bridal party to participate in.

There are many websites out there that cater specifically to couples who wish to build their own wedding site. If you are not HTML savvy, there are some very chic and elegant templates to choose from on Wed Simple and My Wedding; both sites are set up to be as simple or as complex as you’d like.

Through a wedding site you and your husband or wife-to-be set up, you can not only keep track of your guestbook and contact information, driving directions, menus, little notes that remind you of upcoming appointment, photo galleries of the whole process from the proposal to the honeymoon, an extensive online gift registry and also a personal blog for the two of you to get frustrations out, think out loud and so on.

If you are HTML savvy yourself you do not have to go through a pre-made wedding website company. You can simply buy your own domain through GoDaddy ($10) or NameNova ($7 and also the domain purchasing website I have used for about 2 years now) After you get your domain name all you need is the hosting, which I cannot recommend BlueHost enough; I have used them for years now and have never had a problem with them.

Wedding websites are your complete wedding planning tool so do you think now is a good time for you to throw away that overflowing binder and myriad of Post-It notes in various colors to keep track of your schedule? Yeah, me too.

Make Informed Decisions While Shopping Online

With the world’s population now doing the bulk of their shopping online and the people of the US, specifically, going through the first hurdle of a recession, we are now beginning to see the impact money makes on our lives and more importantly, the real value of a dollar. As a freelancer, I, along with other freelancers have spoken about how we feel the decline in income first and we have collectively been seeing the first few waves of an impending recession for months now. As someone who also shops online quite frequently, I have become a bit pickier about how and where I spend the money I do manage to earn.

Many stores will do the first leg of a sale online only, before it hits stores and they have also released online only coupon codes. Internet sales are important to companies and the convenience of online shopping is important to us. That is why I was thrilled to have come across a website that I have come to refer to as the bible of cheap online shopping.

Free Shipping.org is a website that tells you what stores are currently having promotions and where you can get the convenience of free shipping. You may come across a sale item on a store’s website but once you get through the checkout and look at the shipping costs you soon realize that while you did get a product a lot cheaper online than you would have at the store, you end up paying what you supposedly saved and then some just in shipping costs. Free Shipping.org lists the stores you want to shop at, the free shipping promotion they are running at the time and the promotional codes letting you save as much money as possible.

Their site is set up into several different categories containing over 800 stores so each and every single person who likes the convenience of online shopping should not miss out on any free shipping promotion. Free Shipping.org also gives you the added security of free shipping alerts, letting you know every time a store has a free shipping promotion.

Don’t spend more money than you have to when shopping online and visit Free Shipping.org for free shipping promotions at your favorite stores.

The Parents’ Guide to the Best Kids Toys

Parents seem to constantly be battling their children over what toys they absolutely need to have. After several attempts on their child’s part that likely go to the tune of “But Mommmmmmm! I need [insert toy here]! So-and-so’s mom let them have it and I need it, too. Neeeeeeed!!!” A lot of parents cave in, go out and buy this really awesome toy that without, their child would surely drop dead at the dinner table upon hearing that it would not soon be theirs.

Another problem parents deal with quite frequently, especially when their children start to get older, is thinking a video game their child can’t live without this week is simply just a video game or that a toy or item their children wants is just a toy. In reality, Some toys and even more so, video games that have been coming out recently that children just have to have are getting obscene reviews from even adults, so thinking about what kind of effect these means for entertainment could have on your child are frightening to even think about. It is becoming increasingly difficult for parents to keep up and shield their children from what the mainstream media is trying to tell and sell to their kids. Because of this, more and more parents are opting to join online parenting groups and websites to share tips and tricks on how to shield their children from the big, scary media monster. With more and more resources becoming available to parents, it is now easier than ever to make sure you know exactly what your children are being subject to when they are playing with a toy or video game.

Because of the lifestyles and schedules we lead today, for parents who don’t have time to sift through the archives of parenting groups, communities and websites, wouldn’t it be ideal to be able to go to a website that is specifically for children’s toys alone?

The Best Toys Guide is a website dedicated specifically for children’s toys and what toys are ideal for children to have and play with. This site has done all of the work for you and is ideal to consult the next time your child is screaming about a toy that they have to have or right before holiday or birthday present shopping. The website is split into categories making it easy to find exactly what you’re looking for. As a new site, they specialize in best toys 2008, giving parents a resource to consult for all of the best toys over the entire year. They have also compiled a list of the absolute best online toy stores. Because of our hectic schedules, it isn’t always a possibility to make a trip to the mall or the nearest toy stores and online shopping has gained so much attention for its accessibility and your ability to shop when you have the time to, all from the convenience of your own home.

The Best Toys Guide is definitely a handy resource to have at your fingertips when toy shopping for any child in your life.

Find the Best Deals on Diamonds and Jewelry

Summer is the season for engagements, weddings and in turn, wedding anniversaries. People are most definitely spending an obscene amount of money leading up to the summer season and a lot of people run into the problem that for the first few months leading up to summer and through the entire season, prices on jewelry of all kinds is marked up for just these occasions, as well as through all major holidays.

Because of the convenience as well as the chance to find the best deals possible, more and more people are shopping online. The only confusing and sometimes irritating people run into while shopping online is the fact that there are so many websites out there trying to sell you pretty much the same thing–How do you know what site to choose and what site is going to give you the best deal possible for the item you want?

My Jewelry Box is an online jewelry store with the best prices that I have yet to come across. They carry all types of jewelry, perfect for any occasion. With an extensive collection of blue topaz jewelry, diamond stud earrings and a massive selection of engagement and wedding rings and bridal jewelry, My Jewelry Box is a site that must not be missed; you won’t find a better deal anywhere else with the same selection or customer satisfaction they strive for.

Whatever kind of jewelry you are looking for, for any occasion, My Jewelry Box not only has the best prices out there, but they also offer free Fed Ex shipping on all orders over $99 as well as free gift wrapping if you’re planning on purchasing something for that special someone in your life.

Bank Account Belly Somersaults

Working as a freelance anything definitely has its ups and downs.

On one hand, you have the luxury of working when you want, not having to ask your boss if you can duck out for a smoke or have to plan your meals around a business schedule. On the other hand, you always tend to not work as much as you had planned, get distracted a lot more easier especially if you do work that puts you in front of a computer and of course there is the case of the impatient freelancer who checks their PayPal and bank account and the client who suddenly disappears right in time–Just as soon as you send out your invoice.

As I have already blogged about, Victoria’s Secret is currently in the midst of having their semi-annual sale; that combined with a wedding reception I attended recently that I desperately needed a dress for as well as thinking I could afford a little frivolous spending did not help the current situation that I am in.

So, as any normal person who knows they’re broke but isn’t aware of just how broke they are, I avoided my bank account. I have not looked at my bank account all month and I was really loving that arrangement; however, I noticed this morning that I am half way through my last pack of cigarettes and oh no, I need to buy more! And so, with many belly somersaults and the feeling of nausea creeping in, I checked my bank account balance.

Luckily, I have enough money for the carton of cigarettes that will save my life as well as my ability to work and earn the money that will replenish my bank account because I got nothin’!

Makes you wonder where the money I did have went. Oh yeah, shoes, undies, tank tops, pretty pretty dress. Sigh…

Victoria’s Secret Semi-Annual Sale–ONLY ONLINE!

Victoria’s Secret has recently started their semi-annual sale, which always bring a big smile to my face! The sale kicks off in store locations on June 19th and until then, you can enjoy several amazing clearance items shopping online!

The sales are fabulous, with bras being as much as 50% off and panties being as much as 60% off! I have found several items that are a great deal cheaper than they would have normally been and had to scoop them up. I got these ultra cute Angels by Victoria’s Secret ruffle-trim bloomers on sale for ($7.99, regularly $12) and because the “We also suggest…” feature is my downfall, I also had to get the sleep cami (2 for $30, on sale!)

This sale is amazing, so check it out!