Try It Tuesday: Quaker True Delights

I enjoy a good granola bar and I really like raspberries and dark chocolate, so I was very excited when I came across a free sample for Quaker's new True Delights Dark Chocolate Raspberry Almond granola bars. I received my bar in the mail yesterday, right about snack time so I tried it right away. Upon opening it, I immediately noticed that it looked nothing like the pictures I had seen. The large pieces of raspberries were more like flecks of raspberries and although the photo on the website shows no less than 9 chunks of dark chocolate on the bar, I only found 1 on mine. I also only had 1 whole almond in the bar. Okay, so it failed in appearance, but what about taste? Remember the days when all granola bars tasted like cardboard? Apparently, so does Quaker. I was sooooo disappointed in the overwhelming grainy taste of this bar. I had been hoping to enjoy a granola bar with a "sophisticated" flavor and ended up feeling like I had just eaten a slightly sweetened piece of cardboard. Maybe the bar was stale, maybe it was a fluke that it contained so little of the yummy ingredients, whatever it was, I am glad it was a free sample and not something I had spent money on. If it was stale or a fluke bar, Quaker may want to consider better quality control, especially when sending out free samples that are supposed to convince me to buy the product. I have always liked Quaker products and rarely have had any problems so I was very surprised that I not only did not love this product, but that I really disliked it completely. The True Delights also come in two other flavors: Toasted Coconut Banana Macadamia Nut and Honey Roasted Cashew Mixed Berry. I can speak for those flavors, but if they are anything like the Dark Chocolate Raspberry Almond, they look and sound much better than they will taste. If any of you have had a better experience with this line from Quaker, please share in a comment. I was really hoping for a better experience and hope this was just a bad sample, but I will not spend my money on a whole box until I know if that was the case.

Try It Tuesday: Piggy Paint

Over the past year or so, I have seen several blogs hosting giveaways for Piggy Paint. As the mother of three young girly-girls, I was intrigued from the first time I saw this wonderful company. I never did win any of the Piggy Paint giveaways, so when I was contacted a few months ago about doing a review for the company, I was thrilled.

We received a bottle of Girls Rule Piggy Paint and a bottle of Piggy Paint Nail Polish Remover. I had always hesitated to apply nail polish to my girls because they tended to pick at their nails when I did polish them and I was concerned about them, or their baby brother, eating the flakes. The nail polishes I found that were designed for children still were laden with chemicals. The biggest difference was that the polish dried "soft" and peeled off instead of flaking off. Wonderful, now I have to worry about the baby choking on the polish AND ingesting all those yummy chemicals. Piggy Paint came to my rescue with their non-toxic, water-based polishes. The Polish Remover is also non-toxic and made from natural ingredients. Neither the polish nor the polish remover have that awful smell that similar products have either and they are both hypoallergenic.

When we received our package, my 2-year old immediately asked to have her nails painted and I happily obliged. The polish dried quicker than any other polish I have ever used and it dried "hard", not soft and tacky. The purplish-pink color was so pretty that I decided to use it on my toes as well. The polish lasted as long as any other polish I have ever used. It tended to wear off rather than flake or chip off. The polish remover worked wonderfully on the Piggy Paint. Although it does say it works on any polish, it took quite a bit of scrubbing to get the Opi polish off my finger nails that had been applied during a professional manicure the week before. However, for the benefit of not having to smell the remover or worry about the toxicity of it, it was worth the effort.

Piggy Paint nail polish sells for $9.99 a bottle and comes in a variety of classic and fun colors, including pinks, purples, oranges, greens, blues, and black. The names are fun too (Mac-N-Cheese Please and Twinkle Toes are 2 examples). The Piggy Paint Polish Remover is $10.50 for a 4oz bottle. There are tons of gift sets available such as Ghouls Wanna Have Fun, Little Miss Firecracker and Mistle Toes, which includes 3 bottles of polish for $26.50 and a few other gift packs which include 2 bottles of polish and a bottle of remover for $27.50. For the month of September, you can order the Girls Rule! gift pack (a bottle each of Girls Rule! and Forever Fancy nail polishes and a bottle of polish remover) for $23.50. Also, through October 31st, I have a coupon for The Happy Wife readers to use. If you enter the coupon code, HAPPYWIFE15L, you will save 15% on anything you purchase, including sale items. That makes the Girls Rule! gift pack an even better deal. At just about $20, it is like getting the polish remover for free! Also, all orders over $25 come with free shipping.

Would I recommend buying these products? Absolutely! I have many years left before my girls will be of an age where I would be comfortable with them using "regular" nail polish and I do not want to withhold the fun of mani/pedis from them until then. I am so grateful for Piggy Paint and will continue to use them not just for my little ones, but for myself as well.

***Disclaimer***
I did receive free product in exchange for this review. I did not receive any other payment. While the product was free, my opinion is my own.

(Don't) Try It Tuesday: Chemistry Shampoo

I hate wasting my money on products that do not work and I hate to throw things away, but this product is absolutely awful. I am fortunate to have gotten this bottle of Chemistry Cleanse Daily Shampoo for free a while back, I think through a Rite-Aid rebate. Since it was free, I am not so upset that I am throwing the remainder of it out! Let me tell you more about it.

Chemistry salon labs creates hair care products that are supposed to work to improve your hairs look, composition and fiber. It does this by infusing each strand of hair with their Pro-KeraGen Complex which infuses the hair and protects it. The products also contain vitamins and extract blends that include UV filters to further protect the hair. Chemistry hair care products are all sulfate- and paraben-free as well so it is not as harsh on the hair either. (all from the Chemistry salon labs website). The bottle also states that the Beautology Brands Company does not test on animals.

The bottle is real cute too. It looks like a chemistry beaker with a pump on the top. I do have a complaint there too, in that it was a bit difficult to figure out how to initially open the pump, especially when in the shower, but that alone is not enough to elicit such strong feelings from me about the product. The scent of the product is nice and clean, not too fruity or floral. The shampoo itself is a bit on the thick side, but does lather. I even thought it cleaned my hair and it seemed to rinse out ok too. Then, as my hair started to dry, I noticed it felt funky. You know the way it feels when you didn't quite get all the shampoo out? It felt greasy and was clumping together in small bunches at the roots. The first day, I let it go figuring I must not have rinsed well enough. The next day, I made extra sure to rinse ALL of the shampoo out, but the same thing happened. I even got back in the shower 2 hours later to rinse again, but that feeling was still there. The more I used the shampoo, the worse it got each day. It was like it was building up in my hair. After 3 days of accumulating this garbage in my hair, I decided to just use another brand of shampoo. Lo and behold, all the gunk was gone and my hair felt clean again.

So, let's recap. I like the concept of this shampoo. I like the bottle, for the most part and it smells great, but would I recommend it? Only if you like to walk around feeling like, and looking like you have not washed your hair. Personally, when I take a shower, I want to look and feel clean. Not only do I not recommend buying it, I am throwing mine away. If I ever see it offered for free or even as a money-maker, I will leave it right there on the shelf. This is not even a product that I would give away to someone else, unless I really disliked them;0)