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Tag: Influenster

  • Update – New Opi Rainbow Voxbox France

    This has been an epic ride with Influenster, I already received two Voxboxes (Marc Jacobs Velvet Noir Mascara and Opi Tokyo Collection) from them with no problem but this one has given me nothing but grief since August 2020.

    In the beginning, I was very excited because this was my third Voxbox after being on the site since 2014 but as time went on and I hadn’t received my box I started to wonder if maybe I should just give up on the box ever coming.

    Here’s a breakdown of the posts on the subject:

    First seeing the campaign on my dashboard –Why September Will Be An Exciting Month August 29, 2020

    Still waiting for my Voxbox – Getting Ready for my OPI Rainbow Voxbox September 15, 2020

    Still without my Voxbox – What Made My October Interesting October 17, 2020

    I just gave up after that because the first campaign ended then they extended it and that one ended as well and I got an email asking me to input my current address on November 7, 2020. Nothing after that except endless emails asking me to review my nail polishes, the same polishes that I did not have, I can’t lie but I was getting very frustrated with the site. On January 22, 2021, I received an email saying I was in the Opi Rainbow Voxbox again! Nothing was on my dashboard though so I assumed it was a mistake, 5 days later the campaign showed up on my dashboard I was less than impressed and didn’t expect to receive anything again.

    On February 22, 2021, with just 2 days left in this campaign I received my Voxbox, and it was just by pure chance I think, I was coming out of my house to go pick up my son from school and I saw this poor delivery man looking confused, he asked me if I knew this person “my name” well yes, that’s me. He was so happy lol, I had to go back to the house and put down the package because I didn’t feel like trying to balance it on the stroller.

    Once I had dropped my son back to school and had the day to myself (mostly!) I put on my fake nails and tried on my new polishes.

    In my box I received:

    OPI Natural Nail Base Coat & OPI Top Coat

    OPI Nail Lacquers 3

    • No Turning Back From Pink Street
    • I Manicure for Beads
    • Getting Nadi On My Honeymoon

    I like the colors that I received and am impressed with how fast they dry, my last box was all Infinite Shine so this is my first time using the regular lacquers.

    To make things more interesting on February 11, 2021, while I was still waiting for this elusive package I received a survey for cleaning products. Even more interesting they asked if I would post the reviews in French, they never asked before but I have no problem doing that just hope they don’t want a speaking video.

  • What Made My October Interesting

    What Made My October Interesting

    So, it’s October…

    The month of both Naveen and his father’s birthday as well as several other family members. The month of Halloween which I have to admit I don’t really pay attention to. We’ve never celebrated it when I was growing up but Naveen has been big on doing the whole dressing up and trick or treating but not this year for obvious reasons.

    Since the 25th of September, I’ve been using the Multi-Restore Gel Cream and Multi-Restore Facial Sleeping Oil from Garnier Bio. I spoke a bit about it here. This was my first time using a Gel Cream and a Facial Sleeping Oil, normally I wash my face and apply a cream then go to sleep so this really was a new experience for me, here are my thoughts on the products:

    Multi-Restore Gel Cream

    First of all, what is a Gel Cream?

    A Gel Cream is water-based, it has a lighter and more fluid texture compared to regular creams which is why they provide better hydration without leaving your skin feeling heavy or greasy. They are aimed towards people with oily skin.

    The first thing I noticed about the Gel Cream was how light and easy it was to spread it on my face and neck, the second thing I noticed was the scent, I really don’t like the smell of hemp and this was no exception, whenever I get a whiff of hemp it reminds me of some kind of musty old thing you’d find in the back of your grandmother’s house. Disgusting.

    Thankfully the scent does not linger at all.

    Once the Gel Cream is applied it absorbs into the skin rapidly and you forget all about that terrible scent and are left with a very moisturized face.

    Multi-Restore Facial Sleeping Oil

    Facial Sleeping Oils or Night Oils are oils designed to be used before you go to bed. They are usually too heavy to wear during the day or under makeup.

    When using a Facial oil a little goes a long way, trust me, when I first applied the oil I used it like I would a cream and it left my face feeling very very greasy, the next day I applied less and it was much better. Once again the scent is terrible but doesn’t last long. I never remember that I applied anything with Hemp let alone two products which in my opinion is great.

    Reactions

    I can’t say for certain that the products were behind my lack of PMS pimples, PMS is the only time I get pimples, and this month I had 0 pimples! If it was because of the products then great but it could easily have been just a coincidence. I will only have to keep using it for a couple more months to see if I skip the pimples for the next two or three months to see.

    Voxbox Update

    Now onto my Voxbox or should I say lack of Voxbox…

    I know, it’s been 4 weeks since my last post and I’m still without my Opi Rainbow Voxbox…

    A lot of people in the UK as well as some in France for their boxes but I’m among the unlucky few who have still not received their boxes. The campaign ended earlier this week and literally disappeared off my dashboard, I was pretty anxious, to say the least. If you don’t complete your missions for a campaign you can be excluded from ever receiving one again and I really didn’t want that to happen. Two days later the campaign reappeared and has been extended again! It should last until November but to be honest I’m losing hope that I will ever receive this box. I’ve been a member of the site for 6 years and this is the first time I’ve ever had this kind of problem. I don’t know if Covid is to blame for the terrible shipping or if this will be the norm now.

    So, you remember those false nails I bought to use with the Voxbox?

    I already started using them. I have painted my nails a few times thinking “Oh no! What if my box comes now?” It never does though so I’ll continue to use the nails and color my nails something new every few weeks.

    The nails are very long in my opinion, I can’t leave them too long or I start to feel like I can’t do anything so I trimmed them down to the perfect length for me.

    Nailfies 💅

    Cien in 15 Nude Brown
    Spartoo Glossy Nail Polish in Red Beauty
    Opi Tokyo Collection – I’m on a Sushi Roll

    I guess we’ll see if I get my box next week or if I never get it…

  • Getting Ready for my OPI Rainbow Voxbox

    *Includes Affiliate links

    Hey guys!

    So it’s been almost three weeks since I posted about looking forward to September, usually, I would have had my OPI Rainbow Voxbox at least two days after receiving the You’re In! email but…Covid.

    The days were passing without a box and everyone was getting worried because Influenster doesn’t provide International tracking so the tracker never moved past this:

    This campaign is active in the US, UK, and France and it seems the US got their boxes but the UK and French boxes were nowhere to be seen. I sent a message asking if the boxes had been shipped yet since no one in the UK or France received their boxes and afterward I received this email:

    Basically, the email is saying they just learned that I hadn’t received my box yet and they were experiencing shipping delays and I should expect my Voxbox in one to two weeks.

    My nails are jacked and I said I would look for some falsies to do the campaign. I honestly didn’t know what brand to get so I searched Amazon France for one with the best reviews. I found these by a brand called Vixi.

    https://amzn.to/3774v4M

    This set includes 600 nails of 10 different sizes. My hands are small, size 2.5 ring! With all these different sizes I know I will find a good match (I hope so anyway).

    The set comes with a little tube of glue but I’m not overly fond of the glues that come with false nails, they have a habit of being very weak. My nails will pop off the very next day if I don’t continuously reapply glue.

    I decided to buy a pack of glue made especially for false nails.

    https://amzn.to/3x8t6ks

    The pack includes 5 bottles of glue and a nail file. The set of nails also comes with a nail file and I have a few of my own already. You can never have enough nail files.

    It’s been about 5 days since the email about the delays so now it’s just a waiting game. I’m guessing I’ll get it around the same time as the package from Le Lab.

    Maybe I should say “What’s up, October?” or maybe not. I might jinx it again.

  • Why September Will Be An Exciting Month

    September is looking like it will be a very interesting month for me. I have a lot of new products coming my way to test out and I am excited!

    On August 6, I received a survey about a Voxbox from Influenster, I’ve spoken about them before, it’s a review site where you have the chance of getting a box of products to review. There’s a wide range of things you might be chosen for, food, clothing, beauty products, I haven’t seen any for books, video games, or toys but you never know. I’ve been with the site since 2014 and to my knowledge, they never sent boxes to the Virgin Islands but when I moved here to France I forgot about the site. They didn’t ship here and I had other things on my mind but I decided to go back to it and review stuff just because. In 2018 they sent their first VoxBox to France and I got it!

    The Marc Jacobs Velvet Noir Mascara Volume Spectaculaire VoxBox was my very first Voxbox and I really enjoyed the product. You can read my review about it here Finding happiness in the little things. When you complete the campaign you earn a neat little badge that you can display on your profile.

    In 2019 I got into another VoxBox, I got into the OPI Tokyo Collection VoxBox, I spoke about it here New Voxbox! and here New OPI Tokyo Collection Voxbox. I wasn’t really expecting to get this box because France seems to get two surveys a year and I hadn’t gotten into the last one for 2018 or the first one for 2019. I really loved this box because I almost always seem to pick up purple nail polish and this allowed me to venture out a bit.

    If the trend stays the same the survey I got from Influenster on August 6 is either the first or last survey of the year. I’m unsure because I received a survey on April 14 about Rexona deodorant but nobody even mentioned receiving it on Instagram or online anywhere. Usually, you can see what everyone has received if you follow the right hashtag on Instagram but there has been no real activity on the French Influenster hashtag since last year.

    This survey that I received was about a product from OPI, I’m going to be really honest even though I opted in I kind of hoped I wouldn’t get it because my nails are really terrible right now. I picked and peeled them until there is nothing. I’m going to have to get some falsies to do this campaign. While I was hoping not to and hoping to get the VoxBox, it showed up on my profile but I haven’t received a You’re In! email yet. I’ve heard of this happening to people before but this was the first time it has happened to me. With my first campaign, I got the email and it took a while for it to show up on my profile and I was worried it had been a mistake.

    The other products I’m waiting for are from Le Lab by Doctissimo. On August 5, I received an invite to apply for their Garnier Bio à l’huile de Chanvre Bio (Hemp Oil) campaign. I’ve never been accepted to any of the previous campaigns I applied to so I wasn’t really hopeful but on August 14, I was accepted!

    I will be receiving the Hemp Multi-Restore Gel Cream and the Hemp Multi-Restore Facial Sleeping Oil. I was supposed to receive the package very soon but there were unforeseen delays and I won’t get it until late September. I’m not really a fan of the Hemp smell but Garnier makes really good products so I’ll just have to wait and see about it.

    There’s one other thing I’m hoping to hear about but I can’t say whether or not I’ll be reviewing it yet. Sometimes things work out and sometimes they don’t so I’ll wait until I hear if I’m actually getting it before I say “I’m going to be reviewing this!”

    So, yeah, I’m really looking forward to September.

    I’ll obviously be reviewing these products so keep an eye out for those posts next month. Since I’m supposed to receive the Garnier one in late September it will probably end up being posted in October.

  • New OPI Tokyo Collection Voxbox

    New OPI Tokyo Collection Voxbox

    Welcome back!

    So I spoke about getting the I’m In email for the OPI Tokyo Spring Collection here.

    I’m happy to say that I received it almost directly after I posted that. I didn’t really get much time to try out the polishes before getting ready for our weekend camping trip which I will talk about later.

    In the Voxbox I received:

    • 1 Infinite Shine Primer
    • 2 Infinite Shine Polishes (Hurry-juku Get this Color! and I’m On a Sushi Roll)
    • 1 Infinite Shine Gloss

    In the email I received it said 3 polishes but I only received 2 which is fine since these things tend to change before you actually receive the package.

    I’ve been back for a week now and have had time to try out my new polishes. My nails aren’t the best at the moment because of all the anxiety and stress I had before the trip but I did put in the polish to see how long it lasts.

    It’s been 3 days and do far so good, no chipping, the nails are as shiny as when I first applied the polish, and it will hopefully last another 4 days or more.

    The process of applying the varnished was pretty easy, I applied the Primer first which is just a clear coat, I then applied my color of choice, I did alternating colors on my hands so 4 nails were one color and the middle the other color, finally I applied the gloss. One dip in the pot colored my thumb and another dip colored the remaining 3 nails, I also had to remove a lot of excess polish because I made the mistake of trying to brush just out the pot and made a big mess. So, remember remove the excess before polishing! I won’t say that it took long to finish drying at all but be careful not to touch it bump into anything while the nails are drying out you could end up with fingerprints on your nails.

    If you’re interested in buying the Infinite Shine Primer and Gloss in a set you can find it at Sephora for 24,50€.

    If you’re not in France you can get it at Amazon for $20.50.

    If you want the Infinite Shine Tokyo Spring Collection you can find the polishes at Sephora at 14,50€ per polish.

    In the US you can check OPI to find a store near you.

    I think I will pick up some false nails to really give these lovelies a try, maybe I might get fancy and try a design!

  • New Voxbox!

    New Voxbox!

    Hey Everyone!

    So last month I got a Survey from Influenster for a new Voxbox, I completed it but wasn’t confident I would get it because I’ve only ever had three of those surveys and didn’t get the last one I completed. I mean it will almost be a month since I did the survey and I didn’t really think much of it so imagine my surprise when I get an email saying I’m In!

    If you’re just now hearing about this, Influenster is a site where people post reviews about products they’ve used before, you can also receive free products from different brands to try out, I received a mascara from Marc Jacobs which I blogged about here, if this sounds interesting to you, you can visit the site and learn more https://www.influenster.com/.

    I’m super excited, to say the least, I’m going to receive the new Opi Tokyo Spring Collection you can read more about it here. I have no idea what colors I will be receiving and I am partial to purple but my only two nail polishes are purple so maybe I will receive something else and I can finally branch out.

    In the Voxbox will be an Infinite Shine Primer, an Infinite Shine Gloss, and three colors from the collection to test and share my reviews with my followers.

    The system works in three steps to give you a gel-like shine:

    Step 1:  To start,  apply one coat of the Infinite Shine Primer to each nail. Make sure to shake the primer beforehand to mix thoroughly.

    Step 2: Apply two thin coats of Infinite Shine polish to each nail. We recommend working on both hands at the same time so they dry properly.

    Step 3: Apply one coat of Infinite Shine Gloss to each nail to finish off your final nail look.

    We do have plans to be away for the weekend and I’m really hoping that I get the box before then so that I can try out the polish before we leave. If I don’t get it before then well I guess I’ll just have a lovely surprise waiting for me.

    I’m off to work on some genealogy now, so I’ll update you guys when I get back from my trip or before then!

  • Finding happiness in the little things

    You know that feeling when you open your mailbox and there’s something in there with your name on it? I don’t really experience that feeling, I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve ever received anything, I don’t really order anything online, I’ve gotten some books in the mail, some clothes as well but that’s about it. Every time I go out to the box I am not really expecting anything but still feel a little disappointed that everything is for my husband, he gets packages all the time, sometimes I have to sign for them and that is a tale for another day.

    So imagine my joy when I opened my mailbox yesterday and inside was a package with my name on it, I was overjoyed, I ripped it open with quickness and inside was a box that said Marc Jacobs Beauty. Let me back up just a bit and tell you about this package. I’ve been a member of a website called Influenster (it’s a website that sends you products to test for your honest review) I think it’s been about three to four years, so right around the time when I was pregnant, if you’re new to my blog I suffered from Hyperemesis Gravidarum (severe nausea and vomiting during pregnancy) which basically made me an invalid for nine months, I then went through postpartum depression and post-traumatic stress disorder which lasted for about a year. In 2015, I moved from my Caribbean home and went through a series of terrible events. The loss of my puppy, finding out my mother was in the hospital, I was taking punches left and right but the worst one was losing my second baby. What should have been the happiest time of my life was stained with dark spots that I couldn’t find a way out from. 

    I’ve always been weak to dark moods and Expat depression added itself to my growing pile, while I always seemed to find myself out of my foul moods this one seemed enormous. What helped was finally being able to talk to my mother online, she hates the internet but there was no other way for us to communicate. My days seemed a little sunnier, one of my brothers who had a distaste for social media also joined and I found myself happy.

    I got off-topic, my apologies, I can ramble on and on sometimes, anyway I was very sick and couldn’t do much with my Influenster account so it laid dormant for years. This year I decided to get more active on it, I reviewed products I had already used, I answered questions, I followed accounts, I was enjoying myself, out of nowhere I got a survey asking if I wanted to be sent a product to review, I answered yes and about two weeks later I got a message saying I was chosen!

    I was thrilled, along with no interest in my Influenster account I hadn’t been using my makeup kit much, so I relished the chance to go back to something that gave me a little joy in life, I’m nowhere near to being MUA status, not even close I just enjoy enhancing my features. I have to be honest when I say my happiness was wearing off a bit when I saw everyone else reviewing their VoxBoxes and I was still without my product, see the way my mind works it immediately jumped to the worst scenarios, I swore my box got lost or someone stole it, I questioned whether I put the right address in, my mind was whirling and then yesterday there it was.

    Disbelief and exhilaration, I wanted to do everything right to make sure I did the review right and they would choose me again.

    Marc Jacobs Velvet Noir Mascara Volume Spectaculaire VoxBox 

    Testing out my new mascara.

    A little eyeliner and mascara make me feel pretty!

    I’ve been testing the mascara now for three days and have to say that I’m pretty much in love with it, the mascara goes on smoothly and gives an instant boost to my lashes, and let’s not joke about it but my lashes are not the best, they are short, thin, and not at all impressive which is why I was shocked to see how long and luscious it got from the mascara. There is just one thing I don’t care for about the mascara, it is on the heavier side, if I use three swipes of mascara my lashes will clump horribly so what I did to fix this issue was to go over it with another mascara brush, I was able to separate the lashes to fully enjoy the length and dark color the mascara provided.

    In the picture above I applied the mascara to just my right eye and you can see for yourself the difference the mascara has made to my pitiful lashes. I don’t think I will ever leave the house again without using my Velvet Noir mascara even if I use nothing else.