Recyclebank/Pantene Quiz and All-Expense Paid Day of Beauty!

Recyclebank always have amazing initatives and exciting news and giveaways for you!  I'm helping to spread the word about the Pantene Nature Fusion plant-based bottle (so incredible!), and not only do they want to educate you, but Recyclebank wants to send you and a friend on an all-expense paid Day of Beauty! 

Just take the interactive quiz below, and you will earn 20 Recyclebank Points, and be entered to win the Day of Beauty!  So...what are you waiting for?

Fine Fragrance Body Wash for a Drugstore Budget!

I LOVE scented things - candles, lotion, soap, body wash, room sprays - anything where a fabulous or comforting scent can be incorporated into the product.  Whether it's a warm vanilla sugar, a sweet almond and fig, a pumpkin spice, or a simple shea butter, I'm on board.

That's why I was thrilled to received Caress' brand new Fine Fragrance Elixir Body Wash.  I received the Scarlet Blossom fragrance and I am so in love.  The scent is a blend of red lychee and patchouli oil along with their trademarked "Silky Fragrance Infusion", which uses a combination of multilayered fragrances and luxurious moisturizers to give that amazing aroma and smooth, silky finish on the skin. 

I use a shower "pouf" to apply body wash, and wow, did this body wash lather!  Some don't really create too much of a sudsy lather, but just a little of this created a mountain of suds!  It applied so luxuriously, and the application plus the fabulous infused scent, made my body wash experience so much more enjoyable!  It rinses off to leave behind amazingly silky and moisturized skin.  My skin still had a light lingering fragrance, which I really liked.  Sometimes body washes smell great, but they rinse off to leave behind no trace of the fragrance, so I feel like the great scent is wasted.  The fragrance this Caress body wash left behind was faint, but not too strong that it would conflict with any scented body wash or perfume that I would apply after a shower.

I also love that they call it a "Fine Fragrance Elixir", because I really feel that the name is fitting for the product.  The mix of scents is really sophisticated, and so unique.  I wouldn't expect to find something like this in a drugstore body wash.  If I could, I would walk around all day with the bottle to open and sniff it whenever I please - that's how good it is!

Overall, this is a new fave, and I will definitely continue to use it!  Caress also offers their Fine Fragrance Elixir Body Wash in Sheer Twilight, which uses black orchid and juniper oil.  They also have a full range of additional body washes in great scents, including their Exfoliating Body Wash, Silkening Body Wash, which also come in beauty bar soaps.


**I received this item for free, on behalf of the brand or PR company to give my honest review and opinion. 

Florida Blogger Event (Lots of pics!)

If you follow me on Twitter, you probably saw me tweeting pretty often in November and the first couple of weeks in December about the blogger event I was planning.  I reached out to Anna (she's amazing!), the front desk manager or Soleil Spa Palm Aire, a local spa in Pompano Beach, to see if she would be interested in partnering to plan a South Florida beauty/fashion blogger event.  She was completely on board, so I got to planning!

I reached out to a handful of companies to try and find sponsors and vendors for food, goodie bags product, and giveaways.  I was able to secure some amazing sponsors including:
Sweet Tomatoes for all of the event food, Zoya Nail Polish donated bottles of their holiday-esque polish Sarah for every goodie bag, as well as some of their amazing new Collection Samplers to raffle off, NYS Collections Sunglasses donated some super cute sunglasses to raffle off, Adriana Marie Co. donated a variety of t-shirts for all of the guests, Island Company donated travel sized bottles of their sun care products for all of the guests, Cilea gave donated 3 of their Lash Enhancing Treatment serums to raffle off, and provided $20 off coupons for all guests.

Anna from Soleil Spa also put together goodie bags with salt scrubs and bath salts from the spa, and we offered $10 mini facials and massages by the spa's therapists and aestheticians.  Anna  also had the genius idea of putting a different scented candle in each goodie bag, so for the raffle, instead of putting everyone's names in the jar, we put slips of paper with each scent written on them, and whichever scent we chose, the person with that corresponding scented candle would win the prize!

Here are some snapshots of how the event went:

Event set up in the Soleil Spa Palm Aire outside cabana

Cute postcards I created for each guest with twitter handles
for each sponsor, and the event hashtag for easy tweeting!

Food provided by Sweet Tomatoes

Raffle prizes!

NYS Collection sunglasses

Goodie bags

Adriana Marie Co. T-shirts

Close-up of the goodie bag including Zoya Nail polish,  Island Company sun care products,
Cilea Lash Treatment, and Soleil Spa Salt Scrub and Bath Salts

I also got in contact with Sashanie, a fabulous manicurist, who provided free polish changes four our guests!

Big ZOYA Nail Polish Deal!

I just scored two Zoya Nail Polishes in gorgeous colors for FREE and only had to pay shipping ($6.95), which is less than the cost of one bottle (bottles retail for $8).  You can get this same deal by heading over to Zoya's website, picking out two colors of your choice (this promotion excludes the "true" and "fleck" polishes), and just enter ZOYA2012 at checkout.  My grand total was $6.95 and I chose these two beauties:

Kotori

Zoya describes Kotori as : A dense bright blue shimmer superimposed over a sheer black base.  I'm head over heels in love with this shade and I haven't even tried it yet.  Before buying nail polish online, I always search online for swatches by fellow beauty/nail polish bloggers.  Looking at the swatch on a website doesn't always show the polish and payoff in it's truest form, and I love being able to see how the polish applies on actual nails.  As soon as I saw a swatch of this gorgeous chock full of shimmer blue, I was sold!

Lolly

I'm actually really excited to try Lolly.  It's a true hot pink matte.  I've only worn matte nail polish once or twice, and I'm always afraid it's going to get scratched without a protective top coat, but the swatches of this really intrigued me.  It looks bright and fun, so I can't wait to try it out!

Update: This deal was originally ending yesterday, 1/5/12, but it has been extended!!  It now ends on 1/9/12, so you have 3 more days to get your two free Zoya polishes!