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product review

Dirty Hippie!

Jul 28th, 2010
by gazelle.
10 comments

So – you all know I’m a dirty hippie. I make my own laundry detergent & grow & can my own food. I don’t use chemical cleaners in my house. (I do, however, clean my house, so maybe I’m a relatively clean hippie?) I use TOM’S OF MAINE TOOTHPASTE and don’t eat HFCS or partially hydrogenated anything.  Hippie.

Last weekend, I decided to take my hippie-ness to a whole special level. I bought aluminum-free deodorant. Now, from what I understand, the aluminum piece is the antiperspirant part (right?), so aluminum-free stuff is just a deodorant.

My particular purchase, after carefully researching & weighing the various alternatives at the store (I went with the 2nd cheapest one, no way in hell am I spending more than $10 on a tube of deodorant), I ended up with a lavender & lichen solid deodorant. Apparently the lichen is supposed to act as a natural antiperspirant.

The results: I did not feel particularly more sweaty than with my regular toxic product. So, the lichen is a big winner.

HOWEVER -I don’t think it’s primary function of deodorizing actually worked. I love the smell of lavender (which is why that’s what I use in my laundry detergent, too). This stuff? Did not smell like lavender. At yoga the other night, our (awesome) instructor kept having us put our hands in the air (like we just didn’t care), and every time I caught a whiff of myself, I cringed. I’m pretty sure my hippie deodorant actually made smell like a hippie. A dirty, dirty hippie.

Product Review – Cheribundi

May 25th, 2010
by gazelle.
1 comment

A few weeks ago, I received a sampler pack of four Cheribundi cherry juices (for free, full disclosure, blah).

There were two bottles of the Tru Cherry Juice (that was just the regular cherry)

One bottle of the Skinny Cherry (made with Stevia); and

One bottle of the Whey Cherry (with added whey protein)

I LOVED the Tru Cherry. I am not a big fan of sweets (chocolate chip cookies excepted), and very seldom enjoy sweet drinks. This was perfect. It really captures the cherry taste and is deliciously tart. It is just cherry juice, water & apple juice (for sweetener), and I adored it. I was sad after I finished the first bottle that not all the bottles were Tru Cherry.

I hated the Whey Cherry. It tasted odd to me. Very odd. HOWEVER, I made my kick-ass neighbor try it (because I am a giver and force people to drink things that I myself hated), and she did not hate it. In fact, she rather enjoyed it.

I was okay with the Skinny Cherry. I felt that this one tasted too sweet, and although Stevia as an artificial sweetener doesn’t creep me out (I have my very own stevia plant in my herb garden), I just prefer to drink regular old drinks.

And – because you all know me fairly well, I know that what you really want to know is “how do Cheribundi drinks do as mixers?”

Unanimously, the Tru Cherry mixed with home-infused vanilla vodka, is DELICIOUS! Three thumbs up from me, the architect and the kick-ass neighbor. :) (The other two also tasted good with the vanilla vodka, but Tru Cherry was the clear winner, both with and without alcohol!)

Unfortunately, so far there is no place to buy Cheribundi juice within 250 miles of my zip code, although when I asked Samantha (my cherry juice hook-up), she said,

Our distribution channels are still growing and over the course of the next several months we’ll be on more retail shelves in more parts of the country, so hopefully you’ll be able to find cheribundi in a store near you in the upcoming months.

In the meantime, we are working on a reseller platform which we hope to launch in the next few weeks.  The reseller platform will be accessible via our website, www.cheribundi.com, and will make it very easy for those who wish to resell cheribundi, or obtain it in bulk, to purchase additional product at a steep discount.

So – thank you Samantha from Cheribundi for sending me those juices to try! They were great (as Meatloaf says, 2 out of 3 ain’t bad).

Product Review – POM Wonderful juices

Oct 27th, 2009
by gazelle.
5 comments

This is a bit on the late side, but I definitely wanted to get it in.

Perhaps you remember my review of POM back in July.  If you don’t want to go read it, the gist is “I love it and want to marry it and have it’s pomegranate babies.”

Not long after that, I received another shipment of POM Wonderful beverages. These were iced coffee drinks with anti-oxidants or something. These I did not love, but I didn’t really want to say anything, because I love the company so much. They left a weird aftertaste in my mouth – much like the aftertaste I get from things like Cool Whip & other fake foods. However, I did use the last one in a smoothie, and that was quite delicious.

Apparently my lack of review did not completely anger the super people at POM, because about a month ago, I got more stuff! This time, it was some mixed juices – a pomegranate kiwi and a pomegranate nectarine. They were in slightly larger bottles, so I shared with the architect.

He loved the juices. A lot. I enjoyed them thoroughly. Not as much as he did, though. I think I prefer the original POM.

However, I was SO INSPIRED by these wonderful juices (which really were good, even if they didn’t quite measure up to the wonderful-ness of the first POM Wonderful I tried) that I actually went out and bought an actual pomegranate.

Fortunately, there are instructions on the website so when I get brave enough to eat it, I can figure out exactly how to do that.

In conclusion – POM is a great company (especially Janny!) and I love their juices. And hopefully I love the fruit, too, and it isn’t too intimidating!

Product Review – Moji Knee Ice Pack.

Aug 11th, 2009
by gazelle.
8 comments

A few weeks ago, I was contacted by Erin at Moji and asked to try their Moji Knee compression ice wrap. So, I said yes, of course. My knees have been a problem spot for a while, and I know I don’t ice often enough.

Since receiving the ice pack, I’ve used it about a half dozen times. And would have to give it a hesitant 1.5 thumbs up.

The pros

  • The cold cell has a little ziplock & goes in the freezer
  • The wrap part, which is separate from the cold cell, is easily storable
  • I love, love, love the compression part of the icing system – I think it’s so much more effective than my little blue gel ice pack
  • It comes in different sizes, so you can be sure to get one that fits you well
  • It’s pretty cute
  • It’s really easy to use, and super effective. Super.
  • I have had little to no knee pain since I started using it.

The cons

  • It is cold. Wicked cold. Painfully cold. There is a warning about leaving it on for more than 20 minutes, so I didn’t, but still, I got frost-bite-like spots the first two times I used it. I now have to use a tea towel between the cold cell and my skin to avoid pain (I may be just a pansy – it was reviewed at Cranky Fitness, as well, and there were no complaints about frostbite in that review – in fact she specifically said that it wasn’t painfully cold, so I just might have a lower cold tolerance than others).
  • It is way more expensive than any icing system I would ever use – $85! They advertise it as the “end to frozen peas” as an ice pack, but those frozen peas are sure a lot more cost effective (also you can eat them).

I love mine, and I am definitely going to keep using it – and if you have an extra $85 to drop, I would definitely recommend it – with the caveat of “be careful the first couple times – it’s cold!” Two cons for all those pros isn’t too bad, really – and it is a great system!

Product Review – POM! Wonderful

Jul 21st, 2009
by gazelle.
8 comments

A few weeks ago, I got an email from Janny at POM Wonderful wondering if I wanted to try their 100% pomegranate juice. Being the freeloader giver that I am, I of course said yes! I wanted you all to reap the benefits of my sacrifice.

A few days later, a case (yes, a case) of POM arrived at my house. The architect followed the box’s instructions and put the whole thing in the fridge.

Upon arriving home, I immediately delved into my product review duties and drank an 8 oz bottle of POM. It was delicious! I was not surprised by that. I love cranberry juice, and this is not quite as tart. The inevitable comparison to cranberry juice led to some interesting bartending experiments.

My opinion – POM does not substitute well into a cosmopolitan. The triple sec makes it way too sweet – almost cloying. However, simply mixed with vodka and served on the rocks, it is a terrific cocktail.

However, as wonderful as POM is in a cocktail (and it is good), I found that it is an excellent post-workout beverage (sans vodka). I downed the last two over the weekend. One post swim/trail run on Friday and one post 14 miles on Sunday. Both days I felt that it aided my recovery.

This stuff was fantastic! The only thing it doesn’t have that I think it should is more vitamin C. Which, you know, is probably not something we can do anything about. It does have a myriad of other (well researched with footnotes & everything) health benefits – especially for you men! It’s good for the prostate AND for erectile function! It’s good for the heart and has plenty of antioxidants – which is probably the part that made it such a good recovery drink.

I did decide yesterday that I want to make a recovery smoothie with Silk Chocolate soymilk, POM and maybe bananas…..that sounds like heaven to me!

So – my advice? Buy some POM next time you come across it at the supermarket (if it’s not too expensive – the one thing I haven’t done yet is check out the price….in these days of personal economic downturn, we tend to buy as cheap as possible for those who like to eat well). It’s great for post-workout recovery AND mixes very well with vodka.

Thank you Janny & POM for letting me try your juice!

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