Category: blogging

GlossyBox December Edition

Posted on by Cindy

glossy-box

Glossybox is a bespoke box of 5-6 luxury-sized cosmetic and wellness samples hand-picked by our beauty experts and mailed directly to your door. No matter which subscription plan you choose, from once-a-month to just once, this box is perfect little present from you to you!

There are four different types of GLOSSYBOX subscriptions: a monthly package ($21/month), a 3-month package ($60), a 6-month package ($115), and a 12 month package ($220). All regular subscriptions are recurring, unless cancelled within the term deadline. Please note that Canadian addresses will incur a $5 shipping fee. So be sure to add $5 on to the above totals.

Please note that if you use my referral link and sign up I will receive points that I can use towards a free box, so I invite you to use THIS LINK it will be greatly appreciated.

As you can see I actually got my December box in December and right before Christmas too. I should let you know now that I purchased this monthly subscription with my own money.

I was surprised to get my box today in the mail. I didn’t think Canada Post was working on Sundays so imagine my surprise when he rang the bell this morning.

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I love the packaging of the Christmas box don’t you?

 

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Not only is the box Christmasy but so is the tissue paper and the card. It all matches.

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I am going to start off by saying that I love the overall presentation of this months box from the outside all the way to the inside. Don’t you?

I also have to note that once I opened the box it smelt really good. Not quite sure what it is but it smells really good.

Toni & Guy is a brand I have heard of before and I have gotten a few things from this brand before. This is a leave in conditioner (I think this could be what is making the box smell so good). I love trying out hair treatments. This is suppose to protect and prime the hair.

SRV= $16.99 for 3.3 fl oz and this is a full size item.

A brand I have been wanting to try is NUXE and now I can I was sent a Masque Creme Fraiche de Beaute. Its a 24 hour soothing and rehydrating fresh mask. Its perfect for this time of the year. It will keep my face moisturized.

SRV=$32 for 1.7oz and this is a full size item too. Wow

Another new to me brand is Rituals Cosmetics but looking at it now I feel as though I have seen this name before but I could be wrong. I got the Miracle Scrub in Ginseng & Ginkgo Biloba. Try and say that 10x fast. Another item that is good this time of the year. I will have the softest hands this winter. I am excited to use this.

SRV= $17 for 2.5 fl oz and this too is a full size item.

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Bellapierre Cosmetics is  brand I am very familiar with as I have gotten several make up items from this brand. I like the packaging on the lipstick. Its a pretty color and its in the shade Burlesque. Its a mineral lipstick. I am going to be trying this out during the holiday season. I have to admit I am not into dark shades but I really like this one.

SRV=$19.99 for 0.12oz and this is a full size item

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This is a mini paint pot in All Aglow by Ciate. I have never tried this before so I will be excited to try this out for Christmas. Looking at it you think its a gold glitter polish but when you look closely you see some tiny flecks of red. It is so pretty and once I do my nails I will post a picture. I will have to try it bare and over a polish to see what it will look like.

SRV= $10 for 0.17oz adn this is a full size item.

The SRV of this months box is $95.98 and I am impressed product/ brand wise and value wise. This is why I love Glossybox. You always get the value back in the box and I am super excited to try everything out this month.

Since I got two boxes in one month I didn’t get a chance to completely try out my last box so starting in January, I will be doing a what I thought of Glossybox post. Not sure if I will include that in my unboxing or a separate post. What do you think?

 

 

First Book of The Year: 2015 (2nd Year)

Posted on by Cindy
firstbookof2015
Its hard to believe that we are less then a month  away from 2015.
I noticed that Sheila from Book journey posted on her blog yesterday that she was going to do the First Book of They Year: 2015 again. Ya I am so happy. This will be my second year doing this.
 Yesterday I started to go through my books to figure out what book I want to start reading on New Years Eve.

I am not quite sure what I want to read just yet and thankfully I have a about a month  left to pick one out. Do I pick out a book that I have had in my collection for awhile, and ARC or a book I got for Christmas?

I am thinking that I have a bunch of VC Andrews books that I bought and never read so perhaps I need to take one of them off my shelf and see if I can get back into them.

What will you be reading? How do you decide what you will read?
If you are interested in taking part please CLICK ON THIS TEXT and it will take you to her blog post so you can find out more about this fun event. Will you be taking part?
I will update this post when I figure out what book I want to be reading New Year’s Eve.

Exposed Ezine Release Blitz

Posted on by Cindy

Welcome to the Exposed Ezine Release Weekend Blitz! A Quarterly magazine where amazing authors bring you outstanding stories! And yes, there’s a giveaway too!

 

“Exposed,” an
electronic magazine featuring short stories from hot, independent authors, is
Butterfly Publishing’s debut publication. Giving readers a glimpse into each
author’s writing style and stories, Exposed does just what the title suggests,
exposes readers to new titles and new authors. With its low cost and varied
content, every reader is sure to find something he or she enjoys.

 

 

Phoenix Silverstone more commonly known as Nix, is a twenty-one
year old that has finally discovered her freedom. After living under the strict
rules and protection of her mother, Nix moved out with her two best friends in
a quaint little Seattle apartment. For the first time Nix is finally able to
spread her wings and breathe. Together, they get a job working at a bar and for
the first time everything is perfect.Freedom, friendships, a great job and fantastic man on the verge of becoming
hers. Tristan is the suave, intelligent, not to mention gorgeous law student
that Nix has her eyes and heart set on. For the first time, she has her life
together; that is, until her path crosses with Levi. The charming, tattooed and
downright sexy bad boy that Nix knows she needs to avoid.But when one of her friends moves out she is shocked to find that her new
roommate is none other than Levi. Flirting. Desire. Undeniable
temptations. Nix can’t deny the chemistry surging between them but she can’t
forget her mother’s extreme hate towards bad boys.

Will Nix have the strength to listen to her heart? Or will her mother’s rules
cost her everything?

Jude was
born and raised in a small village named Lacolle. She now lives in Montreal,
Canada. She is the proud mother of a beautiful five year old son, and has spent
the last thirteen years with her partner, Cedric.

 

 

French is
her native language, but she prefers to write in her second language, English.

 

 

Besides
working full time and being a mother, Jude has a passion for books, both
reading and writing them.

 

 

Her first
novella, Under the Sun was published at the end of July 2013.It is part of an
anthology called Heat Wave. Her second novella, Wonderland, was published in
March 2014 and has hit the bestselling rank. Lost Dreams, a military romance,
was published in May 2014, Body, Ink, and Soul in late June 2014 and Ophelia in
October 2014.

At fifteen years old, Nick DiMarco got news
that changed his life – he was going to be a father. Stepping up, he took
custody and raised his little girl, whom everyone calls Harley. Hard work and
determination gave him the lifestyle he wanted for the two of them. Now,
twenty-one years later he’s flying Harley and some of her friends to the
Bahamas for an amazing birthday bash. As a special treat, he invites Victoria,
Harley’s long lost best friend from elementary school to surprise her. When the
flight carrying Harley and her friends is delayed due to weather, Nick finds
himself alone with Victoria who has grown into a beautiful woman. What starts
out as a few hour delay grows as a hurricane develops just off the coast. The
storm brewing outside is nothing compared to the passion brewing between Nick
and Victoria as each tries to fight the attraction of a forbidden love affair.

NJ Cole is the author
of five published books, Midnight Caller, Midnight Eternal, Landslide, Second
Chances and Yes, Mistress. Unlike many of today’s authors, she chooses to write
in first person, allowing the readers to experience life through the eyes of
the unique characters that live in her head. Her love of those characters and
respect for their stories come through loud and clear in her writing. With over
two million reads of her online work in the past year NJ Cole is clearly an up
and coming author.

Be sure to subscribe to her blog for all her books:NJColeauthor.com

 

What happens when a natural submissive bumps into a polished Dom while
spending a day at the beach? Wild, hot, explicit sex! Explore Steve’s seduction
of Maya in this exhilarating tale. Warning, graphic language, some forced
situations.

Fossbrook, author of Broken Tides, is a UK based writer of erotic fiction. He has been writing for a number of years but it wasn’t until his collaboration with Cole that he believed his stories might just be worth reading.



In his spare time Fossbrook is a huge sports fan and loves the occasional glass of wine.

Reeling after being blindsided by a bitter divorce, club
manager Chase Milligan relocates from his home in Austin to Dallas, to start a
new life. Soon he finds his interest captured again. But who is Baylee Andrews?
What dark secrets is she hiding? Will delving into her mysteries bring heal
Chase’s heart and faith, or will he find himself embroiled in more trouble than
ever before?

 

 

    MEET THE MAN BEHIND THE EXPOSED DESIGN

Bobby Kim is a publicist to several independent authors. He
markets, formats and analyzes current trends to help promote books to their
fullest potential. He co-founded Butterfly Publishing with author NJ Cole.
After meeting various authors in 2013, Butterfly Publishing, an independent
publishing house, was launched in 2014. Bobby Kim has been known to put pen to
paper, so to speak, and fellow collaborators would not be surprised to see some
of his own work appear in his magazine in the next few issues.
BUY LINK TO EXPOSED MAGAZINE: Only $ 2.00 EXPOSED! BUY NOW
GIVEAWAY!
5 lucky people will win the first issue FREE! Just Enter the rafflecopter giveaway and GOOD LUCK! 

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Rafflecopter giveaway

The DUFF (Official Trailer)

Posted on by Cindy

Imagine my surprise this week when I was on facebook and spotted the official trailer for The Duff. Have you seen it yet?

I read the book back in May of 2010 and if you click on THIS it will take you to my review of the book.

Do you think you will go and watch the movie? Its one of the movies of 2015 that I plan on going to watch.

 

Review/Drama

Review/Drama

Posted on by Cindy
Review/DramaDrama by Raina Telgemeier
Published by Scholastic Inc. on September 1st, 2012
Pages: 240
Goodreads
Genres: Adolescence, Comics & Graphic Novels, Friendship, General, Social Issues, Young Adult

Raina Telgemeier, the NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author of the Eisner Award winner, SMILE, brings us her next full-color graphic novel . . . DRAMA! Callie loves theater. And while she would totally try out for her middle school's production of Moon Over Mississippi, she's a terrible singer. Instead she's the set designer for the stage crew, and this year she's determined to create a set worthy of Broadway on a middle-school budget. But how can she, when she doesn't know much about carpentry, ticket sales are down, and the crew members are having trouble working together? Not to mention the onstage AND offstage drama that occurs once the actors are chosen, and when two cute brothers enter the picture, things get even crazier! Following the success of SMILE, Raina Telgemeier brings us another graphic novel featuring a diverse set of characters that humorously explores friendship, crushes, and all-around drama!

As I was doing a major clean trying to get the house ready for Christmas and having house guest I stumbled upon a bag of books that I read and never reviewed. Not quite sure why and the only thing I could think of was it was during one of my reviewing slumps.

I got this book for review back  in 2012 so I quickly reread it and I have to say it was a cute book. I normally don’t read graphic novels and I don’t know why because they are actually fun quick reads and I think it would actually break up my reading. Plus they make for a quick review when needed right?

I have read Raina’s other graphic novels and really enjoyed them. I think if you have a child who is reluctant to read books that perhaps introducing them to a graphic novel would be a great start. Michael loves reading graphic novels and is now starting to collect and read comic books.

I love books where the title actually matches the book and this is a perfect example of that. As does the cover. I also love how bright and colorful the graphics are in this book. it definitely will appeal to the middle grade readers.

Callie eats, sleeps and breathes drama. Her whole life revolves around it and I love seeing that kind of passion in young people. Don”t you?

Callie is just like all of us book lovers who geek out over books and authors etc. You can totally relate to her and how she is.

I loved Callie because for someone so young she was brave and didn’t give a crap on what others thought of her and I wish more kids could be like that. She liked what she liked and didn’t care what others thought. Which it should be if you love something that perhaps your friend doesn’t that is okay that won’t change your friendship. I find too many kids are losing that passion and just following and doing what their friends are doing and its taking away from who they are. I stress this all the time with Michael and its okay to like what you like.

I don’t want to talk to much about the book because I will end up giving the book away. I will say that i know this is a very sensitive subject with some parents (if you don’t know what I mean look at the amazon reviews) and all I want to say is that we love who we love no matter what and i think we are now so much more advance then we were 20-30 years ago. Reading this book won’t make your child gay and I think as parents we need to teach our children that just because someone is gay that there is nothing wrong with them. They are just like us and they deserve to have someone love them too.