Beauty/Lifestyle Box Subscriptions

Beauty Subscription Boxes are my weakness.  I have a subscription to a couple but I keep wanting to get more.   What I love about them is that you don`t ever have to go out and buy full sized products just to try them out.  The boxes you get delivered to your door contain all the products you will ever need to figure out what kind of products suit your skin type the best and which ones you love.  Once you figure that out you can go and buy the very expensive full sized products.  Its such a convenience especially since I have a 3 month old baby and I have absolutely no free time between work, my husband and her.  

The boxes I have tried so far are Luxe Box from Loose Button and Glossy Box.  Both deliver to Canada which is the reason I subscribed to them since I do live in Canada.  Most box subscription companies do not deliver to Canada yet which is a real bummer but it is starting to change slowly.  

Luxe Box was great in the beginning.  It was a monthly subscription so you received a box every month at a very affordable price of $10 a month.  They started off with very little variety but expanded very fast.  But with the expansion they started to charge more and eventually changed their plan to 1 box every 3 months.  With the monthly boxes they gave you 5 products and with the 3 month they changed it to 8 products.  I did not think that was a good deal at all since the price went up but the product numbers went down by a lot!  It is a good subscription because you get a lot of different products but I don't think it is worth it which is why I decided to cancel.

After that I decided I will subscribe to the Glossy box as a trial for 3 months.  I received my three boxes and they had a few products that I found myself buying again once I was finished with the `samples`.  However I did not renew my subscription as yet because I needed to take a break and try out the piles of products I had sitting around from all my other boxes.  

While I was taking my time to go through all the different products I had lined up I came across Lifestyle box subscriptions and realized that those boxes give you a lot more value for your money.  The subscription that attracted me the most was the Pop Sugar Must Have box.  Unfortunately they do not deliver to Canada so I cannot subscribe to it.  I wish there was a way to get around that but till I find a way I guess I will have to wait.  This box is a little on the pricey side but you get full sized products.   Your box contains food items, household items, fitness items ... a mix of everything lifestyle related.  I think it is a lot more practical to subscribe to a box like that because it gives you such a wide range of products that you will probably never get a duplicate product or something similar.  And You will have full sized products which I feel is a better way to go.  You can get samples for free from anywhere.  Thats why they are called samples.  Why pay for something you can pretty much get for free.

I also have a list of baby subscription boxes on my other blog called Life: Unexpected As Expected.  Check it out if you want to take a look at those.

So my research has begun.  I need to find a good lifestyle box that delivers to Canada.  And if not then a way to get the box to me somehow.  Lets see!

Wish me luck lol

C ya!

The Hospital Bag and How It Makes Me Feel

Being so new and clueless to pregnancy, the one thing that continues to make me nervous every time I think about it or look at it is the dreaded hospital bag.  Packing a bag to take with you to the hospital starts to make things feel real all of a sudden.  All thoughts about what might happen next come rushing to you.  Even things you may have blocked out because you just don’t want to know until it actually happens.  But this bag!!  It’s a constant reminder that you at some point in the very near future will be going to the hospital.  And it may or may not be a very ‘easy’ trip. 

So to make this whole process easier, what really needs to go in this bag?  I was always confused about it.  I tried reading up on what should go in there and there are plenty of lists online that give you detailed information on what is needed and what might not be.  After a few days of researching, I decided to go directly to my doctor and ask her what I really should take with me to the hospital and what I should leave behind.  She willingly gave me a list with not too much on there.  When I questioned her about why this list is so different from what I have been seeing online she told me that this list she provided me with was based on what the hospital I was pre-registered at has available and what they do not have access to.    So to make your life easier… ask your doctor!

The list I got from my doctor was very small but I will share it with you anyway.  Here's what was on it:

•          Hospital documentation
•          Benefits/insurance information
•          Car seat for Baby
•          Take home outfit for baby
•          Receiving blankets
•          diapers
•          Going home outfit for you
•          Gown
•          Slippers
•          Socks, underwear
•          Nursing bra
•          Pajamas
•          Comfortable clothes (3 t shirts and pants)
•          Camera (video, picture)
•          Comfortable clothes for hubby
•          Change for snacks
•          Snacks (i.e. Popsicles etc)
•          Towel
•          Toiletries (toothbrush, toothpaste, face wash … etc)
•          Hair tie, Hair clip

So there you have it.  That’s what I am planning on doing today.  Packing everything on that list.  I will stop slacking and actually do this today.  Not that I have any other option…. 7 days is not a lot of time lol.  
Wish me luck! =)

Crunch Time

So its crunch time.  Today is February 11^th and that means that the baby is going to be here at least as early as 9 days.  Yes … I am aware of the “it can happen at any time” situation as well.  I’m new to this and I may also be extremely clueless as to what’s about to come at me once this baby is here.  I get very conflicted emotions when I think about it.  It’s obviously the most exciting situation of my life after getting married to my awesome husband =) but I am also freaking out every min of the day.  Thinking about what happens between now and when the baby is born scares me.  As I’m sure it does all other first time pregnant women.  When I planned to get pregnant and it finally actually happened, I never really thought about what was going to happen next.  I thought … awesome… I’m pregnant!  Without giving it a second though or stopping to think what will happen next now that I AM pregnant.  Seeing everyone around me getting pregnant made the process look easy.  But what I didn't expect (but somehow always knew was going to be this way) was all the stress and the frustration that comes with being pregnant.  

Thankfully I have had a very good pregnancy so far.  I didn't gain more weight than I should have.  I didn't feel sick or have any symptoms of being pregnant until I actually started to gain a little belly and started to not be able to do things … like sleep … and put on my shoes lol.  And that didn't start till month 7 and a half.  So I am very thankful. 

Being the kind of active person I am … I have a hard time not being able to do things.  And that’s what has frustrated me the most during this whole process.  I don’t like to complain and I don’t like asking for help … but being pregnant … it gives you no choice.  There are just certain things you can’t … or shouldn't do and if you can’t do it… someone’s has to do it and do it right.  My poor husband, he’s actually been doing an awesome job at trying to keep my craziness at bay.  And has also gotten used to my lists!

So now that I only have a scheduled 9 days to go before my due date, my stress level is slightly high.  Not because of the things I need to do… because I’m crazy and have been overly prepared for about a month now.  It’s because I have never done anything like this before.  And when I say I have never … I really mean I have actually never been in a situation where I have been in a hospital… for anything (thankfully).  I have never even had my wisdom teeth surgery and have not had a single stitch on my body.  It scares me going to the hospital and even seeing someone I know is there.  Hopefully I won’t freak out when things actually start to happen. 

Honestly, I am a true believer in going with the flow.  Up until now I have stayed clear of other people’s horror stories and experiences.  I don’t want to know how bad you situation was or even how easy you had it.  If everyone’s experience is always different than I would rather make my own experience be the only experience in my brain.  I will over think it and make it worse than it is in my own head and I’ll be fine.  But going into something with other people’s bad experiences in your head is just asking for paranoia and panic.  As long as the nurses and the doctors are helpful enough to keep me grounded and I have my husband with me things should go at least less scary than what my brain is making it out to be.  And I am perfectly okay with that. 

So after all that being said … 9 days is not a long time, and I’m waiting … wish me luck!  =)

Happy 2013

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!

Hope you have an amazing 2013 =)