Anti Age Eye Cream

Details: Body Merry's Age Defense Eye Cream can be purchased from Amazon via the link provided.  Comes in 1 fl oz bottles.  Can be used morning and or night, and under make up.  It helps erase dark circles, puffiness, crow's feet and wrinkles in general, saggy or baggy eye appearance, as well as eye skin dryness.  This product is all natural and Organic! With ingredients like: ocean retinol, organic vitamins and minerals and botanical actives and essential oils it will help your eyes feel better, and look better.  You can get fast and lasting results with constant use.  Great to use with any skin type.

Disclaimer:  I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Before application

My Review: I have only recently this year started using Eye cream to help reduce black/ purple circles, bags, and minimal eye wrinkles under my eyes.  So to get a product that works to reduce, or erase/ eliminate that is natural and organic is great news for me.  Body Merry's eye cream is really smooth to use, light weight, easy to apply and quickly rubs in, all aspects of a product anyone would want.  I have never noticed this before, but this product does have a scent/ smell its slight, but its from the essential oils used in this product.  Don't worry about this smell/ scent once the product is absorbed it goes away, but this can be used as a measuring tool, when you don't smell it anymore you know its been completely absorbed.  

After Application

This is a product you want to use on a daily basis so you can see results.  I will be honest its not a product that you use once and see immediate results, but with constant usage you will see results.  My eyes no longer have the blackish-purple circles when I have a rough night with lack of sleep (thanks to being a Mommy), I don't have bags, or if I do, when I put this on in the morning I will see a quick result in the bags being gone shortly after finishing my morning makeup/ skin care routine.  One of the best parts of this product is that a little goes a long way.  I use about a pea sized bit to be split between both my eyes.  So this bottle has already lasted me months, and will continue to last me a while longer as well.  Everyone says that your eyes are like a window to the soul, so when your eyes look tired and puffy despite you being happy, when I'm in that type of situation I would want my skin to show my happiness.  With Body Merry's product I feel like my skin can reflect my happiness, and health despite sometimes or more often than I plan on having rough parenting nights sleep.  The images of my face the before and after literally happened within a 5 minute period.  I put the cream on, let it dry/ absorb then took the after picture.  You can see the bags have already deflated under my eyes.  I will recommend this product!

Pros: deflates eye bags, erases circles, easy to use, quick to be absorbed

Cons: none

My Rating: Thumbs Up

Skin Nourishing Oil

Details: Mia Mariu's Skin Nourishing Oil comes in a 4 fl oz bottle. To be used on face and body, non irritating paraben, alcohol, sulfate, fragrance free product, that is also child safe.  When using this product your senses will be rejuvenated by the nutrient replenishing essential oils, botanical extracts, anti-inflammatory natural helps, moisturizing and healing support ingredients as well.  Provides deep penetration without clogging pores.  Can with constant use reverse signs of aging by promoting collagen production.

Disclaimer: I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

My Review:  I was both intrigued and worried about testing this product.  I have been lucky enough to test, try and review the Mia Mariu's makeup line, and found it wonderful.  However, when it comes to oils that are especially for the face my body doesn't always react well.  And in fact with this Mia Mariu Skin Nourishing Oil, my face completely broke out in a bad blemish rash.  Not fun to try and deal with, but it slowly went away as I stopped using this product on my face.  However, I did find better results when I used this product on my skin.  I specifically applied this product to my Motherhood stretch mark areas on my stomach, sides, back, and legs, as well as applied this oil to my arms, and hands.  I could feel my skin was much more smooth, and soft, and it was refreshing.  Even though they claim there is no fragrance, there is in fact a fragrance: a fruity/ citrus-y scent.  Its light and part of why I find this oil refreshing, however when a company specifically says no fragrance that is what you expect before putting this on yourself.  For a whole list of their ingredients please click on the link provided above because it leads directly to this product on Mia Mariu's website.

A little of this oil goes a long way, in fact I thought I was using way more oil than I actually have been...in other words after using this as often as I have, I'm surprised with how much oil I still have left to use.  I enjoy the fact that this oil quickly rubs into skin, and that the fragrance does diminish.  I didn't like my facial breakout, and don't recommend this product to people who have sensitive skin.  Even though I rub this into my hands, I do end up washing it off with dish soap because on my hands I honestly can't get it to rub in as easily as I do other areas of skin.

Pros: smells good, rubs in easily, works well on body skin

Cons: smells, doesn't rub in easily into hands, my face broke out bad

Contest: Ends October 4th: please comment below with one of the essential oil ingredients from this product. 

My Rating: Thumbs up and down

Hair Gone Wild

Okay so let me tell you a little about myself.  I was 29 when I first did a full hair dye of my head.  During the year between my age of 29-30 I have dyed my hair more than I have ever done in my whole life.  Lets start with my normal hair color, which is ugly dull ash brown.  Yep no shine, no rich coloring, and its thin and fine, so I don't get to do much with it because nothing stays.  I dyed my hair a lighter brown that just added some warmth to my ash coloring.  Then I when with a more honey brown when I dyed my hair with my Sister In Law.  And recently my family took a trip to Florida and while the kids and I rested after spending the day outside in the hot sun swimming.  So while the kids were playing or watching PBS, I decided to get brave and be adventurous and see what I would do with my hair and hair dye.  See my adventure in the images below...

First color came out RED!  It was supposed
to be Amber Brown

Second color came out Black.  It was supposed
to be Warm Medium Brown.

So then I used hair color remover to
 get rid of the black hair

and ended up with very ORANGE hair with dark roots

 So then I dyed my hair a medium blond and got rid of the orange hair, but now have dark roots, with a golden amber blonde hair.  Its different but fun!  I have learned that using all those hair dye chemicals in 3 days ruins your hair, so now I'm taking a boosted hair supplement, and going to wait a while before I "fix" finish going a little more blond.

Speekee Online Spanish for Kids

Details: Speekee Online Spanish Learning Program.  An online program built in 2006 to help children ages 2-11 learn Spanish, with additional resources that are designed specifically for children, with children.  Very interactive with games, songs, dancing, videos, puppets, Muppets, and challenges.  The Speekee Spanish Challenge is the most up to date, current educational comprehensive Spanish program that is online for children.

Disclaimer: I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

My Review: This is such a fun activity for children to use.  My kids were so excited to have online games to help them learn Spanish.  They watched videos with puppets, Muppets, and children speaking in Spanish.  As a home school teacher, I really like the idea behind this website.  Providing children with more ways to learn a foreign language, giving the children more real life instances to practice their new words, phrases and conversations.  The puppets and Muppets sing silly songs and dance for delightful creative fun with learning Spanish.  Aside from the videos, you can take challenges, sing along with songs, play games, answer questions, etc.  Some times the movies are confusing, they try to teach something that you don't really know, but repetition really helps as does an easy English/ Spanish dictionary.  Some of the puppets/ Muppets voices are really quick or their speech is hard to understand, but I love the idea behind the puppets and Muppets.  Even though most of the time my kids don't know what the kids and characters are saying they love it when they get to play Spanish on the computer.  Its a super cute, fun way to encourage children to learn Spanish, and be able to comfortably communicate with other children and adults in Spanish.  With this being said, I think a few adjustments would be very helpful.  My children can't use this sight on their own, because finding the games, the challenges isn't easy, finding the movies is easy.  It would be nice to have a more child friendly website design.  None of the videos or places on the map are labeled so you don't know what you will be learning.  For example I thought I clicked on a library and ended up with a video about kids in a park talking about distance and trees.  That video and whole section of learning Spanish was way over my mind and too hard for my kids.  Having them labeled would have been nice.

Pros: cute, fun, great resource for teachers, parents, home school students

Cons: no labels, nothing in English, not a child friendly website design

Contest:  Would you like to try this program for free?  This company is offering a limited time for a free membership on Speekee!  Please comment on this blog post if you want a chance.  Please comment with the gender and age of the child/ren you want the membership for.  First to comment wins! Contest ends 8/6/14

My Rating: Thumbs up and Thumbs Down.  I love the idea, my kids love playing, I just wish it was a little more child friendly with the games etc.

Escape From Bondage book review

Details:  Mahlon F. Harris author of Escape from Bondage has spun an amazing story about real life events, real life situations, real life emotions, real life circumstances.  This book "gives voice to the countless stroke victims who may have been forgotten and abandoned by the rest of society and ,sadly, even their families in their time of need" says Harris.  Harry Tucker the main character of this book is a successful business man with 2 adult children whom he loves.  One uneventful day in the office leaves Tucker frozen in time unconscious from a stroke.  Upon awakening he learns the real, unabridged dim future that awaits a stroke victim who was thought to only be a vegetable when or if he awakens.  Tucker's uncompassionate son has given up on him, and left his with nothing, no material possessions, no personal id, not even his own name.  But God has a plan for Harry Tucker and by sure stroke of luck or faith Tucker learns that God hasn't forgotten about him and gives him a will to survive and become a stronger man from this experience.

Disclaimer:  I received a complimentary book from Bookcrash in exchange for 3 honest non-biased book reviews.

My Reviews: When I first read the description of this book it sounded really good, very intriguing.  When I got the book and actually started reading it, at first I had a really hard time getting into the story.  There were a lot of medical terms that I didn't know or really understand.  The way the book in written is a style that I'm not really interested in picking up.  So I seriously struggled to get through the book for the first 2-3 months that I had this book.  Then during a recent vacation, I told myself that on this vacation I'm only bringing 2 books for myself to read if I get bored, and the rest of the vacation I'll be spending and focusing on my kids and my family.  With this determination I was finally able to get over the hump or block that prevented me from getting into this story and really liking it at all.  Meaning it wasn't until the last 1/2 - 1/3 of the book before I finally got into the book so much so that I couldn't put it down, I needed to know what was going to happen, and I can now say with true honestly that I do like the book.  However I will most likely not read it again.  My Mother-In-Law read the description and has been waiting 4 months now for me to finish this book so that I can give it to her to read.  But I think for her who is a woman taking care of her 90+ old Mother she would relate more to the main character and those whom he interacts with more than I would who is a young mother to young children.

I really feel like this book has a specific age target audience in mind and that if you aren't of that target you will not get as much out of this book as others, you will not connect with this book's lessons as much, and you very well may find it hard to just read the first 10 pages.  However the lessons in this book are great, the story does have a very conclusive happy ending, and you do come get to read a book that is clean, and Christian based which are all positives.  So because this is a little different than most books I'm giving this book a Thumbs Up and Thumbs Down because not everyone is going to want to read this, and I myself had to force myself to read it and it took half or more of the book to be read before I finally got into the story and enjoyed reading the book.

My Rating: Thumbs Up and Down

Phantom Fitness Bands

Details:  Phantom Fitness Fit Bands come in sets of 4 with a variety of colors, weights/ resistance: light, medium, heavy, X-heavy.  Phantom Fitness is a brand new company, just opened up in 2014.  They focus on resistance loop bands as well as wrist wraps.  Phantom Fitness created products that help with physical therapy, basic through extreme exercising programs.  Made from durable products that are light weight and portable so you can exercise on the go, in your office at work, or while you're sitting watching TV at night.

Disclaimer:I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

My Review:  I love resistance bands in general with my exercising.  I love how fluid, and flexible the tools are to help give you a fluid exercise that's more gentle on your joins, ligaments, and tendons than other exercise tools.  I have some other brand resistant bands that have cracked over time, or have snapped back and whipped me while using them, or pinched my skin because of the plastic handles.  So when I saw these resistant loop bands I had to try them out.  I'm currently using a physical therapy program to over come an injury I've had for over 10 years now.  My program doesn't allow me to run, jump, cycle, or do most exercises that give me cardio workouts, or work out my whole body.  So having these Phantom Fitness Bands I can now exercise my wrists, arms, shoulders, back, legs, as well as strengthen my core without hurting my healing injury.  In fact I've been using these everyday-every other day since I got them, and I've only had them for about a week now, and am in love with how I feel.  Even though my muscles are super sore, I don't feel soreness in my joints, in my bones, etc.  And that's huge for me, because I'm getting older my body is getting more like the Rice Krispy cereal: snap crackle and pop!  Therefore having exercise tools that help my aging body still get great results without the extra pain makes this a great tool to use!  Phantom fitness says they also have wrist wraps, and since my wrists are weak and hurt when I do certain exercises let me tell you I can't wait to try those out as well.

You can see some of
these have stretched

About the product:  When you get your package each individual fitness band is in its own plastic bag all inside a nylon carrying case.  Once you take the bands out of their plastic bags you can't put the bands into the nylon bag as easily all together you have to do it one at a time.  These bands are wide and thin rubber material so sometimes when you use them they will roll up on you, which can be frustrating so just put them on slowly, and use them with control and they won't roll on you.  One last thing some of the rubber bands may or may not stretch to be a little longer than when you first got them...so far I haven't seen that be a negative effect yet.

Pros: AMAZING!

Cons: may roll up

My Rating:

Science in a Box for Kids

Details:  Groovy Lab in a Box is a subscription service, great for children ages 8 and up.  It focuses on young STEM scientists giving them fun, hands on projects with engineering design challenges.  Each box comes with a Lab Notebook where they read and learn and experiment about the month's theme/ topic.  Groovy Lab Box teaches or rather helps reinforce investigating, brainstorming, planning, building, testing, and redesigning scientific projects.  Going with the STEMist box program your young scientists gain access to our online learning program Beyond in a Box.  Which gives deeper more detailed ideas, suggestions and fun online learning opportunities for each month's theme/ topic.  Topics change each month!

Disclaimer:  I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

My Review: As a home school teacher of a very active, creative, soon to be Second Grader, I am always looking for fun, creative, thinking out side the box ideas for him to learn science topics and skills.  When I first heard about Groovy Box I just knew this would be a really big hit with my soon to be 8 year old.  I love that you get all the supplies you need within that box.  I love that these are simple, fun, and easy projects that your kids can do, with adult supervision of course, but they can easily be done.  When I first opened the box I was a little over whelmed, I haven't done anything scientific since graduating college a decade ago.  But was pleasantly relieved that I could understand what needed to be done, and how to help my son achieve the results we were hoping for with the experiments.  Our first experiment we did from Groovy box, I chose, so we did the sun paper experiment.  I let both my 7 year old and 4 year old choose the objects that sat on top of the sun paper, so they chose Fisher Price Trio Blocks.  My 7 year old carefully put the paper in the sunlight and helped us keep track of time (it needed to be in the sun for 2-5 minutes).  Then I also let him remove the objects and paper from the sun and finish the rest of the steps by himself.  That was a super easy project.  What he learned is that even though we tried to get away from shadows we couldn't 100%, but that the shadows were just as cool as the image from his toys.

For the second experiment he chose the battery/ electricity experiment.  We needed to strip wires with our finger nails, tape them to a 9 Volt battery, and get them to buzz, then go around the house to see what else conducts electricity, including a plastic bowl of water.  It was really fun to test, but he did not want to write down his discoveries.  Since these 2 experiments weren't actual parts of school, I didn't mind him choosing not to write down everything the Lab book prompts you do, but come school I would actually make him finish his experiment.  Regarding the second experiment my 4 year old wanted to help and enjoy, but quickly found it boring and too much for his little mind and ended up going back to playing with his toys.  From this I can easily see how these projects are for children 8 and older.  Do I wish they had projects preschoolers and kindergartners can do?  Yes, absolutely, but you know what, that's okay I have pinterest for those projects.

Over all I'm very pleased with this product, I can easily see myself getting a year supply of subscriptions so each month my 2nd Grader has fun excited science experiments that Mommy didn't create on the whim.  I highly recommend this company and their STEMist products!

Pros: fun, exciting, creative, great for age appropriate children

Cons: you don't always get to choose what goes in the box

Contest: want a chance to test this product out for yourself?  Check out our facebook page for the details.

My Rating: Thumbs UP

Nighttime Anti Wrinkle Serum

Details: Azure Naturals Ultimate Retinol anti Wrinkle serum.  2.5% retinol, Hyaluronic acid, and vitamin E, professional strength.  1fl oz bottle.  Made in the USA.  Directions: wash and pat skin dry.  Apply a toner before using serum.  Use before bedtime so it can work over night on your face and neck.  Natural and organic ingredients, not tested on animals. Vitamin A is known to help reduce fine lines, wrinkles, skin texture, skin tone, helps improve skin pigmentation.  Can be bought on amazon through the above link.
"ONE YEAR MONEY BACK GUARANTEE! All Azure Naturals products are backed by our 365-day, 100% Hassle-Free, Money Back Guarantee. If you don't absolutely love our ULTIMATE RETINOL Anti Wrinkle Serum we will give you a full refund, including shipping, no matter where you buy the product!"

Disclaimer: I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

My Review:  I'm very impressed with this product.  I love that its all natural and organic.  I love that I can use it at night and just fit it nicely into my bed time routine.  This is one of the first serums that doesn't have a smell, scent, or tingling, stickiness, and coloration when I use it.  I can see it working around my eyes in the way that I don't have purple/ black eye bags when I'm up all night with sick children, or I just don't get good sleep.  I have seen it working on my neck.  I have seen it working miracles on my forehead and between my eyebrows wrinkles the most.  They aren't as severe, noticeable, and deep.  Even though the company offers a full money back guarantee which I quoted above, I honestly don't think you'll need it because the product does what it says it will.  I've been using this product for only 2 months maybe, and have seen positive results, so I can attest to it working.  On top of having a great product, I'm also very impressed with the company, their customer service is very nice, happy, and respectful.  Even when I was having issues ordering and whatnot for the product review, they were willing to bend over backwards for me.

Pros: WORKS AMAZINGLY

Cons: none

Contest:  This company is willing to give you a free product, so here's what you have to do: be the first person to email me at momsthumbreviews@gmail.com.  READY SET GO!!!

My Rating: Thumbs Up!

Turmeric Supplement

Details:  Premium Turmeric Supplement is enhanced with Bioperine (2000% more than most brands), has no fillers, binders, preservatives, artificial ingredients, no magnesium stearates, no silicone dioxide, no titanium dioxide.  Super clean and pure turmeric supplement.  Contains 95 % concentrated curcuminoids.  Each bottle contains 120 vegetarian capsules.  Can be purchased on amazon.

Disclaimer: I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

My Review:  The above disclaimer is something that I have to put in this product review so that I can submit this product review to Tomoson, but in this instance it is incorrect.  I did not receive a product from this company at all, so I was unable to test, try and honestly review this product.  However from the information that I have received from this company's website below is what I can honestly give you as my readers. This is just an infomercial as I have not received or tested this product.  Going onto their website that gives you all the information about this product, I was not impressed.  There is a lack of details, about the product, a lack of benefits of the product, and a lack of being able to follow the buttons on their website that are supposed to allow you to buy their product directly from amazon via a link on their website.  If you try and contact the company they do not respond, so their customer service is not very good either.

Pros: none

Cons: lack of real details, lack of good customer service, lack of benefits for why one should take this product

My Rating: To be honest, I am going to give this company a big thumbs down because I see nothing that gives it a thumbs up.