New York Chica

In the Winter, the weather can wreck havoc on your skin. The dry air in your home and the cold air outside really dries out the skin. That is why we need to use extra moisturizers to keep our skin soft and supple. It also helps if we use the right cleanser for our skin.

For me, the right cleanser means a soap that smells great, leaves my skin soft and of course, one that cleans well too.  If a cleanser has exfoliators in the product, it’s an added bonus because it sloughs away the nasty dead skin cells that if left on your body if you don’t exfoliate.

Recently, I was sent the new Caress Evenly Gorgeous body wash as well as the Gorgeous beauty bar with Burnt Brown Sugar and Karite Butter to review and I have to say I was very pleased with the results. It gently exfoliates and moisturizes to reveal beautifully, even-toned skin.

After I used it, my skin was soft and smelled wonderful.  The scent is amazing and it contains natural exfoliators to get rid of those nasty dead skin cells that I don’t need to carry around.

My husband even asked what was the nice scent I was wearing. He thought I had on a new perfume or something.

Here is what Caress says about their product:

Caress® makes skin the ultimate fashion statement with the introduction of the Caress Skinwear Collection®. Caress gives you gorgeous skin – right out of the shower – that you will want to flaunt just like the season’s hottest styles. Now you can shower on your look with Caress body washes and beauty bars for even toned, radiant or silky skin … and have the confidence to show it off!

The Giveaway: Read the rest of this entry →

I received a box of Truvia from our friends over at iVillage.com a few months ago.  The reason why they sent it to me was because I was a community leader at one of their message boards a few months ago called Latina Beauty.  It was a great board but members were becoming really busy with their families and their life and it became a “ghost town”, so I resigned.   Most of the members I know there are still in contact with me because we stayed friends so it wasn’t a complete lost.

Ok, back to the review. I got sidetracked! lol

According to Truvia’s site, below you will see what they say about the product:

This little leaf has a sweet secret.

Water. Sunshine. Nutrients from the earth. That’s what goes into the stevia plant. Then nature works her magic and creates a wonderfully sweet taste.

Next, we steep the leaves, much like making tea, that begins the process of capturing rebiana, the best tasting part of the stevia plant. Ultimately, this little leaf gives back a recipe for sweetness that’s both delicious and zero-calorie guilt free.

Try a spoonful of this sparkly-goodness in your coffee. Truvia™ natural sweetener is a sweet little something that satisfies your cravings without adding calories.

My Review:

Everyone that knows me, knows that I am an avid coffee drinker.  I drink a cup or two every single morning.  Sometimes I drink a cup after dinner (decaf, of course) too so I thought reviewing this would be perfect since sugar has a lot of calories and that is what I use to sweeten my cup of java.  I also need to start limiting my sugar intake so I thought this would be fun since I’m not a fan of artificial sweeteners.

So one morning I made my coffee as usual and I added one packet of the Truvia.  I tasted my coffee and it needed more sweetness so I added another packet.  I tasted the coffee once again and the sweetness was perfect.  After awhile, I noticed a weird after-taste.  I thought, “Could it be the Truvia?” I tasted the coffee again and it was the same weird, chemical taste.In my opinion, it’s the same taste as in diet sodas.

I don’t know, maybe it tasted weird because I am NOT a fan of diet sodas, drinks or anything that has artificial sweeteners. I tried so many out there like Equal, Sweet & Low and many others but they all taste like chemicals to me.  Sadly, that now includes Truvia.  I just don’t like the chemical taste and/or aftertaste. I guess my palette is really sensitive.

I’ve read many other reviews on Truvia and most of the people gave it great reviews on taste and looks (it definitely looks like regular sugar but it doesn’t taste like it). They also say it’s safe to consumed but my taste buds say something different.

I, on the other hand, did not enjoy the taste.  The next morning, I tried it again and the taste was still there.

Sorry, Truvia, I give this product a thumbs down. I’ll stick to regular sugar and just watch out for the amount of sugar that I use.

Full Disclosure:  Truvia was sent to me by iVillage.com to review.  I did not receive any monetary compensation for the review.

Have you ever bought something because of a life changing decision (like losing weight) or just to try it out because you had a coupon or maybe even just because?

Well, that happened to me.  After going to the EA Sports Active event in NYC, I decided to make some changes to my diet and also add a workout regimen to tone up for the Summer.

So I went and bought Hellmann’s “light” Mayonnaise, among other things like fruits and veggies.  As soon as I opened up the jar, I could tell by the consistency that I wasn’t going to like it. Read the rest of this entry →

Would you pay $47.00 for a potato masher??  I know I wouldn’t.  At Cooking.com, you can buy this masher for that price.

It’s a nice stainless steel potato masher but I don’t think it’s worth almost $50. This one is less then $20 and it looks very similar to the $50 masher.

I won’t pay more than $10 for a masher.  As a matter of fact, the masher I do have at home was about $5 and I’ve had it for years.  It is similar to the picture above but the handle is made out of wood.

So, do you think it’s worth it?

Would you buy one?