Jake's First Box: PetTreater Dog Subscription box

Our family never intended to get a dog. We already had four horses and three cats to take care of, which was more than enough trouble at the time. But in January of 2011, this is what looked up at me when I opened the door one afternoon:

I live in the countryside. so hunting dogs passing through is a fairly normal occurrence. Usually they'll poke around for a bit, grab some water out of the horse trough, and then head on their way back home. We waited a few days to see if he moved on, but he never left our farm, so we took him to the vet. The vet didn't find a microchip on him, but did find a whole lotta worms and a skin condition. As there were no "missing dog" ads that matched his description in the area, and his time running short, we paid the $1,000+ to get him back to health and named him Jake.

Today, Jake got his first subscription box!

Bulu Box: If you're healthy and you know it, clap your hands

The concept of "health" is a fickle thing when you have a chronic illness. Am I healthy? What defines health? Does this disorder that I had no hand in developing count against me being "healthy"? Or is "healthy" only determined by those factors which you have at least a modicum of control over? And why am I getting so philosophical in a $5 subscription box review?

Bulu Box is a sample box of health and fitness vitamins/supplements/lifestyle/stuff that usually costs $10 a box. You can pick the "weight loss" themed box or just get a "general fitness" one (I picked weight loss for some reason, even though I don't actually need to lose weight). I used the discount code MYSUB5 from MySubscriptionAddiction which gives $5 off the subscription forever, so my boxes cost $5 a month. Which is good, because really it isn't worth $10. They only promise you sample sizes, not even deluxe samples, but you will occasionally get full sized products. I've heard that the full size products they send are often ones that are only a few months until their expiration date, but that doesn't bother me as Bulu Box is intended for sampling purposes.

What sold me on subscribing to Bulu is that you don't really lose your $5 even if you hate all the samples that month. With each box you get, you can go online and fill out a very quick survey for the products and earn 10 points to spend in their store. 10 points = $1. So if you had 6 products in your Bulu Box, that is $6 you get back after filling out the surveys. Just for having a subscription you get points each month (I believe you get 5 points per $1 you spend, so my $5 subscription box gives me 25 points a month). Their store has a wide enough variety of stuff that generally there is going to be something you want in it. You also get 50 points for referring friends to join, and if you're interested in joining after reading this review, I will have my referral link at the end (clearly marked as such so you don't click it if you don't want to!).

Pretty box, messy floor

My hopes for this subscription are:

1. Find products that I can use for energy due to my narcolepsy
2. Find healthy snacks that are easy to grab when I'm having a rough day
3. Find products that don't interact with one of my many medications (big one!)

Review of A.True Violet Petal Black Tea Hydrating Moisturizer

I've been a bad bad blogger and procrastinating on well...everything. But I have an excuse! or seven... First it was practically monsoon-ing here, and all that weather craziness made my narcolepsy act up. And then I was pony-sitting!

Who would want to stay inside and blog when you could hang out with a pony like this?!

Okay, now on to the actual review:

Please excuse the shoddy attempt at cleaning up the cellphone camera image. Also. I've used about twice this amount since I took this picture...

Product: Violet Petal Black Tea Hydrating Moisturizer
Brand: A.True
Purchased: Cupidrop.com for $26 (not an affiliate link)
CosDNA Link

Intro:
I bought this because I was going mad looking for a daytime moisturizer that was just enough but not too much. My skin is combination, leaning towards oily slightly, and kinda rides the edge of being "almost dehydrated" due to my weirdass medications. Previously I had been using Innisfree Green Tea Balancing Moisturizer, but since I started using more actives it slid over to being not hydrating enough for my poor skin. I needed a moisturizer that packed a stronger punch, but didn't leave me greasy or dewy. Sorry guys, I know the dewy look is hip in Korea, but in the American south people just think you're overly sweaty. What sold me on trying the Violet Petal was the description on Cupidrop's page of it being "velvety" and "fresh". Spoiler: I don't regret buying it.

Good sized bottle.

Packaging:
I love love love love deep breath love LOVE A.True packaging. It's just so clean and pretty. The bottle is a very solid frosted plastic that seems like it would hold up very well with use. I mean, I haven't chucked it around much to test, so don't go punting it against a brick wall to see and then go blaming me if it breaks. The pump seems like it is very good quality and dispenses a lot of product when pressed all the way down. Thankfully, it is very easy to just lightly depress it and get out small dollops of moisturizer.

It's a pump nozzle. It works. Quite well, actually.

Smell:
Kinda like violets with a hint of tea perfume? Floral and vaguely sweet? I'm pretty bad at describing scents. It smells nice, okay?! It is definitely fragrant, but not the type of smacks-you-in-the-face smell that Innisfree products have. It is a ladylike scent, which I think goes with their "A True Lady" marketing.

One pump. Kinda looks like an upside-down heart. Or a cock & balls. Depends on how you look at it, I guess.

  Performance:
A.True promises a fresh and velvety moisturizer, and they deliver. There's nothing super special in the Violet Petal moisturizer. It doesn't whiten. It doesn't exfoliate. No anti-aging miracles. It only claims to moisturize effectively without making your skin too oily, which is exactly what it does for me.

The A.true Violet Petal moisturizer is of medium to slightly thin consistency. It feels almost closer to a cream than a proper emulsion. It spreads easily and dries quite quickly. When it is dried, you can still feel it slightly on the surface of you skin, but it isn't a sticky gross feeling. It really does feel velvety soft and hydrated. I felt like my face maintained a good balance of hydration throughout the day, and I had no problems applying sunscreen/makeup over top of it. People with dry skin might like this in combination with another emulsion or stronger cream to add an extra bit of umph. I sometimes use it beneath my night cream when the air conditioner is running high and drying me out. Did I mention that it actually does make my face feel kinda velvety? Seriously, I'm really happy about this.

Rebuy? Yes. I will still keep looking and sampling other day moisturizers (it never ends...), but unless I find something even more awesome before I finish this bottle I will 100% rebuy the Violet Petal Black Tea moisturizer.

I bought this product with my own money, yo. Feel free to leave Questions, Comments, & Casual Insults below.