I made a friend!

 This is Big Mike and he has come to stay with me for a little bit while his owner is too busy to ride him. He's a 16.3hh Irish Sport Horse and it is my job to get his lazy butt back in shape for eventing season (but he thinks that my job is feeding him carrots and giving ear scratches!)

BeautyDNA vs my ugly hands (a subscription review)

I love BeautyDNA because I still can't get a handle on what to expect. While everything meshes up with the seriously massive survey, I always find myself opening the box and saying "huh... I wouldn't have picked that...but I'm really intrigued by it!" Sometimes the products end up working out well and other times they're a solid "meh".
BeautyDNA has a pretty strict policy that forbids reselling/trading product that you get from them, so those products that fall in my "meh" category get gifted to friends and family along with a delightful spiel about how BeautyDNA works.
No, there isn't a referral program for BeautyDNA, nor do I get anything free or discounted from them.

You heard me right: I shill for free, yo.

Well, I'll sing their praises so long as they keep doing a good service.

But my December product is one of those products that, whilst good, isn't quite what I need and will be passed on to a good friend.

Product: 3LAB Perfect Hand Cream
Retail Price: $45

This is one expensive hand cream! It has lactic acid and green tea which are wonderful, absorbs quickly, doesn't leave a greasy residue, and has a nice soft fragrance that kinda reminds me of baby powder mixed with clean laundry dried outside on a nice summer day (I know, I'm such a poet). That being said, it isn't quite enough for the sorry state that my hands are in.
If you have normal-person dry hands and need an anti-aging moisturizer, you'll adore this. But I live on a horse farm and my hands take a beating. The current appearance of my hands is enough to make a manicurist cry out in fear.

They're rough, I'm working on it.

That being said, this elegant hand cream will not be enough to beat my skin into submission, so I'm not going to waste it's beauty on a beast. It will be handed on (haha...) to a close friend with hands that are more salvageable than mine.

Now if you excuse me, I must go prepare my spiel.

I purchased my BeautyDNA subscription through GiltCity with my own money and all opinions here belong to myself (and this six pack of porter). Questions, Comments, & Casual Insults are welcome as usual.

December Original BuluBox (aka month of nom)

Receiving and reviewing my December Original Bulu Box was massively delayed due to the Holidays (on USPS side) and horse-sitting jobs (on my end). But here it is, the infamous $5 sample box of health and fitness stuff. Okay it's technically $10, but there are enough lifetime coupon codes out that that you should not be paying $10 for it (see previous review)

My dog is an idiot & a December Pet Giftbox review

Jake's had a rough week. Last Wednesday he stole some pumpkin-muffin cookies from the counter where my mother had left them to cool.

The problem: they contained raisins.

Grapes and raisins contain something that is toxic to around 50% of dogs. Scientists still haven't been able to isolate whatever toxin that is, or determine why some dogs suffer kidney failure after eating only a few raisins whilst other dogs can eat pounds of them with no problems. But for those dogs that do react to it, the damage is severe. So we rushed Jake to the emergency vet where he was forced to vomit up the 32 raisins he ate then had to stay there overnight for monitoring. Poor dude, all he wanted was a cookie.

It's a good thing that his December Pet Giftbox came today and cheered him up! I purchased Pet Giftbox because I have no impulse control through Groupon and paid $10/box for a 3 month subscription.

December 2015 PetTreater Box Review!

I spoil my pup. He's a whiny, inattentive, pain-in-the-butt hound, but I love him. PetTreater has quickly become his favorite subscription box and gets extremely excited when he see's the shiny green and orange box show up.

Each box comes with a cute letter addressed to the individual dog,which I forgot to photograph because I was too busy fighting with Jake over toys. Hence the slightly blurry pictures!

This picture was taken after I took the tags off the squeaky Santa-dog toy and consecrated it with a game of throw-and-run-all-the-fuck-around-the-yard. Jake doesn't do fetch. He does "chase meeeee!" with toys.
We later took the tags off the blue alien toy to give it a try. Supposedly the squeaker in it is at too high a pitch (octave?) to be heard by human ears, but dogs can till hear it. Jake it apathetic about non-squeaky toys, so I tested it out by taking it outside, hiding it behind my back, and squeaking it. I didn't hear anything, but Jake went nuts. Both toys met Jake's approval!

The card on the left is an edible rawhide card for dogs! I like that the note attached explained that they usually didn't include rawhide products in the boxes, but this one was too cute to pass up. I agree with them on that! I put it up and will give it to Jake on Christmas.
The packet on the right are dog-themed Christmas cards for the human. This is much better than the last PetTreater "For The Human" I got (an oven mitt...) as it actually is dog related. The outside says "Happy Holidays" and the inside reads "Wishing you all the splendor of the season", which is great for both religious and non-religious people.

Oh my god...a Star Wars leash. I seriously squealed when I pulled this out of the box! Perfect timing with the new release coming this month!

Treats! I got an extra bag of treats this month as a reward for emailing PetTreater a picture of Jake playing with his goodies from the last box. They say you'll get an "extra toy", but I actually prefer to get the treats for him (we have a lot of toys floating around now...). I ended up giving the second bag of venison treats to a friend's lovely German Shepherd who is on a grain-free diet for canine lupus. She is very picky about treats, but nommed this one and came back begging for seconds!

And finally a PetTreater Christmas bandanna for Jake! He surprisingly doesn't mind bandannas, so this one he will wear once it gets closer to Christmas.

So for $25 Jake got toys and treats that he likes, and I got holiday cards and a cute leash for him. Win-win for PetTreater!

This box was purchased with my own money and all opinions are my own and Jake's. He's easily bribed with peanut butter, though. Questions, Comments, and Casual Insults welcome par usual.