I was given a chance through Tryazon's Tryabox program to look at the The Ritual of Dao Small Gift Box. I thought this might be a good chance to see if I could find a product that would make a good gift for some family or close friends since one of the shops that sells it, Ulta, is less than a mile from my house. It is always a bit of a risk for me to try out skin and hair care products because of my allergies and very sensitive skin. However, the Dao set is supposed to promote calmness and
The product is supposed to have white lotus and yi yi ren (an herb) but the scent was very light for every one of the products that I tried. I tried them over the course of three days to see if it caused any negative reactions in my skin or hair, to see if my family or close friends noticed, and to see if it affected my mood. Let's look at each product separately.
The Nourishing Shampoo had no directions so I started with a quarter sized amount in my hand. It sudsed up well but since this gift box did not come with conditioner, I was careful in how I applied it. I have curly hair that can tangle easily so since I turned 40, I've been needing conditioner when I shampoo my hair to make it more manageable. I wasn't sure if I should leave it in my hair or rinse it right away so I treated as I do all my shampooing and left it in while I did a full set of my arm exercises that I have to do 2-4 times every day. The scent is so light that I barely picked up on it but that did make me calm because I could focus on my arms and not on overpowering fragrance. The shampoo rinsed out well. However, by day two, my hair was feeling a bit rougher than normal and it was tangling more easily so I didn't try it a third day.
I washed my body first with my regular body foam to make sure I was applying the Balancing Foaming Shower Gel to clear skin the first time I used it; after that I tried it as I would my regular product to all but my intimate parts. The canister can with no directions so I managed as best I could based on previous experience with bath gels and foams. A lot of the gel came out at first because it was tricky to figure out how to press the top, it was down and back not just straight down. The gel started to foam as soon as it touched my skin as you can see in the photo to the left. It made a lot of foam, actually a bit too much all three days that I used it. Weirdly, the gel let the foam out in tiny amounts after I removed it from the shower to a dry place even when the cap was put back on after being dried off each day. The result is that I worried about how much of the product was being wasted even though I was trying to be careful. However, this worked well on my skin and caused no negative reactions. The very light scent was pleasing to me and my partners.
Lotions and creams are a bit problem for me normally because they can clog my skin, triggering not only allergic reactions but pore problems. Again, this tube had no directions so I used it as I thought was appropriate. I applied the Be Kind to Your Skin Body Cream as sparingly as I could on an selective body parts -- my cheeks on my face and on my left arm only. This way I could compare arms to see if there was difference. This scent is the one that lingered the longest of these first three products that I tried out. It did leave my skin feeling smooth each day that I used it and caused no negative reactions. However, I could definitely feel it on my skin over the course of the day so it isn't as light as I prefer. The amount you see in the photo to the right is enough to cover my entire arm so this product would last a couple of weeks for me, at least.
Finally, the Calming Shower Oil was the newest type of products for me since I've never used shower or bath oils. Luckily this bottle did have directions on how to use it though I had to get out a magnifier to read it. Since it said it could make the shower floor slippery I used it on the days that I knew I'd be washing out our tubs. How calming would it be if I had to add more household to use this product? The amount you can see, two drops on my wet arm covered my entire forearm. This left my skin feeling smoother than the body cream did but the scent was lighter. This didn't cause any negative reactions on my skin. Which would I use? Cream or oil? I'm still not sure since I feel like the cream is completely used when I apply it but I believe the oil partly falls off my body otherwise why woudl there be a risk of my slipping when I apply it?
Confusion came about when I looked for the product to review online and found they did not match.
I was sent the following in a off-cream colored gift box: Balancing Foaming Shower Gel, Nourishing Shampoo, Be Kind to Your Skin Body cream, and Calming Shower Oil. However when I visited the link to review the box on Ulta, the products inside the green gift box included: Foaming Shower Gel, Magic Touch Body Cream, Caring Shower Oil, and Softening Rice Scrub.
The medium gift box's product sizes listed on the Ulta site, meant what I was sent had to be the small.
I looked for the product elsewhere and found a small Ritual of Dao gift box on Amazon and Jet but they matched the Ulta description, not what I was sent. Luckily, Tryazon and Rituals quickly addressed this issue and I was able to review the individual products fairly online where they are sold.
If you want the gift box that I wrote about above, you'll need to visit the Rituals shop online and use this link to get the same product, called THE RITUAL OF DAO Calming Treat. You can find the individual products at Macy's, Ulta, and Lord & Taylor stores.
Check out the video unboxing below if you like, too.
Thanksgiving was yesterday and for many of us several winter/summer holidays are fast approaching. For women this can be a particularly stressful time. I know I grew up in a household where my mother was the primary social calendar keeper and the social focus for our immediate family. I grew up with that as my role model so it is not surprising that I am the Chief Communications Officer of our family starship (as we geeks like to say).
Stress from trying to manage different invitations to holiday parties from work, volunteer organizations, friends, family, and neighbors.
Stress from working on our own parties and trying to figure out who we can not invite without seeming like aholes.
Stress from all the holiday greetings everyone who doesn't live in our town will expect and then stress from keeping track of what we get because we don't hear back from you for three years, we aren't sending you a holiday card (the hubby declares).
4 Kroger Spa Line Products
One way we are told to lessen stress is to delegate to others and to take care of ourselves. Taking care of ourselves can involve a lot of things but many of them are physical. I'm part of the MyMagazineSharing Network through Kroger and I was sent four of their store brand "spa line" products for free in exchange for sharing my experiences about them in a fair way. I'm not a big spa person, I've been to a spa once in my lifetime. I'm not a big make-up user and the only time I try fancy or expensive skin care products is when I'm sent them to review. Today I want to share what my experience was with these products.
I started with the Bright Under Eye Care treatment because I've been very tired from pain and then surprise! I caught a virus from someone in my household. I was concerned my eyes might look extra tired or baggy. First I thought there might be two treatments when I opened the package because the pads look large.
Brighten Under Eye Care Pads, Kroger Spa Line
Then I put them on and don't these look HUGE? I don't have either a small or large face, for my body it is average sized but look how large these pads are. They tingled a bit and were cool when I put them on for the full 20 minutes. They came off easily and I gently patted the area underneath but my skin had soaked up most of the solution on the pads. The area under my eyes looked red when I took them off so I let my skin be for half an hour and my skin and eyes were fine. If this product helped under eyes then I guess I didn't have anything wrong with mine at all the day I tried this.
Are these pads huge? Kroger Spa Line
Then I tried the facial masks and these were literally my 2nd, 3rd, and 4th facial masks I have ever used in my life. These were very different from the first mask I used. These are fully formed face shaped sheets and that is where the big problems lie. Let's look at the first one.
Note how the size and placement of the sheet does not match my face at all. It would not smooth down, it tried to cover my eyebrows (no!), and it hung too low on my chin. To top that off this Exfoliate felt burning after a few minutes but I toughed it out for the full twenty minutes. Oddly the directions said to "gently pat" in the remaining product... ah, no! Exfoliating means that you should be removing dead skin to reveal and promote newer skin. In fact, every one of the facial sheet mask had the identical directions for every step which makes no sense when each is supposed to do something different for your face.
I could try cutting the mask into pieces and applying it that way but I'm not being paid to test these out and that would take as much if not more time than applying a mask with just a semi-liquid product. That's adding more time and more work to an already stressful time of year for many of us.
