FURKID by Paws & Play – April Box

Another month, another Paws & Play box.  Actually this is the last box of our 3 month subscription and it was going to be the determining factor if we extended our subscription or not.  I was hoping that it would blow me away and I wouldn’t be able to resist re-subscribing (you can read our review of the February and March boxes here and here).  To find out if it convinced us to stick around or not, keep reading!

Paws & Play is a Canadian monthly subscription box for your furkid; each month you receive a variety of high-quality products for your pet and you can personalize your box based on your pets preferences (i.e. strong chewer, soft or crunchy treats, gender, etc.).

This month’s “box” came in a bag again, I’m not quite sure why as I feel it would have fit in a box.  As a result the product card was a little worse for wear.

The total value of the box came to a total $51.95; I found most of the listed prices pretty reasonable, aside from maybe the toy.  As mentioned, we purchased a 3 month subscription for $109.95, which calculates out to each box costing $36.65.

They also included a separate card this month showcasing a rescue pet and their story – this month’s being cutie Tika.

First up was the Hyper Pet Gnarly Gnaws Bone. ($14.95)  It had a squeaker in it and I think these are met for strong chewers (which she is not).  Maggie doesn’t really destroy her toys (unless they have fur on them) and unfortunately she didn’t much interest in this.

Next was the Petcurean Catfish Barbue Jerky for Active & Opinionated Dogs ($16.95).  Love the opinionated dogs thing – that’s a good way to describe Maggie.  I knew she’d like these as she likes jerky treats and fish and she gobbled one right up.  These were a hit!

Our third item was Northern’s The Big Biscuit ($4.95). This is a hard crunchy treat and our profile was set up not to receive crunchy treats so I was a little miffed to see this included.  I broke Maggie off a piece but as expected she turned her nose up at it.  There’s that opinionated dog thing kicking in.

Also included was a Fur + Body Revitalize & Sustain Dog Refresher ($12.95).  This is a spray that can be used to deodorize your pet’s coat if it’s getting a little less than fresh and you don’t have time for a bath.  We don’t have anything like this so I thought this was kind of neat.  I gave it a try and it smelled pleasant and seemed to work pretty well.  I like that its made with organic and natural ingredients too.

Lastly was a This & That Duck Wing ($1.95).  Looks appetizing doesn’t it?  😉  I was a little concerned because there was no packaging on this, it was just loose in the bag. I had to reference the product card to determine what it was but it didn’t give any details as to to where it was made.  In addition, I googled “This & That” and couldn’t find anything about them online so that was disappointing; I like to know where the products I’m feeding Maggie are coming from.  I’ve never given Maggie wings to chew on before and the shape of this made me a little nervous, but she was going crazy for it.  So I gave it to her and as you can see, she really enjoyed it at first:

Thank goodness I was watching her because within a few minutes of her chewing on it, she started coughing and I had to pull it out of her mouth because she had started to swallow it yet it wasn’t completely chewed.  After that I chucked it right in the garbage (much to her dismay).  I know there’s a choking hazard with any type of chew but this didn’t seem to be breaking down like a bully stick normally would, which is why she nearly choked on it.  Scary moment for me and I definitely won’t be purchasing any duck wings (or any other kind of wings!) for her going forward.

And that was this month’s box.  Unfortunately I don’t think I’ll be renewing our subscription.  I really like doing these unboxings with Mags, she gets so excited when we go to open them up.  But on the other hand, I find we’re only using about 50% of the items that we receive and I’m feeling a little frustrated that our profile preferences have been ignored twice now.  I might do some more investigating on other pet subscription boxes just to see if there’s a better option for us.  If you have any recommendations, please let me know below!

Luxe Box – Spring 2016

Happy Hump Day!  Thanks to the holiday on Friday, we’re already halfway through the week.  Sometimes I find that short weeks feel longer than regular weeks which is annoying.  Thursday at 4:30 PM can’t come soon enough!

Today I’m reviewing my Spring Luxe Box.  Luxe Box is a quarterly Canadian beauty subscription service; included in the box is 7-8 trial-sized beauty and lifestyle items.   The monthly plan costs $26 a month and the annual plan is $96 a year.  I subscribe to the monthly plan as I prefer the freedom to cancel my subscription whenever I please.

So, here’s what my Spring box included:

Smashbox Photo Finish Classic Primer (.25 fl. oz – $44 CAD for 1 oz): I’m not a fan of this primer yet samples of it follow me everywhere I go.  I’ll be giving this away.

Benefit Cosmetics The POREfessional Primer (3.0 mL – $37 CAD for 0.75 oz): A second primer?  Okay I actually don’t mind this one but again, I’ve already got a few of these in my stash already.  Boring.

Jelly Pong Pong Lychee Softening Shower & Bath Gel (30 mL – $15.95 USD): Lychee’s gross me out – I personally think they look and feel like eyeballs. So I can’t say I’m super excited by this but I haven’t tried it out yet.  At first I thought this was a sample size but it appears this actually full-sized.  I can’t imagine paying $15 for this little tube?

POP Beauty Kajal Pen – Inky Purple (0.9 g – $10 USD): This excited me at first as I actually quite like purple eyeliners.  Then I tried it.  This smudged like crazy.  Plus it’s not really all that pigmented so you can’t really tell that it’s purple.  And if you actually want to smudge it out and use the smudger that’s on the end of the brush, it rubs the eyeliner away.  Fail.

Schick Hydro Silk Razor ($12.64 CAD): This seemed like an odd addition to the box but one of the few things that I’m actually going to use.  We typically purchase the value pack of Schick disposable razors from Costco and they work well but every so often its nice to use something a little more luxurious.  I’ve used this a few times and I do enjoy how soft my skin feels after and it definitely reduces the number of nicks and cuts I inflict on myself.  On the down side I don’t find these provide as close of a shave as my disposable razors.

Morgan Taylor Professional Nail Lacquer – Eye Candy (15 mL – $15.83 CAD): I always like getting nail polishes and I’ve never heard of this brand before so its nice to try something new.  If only the colour were more unique – I have this periwinkle shade in other brands so I wish they would have included something a little different.  I have tested this out and the formula seems easy to work with so that’s a bonus.  I struggle with the $15 price tag on this though, as nice as the formula is you wouldn’t catch me paying $15 for a bottle of this.

Model Co BB PLUS Cream Daily All-In-One Skin Perfector Broad Spectrum SPF 30 – Light (35 mL – $22 CAD): This is what excited me most out of the whole box – I love BB creams for the warmer months when slathering a thick layer of makeup on my face is the last thing I want to do.  This pretty much claims to do it all including cover blemishes and imperfections, maintain hydration, correct signs of dullness or fatigue and help protect the skin from UV rays.  Unfortunately I’ve used this twice and I’m not even the least bit impressed.  The coverage of this is so sheer that it does nothing to cover any blemishes or scaring, nor does it brighten or awaken my complexion. It feels pointless to even apply it. On top of that the shade is really orange/yellow so it gives me a really attractive Oompa Looompa glow. And if that isn’t enough,it doesn’t last on my skin.  Both times I’ve used this I’ve applied it in the morning and hung out at home on the couch all day.  After a few hours, the product dissipates off my face and I don’t have a trace of it left.  I could potentially use this as a primer but that’s about it.  Huge disappointment and wouldn’t recommend this.

This month they also included two coupons; one for a bonus 3500 Shoppers Optimum points if you purchased the full size of the Benefit POREfessional Primer.  I don’t like it enough to purchase the full size so that won’t be going to use.  The second was $5 razor blades for the Schick razor.  I know razor blades are expensive so I might actually use this.

So, if you couldn’t tell, I’m pretty disappointed with this season’s box.  I feel like there wasn’t a ton of thought put into it (2 primers, a razor, etc.) and the products I was excited to try fell flat.  That said, this is only my third Luxe Box and I was happy with the previous two I’ve received.  Here’s hoping the Summer Luxe Box is more impressive!

Have you tried any of these products?  What are your thoughts on the Spring Luxe Box?  Let me know below.

Thanks for stopping by!

Bakers Krate Review

Happy Thursday!

A few weeks ago I received an email from Bakers Krate asking me if I’d be interested in receiving one of their dessert boxes for review purposes on my blog. Bakers Krate is a new Canadian subscription box company that features hand crafted baked goods produced by Canadian dessert experts.  The Bakers Krate Team scours the Great White North looking for the best desserts to satisfy your sweet tooth!  They are based out of Winnipeg, Manitoba but ship Canada-wide.

They offer 3 types of subscription boxes:

• Bakers Krate Original – $19.98 (6+ desserts hand delivered straight to your door! Available in Winnipeg, MB only)
• Bakers Krate Junior – $15.99 (For those on a “diet”, 6 mini items hand delivered straight to your door! Available in Winnipeg, MB only.)
• Bakers Krate Sweet Express – $19.99 (Their Main Feature! The Krate that travels from province to province to give you 6 or more gourmet desserts, straight to your door! The ultimate dessert adventure! Shipping is $9.99)

I’m a big dessert fan so obviously I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to give one of their boxes a try.  They sent me the Bakers Krate Sweet Express box and this is what it looked like when it arrived.

And when I cracked it open:

I loved the little fork they taped to the inside!

On top was a info card that described all the products in the box as well as their expiry dates:

It also included a complete list of ingredients for every product in the box which is really important for those with food allergies. Bakers Krate is upfront with the fact that their products contain nuts, wheat, soy, dairy, etc. so take note if you’re allergic to any of those or other related ingredients.

Once I made my way through the packaging, this is what awaited me:

I’ve been eating my way through the box since I received this and I’ve broken down my thoughts by treat:

Blueberry Crumble Bar:  This was the one I was most excited about because Blueberry bars are one of my favorite desserts.  The accompaning card recommended microwaving this for 20 seconds prior to eating and it’s supposed to taste like a fresh baked blueberry pie right out of the oven.

This was really good!  I loved the blueberry filling – it had just the right amount of sweetness and had good blueberry flavour.  My only wish was that the crumble topping was a more crumbly because it was soggy when I removed the plastic wrap.  The microwave dried it up a bit but I  suspect the packaging has something to do with that so maybe a different option would make a difference there.  Overall though I enjoyed this!

Cakettes: these are basically balls of cake covered in white chocolate – once was vanilla, the other was red velvet.  My favourite of these was definitely the red velvet version – the cake inside was moist and flavourful and the white chocolate coating complimented it nicely.  The vanilla was just okay – I didn’t found the cake had a ton of flavour so all I could really taste was the white chocolate.  The red velvet cakette was damaged a bit when I received it but it didn’t affect the taste or quality of it at all.

Chocolate Brownie Square: This was very decadent – the brownie had a dense, cake-like texture and it was smothered in a chocolate icing.  It was also a very generous portion – my hubby and I shared this easily.  I feel like this would be even better heated for a bit in the microwave and then placed over top of some vanilla ice cream!

Lastly were the Imperial Cookies.  These are shortbread sugar cookies that were placed between raspberry jam filling and saskatoon berry filing.  These were my favourite treat out of the whole box.  First of all the size of these is kind of crazy – they’re huge!  Bigger is always better when it comes to cookies!  Secondly, they were delicious!  The cookies were soft and buttery and the filings had just the right touch of sweetness.  I thought maybe these would be too sweet with the royal icing on top but they went together really nicely.  I also loved how unique these were – I’ve never had a cookie like this before.

So overall, I’d say I was impressed with this box.  I feel like this would make a great gift for almost any occasion, specifically if the recipient likes desserts!  I could see myself sending these as gifts for Birthdays, Christmas, Anniversaries, Mothers/Fathers Day, etc.  If I had to point out some areas they could improve – I think the packaging on some of the treats could maybe be improved (i.e those packaged with plastic wrap) but that’s really about it.

If you’re interested in giving Baker’s Krate a try, they sent me a coupon code for 15% off your first subscription to share with my readers.  Simply use the code MAGGIE at checkout to receive the discount.

Enjoy!