OPI Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides Collection

Perfect, perfect, perfect shades for the Spring!! Maybe because this collection contains a purple and I'm a sucker for purple polish but I love the shades in this OPI collection!! As per the press release, these colors "were inspired by a world filled with mythical mermaids, gleaming treasure, and high-seas adventure. With shades ranging from sage and lavender to khaki gray and pastel pink..."

"Skull & Glossbones, "Sparrow Me the Drama," "Stranger Tides," Steady As She Rose," "Mermaid's Tears," "Planks Alot"

Of course the first one I had to try was "Planks Alot" and I love it.

I also painted my sisters toes with this color and then applied the "navy shatter." (sorry, no picture) It didn't turn out as good as my blue on blue shatter but it that was my fault with the poor color combination. But regardless, her purples toes looked good!

I love the fall and winter with dark painted nails and have never been a big fan of summer colors on my hands. Toes, I'm fine with whatever. I just don't think the lighter colors look good on me with my fair skin. Maybe that's why I was so excited for this collection. There are fun summer colors which I can pull off with my milk white skin. :-)  And I'm not stuck with just normal pale pinks, which I like even more.

Next up to try, "Mermaid's Tears." Love this sage color, very different and very pretty but not too green so I think it would be a color you could pull off any day of the week!

OPI Blue Shatter

I wasn't sure what this "shatter" nail polish was like and had only seen the black shatter until I recently received these 3 blue shatter shades. As soon as I got them I had to test them out!

There are 3 blue shatters:

"Turquoise Shatter," "Navy Shatter," "Blue Shatter"

I opted for the light blue from the Nicole by OPI Justin Bieber collection as my base coat then used the "Navy Shatter." I let the first 2 light blue coats dry completely before I applied the shatter. The shatter goes on a little funny. I found you need to make sure you have enough on the brush when you apply it the first time so you don't need to dip the brush back in the bottle to get more polish. It seemed the shatter would dry that quickly and adding more made it look a little messy and took away the good effect. The shatter should go on as an even coat and within seconds you can see it start to separate and "shatter." It was really neat and I have no idea how this works!

Check out these tootsies...a little funky but cute!!

Once again, OPI didn't disappoint me! I really didn't think the shatter look was for me but I think this is a very fun look for the toes!! I'm looking for a good maize color polish so I can do that and blue shatter in the Fall for Michigan football games. GO BLUE!!

Halo Headbands

I just can't run without a headband on. There's nothing worse than having sweat get in your eyes and since I sweat pretty badly (I like to think my body is every efficient at cooling itself), I never, ever workout without a headband. I've become pretty partial to one in particular one am always interested in trying out new ones. Recently I was given the opportunity to try out a Halo Headband. I was sent the Halo I and Halo II version and here's a little info about these headbands.

Halo headbands have a patented sweat block technology in which the water-tight seal directs sweat away from the eyes. There's also a non-slip grip surface to keep the headband in place. They are made from a Dryline fabric which aides in rapid evaporation and the band will not lose it's shape or form. My favorite thing about these headbands, since I'm a pretty bad germophobe, they have "antimicrobial odor-fighting technology." In short, there is control over the growth of odor-causing bacteria generated when you sweat so you don't have to worry about your headband stanking up the joint. The headbands are also machine washable, but I've been hand washing mine in the shower after I work out.

As for how they work...like a champ. This was probably the sturdiest (for lack of better term) headband I've ever worn. The fit was really comfortable, too and I think it's going to be perfect for under my bike helmet this summer. Both of these styles go for a measly $12.95 which is definitely a fair and reasonable price for the product.  Halo has a ton of different products from hair bands to anti-freeze headbands which cover your ears. They also have bandanas, skull caps, visors and a lot more. I definitely suggest you check out their site. I'm going to have to go ahead and give Halo 10 biscuits.

OPI Texas Collection and Beiber Fever

Dreams do come true!!! Check out this stash from OPI and Nicole by OPI!!

*the 6 OPI bottles in the far back right are the ones with the sorbet-like finish

First up, the OPI Texas Collection. Wow, some fun colors in this bunch. As soon as I saw them all I could think about was summer and having the cutest colored toenails out there! I've tested out "It's Totally Fort Worth It" and "Suzi Loves Cowboys" and once again, I love the new colors. I'm not even sure it's possible for OPI to make a color I wouldn't like. There was something about these colors that went on so smoothly; much smoothier than normal. Another cool thing about the Texas collection is that 6* of the 12 colors have a "sorbet-like" finish. Specificially, "Guy Meets Gal-veston", "Ya'll Come Back Ya Hear?", "Too Hot Pink to Hold 'Em", "Big Hair...Big Nails", "Do You Think I'm Tex-y?" and "Houston We Have a Purple". If you want to learn more, you can watch a detailed video from OPI here.

Next up, Nicole by OPI Justin Bieber collection. Let me first start off by saying that I am NOT a Justin Beiber fan but I AM a fan of his nail polish line. I immediately tried out the "I Have Bieber Fever" and loved the dark purple for this time of year. A lot of the colors are a little wild for me to wear on a daily basis to work, but they are fun colors nonetheless and would look really cute on my toes. These bottles also have the new perfect stroke brush which I really like.

I thought these two collections had a lot of wild colors, which could be a lot fun as the warmer weather rolls around. I also liked that there weren't any metallic shades as I definitely don't wear those often. I'm looking forward to having some fun colors to play with this spring/summer and I'm giving the OPI Texas collection 10 Biscuits and Nicole by OPI Justin Bieber collection 9 Biscuits.

Power Balance

I had the opportunity to try out a Power Balance bracelet recently. You know, those things that are all the rage, being worn by celebrities and athletes and almost everyone else you see. I admit, I wanted to try it. I wanted to see what all the hype was about and if this little bracelet would make me run further, jump higher, feel better, etc, etc. I went into it with a VERY open mind curious to see if I would reap any benefits.

According to the letter I received, "Power Balance is designed to resonate with, respond to and optimize the body's natural energy flow, similar to concepts behind many Eastern philosophies." After reading that I wasn't really sure how this worked so I went to the website for more info. Under the heading "What is Power Balance" I thought for sure I'd find out more. Unfortunately, all it said was "Made by athletes for athletes, Power Balance is a favorite among elite competitors, weekend warriors, and everyday fitness enthusiasts." Sort of vague but I still wanted to see what this little bracelet would do for me.

Well, after wearing it for several weeks, the verdict...nothing. The bracelet did squat for me or my performance but it did look cute. I actually like the look of them and that's about all I got out of it.

After I wore this, I found out about some negative press so I just read the company's response to this (which can be found on their website). One part of their response is, "The mission of Power Balance has always been to develop and deliver quality products that enhance people's lives," said Kato. "Our products are based on the idea of optimizing the body's natural energy flow, similar to concepts behind many holistic and Eastern philosophies. Frankly, we know there will always be critics of new technologies, but our products are used by those with open minds who experience real results. Our company is absolutely committed to further evaluating the technology behind its products' performance so that we can continue to offer products that enhance people's lifestyle."

Take it for what it's worth. If it works for you, that's great. If you like it because it's cute, then I'm in the same boat as you. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to give Power Balance 2 biscuits...it would have been lower if I didn't think that a pink one would be cute to wear.

Nicole by OPI - Walmart Collection

Nicole by OPI recently launched a line exclusively for Walmart. I think this is a fabulous idea because everyone should have access to the best (in my opinion) nail polish out there. There are 14 different shades right now which means there's surely a color for everyone.

I was really excited when these 4 showed up for me try...

"He's a Keeper," "Never Give Up," "Got Style?," and "Count On Me."

As soon as I saw the sparkly pink, I knew I had to have that on my toes. It wasn't until I was painting them that I realized it was called "Never Give Up." I think this is going to be my designated polish for all my races. It's perfect!!

If you can't tell by the picture, all of the bottles are labeled "new perfect stroke brush." One thing I really like about Nicole by OPI is the thin brush. So I was a little shocked when this brush was bigger and thicker. At first I thought I wasn't going to like it but it did a killer job! Check out these toes...nothing on the skin around the nails. :-) A little bright and sparkly for my fingers but perfect toenail polish. And I only needed one coat of polish.

Once again I had fun testing out the new colors and am excited to use "Count On Me" as a top coat for those colors that need a little something when I'm getting dressed up. "He's a Keeper" is a flat color, best described as a brick color and "Got Style" is shimmery and almost like a dark mauve (not so much my style). However, if you're near a Walmart, I definitely suggest checking these out. Walmart collection is getting 9 biscuits!

Zone Perfect

A while back (sorry for the late review) I received some Cookie Dough Zone Perfect bars to try out. When I was contacted all I heard was "cookie dough" and I was sold!! Zone Perfect strives to take a creative approach to nutrition and to discover unique flavor combinations that are rich in nutrients and taste good.  To date, they have "introduced over 20 delicious, nutritious varieties." A really interesting thing about this company is that they have partnered with VH1 Save the Music Foundation and have donated over $300,000 that'll be used to help keep music programs alive in public schools across the nation.

Zone Perfect has 4 types of bars: Classic, Fruitified, Dark and Cookie Dough. The cookie dough variety comes in chocolate chip, peanut butter and oatmeal raisin. I was excited to try the oatmeal raisin one since these are my favorite kind of cookie. I won't lie, the bar was awesome!! It tasted fabulous and I'm surprised I still have one of them left. It was more of a treat to me than a nutrition bar. To give you an idea of how they stack up nutritionally, the chocolate chip bar has 180 calories, 5g fat, <1g fiber, 18g sugar (not crazy about that) and 10g protein. Not too bad but I personally like to get some fiber in most things I eat and 18g of sugar is sort of high. But, for the taste, I let this slide.

But...yes, there's a but. When I looked at the list of ingredients I was a little turned off. First off, there are a lot of them and second, there's some stuff in there that I don't care to have a regular part of my diet. Brown rice syrup, corn syrup and chocolate drops (which is made with sugar among other things) were the first 3 ingredients. I've seen bars with way more ingredients and some with way less but the bottom line was I felt these were a little too processed for me, even if I just ate them as a treat.

So they taste great (and even come with a "great taste guarantee") but they aren't something that will become a staple in my diet. Especially since there are less ingredients, and ones which I know, in actual cookie dough. Sorry Zone Perfect but I'm going to have to give you 2 biscuits.