REDBOX 12 Days of Deals and Prizes (a Smiley 360 mission)

I was lucky enough to be selected to participate in a Smiley 360 mission to promote Redbox's 12 Days of Deals and Prizes.  You can find out more about this mission here.

First of all, if you haven't heard of Redbox before, here is a description, taken from the campaign homepage:

Renting more than 1.5 billion discs to date, Redbox is America's destination for movies and video games. With more than 28,000 locations nationwide, Redbox is the fun, fast, easy way to rent the latest new release movies on DVD or Blu-ray Disc® and the top new releases of family video games. Featuring up to 200 titles and 630 discs, Redbox is a fully automated video rental store contained in 12-square feet of retail space. With more than 68 percent of the U.S. population living within a five-minute drive of a Redbox kiosk, Redbox is where America rents movies and games.

I love Redbox!  My family rents movies from there all the time, because there is a Redbox kiosk in most of the grocery stores near my house.  Since it only costs $1 per night to rent a movie from Redbox, it's a much more economical way to watch a movie than buying the DVD or seeing it in theaters.  In fact, in some cases my family has waited for a movie to be released through Redbox before watching it since paying $1 to rent a DVD is much cheaper than paying for five movie tickets.

$1 is a great price to rent a DVD, but this holiday season, Redbox wants to make things even easier by giving away coupons towards their DVD rentals.  Their promotion is called 12 Days of Deals and Prizes.  By texting "FUN" to 727272 once per day from now until December 24, you'll receive back in the form of a text message a code that can be used for money off of your next rental from Redbox- anywhere from 25 cents to $1 off.  If you're lucky enough to get a $1 off code, your movie will be free!  You'll also be entered for a chance to win other great prizes from Sony, Wii, Barnes and Noble, and more!  So why wait- start participating in Redbox 12 Days of Deals and Prizes today!

You can find Redbox on Facebook.

FTC Disclaimer:  I am participating in a mission through Smiley 360 to promote Redbox 12 Days of Deals and Prizes.  In exchange for my participation, I received one code for a free movie rental at Redbox.  All opinions expressed in this post are my own and have not been altered in any way by my participation in this mission.

Product Review: Physicians Formula New! Shimmer Strips Fashionista Eyes shadow and liner

I was lucky enough to receive the new Shimmer Strips Fashionista Eyes eyeshadow and liner from Physicians Formula for review.  This product is part of their new Shimmer Strips Eye Enhancing Shadow and Liner collection in Univeral Looks.  Physicians Formula makes products especially designed for sensitive skin, by using hypoallergenic ingredients.  Their products are fun to use, but don't irritate your skin- perfect!  I have used face products from Physicians Formula before, such as their primer, but I have never used their eye makeup before even though I have considered it in the past.  That is why I was so happy to receive the Shimmer Strips Fashionista Eyes eyeshadow and liner to try and review!

I have always liked wearing purple eyeshadow.  It's a color that just tends to look good on me, so it's my go-to color for eye makeup whenever I need to wear it.  So, I was pleased that the Fashionista palate contained mostly purple shades.  Besides a wide array of purples, there was also one strip of gold and one of black.  While these aren't colors that I usually wear, I think that they complimented the purple nicely and can add a dramatic flair to the look if you choose to apply them.

The shadows and liners are actually divided up on the palate into three looks- natural, playful, and dramatic.  However, I strayed from the recommended grouping of colors and put together my own look using the light purple and gold from "playful" with the dark purple from "dramatic".

Before

After

I don't wear makeup every day, but I was eager to try out this eye shadow, so I donned it yesterday, when I was out and about going to classes, my internship, and other events.  When I first put on the eye shadow, I was initially worried that the color wasn't bold enough to stand out on my face.  Turns out that was just because of the horrible lighting in my dorm.  When I moved in to brighter light, I loved how the colors looked on my face!  I used a light purple and dark purple on my eyelids, and then added some gold in the corner of my eye for some more pop.  I thought it looked fantastic (though maybe I'm a little bit biased).  Normally when I do wear makeup, I tend to mix colors from different palates to create a more interesting look.  But since the Shimmer Strips from Physicians Formula are coordinated to be mixed and matched, I was able to put together a fun, creative look without going to a bunch of different shadows and worrying that the might not look good once on my face.  The eyeshadow lasted all day and didn't even seem to fade as the day went on.  I applied it around 10 am, and when I got back home at 10 pm, it was still bold and visible, as if I had just put it on.  I was surprised, since makeup usually fades long before 12 hours is up- but that just attests to how fantastic Physicans Formula products are!


I actually got a lot of compliments on my look yesterday from a random assortment of people who said that they liked my eye makeup!  All of my worries that the colors might not be bold enough were for naught- people sure noticed!  Overall, I am excited to keep using my Shimmer Strips Fashionista Eyes collection in the future, and I would highly recommend this product to anyone with sensitive skin who is looking for a fantastic cosmetics product to try.

You can find Physicians Formula online, on Facebook, and on Twitter.


FTC Disclaimer:  I received Shimmer Strips Fashionista Eyes eyeshadow and liner collection for free from Physicians Formula.  The choice to write a blog post was my own, and all opinions expressed are my own.

BzzAgent Campaign - Aliyah has a Kindle!

I recently joined the most amazing Bzz Campaign yet- for the Amazon Kindle 3!  (I've written about BzzAgent here in the past, so check out that post first if you don't know what BzzAgent is.)  That's right- BzzAgent sent me a Kindle 3, for free, to sample & spread the word about!  Now that I've had it for a few weeks, I thought I'd share my opinions.


The Kindle was pretty easy to set up, though I did use the guide that came with the Kindle to help myself out.  You can charge the Kindle either through the USB drive on your computer, or by plugging it in to a regular outlet (mine came with an adapter that allows me to switch between the two; these are also available for purchase if your Kindle does not come with one).  I left mine to charge for most of the day while I was in classes, and then in the evening I went about putting things to read on my Kindle.


I wasn't ready right away to pay for books to load onto my Kindle, but I did have some PDF files that I needed to take to class.  I decided to put those on the Kindle and see how things worked out.  After skimming through the guide, I realized how easy it is to add PDFs to the Kindle.  All you have to do is drag the file to the "Kindle" drive, and it's loaded!  I was so glad it was easy to save the PDFs onto the Kindle.  Now, instead of printing 20+ pages of articles each week, I can bring the articles I need on my Kindle and save my printing balance for other things.  The one thing I did not like about reading PDFs on the Kindle was that you can't adjust the text size.  Instead, you have to use the zoom function, which took some getting used to.  But once I did get used to using the zoom, it was super convenient to read my PDFs on the Kindle.


I also realized that my local library allows me to check out Kindle editions of library books.  How cool is that?!  I'm away at school, but I can still read books from my home library on my Kindle!  It's a great way to read books that I wouldn't buy, and that my school library doesn't carry.  Initially, I was a bit apprehensive about reading a book on the Kindle as opposed to a print edition.  I've only read two books in non-print format before, and only because I was so desperate to read them that I found them on the Internet instead of waiting to get them from the library.  I found it difficult to read for too long on the computer screen, and I was afraid that the Kindle would be a similar reading experience to that.  I was mistaken!  It is very easy to read from the Kindle screen since it is not lit like a computer screen.  It really does look like you're reading from paper even though it is a digital screen!  I can also read outside in the sun without there being any glare on the screen like there is when using a computer outside.

Another thing that initially took some getting used to was the fact that the Kindle screen is only wide enough to display one page of text at a time compared to the two page spread of a print book.  But the Kindle can turn pages so quickly that it does not affect my reading experience at all. 

I also love that the Kindle as such a long battery life.  In over 2 weeks of having my Kindle, I've only charged it once, and that was only because I needed to plug my Kindle in to my computer to upload a book, not because it needed charging.

Overall, I was very pleasantly surprised with the Kindle.  The reading experience, though not identical to reading from a print book, was not as drastically different as I had expected.  The screen itself was easy to read from, and even when I spend a lot of time reading a book on the Kindle, I don't get a headache, and my eyes don't hurt.  I can even read outside with no problem!  While I still think I prefer reading books in print when I can, the Kindle definitely fits into my school life much more easily.  It fits into my purse and is much slimmer and lighter than a typical book.  Plus, since my school library and the public library in town don't have a wide selection of the books I like to read, the Kindle allows me to read the things I want to even when the libraries don't carry the item.

I would recommend the Kindle to anyone with a busy, on-the-go lifestyle that loves reading but can't figure out how to fit it into their life.  The Kindle is just the thing that will allow you to fit reading back into your life!

Update 1/26/12:  I posted an updated review of the Kindle Keyboard after using it for a few months!

BzzAgent provided me a Kindle Keyboard as part of a Campaign in exchange for providing my honest opinion on the product.  I was provided no additional compensation in exchange for writing a positive review.