Subscription Box Corner: July 2015's Love With Food Review!

Love With Food is an excellent food-based subscription service I have been part of for a few months now. Here's my review for the July Tasting box, which was called Surfin' USA!

The iconic red box!

What greeted me as I opened the box.

One thing that stands out about Love With Food is its tasting booklet. Different pictures grace the cover each month with detailed descriptions of each item. Love this!

The inside and back of the booklet, if you want a better look at each item!

This lemon almond biscotti from Biscotti di Suzy was good and wasn't as hard as other biscottis I have had in the past. Maybe that's why I like it, because it didn't crumble my teeth. The lemon flavor mixed well with the almond flavor, and the crunch was still there, just less than usual. I really liked this. It was more of a cookie than a biscotti, but still, tasty! 4/5.

Bear Naked sent along a coconut almond curry granola and nope. Nope nope NOPE. This was gross as hell. In addition to tasting like Indian food, the coconut was more salty than salty sweet, and it was all so stale. YUCK. I did not like this, and the curry isn't the problem because I love curry. It's the combination of ingredients. Blech!!!!! 0/5.

The Hawaiian BBQ kettle chips from One Potato, Two Potato are a product from another subscription box I received about a year ago. We really loved these a lot. Very tasty, great BBQ flavor, slightly sweet, a little bit smokey, a great treat to go along with a meal or to enjoy as a snack. Crispy, crunchy goodness. Yum! 5/5.

I will be the first to admit I have purchased apple sauce in one of these convenient squeezable packages in the past because they are great for on-the-go snacking and lunches. I am a grown adult woman. When I saw the Kalefornia Grape squeezable fruit snack packet from Fruigees, I was excited to try it and immediately repulsed the second it touched my tongue. GROSS. I don't know how people have kale in anything other than soup. UGH. Mixed with that unmistakable grape flavor....vomitous. Simply vomitous. Our kitchen sink recently got backed up to the point where we couldn't fix it on our own and we had to call a plumber after having still water sitting in it for a day........this smelled, tasted, and looked exactly like that. 0/5.

I am a HUGE fan of roasted coconut chips, so I knew these ones by Bare Snacks could be excellent, and they were. The perfect balance of sweetness and richness, crispy and delicious. These are a true delight and you should get some immediately. 5/5.

The Honey Stinger kids' organic chews in sour citrus tasted awesome, but had a texture like a gumdrop as opposed to a fruit snack. The flavor was good and these were fun to eat. We got a lot of the same flavor in our package, which was okay. I am interested in trying their adult products, too. I think kids would love these and it'd get them to eat organic snacks. 4/5.

We went through a phase where we loved packets of stuff added to water. It was an easy substitution when trying to cut out coffee and soda. We have since lapse on this, but I was stoked to see these new True Citrus flavor packets, mostly because they simply contain crystallized fruit, nothing else. No chemicals, not nothing. These were AWESOME. I love lemon and lime in my water, but with these little packets, which you can add water and tea and contain vitamin C and 0 calories, it perked up my drinks to the point where I stopped getting bored of just plain water. We will be buying these immediately. My favorite was the lemon, no surprise there if you know me and my love for all things lemon all the time. (I have yet to try the grapefruit one simply because I don't like grapefruit, but I will eventually get around to it.) 5/5.

This Glee Gum lollipop is the world's first and only natural lollipop, according to their website. It was a bit soft and gummy, but the flavor was there and was fine. I think I am just too used to old school lollipops and wanted something a bit more....adventurous? when it came to this natural lolli. Still, not bad! 3.5/5.
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While there really were some excellent, top notch products this month, the bad products almost scarred the entire month's experience. Between that horrible foot-kale-packet-of-poop-sewer-goo to the curry granola, I had a mixed experience by default. I am still loving this service, but yikes, those two items were BAD.

Swift & Supersonically Snappy Short Review #86: Alamo Candelaria's Hamish

ALL SOULS. An intense products name for an intense smell!

Hamish - A gentlemanly blend of Peppermint essential oil, tassi lavender and bourbon vanilla.

Alamo Candelaria's Hamish
Cold Rating: 8.5/10
Lit Rating: 9/10
Throw Rating: 9/10
Overall Rating: 9/10; fresh and pungent, masculine but smooth, this is just an incredible, deep scent! Peppermint and some sort of herbalness (which I can only assume is lavender since that's what the scent description says) come together to make a terrific shaving/haircut place type of scent. BARBER, THAT'S THE WORD. Forgetting words. Getting off track. Too early. Not so much vanilla, but transformative in that a lot of other notes seem to come out while melting this. Complex. Manly is right, like a freshly showered model. Simply wonderful. This is STRONG, and it lingers, folks! Melting all of these cubes before taking photos of them. Packing game strong. A nice book that opens up, revealing blue cubies. Lollipops in every order. Guessing on buying scents and then turning out to like them. Wanting Josh to smell like this all the time. Having that weird conversation where I tell him to smell like a wax tart.

Subscription Box Corner: July 2015 Vellabox Review!

As I have mentioned before, Vellabox is a candle subscription box that I love. For $10, $20, or $30 a month, you can get a varying candle subscription. The more you pay, the more you get! I am at the $10 mark right now, but may cancel another subscription service and up this one. This is my third month with Vellabox, and each month, I fall more and more in love! I got "nice" with my photos, so let's look inside!

The outside of the box, the side of it. Same as always, cheery yellow!

The flame logo!

They send one of these woodish cards in each box.

Each candle is always wrapped in a really nice cloth wrap. The one from this month is especially pretty!!

The outside of the candle I received. "If you dreams don't scare you, they're not big enough." I LOVE this quote, and I love that this vendor puts quotes on the lid of their candles.

The $10 box this month contained a Soiree by type.lites 4 ounce candle in the scent Bartlett Pear. Another new company! Yay! WOW, this scent is ACCURATE. Juicy, delicious, fragrant, sweet, sort of fresh, simply magnificent. It is right on par with the pear scent from Lake Providence Lodge in terms of exactly how it smells. I wonder if it's the same fragrance oil? It's strikingly good. I am usually not a pear fan, but geez, is this good!!

Check out that wood wick! I have burned this candle several times. The first time, following the instructions precisely, it extinguished itself. The second time, I lit the wax around the wood wick a little more so it would catch, and it had a veeeeeeeeeeeery low flame for about 20 minutes before extinguishing. The wax pooled out just fine on the third burn, but only after I cut what little bit of the wick had been cut with my wick trimmer. The fourth burn was flawless. The fifth and sixth burns, equally so. I am sitting here right now with it crackling ever so slightly next to me as I type this. I love wood wick candles, and I will definitely keep this company on my radar.

On a completely unrelated topic, this company has expletive candles.
EXPLETIVE CANDLES.
For people with dirty mouths like me.
I don't care who knows it, I want one.
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Overall, I am still pleased with Vellabox, and I am really pleased with this candle! The few problems in the beginning definitely led to a pleasant success, a wonderful and fragrant scent, and excellent burns!

Haul: Bath & Body Works Collective June and July Hauls!

I got a gift card to Bath & Body Works from my grandma for my birthday in May and I finally got around to using it all up. Let me show you what I grabbed during their semi-annual sale, and a few things in July, too!

I snagged one of these little 1.3 oz candles in Oahu Coconut Sunset because I was trying to finish up the gift card and it was relatively cheap. It smells awesome! If this doesn't throw well, I will remove it and put it in one of my wax warmers.

Vanilla Bean Marshmallow has been highly acclaimed in the wax/bath and body community, so I knew when this was about $5, I wanted to grab one! A single wick mason jarish candle, this smells ooey and gooey and sweet. I am saving this until fall.

These fragrance mists were returning popular fragrances from waaaay back when. Cucumber Melon was my favorite scent growing up because I am a crazy old person, but I had never tried the other 3 scents, so I grabbed them all. Plumeria is a nice, light floral scent, and Pearberry is a light fruity scent, but I don't like Juniper Breeze. I wonder if anyone else wants this, I think it's too late to take it back.

Bath & Body Works' Scentportables are my go-to car-scenting products, so I snagged an Island Margarita. Powerful and limey, I need to switch the one in my car to this one because the one I have in there is gross.

Hawaiian Hibiscus is a scent I had no prior knowledge of when purchasing it, it just had good ratings on the B&BW website. It's a winner! Very floral, but slightly tropical, a bit smooth and just like Hawaii. This is probably what Hawaii smells like. Sunnee, will you confirm? :)

Ocean Side used to be a true, realistic ocean spray scent. It doesn't smell like that anymore, it smells like a douchebag's cologne. Sorry to be so blunt, but YUCK. YOU know the smell. Come on, you know it. Well, that's what this smells like. I am determined to change my mind about this. It smells more like cologney fake sea smell. Bleh.

Caribbean Escape I haven't used yet, but may get to eventually. I may want to save this one in case I need a quickie Christmas gift or something!

Tiki Beach, a couple of years ago, was such an amaaaaazing candle. It threw ridiculously, pooled out like a champ, and had wicks that burned and burned and burned. Wow. I was excited to smell just how strong this was, even in air spray form. Coconut and suntan lotion mix together for a true beachy experience. I have this in our spare bathroom and spray it in the hallways every once in a while.

We have Island Margarita in our back bedroom / bathroom right now. It smells so good! I will keep my eye out for this one. It might be small, but it packs a punch! It does smell like a fresh margarita and squeezed lime with a bit of tropical undertones. Nice!

A comparison between the large and small room fragrances.

My second haul was from July. I got a tip from @TheBronzeBlogger (aka Real Talk about Bath and Body Works Candles) that the candle Amsterdam (Tulips & Windmills) is a dupe for my beloved, much missed, highly sought after Flower Shop, aka my favorite candle from Bath & Body Works before London Calling came about. WELL, IT IS A DUPE!!!! OMG. You cannot imagine how happy I was to get this and compare them! I have a 4 ounce Flower Shop left for this purpose exactly, and it. is. a. dupe. UGH I AM SO HAPPY I AM IN A GLASS CASE OF EMOTION. I bought 2 of these. Well, Josh bought 2 of these for me. :)
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There's my collective haul from B&BW! Have you bought anything from them lately? Looking forward to fall scents (SOON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)??

Haul: THE GREATEST CANDLE ON EARTH!!! EVER!!!

Now, that title might seem a teensy bit dramatic, so let me give you some backstory, mmmkay?

I follow a lot of random ass people on Instagram.
Before I made a separate account for my movie blog, I was following movie blogs, fashion sites, YouTubers, celebrities, candle folks, wax melters, jewelry vendors, dogs...seriously, everyone!
Well, nothing has changed, but one of the random accounts I was following was that of Sara M. Lyons. I must admit, I didn't know who she was when I saw this thing come across my news feed on that fateful summer's night, but she is affiliated with another candle vendor I follow and have been curious about, Candelles...
Anyways, I am getting off track. Sara is a bitchin' artist, and she teamed up with Candelles, who obviously pours candles, to make the greatest candle ever put on the face of this awe-inspiring planet. Ever. Seriously.
They sell this candle through Emerging Thoughts, and it was expensive (for me, someone who is cheap and uses coupons for everything), but I HAD TO HAVE THIS CANDLE.
HAD to have it.
Okay, just let me show it to you already......

DO YOU SEE THE ABOVE PHOTO?????
IT'S A CANDLE.
WITH THE ROCK'S FACE ON IT.
MY BOYFRIEND, THE ROCK.
ACTOR EXTRAORDINAIRE.
AFICIONADO AT CHARMING THE PANTS OFF OF LITERALLY EVERYONE.
ON A CANDLE.
AND IT SMELLS LIKE ROOT BEER.

Now, you might be thinking, "Lolo, ease up on the capslock, yo!"...oh, wait, no. You might be thinking, "Lolo, why on god's green earth would you want a candle with The Rock's face on it?"

I'm glad you asked, good comrade. Pull up a chair.

A joke began not so long ago, a friend of mine told me that, in jest, The Rock cannot go 2 minutes without breaking a sweat. Even if he's giving interviews, standing in a frame during a film, or simply carrying on a conversation, he is constantly sweating.

For some unknown reason, maybe the stars aligned right that night or something, but not having any prior affiliation or even necessarily love for The Rock, I took up for him in "a fight." I stood in his corner. I defended a man I barely know. I honored a man whom I will never meet (maybe one day???)

And a love affair began.

Ever since then, I have been obsessed with The Rock. All things Rock. His movie this summer, "San Andreas," was not a good movie by any stretch of the imagination, and yet, The Rock is just so damn charming in it, he made it worth my while. Josh may or may not be jealous.

So, I forked over the money without a moment's hesitation and bought this bad boy. I have no ragrets.* I may not even melt it because it was so synchronicitous, at the right place and during the right time period after this joke was told, that I may want to hold onto it forever and ever, never letting my sweet Dwayney prince go.

So, Dwayne, this is my ode to you. My love, my light (now both literally and figuratively), and, eternally, my candle. As long as you don't make a "San Andreas 2," I will forever be your biggest fan.

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*spelled right, points if you can guess where it's from.

Haul: Tiffany Candles Summer 2015 Haul!

...Random as in I wasn't truly planning on ordering anything with Tiffany Candles announced a week or so ago.

And then I did something bad.

REALLY, really bad. Just like The Joker in the new trailer for "Suicide Squad" (which I have already watched approximately 246.50 times (the half is for a short clip I saw on Instagram). I AM LEGIT OBSESSED.

Beyond watching the above video an unhealthy number of times, I spent way more than I should have on my latest haul, which I am going to display for you here. OHWELLYOLOAMIRITE??? Let's begin with my samples!

-Cactus & Sea Salt (sample): Tiffany included a sample in one of my all time favorite fresh scents, Cactus & Sea Salt. UGH, THIS SMELLS AMAZING. I cannot wait to melt it in the bathroom. It smells strong, too!

-Raspberry Rainbow (sample): I looooove this sample. Not sure if rainbow here just means orangy or tons-o-fruity, but whatever it is, I'm down with it. This even smells like juicy raspberries!

-Mango Sorbet (sample): I'm not a huge fan of mango scents, but this one doesn't seem so bad! Apparently Tiffany is changing my mind with these samples, lol! It's fruity, and there's definitely something else in there, but it's quite a tropical scent. Nice!

-Bread Pudding (sample): I saw this, and I gotta be honest, I went "ughhh." I don't like bread scents, but this, this is really sweet and fruit-like! It's not a huge tart, so I'm sure it'll be great when melting.

-Vanilla Ice Cream (sample): this sample smells very light on cold sniff, so I will have to report back about it.

-Perfectly Pear (sample): another juicy one! This smells incredible. I sure got lucky with this haul. You know how pears just smell super fragrant and then you bite into them and the juices??? THIS. I might pear (LOLOLOLOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) this with cactus and sea salt, just to be adventurous.

Caribbean Escape (type) - A tropical blend of raspberry nectar and casaba melon with mid notes of lemon and creamy coconut milk on a base of pineapple and raw sugar cane.

-Caribbean Escape (3-pack teddy tarts): I have had this scent from TC before and wanted a couple more tarts in it. Just as I remembered: yummy, sweet, tropical, strong, the perfect summer scent!

-Sun & Sand (type) (3-pack teddy tarts): this is a dupe of Yankee Candles' beach-suntan heavy Sun & Sand and boy, does it smell spot on! I love that scent, which is atypical of me because it's so strong on the tan note, but yeah, it's great! These bad boys will be used very soon.

Sweet Dreams –Lavender & Sweet Pea blend (A Tiffany Candles Blend)

-Sweet Dreams (3-pack teddy tarts): Someone online somewhere mentioned they liked this blend and I wanted to try it in a 3-pack before I got it in a blend or scoopable for. I'm glad I did because it's not for me. It's a bit too powdery and heavy on the sweet pea. I am going to melt one single tart and see if it blossoms somewhere when it's melting, but Tiffany's scents are usually pretty straightforward, so I don't know. I'm bummed about this one.

-Honeydew melon, watermelon, cotton candy (scoopable wax): covered in green glitter at this top, this blend is outstanding. I am on a watermelon craze right now, and this just does it for me. Honeydew is slightly sweet, mainly fruity, and cotton candy is mainly sweet, slightly fruity. That watermelon though. The star. SO GOOD. I cannot wait to dig into this. WAITING IS SUCH SWEET SORROW.

-Rosemary Mint Noel (mini wax daisies): Rosemary mint and vanilla bean noel are 2 of my favorite Tiffany Candles when they are by themselves, and when I saw them combined? This is the reason I placed this order. We shall see how these fair, but they smell good on cold sniff!! Real good!

I could not for the life of me get a good shot of these.

-Macintosh Apple & Cactus & Sea Salt (mini wax daisies): holy freshness, Batman! The mac apple SCREAMED out at me when I opened the bag! Insanely fresh. A laundry day staple, perhaps?

-Pink Lime Watermelon (mini wax daisies): pink lime is quite a verbose scent. It's in your face, slightly perfume/laundryish, fiercely fresh, and very, very heavy on the lime. When mixed with the watermelon, it's WONDERFUL! I love that I got a big bag of this and I think it will become my new cleaning day scent. Oh wait, Mac Appl Cactus & Sea Salt is my new laundry day scent....I guess there's no reason why they can't share my affections! ;)

I also snagged a fresh sampler, and if I'm not mistaken, was from a couple of restocks ago. I was happy to grab one! Included in this bag are one tart of the following:

*Cactus & Sea Salt - (YAY ONE MORE!) Shimmering green cactus mingled with clean ocean air, sea spray, driftwood and sea moss. You will love this sea side blend of fresh ozone notes on a base of sweet musk.
*Chamomile - The soothing smell of the well known aromatic herb.
*Coriander & White Lime - (I LOVE this scent and have had it before) Blend of white lime, Italian bergamot, valencia orange, fuzzy peach, Mediterranean coriander, thai basil, purple lavender, yellow jasmine and violet petals.
*Eucalyptus Spearmint - (a standout favorite) invigorating herbal blend of eucalyptus and spearmint with fresh citrus lemon, lavender flowers, and a hint of sage.
*Juniper Breeze - A duplicate of the popular Bath and Body Works* fragrance, an ozony blend of floral, green and fruity notes with a slight musk undertone.
*Lemongrass - (I believe I have tried this one before) The wonderful aroma of fresh cut lemongrass with a hint of green herbal notes.
*Mango Beachwood - (ANOTHER recent favorite from Tiffany Candles and I'm glad to have another) Just like the popular Bath and Body Works* fragrance, a blend of mango, tangerine and mandarin with mid notes of rose, jasmine and dewy cyclamen on a base of beechwood, amber and musk.
*Sea Petals - (another scent I have tried in a blend, it's okay) A light floral blend of roses and violets with a touch of light green notes, blended with some fruity notes of peach, citrus, and strawberry.
*Snuggle Baby - Baby Magic (Type)
*White Nectarine & Pink Coral - (Intriguing!) The luscious fruitiness of sweet peach, pineapple chunks and orange slices blended with enchanting floral notes of honeysuckle, rose and jasmine on a drydown of soft, soothing musk.
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That's my Tiffany Candles haul! I probably won't be making another order until SMT or RG opens up, unless I am in dire need of some mints in the meantime. Anything jump out at you as being awesome? Lemme know, folks! :)