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

Again, I am sorry for my very late review for the August Love With Food subscription box service. Sorry. Let's get right into it without the formalities, shall we?

The box.

First look.

August 2015 guide booklet.

The fruity pie in apricot and almond from I Love Snacking was okay, nothing special. It's basically combined apricot mush and almonds. The texture was weird and we hardly tasted any of the almond in this. You really have to love apricots for this, and since we're only so-so on them, when combined with the said texture and rather unimaginative product, we weren't impressed. 2/5.

Beyond a brief burst of mild lemon scent when opening the cap, the Lemon Rooibos iced herbal tea powder from Stash was a bust for me. There is an even more, barely recognizable lemon flavor in this, but I prefer the flavor packets from last month's box to this, those were insanely juicy and very tart. This had no tea flavor whatsoever. In fact, if it weren't for the brown color, you'd barely know it was tea. 1.5/5.

Sesame....cranberry....peanut butter??? Weird combination of ingredients! Fortunately, this was excellent. Nutty, slightly sweet, and very sesame-y, I loved this product. Josh didn't try it, but I'd love to see what other bizarre combinations Wild Friends has in store for us, Definite repurchase, love the squeezy pack, too! 4/5.

It's rare that we eat Indian food in our house, but when we do, we always get tons of naan. It's one of the best things out there. These naan crisps by Stonefire were pretty bland, but not awful. The lack of flavor was okay because they were crisp, tasty, and really good! 3.5/5, would love to see a variety of flavors offered by this company!

Go Organic sent a full sized back of apple flavored organic hard candies! I would have preferred a different flavor, but beggars can't be choosers. These are pretty good, very appley, and they have to be since it's the only flavor in the candy, lol. You have to be in the mood for these and really like the taste of apple. 3/5.

Who the hell has heard of a broad bean? Hmmm..roasted broad beans. Another weird thing in a box this month. Anyways, these are shaped like little ears and pack quite a hefty crunch, but unfortunately, the roasted garlic flavor was very artificial and I didn't care for it at all. The bean gets a 3.5/5, but the flavor here gets a 2/5.

479 Degrees included a bag of Asiago, Parmesan and Cheddar artisan popcorn, and with ingredients like that, you'd expect this to be bursting the flavor, right? WRONG. This was gross, bland, and boring. No salt, no flavor, just ugh. 1/5.

We found out about Kind products a few months ago and have been obsessed ever since. I love quinoa in anything, and this salted caramel popped bar was delicious. Sweet, filling, crunchy goodness filled with ingredients you can pronounce. 5/5.
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Overall, there were a few winners in this box, but a lot of losers. Oh well, they can't all be great, and this box has been consistently better than Treatsie! See anything you like in here?

Subscription Box Corner: July & August 2015 Treatsie Box Review!

I totally failed on my Treatsie box review from July. Again, I failed, another month gone by. I could justify it and say, well, it took them for-effing-ever to ship the damn thing (DO NOT add to the box if you want to receive your shipment on time!!!!!!), which it did, but I also failed trying the items and reviewing the products. August, well, that was simply my laziness and residual anger about July.

Forgive me?

Here's the reviews, if anyone still cares to hear about 'em!

July box.

July card.

I'm probably the only freak in the world that liked black licorice. Everyone else thinks I'm daft and mad. Anya's Licorice was enticing, until biting. Gummy, strange, more like an over-sized but not as tasty gummy bear, these were just weird. The strawberry was the most tolerable, the mango was the least. 2/5.

Despite being chock full of weird ass ingredients, like dried cherries, sunflower seeds, almonds, and peanuts, Shotwell's Tennessee Toffee was awesome! Buttery, not super sweet, and a mix of ingredients that mesh oddly well together, this was a great product, but those with crowns, STAY AWAY. 4.5/5.

WackyM's Kitchen sent along 2 types of cookies: salted caramel and margarita cookies. The salted caramel cookies were very good, but very salty. The caramel mixed well with the nice buttery cookie and was topped with crystals of salt. Real good! 3.5/5. The margarita cookies? Not so much. They were very strange, almost too acidic, in a bad way. Not in the refreshing limey way. 2/5.

I added 2 items to my box. One was a box of the NutWhat's almond brittle, which I received a month or two back, and it took almost an extra month to ship. Luckily, after waiting 2 weeks (before the month, lol), they finally got it together and emailed us that they were sending out the July boxes (in August, I might add) since it was taking so long for them to get their shipment of the NutWhats...to which my response is...why offer it on your website it you don't have it in stock with no ETA when it will be available???? But anyways, if you ordered X amount of extra add ons, you got this chocolate bar from Nunu for free. Dark chocolate, now that I couldn't pass up. This was a great chocolate bar, if you're into just straight chocolate bars. 4/5.
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August's card.

Open box.

I feel like there has been a Grey Ghost Bakery product before in a box many months ago. This time, they sent along 2 sets of 2 cookies, one set in Peanut Butter and the Chocolate Chip.

I don't really know how their cookies have won any awards because they are dry as hell; there's a difference between crispy crunchy cookies and dry ones, and these are plain and simply dry. Like, I'm not a fantastic baker, but I know how to make moist dessert. The peanut butter cookies crumbled instantly into shards of bland crunchiness. There's really nothing special here and not even particularly peanut buttery, surprisingly. It feels like there are too many ingredients on this list. 2/5.

The chocolate chip cookies are a little better, but not by much. Still dry and boring. 2/5.

Walker Creek's Damn Fine Candy sent sea salt caramels and booooooy are they delicious. I ate these right up and quick. Very soft caramels, not "stick to your teeth and remove your crowns" kind of chewy, just melt in your mouth softness. 4.5/5.

Butterfields Candies was very gracious in this box and sent 3 two ounce bags of their hard candies. First, there's the Honeybell (orange blossom) flavor. WOW, these are awesome! Simple, delicious, juicy, sweet, crisp and refreshing. We love these and absolutely would buy them again! 5/5.

The lemon candies are no different in amazingness and are even better than the honeybell/orange flavor. Slightly sweet, a little tangy, if you like lemon anything, you need to try these. They are so damn good! 5/5.

We are not huge peach fans in this household, but their peach hard candies are really good. They are not as great as the orange and lemon candies, but still really good! 4/5.
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Sorry again for the delay, and I know these are late, but I wanted to put them out there because I'll feel bad if I don't! I am still relatively unhappy with Treatsie because of their slow shipping, slow customer service response time, and pretty inconsistent products, and yet, I keep thinking they will change. I need to just cancel and re-appropriate my fundage to the Vella Box! Thanks for reading!

Swift & Supersonically Snappy Short Review #92: Lake Providence Lodge's Cotton Candy

As summer comes to a close, I am trying to use the last few of my "summer box" scents.

Lake Providence Lodge's Cotton Candy
Cold Rating: 8.5/10
Lit Rating: 8.5/10
Throw Rating: 9/10
Overall Rating: 8.5/10; insanely sweet. Intensely accurate. Probably the most spot on cotton candy scent I have smelled in wax. Strong, ferocious throw, we could smell this coming from under the closed door. Bright and glistening with candy smell. Pink and fluffy. Wanting a cotton candy machine......OH WAIT, OWNING A COTTON CANDY MACHINE!!!! But never using it...where is that darn thing?? Cotton candy not only for fairs. Ferris wheels. Sticky fingers. Fried corn and turkey legs. Delicious, but makes you feel sick after eating it sometimes. Blending cotton candy with a myriad of other scents and fruity fragrances. One of the best blenders. One of the best vendors!!!

Swift & Supersonically Snappy Short Review #91: Haley's Heavenly Scents' Toasted Pink Sugar

It. Is. Too. Damn. Hot.

Haley's Heavenly Scents' Toasted Pink Sugar
Cold Rating: 9/10
Lit Rating: 9/10
Throw Rating: 9/10
Overall Rating: 9/10; almost perfection. Lasted FOREVER. 2 cubes per melt, 3 times the wax. 2 cubes is perfect. Perfect combination of toasted marshmallow (ONE OF THE BEST IN THE BIZ) and super strong pink sugar. Slightly musky from PS, super sweet. Goo. Goo is an awful word. Bright pink. These clamshells got skuuuuuuuuunkyyyyyyyy after a while. People who say skunky smell doesn't transfer to melting wax are insane, it toes does. Oils on oils on oils. Haley's is one of my favorite vendors.

Haul: Supertarts Haul #1!

Super Tarts has always been on my "list of vendors I want to order from," and though I won an auction from Brandy a long time ago, my experience was 50/50. Great wax, but there's definitely a wait. Brandy herself is really, really nice, but she was so bogged down with orders at the time, I think she forgot about the auction winnings and I waited quite a while to get what I won. She did make up for it with a humongous extra, but I'm just saying, she can get a lot of orders!

I placed an order on a whim while in a doctor's office waiting room a few months back because what better time????? LOL. Her stuff gets rave reviews from fans, and her blends are so. damn. interesting., I basically had to order. Now, remember, this is a few months old, so some of this has been melted, and I will try to mention if it has been and how it performed!

Her freaking awesome business card. Her scent lines are comic book, TV, movie, music, geeky-types of themes, which I love and am down with 100%, though I have always wondered (as a random sidebar), can a vendor get in trouble for using the likeness of another "thing" such a a movie or brand? I've noticed some vendors misspell LUSH in a L*SH type of way, I think in order to save their behinds from lawsuits? Regardless, Brandy's was themes are some of the best in the business. Clever, creative, and very cool!

She sent along this piece of paper with the scent descriptions of all the items in his particular restock. OMG, Do you know what a great idea this is?! Vendors, PLEASE do this more often!! It's not that I'm lazy, but it's a royal pain in our asses to go back and forth and back and forth trying to figure out what's in a scent! Anywho, onward with my haul!

Passion fruit + Jaws (sea salt, fresh air, sea grass, sliced plum, sweet pear)

-Skinny Dipping: Jaws is one of Brandy's most talked about scents on the Facebook wax groups. Jaws is a really fresh blend of fruit and nature, and when mixed with passion fruit here, I can see why it's a top seller. YUM! This is such a nice scent. Calming, almost!

Pink sugar blended with out sweet lavender cream

-Go To Sleep (2): Pink sugar lavender? C'mon, y'all know me. I had to get 2. I like this, but the sweet lavender cream should be taken literally. It does smell slightly of cream, almost lotiony. This is a good nighttime blend and I am almost done with me 2 clamshells.

Pomegranate, fresh apple cider and toasted marshmallows

-The Lost Boys: Doesn't this sound like it was blended for me? LOL. Look at that cute coffin stamp embed (cute coffin? Said no one ever???). I haven't melted this one yet as I am waiting for fall, but it smells wonderful on cold sniff. Not sure I get marshmallow, but there is a hefty dose of sweetness in this.

Magically delicious, warm sugar cookies dusted with sweet cinnamon sugar

-Snape: Another fan favorite. I don't like it. Marshmallow, yes, but cereal and cookies? Not for me. There is mostly cereal sweetness in this, bakery plus some more sugar. I knew when I was ordering I wouldn't like this, and got it anyway. Others will go ga-ga over it because of what's in it.

Zesty grapefruit & pink sugar crystals

-Finn & Jake: ADVENTURE TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I like this one, but I feel as if I have smelled it before. Grapefruit has a way of smelling pungent, and it's nice here, but this scent....I cannot place it. I have definitely smelled it in my scent-travels. Just can't pinpoint it. Anyways, this one is nice.

Magically delicious + creamy orange sherbet

-Ron: I'm a sucker for orange/orange sherbet scents, and I was hoping it would overpower the magically delicious. It's strong than the cereal scent, sure, but it's still lingering in the background. I like this one a lot more than I liked Snape. Pretty good, we'll see how it performs when melting!

Peachy coconut smoothie, cotton candy, seaside

-90210: This scent screams 90210. Fruity, coconutty, peachy sweet explosion with a bit of a sea-type of note. I like this one a lot and have melted it completely with a strong throw each time. Very lovely, a definite repurchase!

Pomegranate, mac apple, sweet lolli

-Twilights: Bella's Blood: As I expected, the mac apple overpowers everything in this blend, and it doesn't matter to me one bit that it does. I love mac apple, the crispness, the freshness, the mildy alluring aroma of apples....mmmm, so good. Sweet lolli provides a sugary background for this, and I don't know if it's a mix of the pomegranate and the apple, but I get something else there, too. Maybe it's the way all 3 of these bad boys melange together. Real good, but only for true apple lovers. It's strong!

Fresh picked strawberries and cotton candy frosting

-Elektra: A popular blend at this moments in the wax community! Cotton candy frosting seems to have exploded in popularity within the last year for its gooey sweetness and its versatility in blending. This one is alright, not my favorite of the bunch, it's just sort of 'there.' Nothing special about it, but it's not bad in any way. I will report back on this one.

Eucalyptus + Vickies

-Just Breathe: Josh has been having some sinus troubles as of late, so I got this with him in mind. I haven't melted it just yet, since he has to be in the right mood for a eucalyptus scent and sometimes, it can come off as very soapy and gross to his nose. This one is INSANELY strong and very pungent on cold sniff, so I will also report back on it, too.

***One other thing I wanted to mention was most of these had to be repackaged (RIP, lovely clamshell packaging) because they had a skunky smell to the clamshells, not an overly offensive one, but one bigstong enough for me to notice. Not a huge deal, and I know some vendors are quick to jump on the offensive, stating that no lingering smells actually transfer into the wax once you're melting it, but Sweet Jasmine Vine from another vendor and I are gonna have to disagree with them on this front. I have read this before and left the wax in clamshells only to return to Skunk. City., melted and unmelted. Just to be safe, I repackaged these, I'd hate to spend over $50 from a vendor and have a mound of unusable wax at the end of it all. C'mon, better to be safe than sorry.***
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Anyways, that's my haul! Do you like Super Tarts? Have you ever been compelled to order from her? What sounds good to you?