Product Reviews and Free Samples

I've always been a fan of free stuff, (hey who doesn't love something for free) and I'm a member of several sites that provide free product samples for you to try at home. It was recently suggested that I start a new blog talking about the different products, (and sample sites) that I've tried.
It's also come to my attention that many people give positive reviews of products they have received from sample sites, just because they want to have a good reputation, and get more free samples; when reality is half the people claim things just because they're free, and not because they'll be used.

This Blog is going to be different though. If i don't like a product, then I'm going to say it.
So here I am ready to share my experiences, and here you are looking for answers about new products.

Got any questions about products that I've tried, feel free to ask.

To get you all started at to give you all the opportunity to try some of the items that I have reviewed try these websites. Underneath each link there is a little bit of information about the 'catch' with each site.

Pinchme
pinchme.com.au   (Australia)
www.facebook.com/PinchmeAustralia
The Site:
Pinchme offers people samples to try in exchange for reveiws. And if you dont review your sample within the set amount of time, then you cant claim anymore. Samples vary from face wash and handcream, to babys nappys and dishwasher tablets.
The Catch:
1.To register with Pinchme you need to provide your mobile number to verify your account - you cant order samples until you do this.
2. Pinchme operates on a reward system, so until you have a high enough number of points you can only claim one sample per week, and samples are often out of stock within minutes of being released.

BrandPower Home Tester Club
www.brandpower.com (Choose from 16 country's including Australia)
The Site:
Brandpower and the Home tester club sends out samples for you to share with your friends and family. Then sends a link o your email address for you and your friends to complete surverys and share your thoughts about particular products. In Australia BrandPower makes TV ad's based on reviews of products.
The Catch:
1. You cant just choose a sample and trial it. To test a sample you put in an 'expression of interest' and answer a few questions about yourself, then THEY choose who they send samples to. So there is no guarantee that you will get the sample you asked for. (or any sample at all)
2. Its often weeks or months between different samples.

Mouths Of Mums
mouthsofmums.com.au (Australia)
The Site:
Mouths Of Mums is a site especially for all you Mothers out there. The website has an interactive community of mothers who offer help, advice and opinions on different topics. (Amber teething beads has been a huge topic for discussion) Mouths of Mums also do product reviews on items that are relevant to mums. samples include books, kids tablets and learning games, health and fitness items etc.
The Catch:
1.There are often a limited number of items available, you are required to answer a survey about the items you would like to review, and more often that not, you dont get chosen.

The Soup
www.thesoup.com.au
The Site:
Soup has a huge range of products to sample from books, to face wash, to pet food. Soup also sends samples for you to share with your friends.
The Catch:
1. You cant just select a sample you would like to try. You fill out a questionnaire, then you are sent invitations to different sample trials, which you must then go through another questionnaire saying why you would be a good person to try the product. There is no guarantee that you will get chosen though.
2. Soup often sends requests for people to arrange parties or get togethers with friends where they can discuss the product theyre trialing, so unless your a social butterfly, this may not be the site for you.

Contagious Network 

http://www.contagiousnetwork.com.au/
The Site:

Contagious network has a website that a lot of the time malfunctions, so that you cant actually sign up, but its worth persevering, because the sample campaigns are awesome.
The Catch:
1. With contagious network you cant sign up for all the trials, in fact due to the website not working most of the time, you cant even see samples. However, if you fill out your profile, contagious network will send you emails with trials they think you might enjoy. From there you fill out a short survey and they let you know whether or not you have been selected, then they send out our sample in the mail.
2. As part of contagious network you are required to share all your samples with friends, not just use them all yourself. You're also required to take photos of you, your children, or the parties you have and include them in your review to be considered for future samples.

Beneful Medley Dog Food Sachets

This free sample was provided by Home Tester Club

Being a Pet owner I'm always on the look out for new products and things to try to give my furry friends something different. Although I don't normally feed sachets to my dogs I was happy to try it out anyway.  The new range has 6 different flavour - My pets tried out the Beef, carrot barley spinach and also the Lamb, tomato and spinach flavour.

Initially I was very disappointed with the size of the pack (Seriously the single serve sachets I buy for my cat are bigger and have more content to them). My dogs also seemed disappoint - and for large dogs like my German Koolie, the sachet was no more than half a mouth-full for him and he was looking around for more. The Dogs obviously liked the flavour and spent time licking up all of the gravy in the bowls, but they were definitely looking for more food and still hungry after just the single sachet.

When I opened the sachet and put it in my dogs bowls, I was expecting to see lots of veggies and meat, but I was very disappointed to find that it was mostly gravy with not much solid feed to satisfy any animal.
The website for Purina - the makers of Beneful medley recommencement 1 pouch per day per kilogram of dog body weight. For a 10kg dog like mine this would be a recommended 10 sachets a day - and when they cost around $1.29ea on sale from supermarkets like Woolworths this works out to be aprox $13 just for a single feed! Definitely not economical or cost effective.


Verdict
These sachet sizes are more suited to small dogs - and do not have enough content inside the sachet to completely feed even a small dog, you will also need to feed something else with this. With the feeding recommendation of 1 sachet (aprox $1.29ea) per 1 kg of weight on your dog - This makes it a very expensive way to feed your dog. I definitely will not be switching to this product if only because of the astronomical cost involved with feeding this item.

Nescafe Coffee Sachets

#cupabove

This week I was asked by The Soup to try out and review the new range of Nescafe Coffee flavours. They sent me a HUGE box of coffee's - about 50+ sachets, in Vanilla, Caramel, an Cuppachino flavours to share around with all my workmates and friends.

Everybody loves coffee, but these new Nescafe flavours put a new twist on an old favourite. Heating up my kettle, I chose to try out the Caramel first (has now become my favourite). I found that the sachets are made for a larger cup, or you could use half a sachet in a smaller cup. To my surprise I found that even before I added any milk my drink was super frothy! Add milk, and wow, it was so frothy and smooth! Great for those people who like coffee but don't want a super strong taste. Normally i find with sachet drinks that they never mix in properly and leave lumps of powder that are hard to break up, but I didn't have this issue with, the powder blended in quickly and smoothly with no noticeable lumps left!

Nescafe is still running its sampling campaign so if you would like to try some yourself follow this link: Nescafe Sample   - But be quick, because I don't know how many more samples they have left!

The caramel was a nice twist to the coffee, it didn't overpower the coffee flavour but added something extra.
The cuppachino flavour was a more traditional flavour - but still very creamy, so no need to add any extra froth.
The Vanilla coffee flavour was a very smooth flavour with a hint of coffee undertone, which I found even my non-coffee-drinking friend liked!

Verdict:
These new creamy coffee flavours are going to become a regular in my shopping trolley. Smooth, Creamy, and full of flavour. I loved it, and all my friends and people i shared it with loved it also - definitely worth trying!

Head and Shoulders Apple Fresh

This Sample was sent to me by PinchMe
I think everybody knows the brand head and shoulders, its been around for years,  I parents always had some in the cupboard, and growing up, you still have some stuffed in the back of the cupboard - but its generally something that I always viewed as used for getting rid of dandruff, and not nice for every-day use for normal hair. Until apple fresh came along!

I was sent several sample sizes of this for the whole family to use - kids included, this isn't just for the grown-ups. The first thing I (and i now many of you) do when getting new shampoo for the first time is smell it. and true to my word - right after receiving me package in the mail i ripped off the lid to give it a good smell - I was surprised to find it actually smelt great! Just like an apple fruit rollup that I ate as a kid, much better than the standard menthol smell of the regular head and shoulders.

I will note that just like the original of this brand - this shampoo is also designed to get rid of dandruff - which it does just as well as the original flavor. I found that only a small amount was required to be used and that it froths and bubbles quite easily. After washing and drying my hair I was pleasantly surprised to find that my hair actually carried the yummy smell of the shampoo! It also left a great smell in my husbands hair (better than the dirt and sweat that it normally has)

Verdict: 

Head and Shoulders has made a come back. It smells great, works just like the original to get rid of dandruff, leaves hair healthy and shiny. Its now something to use every day, not just something to hide in the back of the cupboard for when the dandruff hits! Leaves a fresh clean feeling and smell.

Nudie Juice

This sample was sent to me courtesy of my friends at Contagious Network.
As far as juice goes, I tend to purchase whatever is cheaper at the time and still tastes good I've never been one to buy the organic juiced simply because they're so much more expensive and I wasn't convinced that they would taste any better

Firstly I should note that I was sent this sample specifically to give to my kids, and to share with my friends children, however adults drink juice out of boxes too right? Yep, they might have kiddie designs on the boxes, but they're easy to grab on the way out the door to work. (Hey i've even been known to have a go at the puzzles on the back of the box in my lunch break)
Nudie juice is advertising their claim to fame as having nothing but pure fruit juice in every box, with no added water, and i did notice that there are no ingredients listed on the box. Although I'm not so sure how accurate that claim to fame is, because the juices look quite processed, and certainly look, and taste nothing like what I can produce in my juicer machine with 'just pure fruit.' But they still taste quite alright, and the kids will happily drink them, so that's always a bonus. Although the apple and blackcurrent flavour is extremely bitter and not so great tasting
However, having said that the size of these packages is quite different to the traditional 'Prima' style juice box, and it doesn't fit as nicely in the traditional style Tupperware kids lunch boxes, it takes up quite an amount of room being so tall.
Another complaint against nudie juice is the straw. While the straw its-self is nice and easy to use, you simply pull the clear part of the straw out until it 'clicks' into place with the white part of the straw and viola you have an extended straw; But, the holes in the top of the pack are quite small, and they only just fit the size of the straw. This i presume is to stop little kids being able to squeeze the box and make a mess with juice coming out of the straw hole, but it also means that it can be quite hard to get the last little bit of juice out of the box, especially for little children who havn't quite mastered the art of sucking strongly, and as a result, they tend to leave about a centimeter of juice in the bottom of the box, (which then later spills out into the bin making a sticky mess).

The Verdict: The juices taste pretty good, and the kids love the games on the back of the box, however they aren't readily available in all supermarkets yet, and are currently only available in the chilled sections of select Woolworths stores. I would definitely consider buying these for the kids.

pHisohex Anti-Bacterial Face Wash

This product I sampled and shared with my friends thanks to Soup.
pHisohex created a 6 week challenge and I was asked to test this product, washing my face 3 times a day, then drying my face with a special suede-microfiber towel, (which was supplied with a couple of bottles of pHisohex to share with my friends). I was also asked to use the hashtag #pHeelgood, to try and promote the brand.

My first thought when looking at the packaging and smelling the liquid was that this product seemed to be something more clinical, like something a Doctor would prescribe. The smell was quite different, but it is something you could get used to.
I follow the face washing regime exactly as set out for me in my instruction pack written by pHisohex, washing 3 times a day then using the supplied towel to 'pat dry' my face after washing.
Within the first 3 days I noticed that my skin was starting to become extremely oily. Thinking nothing of it i continued to use the product as directed, and within one week I was starting to develop pimples all over my face. I was horrified at what was happening to my skin; I was getting more pimples in new places on my face than I had ever had as a teen, my skin was now so oily that anything that touched my face, be it clothes, sunglasses, or tissues came away with a visible film of oil.
I immediately stopped using the product and gave my skin a break for about 3 weeks.

Willing to put good faith in this product that stated it was especially good for sensitive skin types, I was willing to give pHisohex another go. This time I started using it once a day only, thinking to wean my skin into using it again, and not wanting to overwhelm my skin into breaking out or becoming super oily again. Sadly, after another week of using pHisohex the same problem started happening again. So on the advice of my Doctor I have permanently discontinued use.

Part of this trial required that I also give bottles of pHisohex to two of my friends; they both had the same reaction as i did. #pHeelbad was a much more appropriate hashtag for our experience of this product.

The Verdict:
This product is deffinitely not for all people or skin types, and i would not reccomend it to anybody who has even slightly oily skin. I also would not reccomend this product to people with a busy lifestyle, as washing your face 3 times a day can be a hard routine to maintain.
Not worth the money.

Uncle Tobys Oat Crisp Cereal

This sample was from Pinchme.

My first preference in cereal is a good muesli stuffed full of fruit, so when trialing a new cereal having real fruit pieces in it is important to me. I trialed both the hazelnut strawberry and almond flavors of this cereal.
My thought about the cereal was that it didn't look much different to other products that are on the market. pouring my cereal in the bowl, I was on the look out for the promised strawberry fruit pieces. This lead to disappointment, in my whole bowl I counted two pieces of fruit, which were not much larger than the size of a pin-head. they were also more brown in colour than the juicy looking red pieces of strawberry depicted on the box. In the almond flavor cereal however, I found that there was considerably more almond pieces or clusters than its hazelnut strawberry counterpart. While eating the cereal, he texture is no different to eating a bowl of sultana bran. I found the taste of the Hazelnut cereal to be a bit lacking, and very plain tasting. The flavor of the almond cereal to be quite sweet, and overall have more flavor than then hazelnut strawberry cereal.
After finishing the cereal I found that there were lots of pieces left stuck among my teeth, which is not really something i look for in a cereal. Overall given the lack of fruit and flavor of the hazelnut flavor, I probably wont buy this product. However the almond flavor does make a nice change from my current cereal, but I wouldnt eat it every morning, as the bits getting stuck in among my teeth does get rather annoying.

Verdict: The flavor and amount of fruit pieces in the hazelnut oat crisp was extremely lacking. The Almond had a pleasant sweet flavor, and I will be eating or occasionally but not making a permanent switch.