Product Review: Jasmine Seven Foot Wipes and Dr. Scholl's Fast Flats

While we were in Vegas, we walked a LOT, so I had a chance to try out two products I had been wanting to check out for a while.

I've not been shy about saying how much I love Birchbox, check out the tag here to see all the good things I have to say. My best friend also is a subscriber, and her first box came with a product I've been wanting to try myself so I was a bit jealous. Then I was placing an order and just threw a few packs of Jasmine Seven's Fresh Feet Wipes into my cart on a whim.

This was a couple months ago, right at the end of sandal season. When I lamented on twitter that I bought them just in time to not need them, the company tweeted back:

Awesome @OneGirlsReviews! I bet you will find a use form the wearing boots in the winter too :)

— Fresh Feet Wipes (@FreshFeetWipes) September 10, 2013

How right they were, thought it wasn't boots that were the kicker for me, it was tromping around a big city every day for a week! The first day was really a killer, because I wasn't used to the walking and my feet just ached, so I popped out these wipes and it was fantastic. The scent is nice, so it definitely made me feel a bit better about what my feet might smell like, but it also left them feeling clean, fresh, and more relaxed. It was just a nice breather for my tired feet as soon as I took my shoes off. Which was especially good on two particular occasions.



There were two events we went to where I wanted to wear nice shoes. But my nice shoes aren't the easiest for walking around in, my best friend and I opted to pick up some of those Dr. Scholl's Fast Flats that they advertise on TV all the time. We figured we would wear those to walk around, then put on our nice shoes when we got to our destination.

In theory, this plan worked fine. It worked much better than actually wearing my dress shoes would have, to be sure. And you can't beat how absolutely tiny these are when you stash them in your bag after you get where you're going. I actually ended up wearing them down to the pool and the spa as well, because it was just so much easier than my sneakers and I hadn't packed any sandals (a mistake, of course).

There's a couple problems though. For one, there's the problem I've always had with their commercials. They show a woman dancing and getting tired of her heels, but hey, she's got this pair of flats folded up in a cute little clutch! It's like magic! Okay, but then where do her heels go when she changes? I was already carrying a pretty large purse with me the two days we dressed up, so it wasn't a big deal, but it's kind of annoying to have to throw your shoes in with all your other stuff, and it made it really hard for me to find things when I needed to fish out say, a monorail farecard.

The other issue is that because these flats fold up so easily to fit into a clutch, they're only barely better than going barefoot. Now, I do walk around barefoot a lot more than the average person, so that's not always a problem for me. But on the hard concrete of the Strip, it really hurt. Not to mention having to watch really hard for broken glass and other hazards because it would have sliced right through these like tissue paper.

I get it, you might be saying "that's not really what these are for..." And you're probably right. For running down to the pool or the spa where I just wanted something on my feet so they wouldn't get dirty walking through the hotel, they weren't bad. Maybe at a club where I'm not really going outside it wouldn't be too bad, though I'd think I'd worry about getting my feet stepped on by other people dancing.

In the end, because it was Vegas, we paid $15 for one pair and then $20 for another, and I've got $4 sandals from Wal-Mart that do the same job with more comfort, and probably protect the sole of your foot more. Their only advantage is that they fold up into a small space to carry them around, and well, if I have to have the space to carry my other shoes once I change into these, I already have the space for cheap sandals too. Overall, I'm not upset that I bought them and I think I got my money's worth, I'm not going to throw them out. But I think you should really know what you're getting, and they're not as good as they pretend to be.

But I do have to say, after wearing these and feeling a bit like I was walking barefoot down the street in Vegas, those Fresh Feet Wipes were really, really wonderful.

Product Review: The Body Shop Peppermint Cooling Pumice Foot Scrub

So yesterday I pointed out that I'm not thrilled with The Body Shop's Chocomania Body Butter, so I thought I'd do a more positive review today.

Ages ago, I used to use a foot scrub from a different store. But they discontinued it, and I found the Peppermint Cooling Pumice Foot Scrub from The Body Shop. It's a bit pricier than the product I used to buy, so definitely wait until you find a sale for it, which is what I do.

I love to go barefoot in the summer, and wear sandals whenever possible. But my feet aren't in as good a shape as they were when I was younger, so it's not always as easy as it used to be. Which is why I started using a foot scrub in the first place.

This one is a very good product, and it does exactly what it says on the lid. The smell is lovely, the sensation is cooling so great for when your feet ache. And it scrubs away all the gross stuff that you want scrubbed off your feet to leave them feeling much smoother and softer. It's a really lovely treat, and the only slim drawback I've ever found is sometimes if you aren't careful you leave some of the grit behind in the tub if you don't rinse it really well. Small price to pay though, this stuff is fantastic. One of the best products like this I've found, and even at this price point it's one of the cheaper ones so when you get it on sale you can really stock up.

Product Review: Chocomania Body Butter from The Body Shop

So one thing I'm going to be trying to do with the blog is do shorter reviews and just get to the point quicker. We'll see how good I am at that.

Recently, I placed an order with The Body Shop because they were having a great sale (and seriously, they're always having great sales but this was half off almost everything) and with my order they sent me a free sample of their Chocomania Body Butter.

I haven't really gotten into using anything else I ordered but I went ahead and used up this sample. One thing to note about it up front was I hated the packaging of it. I wish I had taken a picture, but it was this very large packet, and once you actually squeezed the product to one end to use it, the product itself took up literally less than one fifth of the size of the packet. So the wasted space irritated me up front.

That's not to say the sample wasn't generous, it actually had enough for me to use it for two days, which was nice. In the end, I think the actual body butter function was great, it was really moisturizing, it spread on quickly and blended into my skin quickly. I didn't feel sticky or weird after, which is one of my complaints with a lot of lotions and especially thick things like body butter. I'm actually quite glad that my order contained another one of their body butters, because I think it'll be great this winter when I'm really dried out and need something more severe than just an average lotion.

The trick for me was the smell. I get that chocolate is fantastic, I love chocolate. But for one thing it didn't actually seem to smell quite like chocolate to me, it smelled like some sort of fake "this is kind of like chocolate but not really." And it wasn't good, I just did not like the scent at all. Of course, I should also point out that I tend not to go for any kind of thick or strong "baked good" type scent for bath products, I prefer lighter smells for that.

So overall: yes to Body Shop's body butters, but no to the Chocomania for me just based on the scent alone.