January Curlkit- First Glance/ Unboxing

Sooo in my Consistency is Key post, I mention I wanted to do better by my natural hair in 2015. I stated I signed up for curlKit and may or may not blog about my natural hair experience as I don't really have much of a passion for hair as I do for say running. 

Well disregard all that BS ! lol As soon as I got this month's  curlKit I was excited to rip it open and use everything in the box. I would take down these crochet braids right now if it didn't take me 2 hours to put them in.  Since I plan to have my hair in THIS protective style for about another week, I thought I will at least blog my unboxing of my first curlKit!!!

Shipping:

Shipping is beyond fast! When I signed up, curlKit advice they will now start shipping the monthly boxes on the 10th of every month instead of the 15th. They kept true to their word! on the 10th, I received an email from curlKit saying my box was shipped and it was at my door within two business days( from the official sent date, I believe is was on 1/12 according to USPS tracking). Can't beat that! especially when shipping is FREE. I was also surprised to feel how heavy the box was. Full size products in my future??

Right out of the shipping sleeve, I am rewarded with the first product: Giovanni's 2chic Ultra-Volume Collection (sample size of each product in the collection). I was super happy to see this. I always hear naturalistas rave about Giovanni's products but never had the chance to try them.

Unboxing: First you have the monthly newsletter: curlLife. A quick and informative read plus a few coupons fell out when I opened it. Just love coupons! The newsletter also listed this month's products with a short description. 

Love the packaging! So pretty and pink! I didn't want to open it at first because I knew the "curlkit" sticker will ruin the tissue paper. But I got over that pretty quick.

Annnnddd here's the moment we've been waiting for... the products. This photo shows how the products were right after opening. 

Here's everything rearranged to see the names of the products:

This month products: 

1. Giovanni's 2chic Ultra-Volume Collection (shown above-sample pack)

2. Giovanni's 2chic Ultra-Volume Shampoo (sample size)

3. Ori Naturals Body Scrub (full size)

4. Dove hair series Quenched Absolute (full size) 

5. Caribbean Natural Black Castor and Coconut oil (full size)

6. Hask Macadamia Oil Shampoo and Conditioner (sample pack)

7. Eco Natural Curl 'N Styling cocktail (sample size)

8. Eco Natural Cocktail Smoothing & Moisture Conditioner (full size)

Product(s) I'm most excited to try!: This was a hard tie between the Giovanni 2chic collection and Caribbean Black Castor and Coconut Oil. I'm only excited for Giovanni because I've heard so many good things from naturals about Giovanni products and nearly every other YT natural hair tutorial has the Giovanni conditioner in it. However the Caribbean Black Castor and Coconut Oil I may have been a little more excited about.  I made a small "eek" and did a shimmy dance when I seen it. I have used Caribbean products before and loved them. And what naturalista don't like hair oils?!

Product I'm lease excited about: I have an issue with known hair care companies jumping on the "natural hair" bandwagon. It seems fake and a cash grab since more ladies are going to their natural roots and companies are starting to take notice. So Dove's hair series Quenched Absolute is the product I am least excited about. I'm not quite sure what it really is. A conditioner maybe?? Who knows. I have and love Dove soap products, in fact its all I use, but I think I will pass on the Dove hair product. 

Overall review: I'm very pleased with the selection this month. There are FOUR full size products! More than what I was expecting (I was thinking one maybe two)! Just from the full size products alone I will say they are worth about $30; a steal for the 20 bucks paid (not to mention the sample size products add more to the $30 value). The presentation was great! No beat up boxes and the products were place nicely, it wasn't like someone threw the items in the box and handed them off to USPS. Shipping was fast and free. Overall, I'm pleased and believe curlKit has a new customer in me! I plan to review the products once I used the as well so stay tune!

Saving Challenge! 52 weeks to $1,378!

Saving money seems to be so hard for me. I tend to spend more then I need to :( . This year it will be different. I will like to start saving for a trip to Vegas in two years. 

In browsing Pinterest (I'm secretly addicted to it, follow me http://www.pinterest.com/VertigoStark/) I stumbled across this challenge. Save the same dollar amount as the week is is throughout the year. $1 the first week, $2 the next, and so forth until week 52. Seems easy enough right?

I plan to add more money to this saving challenge however, the goal is to at least make it through this challenge without touching the money, ever!. That's going to be the hardest part especially when the dollars start adding up. 

I'm going to keep myself accountable with weekly Instagram post and monthly post on the blog.

Join the challenge with me !

Consistency is Key! 2015 Goals

Soooo sick of falling off and half doing. Ugh ! I started this blog back in September to track my running and fitness goals. However I made two WHOLE post and abandoned the blog. It just took me 40 minutes to ever remember the email I used to log in smh. 

My face should be next to the word procrastination in the dictionary. In college I would swear my best work came from the papers I completely a half an hour before it was due . But this year I want to end that. I know I can do great things under pressure, I can only imagine how better I can do if I actually started on things when I'm supposed to. So this year my goal is to be consistent and end my addiction to procrastination.  

Goals for 2015:

1. Keep up with this damn blog. Sheesh V you act like it so hard to drop a few paragraphs on here. The goal will be once a week for now. By mid year I will like to bump it up to three. 

2. Work on "keeping calm". I completely freak out when things go left. The goal this year is to just simply pause and think before reacting. 

3. Run my first relay race. Already signed up for my first relay in Sept. 2015! and training starts on the 5th! get ready for more running post !

4. Take better care of my natural hair. Not sure if I will blog about my hair progress. Honestly I don't really have a passion for it. It just hair to me. However, that attitude cost me no growth this past year. The goal this year will be to grow 3-4 inches of hair and maintain a consistent hair regime. I will like to try and find some staple products as well so I subscribe to curlKit! might do an unboxing when I get the first kit.

5. Lose 10% of my current body weight (between 15-20 lbs). It quite simple. Get it off and keep it off. My goal is to lose it by my birthday, June 12. 

All of my goals seem to have one thing in common in order to conquer them: consistency. 2015 will be all about consistency. Alright here we go.