Rina's Reviews has a new home!

That's right, The reviews have moved.  I hope you'll join me at my new home, Rina's Realm, its a bit quiet there right now, but we're going to have a lot of fun soon.

Move Postponed

Looks like its going to take a bit more time and such before I'm able to make the blog move, so until then, life and reviews will continue on as normal here.

Stay tuned as I've got some great reviews for you all later in the week.

Moving Day!

Hello my Readers! A new year brings changes (or at least the good ones do) and changes have come for me...I've decided to take the plunge and move my blog to my own hosting.  This will be an adventure and I hope you all will join me at my new space.

I will not be updating during the move but will be sure to let you all know where I can be found once I'm there and I hope you all join me.

No mess, no fuss, just beautiful nails.

Good day dear readers; today we'll be digging into my Holiday VoxBox from Influenster. It was chocked full of fun stuff but one of the things I was most excited to receive was a package of Nail Dress from Kiss.

I'm not much of a nail polish kind of gal, I can never seem to keep the polish from getting messed up as I put it on, and I don't really have the time to sit and wait for it to dry. Not only that, but when I do take the time to polish my nails the polish never seems to last more than 1 or 2 days before it starts to chip. So its a rare occasion to find me with even a single color polish on, never mind that fancy nail art that is all the rage right now. So needless to say I was very excited to try these.

There are 28 stickers in each pack of Nail Dress, more than enough for both fingers and toes (and yes you can use them on your toes). The application is a breeze, simply place the sticker on your nail, trim off the majority of the excess, fold under the nail, file, and voilà you're done.  Plus since there is no dry time you can easily stop in the middle and attend to something else if needed.

The application time is less than that of painting and waiting for traditional polish and there is almost no mess just whatever you trim off, and that can be easily stuck to a piece of paper for disposal not only that but since you can easily peel the stickers off of your nails there is no need for chemical removers.

I really wasn't expecting my nails to turn out as well as they did, I was positive I'd somehow mess up the application but they turned out fantastic

And I've gotten so many complements on my nails over the past few days that they've been "dressed" everyone who has noticed them has been amazed that its not a professional manicure.
I'm on day 3 now and there is only a little bit of peeling but that could easily be fixed with some black nail polish. I've got 18 stickers left, and I plan to get really creative with the rest of them and can't wait to try out more designs.

Kiss Nail Dress retails for around $8.99 much much less than a "professional" manicure, and you still get the professional look. That's what I call a great deal!

Disclaimer: The above reviewed product was supplied to me for free in exchange for an honest review, the above opinions are my own and may not reflect your own experience with the product.

Into the Great Unknown.

Happy New Year dearest readers, I have to apologize for my unannounced hiatus, but the holiday times are hectic, with everything going on I had difficulties even finding time to check my email, let alone blogging.

But just because I haven't been here doesn't mean I'd completely taken a break. Oh no, my holidays were filled with lots of stuff for reviews.

I'm really excited to be able to share my reviews of the great products I got in my Holiday VoxBox from Influenster, it was just packed full of fun and awesome products.

I also have a bunch of reviews coming up of products I've been able to try thanks to being a bzzagent.

It will be a busy January my friends. February marks the birthday of my blog and I may just do something special to celebrate; so make sure you keep an eye out for that.   

Hope the holidays were good to you and yours. You'll be seeing more of me soon.

Give Your Thirsty Hair A Drink.

I've always been a fan of Pantene® products, so I was very excited when I was invited to try a product from Pantene's^® New Moisture Renewal line.

I received a free sample of the Pantene® Pro-V Silky Moisture Whip which claims to erase the damage of 100 blow-drys. Now I don't really ever blow dry my hair, but it is dry, and really prone to frizzing around this time of year so I figured it couldn't hurt and it might just help with the frizz. 

The first time I used the whip I wasn't sure what to expect, it came out of the can looking a bit like whipped cream, and was much lighter than other mousse type products.  I applied it to my hair and was very impressed with not only how quickly it was absorbed (I apparently had very thirsty hair) but with the way it smoothed the frizz and brought out my natural waves.

Normally I use a smoothing serum along with a styling spray, but since the Moisture Whip contains a styler, I was able to use less spray, and cut the serum out entirely.  The whip is light and creamy, it soaks quickly and easily into your hair and on top of its slight hold, there is none of that wet/greasy look like serums can leave and using less of my other product meant that my hair didn't get crunchy from too much spray. This was huge, because, and I'm telling you a little secret here; I don't like to wash my hair everyday.  But if its crunchy or greasy from the products I've used in it; well I kind of have to wash it everyday.

But not with the Pantene® Pro-V Silky Moisture Whip! After just a week of using the whip, my hair is soft and silky, the frizz is decidedly less, and the bounce is decidedly more!

I'm very impressed by Pantene's Moisture Whip and will be purchasing a full size product as soon as my sample runs out.

Disclaimer:
I received a sample of the afore mentioned product from VocalPoint.com in exchange for an honest review. The opinions contained in this post are my own based on my experience with said product.

More Music From The Flowerpot

A few months ago I was contacted by the folks at Flowerpot Records to listen and review some of the albums under their label. Back in September I reviewed an album by The Suburbanites.  Today I'll tell you my impressions of Leaving Today by All Over The Place. I downloaded this album and gave it a good long listen. Unfortunately this is not the type of music I normally enjoy, not that its bad by any means, its just not my thing.

That being said, I continued to listen to the album objectively, and repeatedly, and though I still didn't like it much, after a few times through the album I could see that a lot of effort went into the arrangement and the production. The musical arrangement has a big band feel; lots of horns and percussion, a fast tempo, is present in most songs; though a few songs did slow down considerably, I preferred the faster ones.  While I'm not sure you could dance to any of these songs, there are quite a few you could definitely jump around to.

The lyrics are interesting, both poignant and funny; there is a sense of ironic dissatisfaction throughout the album. I'm not sure exactly how to describe it more than to say that a sense of apathetic longing for some something seems to run throughout each song.

I liked the fact that both the album art and the lyric sheet is included in the digital download and that you can name your own price at Flowerpot.

Though I didn't care particularly for the album there were a few songs that I enjoyed. This one particularly gives a good sense and feel of the band. Though I didn't care for this album, I would like to check out more of All Over The Place's music just to make sure they aren't really my flavor. If you'd like to check them or other bands on the label, head on over to Flowerpot Records and see if anything catches your ear.

(I was given the opportunity to download and give my honest review of this album but in no way was I compensated. The preceding was my own opinion.)