Showing posts with label 2. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 11, 2017

Pumpkin Body Butter - THIS YEAR'S WARNING

It's that time of year!!!

Pumpkin season at Trader Joe's is here!
Yes, it is time for my annual warning:
Pumpkin Body Butter has hit the shelves
Trader Joe's Pumpkin Body Butter is gross!!!

Take my advice - steer clear!
If you are into pumpkin, go crazy, buy all the other pumpkin merch at TJ's.  But for heaven's sake, unless you want to walk around smelling like a Thanksgiving table decoration, do not buy TRADER JOE'S PUMPKIN BODY BUTTER.  :)

Here is the link to my original review of it:  Pumpkin Body Butter Review October 2015

And here is the link to last year's warning:  Pumpkin Body Butter 2016

Saturday, October 1, 2016

Pumpkin Body Butter: WARNING, IT IS BACK!

It's that time of year again.

It is AUTUMN, when all things Trader Joe's turn PUMPKIN, even the body butter.  But please, learn from my mistake.  I tried it last year, I took one for the team.  Here is the review (the product got a higher review than it should have solely because of the good PACKAGING, packaging I am not even sure it HAS anymore since the follow-up body butters at Trader Joe's didn't):

Pumpkin Body Butter Review

Unless you want to walk around this fall smelling like a Thanksgiving candle, just don't do it - don't buy this body butter.

It's baaaaack....
Oh, I am sure there are some die hard fans out there going, "YESSSS - THE PUMPKIN BODY BUTTER IS BACKKKK!", but I ain't one of 'em.

Bleck.

You have been warned.  

Monday, October 12, 2015

Day 285 - Pumpkin Body Butter

I was not going to buy this.  One of the premises of this blog is that I would not buy anything that I anticipated before even trying it I would dislike it – that does not seem fair to the ratings to go into with a negative attitude.  But I was curious about this body butter…  I love lotion – I use it every single day.  And I really like body butters (oh man, the unscented generic one from Sephora is amaaaazing and David often gets me a tub of it for Christmas!).  So I wondered about this Trader Joe’s one, but I was afraid I would not like the scent.

Look, it is LUXURIOUS, it says so right on the label!!!
One night recently when I was checking out at Trader Joe’s I asked my checker if he has tried this product yet.  He had a stack of them sitting at his register.  He said he hadn’t tried it (secretly I was hoping he would say, “Should we open one up and give it a whiff??” but he didn’t).  But then I overheard the cashier right behind me offering some to HIS customer to try!  Well, you don’t have to ask me twice (technically, no one had asked me once, but go with it…)!!  I turned around and inserted myself into their conversation and grabbed a blob of the body butter to rub on my hands.

Of COURSE it is a "Flyer Item" - it is OCTOBER!  Every pumpkin product is a flyer item this month.  :)
It was nice!  The texture seemed good and the smell was not overpowering (as I had feared it might be).   It seemed to smell more like AUTUMN, more like SPICE, than stinking like a PUMPKIN PIE.  It was nice.  I thought maybe I had previously just had a bad attitude toward pumpkin scented things and I should get with the program. 

In store selfie...  I was a little bit nervous about this product...
I would have picked up a tub of it then and there but my cashier was done ringing me up and had everything bagged so I finished up and left.  But the next time I went into a TJ’s I got a tub of the Pumpkin Body Butter.  I was still NERVOUS, mind you, but the little sample on my hands had gone well enough that I thought a tub might be just the thing for the autumn weather.

That charge of $4.99 for this product will soon be a refund…

I put this body butter on today after my shower.  I mean – I PUT.  IT.  ON.  Everywhere.  All over my whole body.  It is sticky going on.  Once it was all on and rubbed in it was not too sticky, however…

I SMELL LIKE A CANDLE.  I smell like a rust colored pillar candle in the middle of a harvest centerpiece on the Thanksgiving table.  David said, “You are bloody AUTUMNAL is what you are!!”.

If you like smelling like a human sized pumpkin pie this is the body butter for you.
I don’t really smell so much like – well – I smell more like a PIE than I would like.  I am not the sort of person who likes fragrances that smell like FOOD.  Case in point, you will not see BIRTHDAY CAKE scented lotion in my cupboard (even though I really like one manufacturer who mistakenly (IMHO) makes that scent…).  That is disgusting!  If I want to eat a birthday cake I will EAT A BIRTHDAY CAKE.  I don’t want my ARM to smell like a birthday cake!!!

So, to wrap this up, this body butter goes on sticky.  After you get it on the texture is okay.  And the scent is good IIIIFFF you want to walk around smelling like a big pumpkin pie (or centerpiece candle).  If you do not want to smell like a pumpkin pie, just use some from a sample jar one time on your hands when you are at Trader Joe’s.  Trust me.  Learn from my mistake.

I have to give them points for the lid.  It's quite ingenious.
Because this is not sticky after you get it on, and because some people actually want to smell like walking desserts, I do not feel I can give this product a zero score (even though I am going to return it and ask for my money back).  I mean, some people might LIKE this…  It is not HORRIBLE.  It did not make me throw up and I did not jump in the shower and wash it all off.  Oh, it also has a really cool lid , you can either unscrew it like a traditional body butter lid or you can pop the middle of the top off. 

Because of those positive, I will not give it this product a zero.  J

P.S. – lest you think I hate all things pumpkin, make sure to read tomorrow’s review of MINI PUMPKIN PIES!

Price - $4.99

Rating - 2

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

Day 97 - Chocolate Coconut Macaroons

Oh little macaroons, I was soooo excited when I saw you on the shelf!  I had such high hopes!  Coconut macaroons – always a delicious treat!  Dipped in CHOCOLATE – oh yes!

Don't they look TASTY??  Ahhh - macaroons...  Or ARE they?

But alas, I feel like you duped me.

You are not a macarooon (IMHO) – you are a MOUNDS candy bar.   Your insides are not baked!  There is no delicious baked goodness in you.  Instead, you are a blob of coconut covered in chocolate, which is FINE if that is what the eater is expecting when they bite in.  Like, if the label says “treats that taste like Mounds candy bars”, then we as eaters know what to expect.  But when you call yourself a macaroon, there are certain expectations to be met, and you fall short.

I got these when my partner was out of town, and I decided to wait to write this review until he was home and could try them for himself.  I did not mention my misgivings about them and just offered him one and asked what he thought.  “Well, the chocolate is sorta waxy” was his initial response.  When I explained about the “Mounds vs. Macaroons” thing, he understood where I was coming from.

New product - should be called "Mounds-Like Treats"
These are gluten free and Kosher for Passover – alas, they are NOT macaroons.  But if you want little Mounds bars, get yourself some.

Price – $3.99

Rating - 2

Friday, March 20, 2015

Day 79 - Uttapam with Coconut Chutney

These could change their name to “Blandapam with Coconut Chutney”.  Bleck.

There are 4 uttampam (rice bread) with onions and cilantro in the box.  Two cooking techniques are listed:  microwaving or heating in a pan on the stove.  The first time we tried them we did the microwave technique because we were HUNGRY and wanted to eat.  The result was an unsatisfactory dinner.  The bread was WARM but not GOOD.  It was super bland and the texture was odd.

Don't they look yummy in the photo on the box??
But before writing a review and saying something negative, I decided we should cook the other two uttapam a different night using the stove technique.  I hoped that result would be tastier.   And, while it is true that the result was tastier, it was not TASTY…

Even cooking on the stove, it was all just too bland.  The coconut chutney could not add enough “pizzazz” to save this.  I am disappointed, because the photo on the box looked so good and I had high hopes! 

Even at this low price, these are not worth it for us
We won’t be buying these again.

Price – $2.49

Rating - 2