REVIEW | Exfolimate Face & Body Exfoliation

*Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post. I received this sample product for free but was not compensated for an honest review. All opinions are my own and are in no way influenced by the company. 

Exfolimate is an Australia-based company specializing in skincare. The Exfolimate is an exfoliating triangle-shaped tool with a metal edge used to scrape away dead skin. At first I was pretty wary of this product since I though the metal part was some kind of blade but it's actually on the thicker side. Click through for details & a more in-depth review!

REVIEW | Skoshbox! (Japanese Snacks Subscription Box) + GIVEAWAY!

*Disclaimer: This post is brought to you courtesy of Skoshbox.com. I received samples of their products in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own and are in no way influenced by their company.

I'm super excited to announce a collaboration with Skoshbox + my first giveaway! Skoshbox is a pretty unique subscription box service that delivers legit samples of Japanese snacks to your door! I'm a huge fan of Japanese snacks so I definitely wanted to give this a try. Skoshbox has kindly sent me a sample of December's subscription box to try! Read on to see what goodies were in the box + Skoshbox has generously decided to giveaway this Skoshbox to three of my lucky readers so stay tuned to the end of the post!

DIY | Kate Spade Inspired Leather Bow Belt

*Disclaimer: This post is brought to you courtesy of Endlessleather.com. I received samples of their products in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own and are in no way influenced by their company.

Here's the fifth and final tutorial for Endlessleather.com! Another Kate Spade inspired project...I do hope you guys aren't getting too tired of these! If you'd like to see what other projects I did for Endlessleather click here, and click here for more Kate Spade inspired DIYs!

Kate Spade's really big on bows so I was inspired to make a skinny belt version of this leather cuff!

Kate Spade Locked In Leather Bow Bracelet | My skinny belt version!

WhimseyBox Review | Disappointment and Apologies

I'm a firm believer in honesty and transparency on my blog so I'd like to give y'all an update about my affiliation with Whimseybox.

A couple months ago I was asked to become a part of the Whimseybox Influencer Network where bloggers would place a widget on their blog posts linking to the Whimseybox website to purchase the supplies for the project, in exchange for a small commission. While it was all fine and dandy the first few months, the creators' interactions and communication with us bloggers (and customers too, it seems!) pretty much dropped off the face of the earth.

Looking at the lack of updates to their Facebook, Instagram, and website, it appears that they have shut down for business without any prior notification to their bloggers and customers. However, their website is still up and running and unfortunately, people are still attempting to order from them and fact that their website is still up and running makes it a scam. The number of complaints from people not receiving their orders for months (after having paid in advance for subscription boxes!) made the dishonesty of their business practices apparent.

Although I myself was not a subscriber to their boxes, I am saddened and disappointed in their lack of communication with their users and customers. I feel this is a terrible reflection of their business practice and I will no longer be endorsing Whimseybox. I apologize if any of you were victims of this scam and will be working to remove all the Whimseybox widgets from my blog posts in the coming weeks.

Please feel free to leave any comments regarding your experiences with Whimseybox so that we can spread the word about getting hopefully getting this website shut down and prevent more victims of this scam.

DIY | Stenciled Logo Parody Tee

*Disclaimer: This post is brought to you courtesy of Forest and Lakes. I received samples of their products in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own and are in no way influenced by their company. 

The lovely Nina at Forest and Lakes sent over some plain white tees for me to play around with in return for a blog feature. Since Forest and Lakes is a wholesale apparel company based in China, I was initially skeptical about their website and products as a whole. However, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the shirts they sent me were of excellent quality. I got two white tees in adult size small and fairly well-made, seeing as they're not super thin and see-through like many others these days! While an adult small is still a bit large for my small frame, I found that the tees do shrink slightly after washing (which is actually perfect for me). I have no complaints about the products so far and I'm very pleased with Forest and Lakes.

I love how versatile white tees are because they go with just about everything and are the perfect canvas for DIYing! I did have a hard time thinking about what I wanted to do though and stumbled upon some of Brian Lichtenberg's Celine/Feline and Hermes/Homies parody tees. I love parodies but the Feline one didn't particularly speak to me since I'm neither much of a cat person nor affluent enough to justify a $50+ tee, so I opted to feature Celine Dion instead (~fangirling~).

DIY | Leather Wrap Crown Bracelet

*Disclaimer: This post is brought to you courtesy of Endlessleather.com. I received samples of their products in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own and are in no way influenced by their company.

Behold my fourth (!) project for Endlessleather.com! If you missed my last three tutorials and review of their products, you can find them here.

This time around, I made a different type of bracelet using one of their adorable crown charms. I also had a hankering for a blush-colored bracelet but never found one to my liking. Like all my other tutorials, this one is (hopefully) super easy and dare I say, somewhat Juicy Couture-esque (minus the velour and neon colors)?

DIY | Leather Phone Strap

*Disclaimer: This post is brought to you courtesy of Endlessleather.com. I received samples of their products in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own and are in no way influenced by their company. 

This is my third tutorial for Endlessleather.com! If you missed out on the last two Endlessleather tutorials or want to read my review, you can find them here and here.

I have a habit of going out the door and not finding enough hands to hold my keys, phone, purse, etc... Of course I could throw everything in my purse but as I may have mentioned before, my purse is quite a dark abyss of mumbo jumbo. This leather strap is a great way to hang on to your phone, keys, camera, or wallet for quick access.

DIY | Leather Chain Crossbody Bag Strap + Turn Any Clutch Into A Crossbody!

*Disclaimer: This post is brought to you courtesy of Endlessleather.com. I received samples of their products in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own and are in no way influenced by their company. 

As promised, this is my second tutorial for Endlessleather.com! I purchased this lovely Kimchi Blue crossbody purse from Urban Outfitters but within a few months, I got frustrated because the chain began to kink up. I couldn't figure out how to fix it so I opted to replace it entirely. Sadly I couldn't find a strap that I liked, so I DIY'd my own with some chain and flat leather lace! This is a great project if you're frustrated by kinked chains, chain straps that dig into your shoulder, or simply find that your crossbody is too long for your liking. I'll also teach you how to make an instant crossbody out of any clutch!

Photo credit to Urban Outfitters | my kinked chain | DIY crossbody strap!

DIY | Leather Bracelets

*Disclaimer: This post is brought to you courtesy of Endlessleather.com. I received samples of their products in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own and are in no way influenced by their company. 

I received an e-mail from Endlessleather.com offering to send me a sample of their products in exchange for an honest product review. EndlessLeather is based in Germany with an amazingly huge variety of leather laces, cords, and accessories. I'll be starting off a series of DIYs using their products so stay tuned for more posts brought to you by EndlessLeather!

To be honest, I was at first skeptical about the website as it was foreign and I had no knowledge about the company...plus the website didn't seem legitimate. I'm pleased to say though that after some research and after receiving my samples, that this Endlessleather's products are of the highest quality and I think very highly of their customer service.

Here's a sampling of all the products I chose:

Left: double stitched | Right: recycled leather

Review: I chose a selection of double stitched and recycled leather cords, each 1 meter long, 7mm wide x 2mm thick. I was actually surprised because I wasn't expecting these leather laces to be such high quality. All of them were beautiful, stitched perfectly, and very durable. I got the double stitched in black, light beige, and powder, and the recycled leather in black, patent black, camel, beige, silver, and gold. Most of the colors were accurate compared to the pictures shown, although it'd be useful if they showed the cords to scale...I was expecting them to be wider. Oh how I wish they had the double stitched in mint!

Left: various findings | Right: leather clasp

I was also pleasantly surprised that their jewelry findings were also of really high quality; the sterling silver findings are super shiny and durable. Nothing flimsy here! I was a little disappointed that they didn't have more gold findings available but I was impressed with what I received. I chose two stainless steel crown charms, two gold lobster clasps, two gold cord ends, two gold spring rings, two silver spring rings, two silver lobster clasps, four square cord ends, three silver lever clasps, and a couple packs of silver jump rings. I have nothing but high praises to sing about EndlessLeather's quality.

Alright guys, so finally now onto the DIY! This is one of the simpler projects that I made using materials from EndlessLeather. You can't really go wrong with a classic leather bracelet. This also makes a great unisex gift; I could totally see both men and women rocking this!