Literary Book Gifts Writing Gloves

I was so excited when Literary Book Gifts reached out to me asking if I wanted to try out their Writing Gloves. I am always cold, my hands included, so a product that allowed me to be a little warmer while still maintaining full functionality of my hands to type was super appealing.

The gloves themselves are SO soft and comfortable, and are made from a blend of cashmere, cotton, polyester, and microfiber. They are tight enough to stay on and not be a bulky hindrance, but also won't cut off your circulation. I do have very small hands, so they were a bit big for me, but I can see them fitting the majority of people perfectly. 

 The gloves come in 13 different colors, ranging from neutrals to super colorful. I chose charcoal, which is a dark grey color, since I didn't want them to clash with anything. They allow your thumbs and fingers to stick out, not inhibiting your ability to type in any way. This also allows you to still use your touch screen devices as well! They are excellent quality and feel like they would hold up for a very long time, even with daily use.

Even if you don't have to type regularly, these would be great for tons of other activities as well, like crafting, writing notes, or even as everyday winter gloves when you wanted to keep your fingers free! There is a bit of sticker shock with the price, since they retail for US $52. If this is something you can see yourself using every day though, I think it could definitely be justified.

Thank you so much to Literary Book Gifts for sending me a pair of gloves to review! If you would like to purchase your own pair, you can find them here. They also sell other bookish merchandise, like totes and tshirts! I really want to get my hands on the Moby Dick tshirt and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland tote!

Product Review: Function of Beauty

This is another product that I've seen a ton of ads for on Facebook and Instagram. Function of Beauty offers customized hair care products tailored to your own personal hair type and up to five hair goals. You can also pick the color and fragrance you want your products to be!

I went with a shampoo and conditioner set (8oz each). For my hair type, I selected straight + fine + normal. My goals were shine, volumize, anti-frizz, strengthen, and replenish hair. I picked Nude (P)each for the fragrance, and made my shampoo blue and my conditioner pink. Each bottle comes with a pump for ease of use, and they put your name right on the side of the bottle!

What I Liked:

I am a huge fan of customization, so the fact that these hair products really are personalized to you is a win. I loved getting to pick not only the formulation, but the colors and scent too! If you don't want colors and prefer unscented, they have that as an option as well. 

I have been using nothing but these products for the last 3 months to really see if they have made a difference, and I do think the products mostly delivered on my hair goals. They didn't weigh my hair down or leave it greasy. My hair definitely has more volume than it used to, and I can tell it has gotten healthier. It's way softer than it used to be! There is also a little bit of added shine, although not a ton. 

I received my set back around January 10th, and STILL have some product left! I am close to being out of shampoo, but have about a quarter of the conditioner remaining. How is it everyone always runs out of shampoo first?! I wash my hair probably 4-5 times a week, and my hair is almost down to my butt, so that's definitely saying something about how a little product really does go a long way. And I'm glad, because this was a bit of a splurge at $41 for the set.

What I Didn't Like:

I'm not sure if my shampoo formulation was extra thick because of the options I chose, or if the included pumps just sucked. The conditioner came out fine but it took way too much effort to pump the shampoo out. Since ordering, I have seen an announcement that the company has changed their pumps, so maybe it wasn't just me with this problem! Obviously the high price is a negative, but if hair care is really something you focus on (and I always have), it's a little less painful hitting the order button when you know the product is really good. 

The scent of my products was pleasant, but I wouldn't have called it peach, so that was a little bit misleading. I don't think the anti-frizz element did much, although that could just be that my hair is damaged and needs a trim vs anything the products could fix.

The Verdict:

I'm a Function of Beauty convert! I'm about to get some highlights for the spring, so I will be placing an order with the added hair goal of reducing brassiness soon! I'm very excited to try out the new pumps to see if they are better than the old ones. They have also recently come out with a personalized leave-in conditioner that I want to try out as well.

Have you ever tried out Function of Beauty? If you're interested in giving it a shot, head over to their website via my referral link! You will get $10 off your first purchase and I'll get a $10 credit!

Product Review: Cocofloss

Lately I've been seeing ads floating around Instagram and Facebook for something called Cocofloss. Being that I'm admittedly not the best at flossing, and this looked like a hip product to use, I ordered a three pack. This product is pricey compared to your average drugstore floss, running around $8-10 for 60 days of floss if you buy them individually. I figured that the flavor options, the high quality ingredients, and overall cuteness of the packaging would make it worth it if it actually helped me develop a good flossing routine. 

What I Liked

The product shipped quickly (and free!), and the outer boxes that each floss came in were brightly colored and appealing. The floss packaging itself was chic and the floss was a gorgeous bright blue shade. The back of each floss also had a measurement gauge so you could see about how many days of floss you had left. The floss itself is free of parabens, SLS, and PFAS. It's also cruelty free which is a big win in my book.

What I Didn't Like

The product itself was terrible. I started with the Cara Cara Orange flavor, but I didn't taste any flavor at all. In addition, the floss actually shredded while using it. The website says each piece of floss is comprised of over 500 filaments. Well, about 400 of those ended up stuck in my teeth. Not only that, but the shreds were so small and delicate it was incredibly difficult to then get those strands unstuck. It was also initially very thick (pre-shredding), so getting the piece of floss in and out of my teeth was a challenge. I decided to open up a second box in the hopes that it was just that orange flavor that had problems, but the Pure Strawberries floss also had no flavor and shredded just as badly. The floss packaging, although visually appealing, was very difficult to get open. To avoid breaking my thumb nail off, I had to pry the lid open with the end of a set of tweezers each time I went to floss. 

The Verdict

Cocofloss was not for me. I have seen tons of people rave about it, which is fantastic, but I did end up asking for a refund. I will give their customer service department credit: they responded quickly and they gave me my money back, no questions asked. 

Have you tried Cocofloss? Do you have any other flossing products you would recommend?

Skincare: The Lancer Method

After watching Fuller House, I was amazed at how young DJ Tanner/Candace Cameron Bure still looked after all those years. I had to discover her skincare secrets, and lucky for me, she is super open about the products she uses!

A quick trip to her Instagram revealed that Candace uses skincare developed by Dr. Harold Lancer, the "dermatologist to the stars." Three main products make up The Lancer Method, including Polish, Cleanse, and Nourish.

These products are available on the Lancer Skincare website, as well as through Sephora, Nordstrom, and a few other retailers. These products are far from cheap, so I purchased mine on QVC (thank you, EasyPay!), when they had a deal running on the bundle. I paid $68 for my bundle, which included 4.2 oz of Polish (full size), 0.5 oz of Cleanse (trial size), and 0.75 oz of Nourish (trial size). Typically, the full size products retail for $75, $55, and $125 respectively. There are other products available in the Lancer Skincare line, but these are the main ones.

Step One is Polish. This was the biggest item in my bundle, which didn't make sense considering you're only supposed to use this once daily, and a little bit goes a long way. This is a gritty exfoliating scrub meant to both cleanse and resurface skin. I hadn't used a lot of exfoliating products in the past, so I was a little taken aback at how rough this product actually was. Despite the roughness, it did not irritate my skin at all and did a great job at getting off any dead skin cells.

Step Two is Cleanse. After the roughness of the Polish, this feels fantastic on my face. The bundle I purchased came with only a very small amount of this, which was disappointing since this is supposed to be used twice daily. If I want to continue with this routine, I'll have to buy a full size very soon. This cleanser foams lightly (unless you put it on a Clarisonic, then it basically explodes with foam), and leaves the face feeling refreshed.


Step Three is Nourish. This is the moisturizing step, and the product itself is very thick actually almost seemed medicinal to me at first. There wasn't a lot of this product in my bundle either, but there was more than the Cleanse, and a tiny bit of this can cover the whole face. The moisturizer absolutely worked, and when I put it on at night, my face still felt incredibly hydrated when I woke up. My only issue with this product is that because I have bangs, I have to be careful about if/when I put it on my forehead. This did make my bangs incredibly oily so it's something I need to be conscious of if I'm not planning on washing my hair shortly after applying.

The products don't have much of a smell, and they don't have any color either. The Lancer Method is available in different versions for normal combination skin, sensitive dehydrated skin, and oily congested skin. I've been using the normal combination skin version.

I've been using the products for about two weeks now, but only at night because the bundle came with such a small amount of the Cleanse. I honestly haven't noticed a huge difference in my skin, except for maybe the extra hydration from the Nourish step. I do plan to use this until it's gone, and will probably buy a full size Cleanse to last with the other products. 

What skincare regimen do you swear by? Have you ever tried Dr. Lancer skincare products?