Hello, and welcome to In My Bag! My name is Jenn, and this is my product review blog. 
Elite Therapeutics is a very special line of skin care products, personally founded and designed by Kevin L. Schewe, MD, a board-certified, leading oncologist based in Colorado. After witnessing firsthand and hearing accounts and stories of patients suffering from harsh after-effects of radiation, in the form of burns, sores, and general skin irritation, Dr. Schewe decided to help his patients not only fight cancer, but reduce and eliminate the painful, unsightly effects that radiation and chemotherapy can have on skin and hair. Dr. Schewe spent a lot of time researching ingredients and formulas, and finally came up with his line of Elite Therapeutics products, which include lip balms, hand and body cremes, body wash, shampoo and conditioner, and deodorant. Each product is hand-crafted to help soothe, heal, nourish and protect that particular area of the body.
There are several key ingredients in each product from the Elite Therapeutics line, including aloe leaf extract (known for its analgesic and skin-soothing effects); Allantoin (a rich skin conditioner); hyaluronic acid (this is a naturally-occurring component found in human skin; increasing it decreases skin damage while also plumping and reducing fine lines and wrinkles); hydrolyzed vegetable protein (conditions and hydrates); beta glucan (an anti-inflammatory that helps to protect against UV radiation); and panthenol aka vitamin B-5 (hydrates, moisturizes, decreases inflammation).
Elite Therapeutics sent me a bottle of Elite Creme to review. While Dr. Schewe initially designed his line of Elite Therapeutics products with cancer patients in mind, the products are suitable for anyone with damaged or sensitive skin. With winter’s drying and chafing effects in full swing, the Elite Creme couldn’t have arrived at a better time. Elite Creme provides daily clinical skin therapy in a highly vitamin-concentrated creme.
The creme spreads easily, and a little bit of it – just a dime-sized amount – goes a very long way. When I rub it into my hands, on my legs, my face, anywhere my skin is dry or irritated, the resulting moisturization, softness, and smoothness is just amazing. The creme soaks in quickly, and there is no greasy residue left behind. The scent is light, not really identifiable as anything really, and doesn’t conflict or detract from any other scent I may be wearing, whether it be from perfume or even another lotion or moisturizer. I have been using Elite Therapeutic’s Elite Creme for several weeks now, and despite putting my hands through the daily vigors of washing dishes, cleaning the house, being exposed to the cold, dry air outside, and being washed multiple times a day, my skin feels incredibly smooth and soft – the dryness and sensitivity I’m used to experiencing during the colder seasons are nowhere to be found.
You can purchase Elite Creme for $45.00 at Elite Therapeutics. Remember, a little goes a long way, and Elite Creme truly is an elite, must-have product for damaged or sensitive skin, so it’s well worth the investment, as far as I’m concerned.
Follow Elite Therapeutics on Facebook and Twitter.
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Disclosure: I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.
Christmas may be over, but there’s one gift that still needs giving: an Android tablet! I absolutely love my Android cell phone (it’s my fifth one, actually, since I first switched to Android in the winter of 2009), and now I’m here to share my love of Android with you. ♥ Up for grabs is a 7″ Android media tablet. Specs:
- Touch screen
- 7″ screen size
- 800 x 480 resolution
- 16:9 aspect ratio
- 2GB/256MB RAM internal memory
- Expandable memory via micro-SD card slot
- Connections: wifi (802.11 b/g), USB
- Built-in camera, microphone, speakers, audio output jack
Giveaway details:
- Start date: 01/13/12
- End date: 01/27/12
- All entries must be received by 01/27/12 at 11:59pm EST in order to counted for the final drawing
- Winner will be notified via email, and has 48 hours to respond.
- Giveaway is open to US entries
The winner of the EdenFantasys $50 gift card giveaway is…
The Animal Place offers unique, high-quality, and incredibly realistic hand-crafted plush toys that are modeled after over 150 species of animals. What makes these plush toys so special is that they are incredibly realistic in design, right down to the detailing of the faces, the color of the fur or skin, and the scaled-to-size proportions. The Animal Place currently showcases ten HANSA wildlife collections, consisting of Endangered Species (including the snow leopard, spider monkey, and koala); Artic Adventures; Baby Bundles; Forest Fun; Jungle Fun; Jurassic Fantastic (dinosaurs!); On the Farm; Super Safari; Under the Sea; and a very special collection, Life-Sized, which offers limited-editions of life-saved animals – and yes, these are modeled “to size”, and several, including the zebra and even a dragon, can hold “riders” up to 250 lbs.
HANSA has long been known for their hand-crafted toys, and they put 150% effort and attention to detail into creating beautiful, realistic plush versions of real animals. Everything is cut, sewn, stitched, and detailed by hand – something that is almost a “rare art” these days! Depending on the plush animal that is being created, anywhere from 42 to 240 individual pieces go into creating the final design!
We had the opportunity to review the monkey, which comes from the Jungle Fun Collection. The Animal Place is true to their word – when it comes to the scaled-down replica of an actual monkey, realistic design, and incredible detailing, the monkey certainly does not disappoint.
My seven year old daughter, Alyssa, quickly claimed the monkey, whom she named “Monty”, for her own. He’s a welcome addition to her small menagerie of stuffed animals, and she and I both loved the little story book that came along with him. The monkey, or any animal from The Animal Place’s extensive collection, would make a great gift for a child, or even an adult who loves animals or has a special place in their heart for certain species or endangered species.
When making a purchase at The Animal Place, use coupon code NewYear2012 to save 15% on your order!
Follow The Animal Place on Facebook and Twitter.
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Disclosure: The Animal Place provided me with a free product in exchange for my honest opinion.
Right before Christmas I ventured into Sephora with a gift card that a friend had given me (thanks Danielle!), and one item I noticed and couldn’t resist picking up was a pack of Sephora by OPI Trend Tips. These are nail “stickers” designed to be worn directly on bare nails. According to the directions, they should be rubbed to warm them up prior to peeling them off of the sheet and placed directly on bare, cleaned nails, and they can be expected to last for 1-2 days. At $12 for a pack of 16 I balked at this, and decided to do things my way, which involved cleaning my nail (I decided to try just one sticker at a time, as an accent of sorts), applying a clear base coat, applying the nail sticker before the clear base coat was fully dry, then applying 2-3 coats of a clear top coat.
The result? Seven days later, the nail sticker came off – but only because I used nail polish remover to remove the top coats, and then peeled the still fully-intact sticker off of my nail. 
I would definitely recommend doing as I did with Sephora by OPI Trend Tips, so that these pricey packs of nail stickers stick around much longer than a mere 1-2 days.
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Due to being on a strong regimen of antibiotics for the last three weeks (one more week to go), I’m starting to have, ahem, issues, in the girly parts area. I’ve had very few yeast infections in my life, but the ones I have had are wicked. And yesterday I definitely sat up and took notice to the fact that I am right on the verge of one, and it’s not related to where I’m at in my cycle (which is god knows where, seeing as how I had two full-length, full-strength periods that lasted for six days each, with only a seven day reprieve between the two).
So I dug around in my medicine cabinet, and in addition to Monistat and Vagisil I came across a bottle of RepHresh Pro-B, which I had received as a sample while attending BlogHer in 2010. But don’t let the “sample” part fool you – this is a 30-day supply of probiotics that is designed to get my vagina’s pH balance back where it should be. RepHresh promises to “balance yeast & bacteria to maintain feminine health”, and I hope to God that it does. The capsules are small, and look to be thousands of tiny granules (the probiotics, I suppose) held in place by a clear quick-dissolve capsule.
In a few days I’ll be able to tell whether or not they’re working!
I recently signed up for a one year subscription to Lucky Magazine, since my daughter was peddling magazine subscriptions for Girl Scouts. And I have to say honestly…I am not impressed. To me, the magazine is nothing but one big advertisement. I get that everything is going to be about fashion, beauty, skin care, and weight loss, but when you can’t tell the ads from the actual “content” of the magazine, you know you have a problem.
Oh well. The subscription was $12, and if nothing else I may spot some cool makeup finds, and my kids can always use the magazines for arts & crafts purposes.
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