Notoxbox - March, 2013

 

Notoxbox shipped first of all the boxes this month.  It was pretty heavy again, but the product that made it heavy wasn't very exciting.  There were some other more interesting goodies inside though.  Here's what I got:

Amazonia Raw Food Bar in Berry Burst (full size)

My favourite from the box was this bar.  It actually tasted very good and there were no dodgy ingredients at all.  These are pretty expensive, they retail for $3.95 each, though the ingredients they use are expensive so it's not suprising.

Argital Clay Mask (deluxe sample size)

I decided not to try this mask on my face, as the instructions said that "sensitive skins may experience a light tingling sensation or reddening".  My cheeks and nose are red enough naturally and I absolutely don't want to add to that.  Luckily this product also included instructions for use on hair, legs and feet.  All of the applications except the feet needed me to add extra ingredients (honey and oil for the face, orange oil for the body and jojoba oil for the hair).  The instructions for feet suggested lavender oil which was the only one I actually had on hand, so I went with that option.  This seemed a bit fiddly for me.  I'd rather have the whole product mixed together and ready to use, or at least receive a sample of the other necessary ingredients to mix myself so I have everything I need to try it.  Having to purchase extra products just to try this one defeats the purpose of the sample box really.  Anyway, I tried it on my feet.  It was really hard to get the clay to mix with the hot water, and I didn't really manage to get it mixed thoroughly no matter what I did.  After soaking my feet in hot dirty water I was hoping for something miraculous to make up for the less than pleasant dirty water part of the experience.  Not so.  If anything, my feet felt drier than usual and I had to go and slather on some lanolin on my heels.

Weleda Almond Soothing Cleansing Lotion (deluxe sample size)

Another product for sensitive skin.  Yay!  This smelled of marzipan and felt super gentle when I used it, but afterwards I was horrified to see that my whole face was flaky.  I had done the suggested patch test the day before, so I was suprised to find this reaction.  Not a good fit for my skin type it seems.

Earthens Biodegradable Foodware (full size)

What an odd concept.  This company makes bowls from pressed leaves.  It actually looks pretty cool but I don't use disposable plates as it's just so wasteful.  The information card said "no need for disposable plastic again".  Well, no.  There is no need for disposable plastic but a different kind of disposable plate isn't the answer.  Just use a normal plate and wash it to reuse.  Seems simple enough.  The plate I received costs $15 for a pack 25.  My son was happy to receive this to use in his play kitchen so it didn't go to waste.  I do think there could be a place for these at large community events, it's just not something I would use in my home.

Vital Veggie Powder (sachet)

This was the bonus product that 3 and 6 month subscribers received.  It had all good ingredients and the concept is that you sprinkle it into your kids food to "hide" the veggies.  I'm not actually a fan of that general concept.  I have a fussy eater and it's tempting to hide spinach in his chocolate cake and so on, but if I do that he's not actually learning to enjoy spinach.  If he doesn't know he's eating it he may be getting the nutrients but he's not learning to enjoy the food.  So I don't think there's anything wrong with this product itself, the ingredients seem fine and I'm sure it won't do any harm, I'm just not keen on "hiding" vegetables.  I'd rather present them as the best part of the meal and let my fussy eater learn to enjoy them.

Eco Organics Brown Rice (full size)

I know brown rice is super healthy and I keep trying to like it.  I just... don't.  So I'm not too excited about this nice large heavy pack of biodynamic rice.  It ticks all the boxes, it's organic, biodynamic and healthy it's just not my personal cup of tea.

Sindhya Soap Nuts (sample size, enough for 4-6 washes)

I had a load of washing to do when I received my box, so I popped these straight in.  I couldn't actually get a look at what the soap nuts looked like as they were sewn into their little bag.   They seemed to work OK, though not quite as good as my usual powder as some food stains remained on my son's t-shirts that would usually come out in the wash.

Check out other bloggers reviews of this month's box:

No one seems to have reviewed this box yet.  Comment below if you have and I'll link to you.

Notoxbox - February, 2013

 

My Notoxbox for February was super heavy which was pretty exciting.  Everything was packed inside the shipping box instead of inside a separate "presentation" box which fits well with their theme, doing away with unnecessary excess packaging.  I'm pretty happy with this month's box.  There was a good range of different kinds of products and the sizes were reasonably generous.  Inside was:

Blacktea Candle (deluxe sample size)

My favourite item from this box was this candle, closely followed by the cacao powder you'll see further below.  The packaging itself is lovely, it's made of glass with a lid and can be reused for (small) storage once you're finished burning the candle.  The smell was... unusual.  It smelled to me faintly of roses.  The candles are available in Cucumber & Green Tea, White Tea & Ginger, Frangipani, and Black Tea & Lychee.  Mine was White Tea & Ginger but it didn't really smell like that to me.

Olive Oil Soap with Manuka Honey (full size)

This was a really large substantial bar of soap that felt a bit grainy, so I was expecting there was oatmeal somewhere in there.  Actually, there wasn't.  It contains honey, goats milk and olive oil so I have no idea where the grainyness came from.  I really didn't care for the scent.  It was vaguely honey scented I guess, but not a pleasant honey scent if you know what I mean.  It lathered just fine but as I don't care for the smell I've given it to my husband who isn't so fussy about scents.

Spiral Foods Green Pea Chips (full size)

Talk about healthy - these contained just peas and salt so they would be a good option for people on a no-sugar diet.  My husband and I found them to be a bit bland.  They were nice and crunchy but with not much flavour.  I think they could be very good paired with a nice salsa.  Both my kids liked them and polished off the rest of the bag between them.  This was their favourite thing in the box.

Absolute Organic White Quinoa (full size)

This was what was making the box feel so heavy.  I don't actually cook a lot with Quinoa but it is quite expensive so I'm happy to have this on hand to use when a recipe calls for it.

Nutra Organics Super Greens & Reds (sachet)

It wasn't really clear from the packaging what this product is actually for, but they did include instructions to add one sachet to your favourite juice, smoothie or water.  I went with the water option as I wanted to see what the product tasted like on its own.  The powder was an unattractive brown colour but when mixed it turned into a reddish brown.  No matter how long I mixed there were still green floating "herby" bits.  It smelled "herby" as well.  I was skeptical but eventually I tasted it.  It tasted like... nothing.  Honestly it was just reddy brown water with green floating bits.  It looked unappetising and had no flavour at all.  Not a winner.

Power Superfoods Cacao Powder Gold (sachet)

I would have appreciated some instructions as to how to use this product.  I looked through the attached information sheet and the large included brochure but there were no actual recipes.  There wasn't enough in the sample to use in place of cocoa powder in a recipe, so I made a chocolate thickshake with vanilla icecream, a little milk and the powder.  I managed to get enough to make three thickshakes from the powder which the kids loved.  They usually turn their noses up at smoothies and milkshakes but this one they drained.  No suprise there, it was pretty much a dessert in a glass!  Regardless, it was super yummy.

Pukka Love Tea (sachet)

Beautiful packaging, especially on the full sized box which I checked out on their website.  This had a nice floral smell but it just smelled of liquorice root after I brewed it.  It tasted like a weak liquorice root tea too.

Check out other bloggers reviews of this month's box:

Willow Wellness

Notoxbox

Photograph from www.notoxbox.com.au.  Used with permission.

Notoxbox is a monthly box dedicated to natural, organic and eco friendly products including makeup, skincare, fragrance, body, hair and food products. 

They publish the contents of previous boxes on their website and they can be purchased as a one-off buy while they are still in stock.  They do sell out though.  A box costs $25 per month and you can also subscribe for three or six months which includes a store credit of $15 and $30 respectively.

Photograph from www.notoxbox.com.au.  Used with permission.

This was their January box, which included a full size Maeve mineral eye shadow, full size Hurraw lip balm, full size Chi coconut water, full size Biologika hand and body wash in Coconut and sample size Maqui berry powder.  3 and 6 month subscribers also received a full size pack of red kale chips.