Review: Dollar Shave Club

Friday Lovelies!  We survived the week!  Today, I’ve got another review for you! Woohoo! A few weeks ago in my Summer Time Skin Care blog, I discussed my tips for skin care now that the summer months are upon us.  One of the tips I discussed was having a good razor and I talked about Dollar Shave Club.

Dollar Shave Club is a subscription service for all things relating to razors.  They have post shave balm, shaving balm, and of course razors!  I am pretty stuck on my current shaving cream, but decided to check out what they are most known for, their razors.    

So, I went and checked out their website. What I first liked about this company is how easy their website is to navigate.  I was able to easily order on my phone and it only took me a few moments.  

There are three packages to choose from, click HERE to check out the packages. 

The Humble Twin - $1.00 plus $2.00 shipping - Basic shaver, 2 stainless steel blades, 5 cartridges per month, with lubricating strip.

The 4x - $6.00 with free shipping – 4 stainless steel blades, 4 cartridges per month, full 90-degree pivot head. 

The Executive - $9.00 with free shipping - 6 stainless steel blades, 4 cartridges per month, special trimmer edge built in.

I decided to pick the 4x. Knowing that this was going to be used on my legs and the dread knee area, I figured the 90-degree pivoting head would be a wonderful bonus. 

When I placed my order I was originally told that it wasn’t going to ship until April 27^th, but was surprised when I got home from work and found the package on  my doorstep on April 4^th.  I was super impressed with how quickly the product shipped.

Your first package comes with the razor handle and this package comes with four razor heads.  I also had sample size of the shave butter, which I haven’t tried out yet. 

I honestly have to say, when surprised me the most when I opened the packaging was how substantial the razor handle was!  It’s got a good weight to it, definitely 100 times better than my normal razor. I’ve been a fan of all of the Venus razors for years, and this is tons better!

Now, I have to say, after using this razor, I’m not sure I could go back to any of the store bought ones I’ve gotten before.  Not only is the more heavy duty handle super nice.  The handle wasn’t something I ever thought would matter on a razor, but it does.  It sits in your hand so nicely and makes it easy to maneuver around.

As for the blades, they are wonderful.  They are nice and sharp and allow you to get a nice close shave. Here’s the seller for me.  I have always had super super sensitive skin.  I have to be very careful with what products I use to shave with.  I get razor burn and nicks/cuts all the time.  It can be miserable.  But here’s the thing, I have yet to have any problems!! I have had nothing but a super smooth and close shave every single time.

As for the price; you have the option to have your package ship every month or every other month.  Considering that even if you have this ship every month, even with the most expensive package, it’s only going to be $9.00 a month! I doubt there is a single decent razor at the drug store that you can get for that price!!

Here’s the great thing about the auto shipment … You should be replacing your razor often.  Especially when you think about all the places that as a lady you could be using a razor … legs, arms, bikini … It just grosses me out to think about an old razor.  It’s just not sanitary!  Also, a dull razor has a higher risk of giving you nicks and razor burn.  With the auto shipment, you’re going to be getting new razor heads automatically and you don’t even have to think about it.  They just show up on your door step. 

I don’t know about you, but I love when I just don’t even have to think about things and it just happens! It’s a lazy girls dream!!!

I honestly don’t think that you have anything to use trying this product out.  I am so happy I did.  With the quality of the product, the price, and the convenience … It’s all a winning combination!!

Until next time … xoxo

Mikal-Anne

Cleaning out the Clutter: DVDs

One day I was sitting at home and fell down the rabit hole and found myself spending way too much time on Pinterest.  While I was wasting, lets be honest, hours, on Pinterest, I found some interesting articles about how people had cut down the space that their movie collections took up.  I pinned it to one of my boards and never thought of it again.  I enjoyed the articles and thought, hmm, maybe one day I will need these...

If you want to check out the articles Living Well Mom and Simply Organized are the ones I read and loved their suggestions. I

Now.. a few months later, I find myself under contract for my first home (eek!!) and looking at the daunting task of packing my house.  With the housing marking as busy as it is in my area, I had a little more time than a usual closing and I was using that time to go through and purge things.  I can tend to hold on to things that I don't really need.  If it has a memory or reminds me of something, I want to hold on to it.  This gave me an another reason to jump on Pinterest and check out ideas of how to deal with this stuff.  I wanted to purge the clutter ... but in a way that I wouldn't regret getting rid of something down the road.

While on Pinterst (of course) looking for ideas for the new house, I stumble across the the pins that I previously read regarding how to store my movie & TV series collection and thought that I wanted to tackle that task before moving...

I have a, well, rather large DVD collection. Between movies and TV series I have a tall bookcase completely full.  I had actually started packing them and after looking at the fact that there were 3 of the Lowes small boxes and one of the medium boxes full, it was decided for me that I needed to do something.  I counted my DVD and the disks in my TV series and jumped on Amazon to take a look at what I needed.

All of the blogs I had read recommended the Atlantic DVD Sleeves and that's what I had originally planned on buying.  After some research and reading the comments, I actually ended up going with going with the ones sold by StarTechDeals. What I liked about these one is that there was a cloth on the back of the sleeve the DVD sat in.  I thought this would add a little extra protection.

Each package has fifty sleeves, and each sleeve can hold two DVDs.

There's a clear plastic sleeve that the DVDs fit into and a flap the folds over to keep the contents in side.  When I was reading the review, people had mentioned that the ends at the top can sometimes split.  Especially if you're trying to put to much into the sleeve.  I only had this happen a few times, maybe three.  It is definitely a down side, but I think you may have this problem with any product like this.

Inside each sleeve is a clot DVD holder.  The backing is cloth and then the front is similar to the CD cases everyone seemed to have in their cars at one point.  This is what you secure the DVDs into.  I like this and I'm glad that I went with this version. It seems sturdy and like it will hold up over time.  I even noticed that in some situations. I was able to fit three CDs in this and it fit just fine back into the sleeve. 

Breaking down all of my DVDs and TV series become a daunting task.  Picture above is all of my movies.  If I counted correctly, there are 223 DVD cases picture above.  In front are all of my movies.  This is a few more than just what was in the cases because I had a few strays that didn't have cases.  As you can see, they fit nicely in two of the plastic shoe boxes.  

As you can see in the pictures, the sleeves hold nicely holds one or two DVDs.  Something about this system that didn't bother me, but my bother someone else, is that to get the DVD cover art to fit in the sleeve, you have to fold it in half.  This leaves a crease running down the middle of the spine.  This can be viewed as both a good thing and a bad thing.  The good -- If for some reason you end up wanting to put it back into a DVD case, the art would still fit.  However, the bad -- there would be a crease down the middle.   

As you can see in the picture above, these two sleeves don't even take up even half the amount of space a normal case did.  

Now.. when It came to my TV series I had to really commit to this being the way I wanted to store them for the long hall.  The reason for this is, I had to cut appart the cases.  With the way TV series box sets are set up, to keep the cover art with the DVDs, I had to cut it.  As you can see above, I took the box that was on the outside and cut it.  Leaving the front and the back to be put in the sleeve.  I then also cut the cover of the box that folded out with the DVDs attached, and slid that into the sleeve too.

Downside -- If I ever wanted to go back to the old storage ways, I wouldn't be able to with my TV series.  I think it's highly doubtful I will ever go back and that's why I didn't hesitate to cut apart the boxes.

Now, I failed to take before and after picture of my DVDs.. But I do have numbers ... When I counted the number of disks I had so I knew how many sleves I had.. I counted 206 disks for TV series.  I have figured that these will fit in about two more plastic shoe boxes.

Once I am in the new house and have things set up, I plan on investing nice looking boxes to sit on my bookshelf to hold all of these DVDs.  I don't plan on buying anything until after we're in the house.  Mainly because I don't need/want one more thing to move.  Also, I want to get in the house and see how I have things set up.  That way I have a better Idea of what I want. Until then they will live in packing boxes and then I will use the plastic shoe boxes.

I did decide to not put a few things into the sleeves.  I have a TV series that I still haven't watched, and I left it in the original packaging.  At least for now.  I also left all of my Disney movies in their original packaging.  It didn't feel right to pull them apart.  I figured these would take up so little space that I didn't need to.  I did order enough sleeves so that I could eventually put them in sleeves, if I decided to do so.

All in all, I must say, I am super excited for the amount of space that my collection now takes up.  I wish I would have been more forward thinking to take a picture of all the DVDs on a shelf, but unfortunately I decide to use the sleeves until everything was already in boxes!

This new set up leaves me with so much more room!!  Instead of having a whole bookshelf, I now think that it will take up only one shelf on the same bookshelf!  

How to you have your movie/TV series stored?  Is there something in your house that you've changed the storage of to limitate the clutter?  Let me know!

Also.. with the big move in a few weeks .. I am looking for any packing/moving/first home suggestions! -- Also, if you have any blogs that you'd like to see about the process, let me know!!

Until later... xoxo

Mikal-Anne