PetBox: LE iHeartRadio Box

A few weeks ago when I was researching pet subscription boxes, I finally had it narrowed down to two boxes when I saw a rogue LE box in the wild. This box offered by PetBox was available as a one time purchase and you pay shipping on it. The grand total of this LE box ends up being $7.99 and it looks as though it's still available via this link. A very important thing to note about this box seems to be most similar to their Deluxe box offering (they have 3 other versions) so I myself will take it as a grain of salt that this box isn't necessarily indicative of what other boxes will look like should we actually subscribe to this box.

This is our judge, Cinders Shamin who we adopted her back in July of this year. Much like her feline counterparts in this family, she is quite picky about her foods. We figured that ~$8 for this box was worth the experiment if we could get a toy out of it. Spoiler: There were no toys but there were a lot of treats.

First Impression

Cinders: Oh my goodness, it's all mine and this is amazing. Give me it all. 

Me: Oh no. She doesn't like some of these items. It is cute to see that the box helped to feed a rescue pet because Cinders herself is from a shelter. Let's see how this goes.

The infamous ear type chews. This Aussie Natural Water Buffalo Ear was at the top of the box which is why I was a bit discouraged. Cinders in the last few weeks has decided that ear type chews are toys and not food which means that while she will carry them to and from her crate, she won't actually eat them. So while she does love her new water buffalo ear, she loves it like she loves the rest of her stuffed toys.

Sadie's Sweet Potato Chips was something that we knew had a 50% of her recognizing it as a toy or as food. There were three sweet potato chips in this packet and she ate one. The rest were designated toys. She did seem to enjoy the one that she did eat but was ambivalent about the rest.

We actually haven't gotten to try the Evanger's Grain-Free Chicken one yet but we figure that she may actually eat this one. Funny thing is that she's still on puppy food so we haven't deviated from that regime but we have been collecting samples of adult food to train her with and also make the transition easier. 

Now we get to the winner of this box which is the pack of It's Purely Natural Chicken Jerky Bone-Shaped Treats. This seems innocuous enough for her to eat without any issues (as in, she can't possibly think that these little treats are actually toys).

Final Thoughts

This box was a bit lackluster. Set aside the fact that Cinders only seemed to like one item, it seems to be a bit overvalued for what it is. The corroboration states that this box is worth $15.99 retail value but it isn't. If you do consider it as a $7.99 value which is what you pay for shipping then it's great. As a reminder to anyone reading this, PetBox is still a contender for Cinders in the future because the LE box is not part of the standard offerings which means that the actual Deluxe version of the box which is $19.95 a month does include a toy and more of a variety. 

These are toys, right?

I'll just sleep with it anyway

Focus

In the last few months that I've been gone, not much as really occurred and yet, some things have changed. I'm still not sure whether I want to return to blogging just yet, however since I took the time today to combine all of my blogs into one, I may have inadvertently caused a weird surge of posts that were dated between 2011 - 2013 with a variety of watermarks that are not attributed to this blog. So here we go.

Late last year my goals for this blog (Plum Eyeliner) were somewhat varied in the sense that it started as a fun activity. I'm not good with makeup and I'm better with words, so I figured it would be a good exercise in writing that could eventually lead me to be better at makeup. In that intial quest, I chose the name "Plum Eyeliner" because I was on a purple eyeliner kick at the time and I could not find a decent one. In my search, I found that blogs were lacking for people with my skin tone. So I figured that even if I failed at writing (lol), and failed at the attempt to become better at makeup, that it could still help others with their makeup quests. This is largely why I have never deleted this blog. Along the way here were my ideas of what this could turn into:

• A makeup subscription box -- this was the first idea I came upon back when makeup subscription boxes were gaining traction. I decided that this wasn't the route to go for logistic reason. It's hard to customize makeup for a variety of skin tones and undertones which leads to the problem of either being all over the place, or not being enough. I mean for myself, I still have yet to find a makeup subscription box that works for me so I would I trully be able to create one for others. 
• A makeup review site that featured more contributors however those that I had lined up dropped out due to other engagements. 
• A search site that could catalogue makeup by skin tone, undertone, and skin issues. This one was a grandeur attempt that we had figured out the logic for, but hadn't begun building. The problem comes down it having to be user generated and I've got a whole 18 followers... Which isn't enough to generate that much content. 

I know that that sounds like a lot of excuses laced in there but do consider that I have a full time job and this was for fun. Which brings me to the point that writing became a scheduled thing which made it seem to loose it's glamour. Sure, I shouldn't whine about that, but constantly searching the market for new makeup and trying to get my hands on it and then reviewing it? So maybe I got a bit bored. Which leads me to that whole "I reorganized my blogs today, sorry for the SPAM."

Earlier today I disabled Etcteros and Red Laboratory Lacquers and combined them into this blog. Etceros was my sounding board for nonsense with the occasional linings of something worth reading and the review on subscription boxes that were more for lifestyle and pets, rather than makeup. RLL was disabled because though I still dabble in making my own nail polishes, blushes, and eyeshadows, it really was moreso for experiments which I can easily write about here. 

Which brings me back to this blog. So, I love writing... Sure, I'm still not great at that whole makeup thing. In fact for this whole year, the only cosmetics I've purchased was some new face cream, lots of nail polishes, soap, and an order from Hello Waffle that just went in today. With Halloween coming up, I imagine there's a lot more makeup that I'll be indulging in. The blog will remain but I think I'll be switching gears a bit. Instead of just focusing on makeup and what's new, I'll be throwing in my reviews from different areas such as that Quarterly Bill Nye box coming next month or those experiments that I've been tolling away on. 

I still want to change the name of The Plum Eyeliner though. Still haven't figured out that whole thing but I'll worry about that when I get there.

TL;DR: Goodbye etceteratech.blogspot.com & redlaboratorylacquers.blogspot.com. We'll see what's next.