Product review: Burt's Bees Natural Skin Care for Men Shave Cream

Burt's Bees is an excellent shave cream.  Yes, it is a bit expensive but it gives a very smooth shave, the skin feels very smooth after it. My husband said that he seems to get less irritation and ingrown hairs since he started using it.  It smells nice without smelling like a cologne or aftershave. 

The only flaw the product has is that the tube design makes it hard to get all of it when it is almost all gone.  Given the price that felt unfortunate, so when the tube became almost empty my husband cut the bottom end open with scissors and then used a tube squeezer to keep it closed so it would not dry out.  This gave him several extra days of shave cream.  This was after nothing would come out from the tube top!

This has become a regular item for us.  Good stuff!

You can find it on Amazon by following this link.

Ali Julia review ★★★★★

Product review: Micro USB To USB Cable, 4 Feet / 1.2 Meters Premium Lighted Micro USB Charger With LED Connector

This is a flat micro-USB cable with a tip that lights up when it is plugged in.  The light is blue as long as the cable is plugged in.  It does not change color (some cables are one color when the device is charging and another color when the device has been fully charged).  I measured the functioning of the cable with a USB meter and it is performed at optimal level for my Android phone. I really like cables that light up, I can always find them even if I am trying to plug in the device in a pretty dark room.

You can find it on Amazon by following this link.


Ali Julia review ★★★★★

Product review: W&S 2.3 Gallon Kitchen Drawstring Strong Trash Bags, Heavy Duty, Clear/White, 120 Counts/ 2 Rolls

The thing about unknown brands of trash bags is that their volume does not always match my expectation. A few times I got trash bags that were much smaller than expected.  This 2.3 gallon W&S trash bags turned out to be larger than I expected. In attached photo you can see the white W&S bag  with the white Glad bag on top of it for size comparison.  You can see that W&S bag is larger than the 4 gallon Glad bag.  It is actually bigger than the 4 gallon W&S bag which I also got (it is also white and blue draw string).

W&S bags are feel slightly thinner than Glad bags, they are good for soft light trash.  I am using them in the bathroom trash bin, they work very well there because all the bathroom trash is soft and small. In one of the photos I show my hand inside the bag, I think it gives a good idea of the bag thickness.  The white bag is semi transparent.

Each bag length is 20" and the width is 18" when folded in half (36" total). Note that my measurements are slightly different from the size in Amazon description. The bag has the same width at the top and at the bottom.  The bag has a draw string, which works well to close the bag when it is ready to be thrown out.
The roll has 120 bags in two rolls.



You can find it on Amazon by following this link.


Ali Julia review ★★★★☆

Product review: Powerextra Smart LCD Display Dual Channel Charger for Sony NP-FW50 Battery

I am using NP-FW50 with Sony Nex-5N camera.  It is a power hungry camera and I always carry a lot of battries.  There are two things I like about Powerextra charger:

1) it can charge two batteries at the same time

2) it is not a wall charger like my SONY charger, but it use a USB cord.  My SONY charger takes up two slots on the power strip, where as Powerextra battery needs just one USB slot and my power strip has several built-in USB slots, so I gained four outlets as I normally used two SONY chargers side by side.

I appears to charge the batteries in the same amount of time as my OEM charger.  However its design fits into  my set up much better than the SONY charger.  Note: batteries are not included in the package, only the battery charger itself.

You can find it on Amazon by following this link.

Ali Julia review ★★★★★

Product review: CSHope Audio Cable CSHope 3.5mm 2Pack Male to Male Nylon Braided Auxiliary Aux Stereo Cable

This pack includes two cables - 10 foot and 3.3 foot.  These are braided cables and have a nice look and feel. The cables fit firmly both into my Android phone and speakers.  The sound quality is good, on par with my favorite cables.

I like nylon braided jackets because they seem to tangle less and when they do they are easier to untangle because they are easy to tell part from the other cables.

You can find it on Amazon by following this link.


Ali Julia review ★★★★★

Ptoduct review: W&S 4 Gallon Kitchen Drawstring Strong Trash Bags, 90 Counts/ 5 Rolls (black)

The thing about unknown brands of trash bags is that their volume does not always match my expectation. A few times I got trash bags that were much smaller than expected. The W&S trash bags are similar in size to the 4 gallon Glad bags. In attached photo you can see the black W&S W&S bag with the white Glad bag on top of it for size comparison. W&S is slightly larger.

W&S bags are feel slightly thinner than Glad bags, they are good for soft light trash. In one of the photos I show my hand inside the bag, I think it gives a good idea of the bag thickness. The black bag hides the content of the bag well.

Each bag length is 20 3/4" and the width is 17 3/4" when folded in half (35.5" total). Note that my measurements are slightly different from the size in Amazon description. The bag has the same width at the top and at the bottom. The bag has a draw string, which works well to close the bag when it is ready to be thrown out. The package includes 5 rolls for a total of 90 bags.

Ali Julia review

Slightly larger then 4 gallon Glad bag


You can find it on Amazon by following this link.


Ali Julia review ★★★★★

Product review: ECOXGEAR - ECOROX Rugged and Waterproof Wireless Bluetooth Speaker

I am very impressed with ECOROX Bluetooth Speaker. In my video I included two small snippets of music to illustrate my review of this speaker. I used several pieces of music to test this speaker, including Bach Toccata and Fugue in D minor which is a stress test for the bass. Some speakers crackle and can't handle the bass, but Grace Digital GDI-EGRX601 ECOXGEAR Speaker handles it extremely well.

In the video I start with the music playing through the built-in speakers of the tablet, then turn on blue tooth and then the sound switches to the speakers. You can see how much richer, fuller, and louder the sound is when the speakers are used. There is no cracking and sound distortion even in the most challenging parts of the Bach Toccata.

The speaker is 5.5"L x 3.5"W x 2.5"H. Its weight is 10.6 oz.

The bottom of the speaker has a screw type mounting hardware (purchased separately) Grace Digital GDI-EGSCM Suction Cup Mount. I used the Suction Cup Mount to mount this speaker in my shower and it holds it very well giving me fantastic acoustics in the shower. The speaker can also be mounted on a bike using Grace Digital GDI-EGCBM Handle Bar Mount purchased separately.

I am very impressed with this speaker, especially how it handled the bass! I hope the video gives you a good idea of what to expect.


You can find it on Amazon by following this link.

Ali Julia review ★★★★★