VIP discounts at iHerb in January

Seriously, sometimes my goldfish/teflon brain really annoy me. I was going to tell you about the VIP discounts on iHerb in January, and when did I remember it? Well, at least it isn't February yet. So, I like to tell about good offers when I can (and remember it, obviously). In the month of January, iHerb has VIP discount for all shoppers, which means:

- 5% off any order of $60 or less

- 6% off for orders of $60 or more
- 7% off for orders of $70 or more
- 8% off for orders of $80 or more
- 9% off for orders of $90 or more
- 10% off for orders of $100 or more
- 12% off for orders of $200 or more
- 14% off for orders of $400 or more

You will see your VIP discount at checkout, after signing in to your iHerb account.
Also, please note that due to Airmail restrictions, discounts from 8% to 14% may not be available to certain international customers.

In addition, if all the orders you place during the month of January have a combined value of $200 or more, your account will be upgraded to VIP status on an ongoing basis!
Normally, to become an iHerb VIP customer, you need to order $2000 or more -- overall.


This special VIP offer will expire at 12 midnight, Pacific Time, 31 January.

In addition to this, as I understand it, if you're a first time shopper, if you use my code when checking out, QEX019, you will get $5 off an order under $40, and $10 off orders over $40.

Now you might wonder what you might get at iHerb. I've been a customer there for quite a while now, and I discover new things all the time. I think it started with me bying tea, my Yogi tea. Then I realized they had soaps and groceries. I tried some instant coffee, that turned out to be a new favourite.  I buy vitamins and oils for my soapmaking there, including essential oils. I find healthy snacks, and brands that aren't available to me in shops here.

I like the fact that they're cheap, I can find so much at one place, and shipping is low, and takes only about a week to Norway.

If you are Norwegian, and want to buy vitamins there, you might want to check this list first. This is the recommended daily dose for vitamins, and the dose you buy, should not exceed that, or your package may be stopped in customs, and sent back to iHerb. If you live in another country, and outside of the US, you might want to check what your country's recommended daily doasge is, and make sure you don't exceed that. iHerb do have some information on their pages, but please check first, to make it easier on yourself.

I bought some vitamin D last summer, and didn't think about there being a recommended dose, until I got a slip in the mail, saying that the customs had stopped my package because the dosage was too high, and would send it back to iHerb. As I had to pay for shipping to Norway and back, (which is only logic, this was my own fault) even though iHerb got the products back, I kinda lost my money. I never buy for more than NOK 200 anyway, to save myself for tax and fees, but still...

So I hope yuo take advantage of this offer, and I promise that I will try to let you know earlier if I find discounts worth sharing.

Making shampoo

Every time I buy henna from Henna Sooq, I get a sample of their shampoo bar.  This, and lurking at the forums at The Long hair community, made me interested in trying more shampoo bars. As you may have seen earlier here on my blog, I do make my own soap bars every now and then, and I guess that helped in the enabling. So, I got some samples from Chagrin Valley, bought some bars from Prairieland herbs, and I may have an order om the way from Sweet Creek Herbal Care. 

I have not gone through all the samples I have received yet, but it made me realize that I wanted to make my own shampoo bars. So, in December I made my first batch, which you can see in the bag to the right. I didn't pay enough attention to my recipe (created by myself), and screwed it up. So, I waited a few days, and rebatched it, to try to make up for my mistakes.  

Then I realized I wanted to make bars with beer in them. This is in the top basket. I also mixed in some sukesh ayurveda at trace. 

As my hair has a tendency to be a bit oily, I tried to make a batch for that. At trace it smelled so yummy and yellow, now it's curing, and it's in the bottom basket to the right. 

In the last basket is a recipe I made the other day, trying to make my dry hands happy. The test name is "Winter soap", and I look forward to testing it after curing. I've never seen a soap batch trace as fast before, it was ridiculous how fast it went. Normally I can pour my soap batches into the moulds without problems, but it was so thick already. 

All these soap and shampoo bars are made with the cold process method, using my own recipes, and since all recipes are new, these are all first batches, I won't give out the recipe. I am using SoapCalc, so if you want to make your own soap or shampoo, head over there for useful info.

Travelling mother

Like me, my mother likes to travel. When I saw the shawl called "Traveling woman", I knew I had to knit it up for her. I found the perfect yarn at The Loopy Ewe, I bought a skein of Dream in Color Starry in the Amethyst Ink colourway, it is purple and black.  I used needles 4 mm, US  6, and I knit the fingering version in medium. Here's my Ravelry project page, for anyone interested.  

When I had two rows left, I realized that I wouldn't have enough yarn to finish it. Luckily, I have a "little" yarn stashed, so I found something that matched, and knit the last two rows in Wollmeise 100% Merino superwash in Schwarz. 

This wil be her Christmas gift, so this post will go up automatically on Christmas Eve. The pictures show the whole shawl, and a closeup of the colours. As always, you can click the pictures to make them bigger. 

Shaelyn

So, once again I have knitting to show you. This was a birthday gift, and the pattern is Shaelyn, by Leila Raabe.

The recipient likes browns and blues, so I ended up using Madelinetosh Pashmina in the "Mare" colourway. It took about 96 grams on needles 5,5 mm, US 9. I got the yarn from The Loopy Ewe.

I really liked this pattern (if you don't count that I had messed up, and had to frog quite almost a whole repeat), so I may knit it again soon.

Sigma Beauty offers free shipping

Just a quick note to tell you that Sigma Beauty offers free worldwide shipping as their Black Friday deal.

They still offer free gifts when you order for $30 or more. I love their make up brushes, and have some on my wishlist for Christmas, myself. :)

Chai Latte

A while ago we bought a new coffee machine, as I got tired of our Nespresso machine. We got a Dolce Gusto, and one of the things I like about it, is the variations you can buy for it. For instance the chai latte. I ended up searching webshops for other chai lattes, and a couple of days ago, I got four different Drink me chai Chai Lattes from Discountcoffee. I've tested them all, and I quite like them. :-)

I had to get something for my fiancé as well, so I got him Rocket Fuel coffee.

Sorry for the crappy photos, they were taken with my cell phone.

10% off from Sigma in July

If you visit my blog regularly, you've probably seen the ad for Sigma beauty. In the month of July, they offer a 10% discount on all orders, using the code AP 2012 when checking out. I have bought several make up brushes from them, in fact, I'm slowly working my way through changing all my brushes to Sigma brushes, as I love them. I'd really like to get one of their Travel kits, as I love the sizes of the brushes, but I can't afford it right now. For those of you that are vegan, they have a vegan collection, too.