Review Bunker is a review blog where the goal is simply to review everything. Below are the latest reviews. In the About section you can read more about this blog and it's author. Comments are always appreciated, so if you've got something to say, please feel free!
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A few months ago, I was offered a free review sample of a skin-care product called Skin MD Natural. I’m not much of a lotion user, but I knew that Crystal would be willing to try it out, so I took the offer. We both tried out the “shielding” lotion once it arrived, but she used a majority of the bottle. Before receiving the sample of Skin MD I had never heard of shielding lotion, and after a bit of research I am quite sure that it is a term that 21st Century Formulations (Skin MD’s producer) coined - most other people would likely refer to Skin MD as moisturizing lotion. Their website claims that a shielding lotion is different because it bonds to your skin, protecting it longer. I don’t have the scientific know-how to test this claim, but I can describe for you our experience using the lotion.
The first impression that we both had after applying some Skin MD to our hands was how smooth and non-greasy this lotion is compared to other lotions we’ve used. Skin MD definitely has an advantage, having formulated a non-greasy and effective moisturizer. Crystal has informed me that daily use of Skin MD works just as well as her old lotion, although she didn’t notice many remarkable improvements, beyond the texture. She tried the lotion in many different places, including her face, arms, legs, and hands - she reports that it worked well everywhere she tried it. One additional feature that we noted during our use of the lotion was that it dispersed and/or absorbed quickly into the skin, making it quick to apply. Crystal commented to me that it is, “a good guy lotion,” because it is non-scented, quick applying, and effective.
Since we both liked this lotion, I naturally wanted to see what the price is - the Skin MD website lists a 4oz bottle for $18. The lotion is apparently also carried by Walgreens, but I wasn’t able to find it on the walgreens website, to price it. At $18 for a 4oz bottle, I have to say that Skin MD is a bit expensive. If you have the extra cash to spend in order to acquire a fast-obsorbing and non-greasy lotion, then Skin MD is a good choice, but unfortunately, I can’t justify spending that much money for this lotion, despite it’s good quailities. I definitely recommend this lotion to any lotion users who aren’t satisfied with their current moisturizer, maybe try out a sample yourself?
Skin MD Natural Shielding Lotion:
4/5
4/5
Thanks to Pete from Skin MD for sending me this review sample. If you have a product that you would like me to review, please check out the ‘Get Reviewed‘ page for more details. Have you ever tried Skin MD? Is there a cheaper lotion with the same benefits that you want to recommend?
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In the past few months, I’ve been trying to be more strict with my money management. The most pressing reason is we’ve just bought a house, but I also would like to know in more detail where, and when my money is spent, and what it is spent on. After spending a few minutes researching online budget management tools, I came across MoneyTrackin.com. This online service was recommended as a new, accessible, free, and easy way to track your budget, so I signed up.
After a few weeks of use, I have decided that I don’t like MoneyTrackin.com enough to continue using it. For a tool like this to be useful, it has to be really easy to use, enough so that I am motivated to input my daily transactions, and track my finances. MoneyTrackin.com isn’t hard to use, it’s just not as easy as I would like. In today’s age of new fancy widgets and AJAX server updates, moneytrackin’ seems a bit outdated. The ‘add transaction’ interface seems clunky and time consuming - even the ‘quick insert’ doesn’t seem quick enough (although, they’ve recently added a clickable calendar in the ‘quick insert’ dialog that speeds things up a bit).
In order to properly categorize transactions, moneytrackin has a modern tag feature, where you can tag your transactions with any relevant keywords. Unfortunately, they delimit tags with spaces, not commas, meaning that you can only use single word tags. I would much rather have comma delimited tags, which would allow me to use more than one word for my tags, such as “123 Main St” for my household bills. I tried a compromise, by using plus signs, or no spaces for my keywords, but it still bothers me.
MoneyTrackin.com has a few good features that make it almost worth keeping. Their reports/charts/tagclouds give you many great ways to display and visualize your data. Also, they have a unique “tips” feature, where users are encouraged to post their tips for saving money, in an attempt to build a community where users help eachother with finances. Unfortunately, there are either not enough users signed up for moneytrackin’, or no one is sharing tips. There are currently only a total of 24 tips available in english, from all users. Out of those 24, none are “local” tips for me.
So, for now, I won’t be continuing my use of MoneyTrackin’s services. If they make some upgrades and improvements, I may be back, but until then, I will continue to search for the lazy man’s ideal money management solution.
MoneyTrackin’ Online Accounting at MoneyTrackin.com: 
2.5/5
2.5/5
Do you have a really easy and useful budgeting tool that I haven’t seen? Do you use monetrackin’? What do you think of them?
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As I mentioned in my previous post, we just bought a house last month. Since the house was a foreclosure property, it needed a bit of work before we could move in and start our life of domestic bliss. The first thing on my list after painting the interior, was getting the carpets cleaned. I don’t know who lived here before us, but I can say that they were quite messy - they left no room unstained. The dining area was the worst, but the entire house had some pretty nasty looking carpet. I wasn’t sure it was salvageable, but after assurances from my Dad, a man with experience in the industry, I decided to give steam cleaning a try.
After attempting to find reliable reviews of local companies online, I was a bit disappointed. There isn’t much information out there about the plethora of carpet cleaning services in the Fort Collins area, so I was basically taking a stab in the dark, and hoping to find someone good. Of course, I could have called Stanley Steamer, or some other national brand, but this time I decided it would be best to keep it local. Fortunately, I was able to find a company listed on Tom Martino’s troubleshooter referral list - as close to a review as I was going to get, so I went with Best Home Cleaning Systems.
The Best Home Cleaning Systems rep that dealt with my carpets, Eric, was very punctual - I was told that he would arrive between 8 and 9 am, and he was at my door at 8 am sharp. He was a very professional and courteous individual, and I felt comfortable with him in my house. He surveyed the carpets, and without pressuring me, suggested that I may want to do more than a basic steam cleaning. We talked about Best Home’s services for a few minutes, and finalized my ‘order’. After a quick call to the office to report my credit card information, he got to work.
Eric was able to work quickly and do good work. The steam cleaning process did a pretty good job on the carpets, although a few stains have since returned. I certainly didn’t expect the carpet to look anywhere close to brand new, so I was surprised at how well the cleaning turned out. Only after the heavy traffic of my painting volunteers and moving volunteers, did I start to see the return of a few of the old stains in some of the worst areas. As of now, a few weeks later, I am still satisfied with how most of the carpet has remained nice and clean.
As far as I can tell, Best Home’s steam cleaning is competitively priced. Their services seem to reflect the same structure and pricing as most other steam cleaning outfits in town, as well as nationally recognized brands. Their equipment seemed to be modern enough to do the job correctly, and didn’t cause any problems for me or my neighbors besides the loudness of the truck mounted motor. Basically, I have no complaints about their service, and I think they did a great job, so if you are looking for a Northern Colorado steam cleaning company, you can be confident that Best Home Cleaning Systems will come through for you.
Best Home Cleaning Systems Carpet Cleaning (Northern Colorado): 5/5
5/5
Have you ever had Best Home clean your carpets? Do you have info about any other Fort Collins/Northern CO steam cleaning companies that you would like to share?
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I haven’t written a review in a while. I’ve been busy - we bought a house. I have a whole back-list of things to review, I just need to find the time to write. I do miss writing, and I hope to get to a few reviews done this week - we’ll see if I can get into a good routine.
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After spending too much time over at the Walmart free samples and trials page, I have recently been getting a tidal wave of free samples in my mailbox. Today I received a free sample of Betty Crocker’s “Warm Delights Minis” in Molten Chocolate Cake flavor. I have seen these products around for a while now, but never given them any consideration. As it turns out, free samples are definitely a worthwhile marketing effort, because if this cake wasn’t in my mailbox today, I may have never tried this product.
I was at first put off when I opened the box and found a plastic dish with two pouches in it - for some reason I didn’t expect to have to open a pouch of cake mix, mix it with water, and then open a pouch of fudge topping to squeeze on the top of the batter. The extremely lazy side of me was not impressed with how much work actually went in to preparing this “just add water and microwave” snack. On the flip side, it is a pretty impressive food technology when a bit of batter is mixed with water, and then microwaved for 30 seconds, resulting in a warm delicious chocolate cake. The low cook time, combined with the quality of the result definitely overrides my initial objection.
The cake itself tasted very good, it was fluffy, chocolatey, and warm. The fudge topping added a lot to the cake as well. As an easy and quick dessert/snack, warm delights minis are satisfying, and I would definitely be willing to try out the variety of other flavors that are available. Of course, I would likely not buy the mini size in the future, as they are too small for my appetite. I am not sure if these are a good value, since this was a free trial, but I have a feeling Betty Crocker may over-charge for this product, due to the convenience. If given the choice, I would definitely pick a home baked confection over a microwave cake - but these seem to be a good solution when you’re not in the baking mood.
Betty Crocker Warm Delights Minis (Molten Chocolate Cake): 4/5
4/5
Have you ever dried Warm Delights? Are the other flavors any good? Do you know the average cost of these in the grocery store?
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