Productopia | Love It or Hate It

For most people, tortilla chips are just a vessel for shoveling as much dip as possible into their faces. We're not most people. We appreciate the art and craft of a well-made tortilla chip, as much as the next Mexican. But who the heck has time to slave over hand pressing masa all day? Not us. So we did what must be done. First, we fought off hordes of snack fiends in the salty-highway-to-heaven aisle at the supermarket and zeroed in on a select few favorites among the bagged tortilla chip selection.

We found 20 hungry volunteers and put the three top brands of tortilla chips to a head-to-head blind taste-test. Only one could be named victorious in this battle for top dipper, a.k.a. the most essential food group of a winning game-day party. Here are the results:
Read more

We Americans love our soft drinks. Last year, national soft drink sales topped 9 billion cases despite more Americans turning to alternatives like iced tea and sports drinks. That's a lot of soda--and a lot of 20-ounce bottles (about 285 per person). It's expensive, too. A January article in Time magazine estimated that the average American household spent $850 on soft drinks each year.

Enter Daniel Birnbaum, the CEO of SodaStream International. Read more

Cosmetic companies are known for outlandish promises and we're the suckers for spending our money on the mere hope that this one might finally work. So, it was with a healthy dose of skepticism that I began researching the latest self-adjusting makeup products. As I looked at blog posts and magazine articles, I actually began to get excited. Maybe this stuff actually works ... maybe buying the right shade is going to become infinitely easier. Then I started looking into the science.

It turns out that there really isn't anything new here and -- like most of the marketing behind cosmetics -- self-adjusting makeup is more hype than reality. Read more

I don't think I could get dressed in the morning if it weren't for my stash of white tanks tops. They're my wardrobe staple--perfect on their own in the summer or layered under sweaters and button downs in the winter. I have about five to ten in rotation at all times and every season I search for the perfect white tank to replace the dingy ones from the previous season (no small feat since retailers are constantly changing the cut of their basic pieces). So, when I was pitched a new product called Deo-Go that promised to remove ugly pit stains (which aren't stains at all I learned but rather deodorant build up), I had to try it. Anything to squeeze some extra wear out of my favorite articles of clothing!

Read more