I’m electrically and electronically challenged. If it’s electric or electronic, I’ll break it, maybe not immediately, but give it a week or a month and whatever it was, it’s soon scrap metal. I’ve been told I have a “weird electromagnetic field.” Whatever, you do not want to be the person behind me in line at the self-checkout machines in the supermarket. I have, without fail, broken every supermarket machine I’ve ever used. My computers and printers have an average life span of six months to a year and small appliances don’t stand a chance in my home. I’ve killed five food processors, a dozen toasters and can openers, three slow cookers and countless blenders. In fact, when my last blender bit the dust a couple of years ago, I never replaced it. I’m happy with my hand-held immersion blender. It does a serviceable job making my famous Caesar salad dressing and my morning smoothies. So what if there are lumps in my smoothies, if the protein powder didn’t mix in fully or if the frozen berries didn’t blend in? It still fit through a straw, mostly.
Well, a couple of weeks ago, I was offered the opportunity to test TriBest’s dynablend Horsepower Plus DB-850 High Power Blender. A free blender? Yes, please (because I’m bound to kill it, so free is great!) Frankly, between you and me, I was going to buy a fancy, high-power blender but the choices between the Vitamix, the Ninja and the Magic Bullet had me so confounded, I couldn’t decide. I’d never heard of TriBest’s dynablend before, but it’s a high-power (1.1 HP) blender and it was free. Decision made!
I’m particular about my small appliances, even though they’re with me for only a short time. They have to look great in my recently-renovated kitchen, they have to be easy to use and they have to work. The very first thing I noticed as I was unpacking my new dynablend (thank you, TriBest people!) was that it came with a heavy glass pitcher. Nice! My old blender had a glass container too. That was my favorite thing about it. It also comes with a handy metal scoop for scraping down all the foodstuffs that stick to the sides of the container. That’s another nice touch. The blender came with the blade assembly already attached. It also includes a blade opener to use to separate the blade assembly from the glass container. (In my old blenders, this just screwed off for cleaning. I tried to remove the blade assembly from the container, but it confounded me. I am also challenged in the ways of spatial relationships and couldn’t figure out how to fit the blade opener into the blade assembly in order to screw it off. Not the fault of the machine, but I thought I’d mention it. I will leave it to my husband to detach it this first time.
One of the first things I did upon receiving the dynablend was to read its reviews on Amazon.com. I bypassed the numerous positive reviews and concentrated on the negative ones. The major gripe against the dynablend seems to be the plastic blade assembly which, in the cases of the negative reviewers, had broken rendering the machine useless. I haven’t had the dynablend long enough nor have I used it often enough to find this to be a problem. (And believe me, I put it to good use today. I made smoothies, with and without nuts and seeds; salad dressings and a DIY Facial Scrubbing Mask, recipe below.
The dynablend handled all of these recipes effortlessly. It not only has variable speed controls but also three automatic controlled settings that take the guesswork out of for how long or on which speed to use the blender.
My takeaway: The dynablend is a powerful machine that easily handles my cooking and DIY beauty needs. The heavy – and large – glass container is a nice feature making the dynablend feel like a professional piece of equipment, which is exactly how it performs. The smoothies, sauces and dressings I made with the dynablend were lump-free and while that’s something I’m not used to, it is fantastic. Additionally, the protein powder I occasionally add to my smoothies was blended in so that I didn’t even notice it. (With my hand-held, I often have powder floating on top or lumps of it sticking to the sides of the container. It’s nice to know that if I add a tablespoon of protein powder to my smoothie, it will actually contain a tablespoon of protein powder.)
All in all, my experience with the dynablend has been positive. It’s very powerful, more powerful than any blender I’ve ever owned. Because I’ve never used them, I honestly can’t say if the dynablend can compete against the three high-power blenders that dominate the market but for the price – it costs $159.95 from Amazon.com – it is certainly competitive.
If you’re in the market for a high-power blender but don’t want to spend several hundred dollars to own one, give the dynablend a try. Here’s a link to get it on Amazon.com.
And, here’s a great recipe for an Almond and Avocado Facial Scrubbing Mask that I created easily with the dynablend.
Almond & Avocado Facial Scrubbing Mask
Ingredients:
½ an avocado
¼ cup raw almonds
2 tablespoons of honey
2 tablespoons of sea salt
2 tablespoons of raw sugar
¼ cup of extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons of lime juice
Instructions:
Grind raw almonds in the Tribest Dynablend until powdery. Add avocado pulp, honey and lime juice in blender while slowly mixing in olive oil with the stainless steel scoop. Once blended, scoop cream into a bowl and mix in salt and sugar using a wood spoon.
Apply a generous amount of cream to clean, makeup-less face. Scrub the mask over face (being sure to avoid the eyes) in a circular motion to exfoliate. After a few minutes of exfoliating, apply the rest of the mask onto face and leave for about 15-20 minutes. Once the time is up, rinse with fresh water and pat dry.
And here, from celebrity manicurist Skyy Hadley, whose fabulous DIY beauty recipes are often included in the pages of EverBeautiful.com, is a recipe for an exfoliating Cucumber Lemon Foot Scrub:
Cucumber Lemon Foot Scrub
Start with 2 whole cucumbers (one per foot). Add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice and 2 tablespoons of olive oil and mix in a blender until pureed.
Pour the mixture into a bowl and heat it up to a warm, but not hot, temperature.
Place half of the mixture in a large Ziploc baggie and half in a second baggie.
Slide feet right into each baggie, rubbing cucumber mask until each foot is fully soaked.
Leave on for 5-10 minutes then rinse with warm water.
The cucumber is extra refreshing and reviving for tired toes; the lemon helps exfoliate and the olive oil deeply moisturizes for super softness.
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DIY Recipes for Hands and Feet from Skyy Hadley
Here’s How to Get Glowing Summer Skin
Bonding Over Beauty, The Beauty Recipes by Erika Katz – My Review
