Birchbox March Review

So a bit of a late one here, I meant to post it in a video, but then my body decided to give me a coldsore and Elephant Man Tasha is not something you want to see in HD. I'll try and get the next one filmed as a general unboxing :)

This month's box was the LuLu Guinness collaborated box. Although this was a bit of a disappointment considering this was pretty much it for the LuLu-ness of the box besides a black and white striped stick of rock for the 'lifestyle extra' which was actually quite nice! I love black and white as much as the next former goth sort of teenager, but I was expecting a little bit more. 

This month's contents. It looks a little empty I know, but I think that's just the way I've arranged it..Yes I did already eat the rock before I took the pictures this morning.. 

First item is the Dr. Brandt 'Pores no more' pore refiner. Pretty similar to that of the Benefit POREfessional that I received in my first ever Birchbox. I got a pretty respectable 7.5ml size and I must say I love it! In my opinion, I actually prefer this one to the Benefit alternative I was raving about. It smooths your skin a lot more and gives more of a flawless look. The full sized bottle is £39 for 30ml, which is pretty darn pricey, but I'd definitely say it was worth it.

Next up is the Korres Citrus Little Body Milk. I've not really used this product much, so I can't really say a great deal about it, but it does seem to make your skin a little softer and the smell is pretty good! Not something I'd necessarily buy, but I'm more of a facial skincare kind of girl, not the biggest body milk/butter fans. The full sized bottle is £9.50.

The English Laundry no.7 for her perfume was a pleasant surprise. After the amazingness of the Elizabeth Arden sample I received in one of my first ever beauty boxes, everything I get is compared to it. This perfume, although lovely, still doesn't come too close. It has a bright and fruity scent and is one I'd say I like, but it's a bit pricey at £47 for the 50ml bottle. 

This is the Molton Brown Rhubarb and Rose Replenishing hand cream. Right now, I love beauty boxes. I love getting skin care samples. But I literally have hand cream samples coming out of my ears now! I do not use them! I always get disappointed in body lotions and hand creams, no matter how nice the scent is. This one again, does smell lovely but it's just not something I'd use so I feel like it's a bit of a waste. I'd like to see more make up products from these boxes!

We got a 7ml sample and the full sized bottle is £10 for the full sized 40ml.

Maybe one for Mother's Day?

The star product and LuLu's pick this month was another Benefit product! I'm not going to complain, I love Benefit just find it so expensive. This is the Stay Don't Stray in light/medium. I'm glad that Birchbox paid attention to my skin colour and sent me the lighter version, there's nothing worse than a sample that's too dark for you. You place three dots under and on top of your eyes and then blend it in and it's supposed to keep your make up from 'straying' all day. I've used this a few times, and considering I don't use concealer, it's worked amazingly. I put it on in the morning and my make up is still there come dinner time! It's definitely something I'd recommend. 

It's £20.50 for the full sized bottle and definitely worth the splurge. 

Oh, here's the striped stick of rock I was on about earlier. Was peppermint and lovely :)

Stay tuned for the April Birchbox that I should be getting within the next two weeks, got to choose my own colour of nail polish this month, so have high hopes for lots of Spring inspired pastels in this box! 

Have a great Friday xo. 

Birchbox #2 February

Month two of Birchbox and another six items in the box!

First up is the Gilchrist and Soames shower gel. It's a pretty good size for a sample bottle would probably last me about 3 showers. I've used it the once and I'm not the bigger fan of the fragrance, I love my fruity fragrances for shower gel but this was a nice sample :)

I was actually saying to myself I really need some more exfoliator as my skin's been really dry lately and hey presto, Birchbox to the rescue! It uses all natural ingredients so it's perfect for my sensitive skin. I've been using a garnier one lately but it's been weirdly aggravating my skin so I had to stop, which is a shame as it smells amazing.

This exfoliator is to be used up to twice a week, for fresh soft skin. Plus a little goes a long way so I think this sample could definitely last a few weeks.

Apologies for the poor picture, always difficult to photograph see through bottles! This is the Beauty Protector protect & oil. It's been a bit of a blogger fave according to their site and it smells of coconuts. I adore coconut scented things so this is great for me! I've used it the once in damp hair as suggested and I was pleasantly surprised, whether it protected my hair I'm not sure, it made it smell great and didn't make it greasy like most oils can. 

This is the Leighton Denny Message in a Bottle nail polish. It retails at £11 and this sample is actually the full sized bottle! I love getting nail polish, especially when it's free, well sort of free considering it's nearly the price of the full box. There were a number of different colours you could get and to be hones this wouldn't have been one that I picked up in store, but I do like it! I painted my nails on Friday without a base or top coat (as I'm out, mine went a tad gloopy) and it's not chipped yet. My initial thought when I was painting my nails strangely was that it reminded me of a mermaid.. which is apt considering the name of the colour.

The star product of the box was the Eyeko skinny liquid liner. I've never been a fan of liquid liner, but this is sort of more a liquid liner pen and it's pretty great. It's £12 for the full size, I think I got the half size which is still good. I've used it a few times since receiving it and I'm definitely a fan, it's very long lasting and very easy to apply. 

The lifestyle extra this month was this dainty little bar of Green & Black's 70% cocoa solids dark chocolate. Which was eaten up literally 30 seconds after this picture was taken.

So in conclusion my second Birchbox was even more of a hit than my first! I'm definitely excited to see what's in next months box, and seeing the star product, as they've partnered up with Lulu Guiness. 

What did you get in your Birchbox this month?

xo.

Birchbox #1 January 2014

So this is my first Birchbox, I realise that the majority of you beauty box subscribers have already gotten yours and have read loads of review on it, but ah well, here's mine. 

First impressions on the box is it's considerably smaller than that of Glossybox, although this definitely didn't mean less in quantity! I received 6 items as opposed to the usual 4 maybe 5 items I'm used to. Also the Birchbox leaflet tells you all about the products and how to use them.

First up is the Lavera hand cream. It contains organic shea butter and almond oil to protect and nourish winter hands. I don't personally use hand creams, I just have no need but it smells quite nice and did make my hands quite soft. This is probably a product I'll pass on to my mother and her ginormous collection of hand creams.

Second is the Itsu Miso Soup. I must say this one was a surprise to get in the box, but I have seen Birchbox giving away chocolate before so there you go. I did actually try this last Wednesday and umm.. yeah, did not like so much, okay, AT ALL. Yes it's only 42 calories and yes it's all healthy and what not but nope. Do not like miso soup.

Another body lotion from Bee Kind. Cute name but I'm really not a fan of body lotion, I buy it, try it and then never end up using it again so find it a great waste of money. This one smells of lovely lemon (one of my favourite scents) and actually is one of few body lotions where a little goes a long way. A little bigger than a pea-sized amount actually did my whole leg! 

This is the 'blanc cachemire, crème de jour protectrice' which is a moisturiser from as you might have guessed; France. It's a protective day cream that retails at around £54.75 so this was a pretty good sample! I've been using it most days over the past week and my skin definitely hasn't succumbed to drying out during this harsh, horrible, dreary weather that needs to go away already.

The Phillip Kingsley moisture balancing conditioner was a great surprise. I love haircare products as I'm always trying to find new things to refresh my forever dyed locks. It smells lovely and although I was very pleased to receive it, my hair is pretty long now, and pretty thick so this did about a quarter of my hair and I used my Vo5 on the rest so I can't quite say just how moisturising it is. 

The star product of this month was the Benefit POREfessional primer. I am ashamed to admit this is my first benefit product! I just can't afford the brand :(. I did love it, and it keeps my make up staying all day long and does actually give me a smoother look. But, on the downside if my face is dry, it does tend to feel a little like it's rolling off and flaking up if you know what I mean, which you probably don't as that was a rubbish way of explaining what I mean. But even still, I like it!

The verdict for the first Birchbox: 8/10. I like all the products (except the soup) so I'm definitely glad I switched over, looking forward to what I get next (well this) month!

xo.

Glossybox January review

It's that time again folks! The monthly Glossybox review is here and it's not a good one. I shall try not to rant, but it's a bit inevitable at this point. 

So they've 'revamped' the Glossybox! I don't like it.. Yes it is more 'Glossy' but I personally preferred the matte effect to the box, gave it more of a sophisticated feel. Also, they've made the lid deeper giving the impression you're going to get more in the box, although that's not really the case. There was a lot less of the silly tissue paper than usual but the products also were a lot less in quality if you ask me.

First up is the Anatomicals 'Puffy the eye bag slayer wake-up under eye patches'. That's a mouthful for a product name! Quick and catchy definitely isn't the anatomicals way. The full price is £6.99 for 3 pairs at Asos.com. We got two pairs in our pack, why they didn't just give us the full size pack I don't know but there you go. They apparently reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles and all that usual stuff under eye products promise to do. They feel pretty weird to be honest, and be careful when you take them out as I put mine on in the bath and one fell out and stuck to the side of it. 

I can't quite say it made me less wrinkly, as I don't have wrinkles, (yet!) but it made my eyes feel more awake.

This is the Yu-be moisturising skin cream, which according to the tube can also be used for dry lips. It doesn't smell which is quite good, and did make my lips a tad smoother. It's £13.50 for the full 33g tube and I think the ones we got were 3g each. I've only used it the once, so I don't have much more to say on it, although I have heard you can get these exact samples for free on their website, which if true, I'm definitely not impressed with Glossybox.

The first make up we've actually received in ages from Glossybox! It's the beautyuk cc cream with spf 30. I'd say this is my favourite item of the box, because it's actually my shade (10 natural) and it does just as good a job as my Maybelline foundation! It's £4.99 for the 25ml which is what I got in the box. I'd most likely buy this again, although I'm still not sure what the big deal on these CC and BB creams are..

Oh look, more skincare! Seriously Glossybox, you are a BEAUTY box, give us some more make up! This is the Balance Me super toning body wash, retailing at £10.25 for the full 250ml. It can be used as a body wash or added to your bath for an 'all over luxurious soak'. Again I've only used it once, and it was okay. It has a really nice smell, but it smells like something my nan would be using!

Not my favourite.

And the star product of the 'back to basics' box was a pair of tweezers from The Vintage Cosmetic Company. Yes, I pay £13 a month for this box and they gave me tweezers. Yes they're worth £8 and they look pretty and I adore anything vintage, but I don't use tweezers! So that's another wasted product. 

All in all, this box was an utter disappointment. Yes I like the CC cream, but it's £4.99, and I paid (well I used my glossy dots so I got it free but that's not the point) £13 for the box, and it's the only thing I would actually buy in there! After receiving this box, like many other blogs I've read out there, I promptly cancelled my subscription. I gave them a chance, I gave them 5 months of chances and over £50 and each month it got worse. If they spent less time and resources on changing their box and writing the magazine and more on the contents, maybe they'd be better, but for now I'm not going to continue. But not to fear, I'll still get my beauty box fix as I've moved on over to Birchbox. Let's hope it's better and I get more make up! Review to come soon as it's arrived :)

How did you find this month's box?

xo.