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.

November Glossybox review

It's that time of the month again! I'd been eagerly checking my emails for the shipment information and yesterday morning my Glossybox appeared at my door! 

After the disappointing first impressions of last month's box, I was a little apprehensive about this month's issue, even going as far as saying if it doesn't improve I'm going to cancel after Christmas! I feel quite bad about that really, as last month's box introduced me to lip stains and the amazing monu primer which I've unfortunately ran out of and can't afford £23 on a new bottle :( Maybe one for Christmas?

Anyways here's this month's box;

This month's theme was the 'Glossy wish list'. I'm quite happy they didn't hype up the theme like they did last month, we weren't expecting anything particular from this box, so it was all a surprise! Well, apart from the Vichy creams which were a featured spoiler. 

First up is the spoiler, which is the Vichy Idelia Life Serum. I love the fact this came in it's own little pouch, it's so pretty! What a lovely way of keeping the samples together :). The pouch contained three 3ml sized samples, which in retrospect is a pretty good amount, but then you get the usual issue of two thirds of that sample being just air. I think I used nearly a whole bottle on just one application! It's supposed to give you more of an even complexion and smooth your pores so that you get a more flawless look. I must say it did make my skin feel very smooth, but I don't know if my pores were less visible. The serum is quite a metallic looking white cream and doesn't have much of a fragrance which is always good with skincare in my opinion. The bottle's full sized (30ml) price is £29.50 in Boots, making our samples worth about £8 or £9. 

Would I buy? - Probably not as it's quite expensive and I don't think it would last me very long.

Next is the Yves Rocher cacao collection hand cream. This was a full sized sample, which I'm always happy to receive. It's only £1.75 a bottle, but it's pretty amazing. Hand creams aren't a thing I ever feel the need to pick up as dry skin on my hands is never a problem I've had. This one might be my favourite of the box just because of it's delicious smell. It's very subtle at first, but when it's set into your skin you'll be smelling the amazing combination of chocolate and pistachio for hours. It's so good that I'm hunting the internet for chocolate and pistachio recipes to see if it tastes as good as it smells! The only flaw with this is that it feels a little sticky on your hands while it's drying, but that goes away as soon as you wash your hands a little (but doesn't get rid of the smell!)

Would I buy it? - I'm not sure as I'm not a hand cream kind of girl, but at only £1.75, it is a possibility. 

This is my first eyeshadow from Glossybox and is the Emite micronised eyeshadow in Nect. It retails at around £16.80 full sized, which is what we received in the box. This eyeshadow is paraben, nickel and perfume free, which is great for those of you with sensitive eyes. I like the high end feel of this eyeshadow, but it doesn't really come out all too white as you can see from the swatch, it's very light and is probably the exact same as one of my MUA single eyeshadows. Considering I'm quite pale skinned, I'd only use it as a base colour.

Would I buy it? - No. For £16.80 on a base colour I can get for £1 at MUA it's just not worth the money, even if I do like it's cute little packaging.

This is another full sized product. It's the Elegant touch rapid dry for nails which can be found at Boots for only £3.05. Its a mist that you spray over wet nails, wait 60 seconds and they then promise you are 'good to go'. I have never tried a dry nails mist or equivalent product before, so I after reading the '60 seconds' promise I had quite high hopes! I painted my nails with my Barry M nail polishes and did as directed and sprayed 10cm away from my nails and then proceeded to wait. First of all, the mist gives off quite a greasy feel to me, but it's not perfumed so that's a plus. As to the 60 seconds thing, that's not entirely true. I did two coats and a top coat and sprayed in between each, and after 5 minutes my nails felt a little greasy and some still weren't dry, which resulted in a lovely smudge all up one of my skirts I was putting on.

Would I buy it? - Well, at only £3.05 a bottle, you get what you pay for but it's not the best product out there.

This is my last product I have to show you, which is the Jelly pong pong lip blush in Cranberry. Thanks to the Mememe lip stain of last month, I've become very fond of red lips lately and I was really pleased to see this in my box. I've not tried lip crayons before, as I always think they'll make my lips look patchy if they're a little dry, but this one is actually moisturising as well! You can see the shade in the swatch on the right and it's quite a bright red, which I love. 

This is a picture of me wearing the lip stain, which wasn't patchy and made my lips feel great! Feeling particularly Snow White-esque with the red lips and black hair, but it's all good. The crayon we received was again full sized and retails at £12.

Would I buy it? - Hmm, it's a little pricey, but due to my growing red lip obsession I think I would!

Total price of this months contents adds up to around £35 - £40 which is almost triple what we paid for it, so I think it's definitely a good one this month! Apart from the nail spray, I'm pretty sure I'll use all these items again and it's made me extra excited for next month! 

Glossybox October review

So it's that time again, I must say I quite like getting my five little make up samples in the post each month. I like trying something new that I've never tried before, helps to broaden my make up horizons :)

The theme this month was Dark Romance and I, like so many other subscribers was pretty excited. We were all imagining the different lipsticks and eye shadows and what not we'd be getting through our doors come mid October.

Here's this month's box. It's just the standard pink Glossybox box, not like the fancy Union Jack one we got last month which is now home to my many eyeshadows (hmm may do a make up storage post, keep an eye out!). I was so excited for this box as I've recently just dyed my hair back to black (was supposed to be dark brown, don't get me started on these silly hair dyes and their reactions to my hair..) and I couldn't wait to use all the dark themed products. As you can see we didn't get many.

First up lets talk about the (in my opinion) worst idea of the bunch. Vita Liberata skin illuminator in Latte. It's £29.95 per 30ml bottle, so quite pricey, but Glossybox do promise us the more high end stuff as well! The reason this is the worst idea to me is not that it's just tan (and you all know my fear of fake tan as mentioned in Facing the Fear) but if you actually follow the link to the site it looks so so dark. I mean I'm not exactly Snow White (well I am a little more so with this hair) but I'm still pretty darn white. There's no way that this tan would not go wrong on my skin so I've not even opened it. It might be good you never know! If any of you not so pale people wanna give it a go be my guest and let me know how it is!

Next up is the Harmony moisturising smoothie serum priced at £22.50 per 50ml, again, a little pricey for such a small bottle. I'm not entirely sure if this is a primer or if it's a moisturiser as the card says it's to 'prep and prime your skin' but then it's a moisturising serum so god knows. I've only used it once and I used it as a serum before putting on my usual moisturiser. Harmony are a brand that caters to women between 25-60 who want affordable skin care that will help any skin type from sensitive skin to adult acne sufferers. This particular serum is supposed to help soothe redness which I'm  not really a sufferer of so I didn't really reap the benefits so to speak. It does smell pretty good though, made with Lemongrass oil and it's not a thick formula so it doesn't feel like you've caked on too much product even with your normal moisturiser and primer on top. 

Would I buy? I don't think so, mainly because it just isn't anything I really need and it's quite expensive.

The second primer type product of the bunch. Why we needed two I do not know. This is the Monu skin illuminating primer for all skin types with SPF 15, it comes in at £24.95 per 100ml, so not too bad. I'm pretty new to primers I'll admit, having only used my little Fashionista bottle I got in my MUA haul a couple months back, but I can find that one a little greasy when everything else has been applied. This  one I'll admit is pretty great. It reminds me of those little hotel shampoo and conditioner bottles they put out in the more fancy of establishments. It smells pretty good, the word that comes to mind is 'neutral', as in it doesn't really have a strong fragrance it's just fresh if you know what I mean? If not don't worry about it I'm just rambling nonsense again! I've been using this everyday since I got my box last Tuesday and although the formula is quite thick it's not greasy and it does make my make up stay all day. You only need a little splodge to lightly cover your face before applying foundation and you're all set to go!

Would I buy? Hmm, it is on my 'maybe' list for now, it's a pretty good product but I really want to try the clinique ones before I commit.

This is the Katy Perry Killer Queen perfume which can be found at boots for £22.99 per 30ml. Why are perfumes so darn expensive?! I'm pretty rubbish at describing fragrances to be honest, but this one has a real fruity smell to it, with a mix of some sort of flowery note. It does tell you in the card it comes in what it smells like but if you're like me, what the top and bottom notes are won't really help with your perfume purchase. Compared to the amazing smell that was the Elizabeth Arden Untold of last month, this doesn't come near. I am still in love with it and will be bribing someone to buy me it for Christmas! This Katy Perry one is a very small sample, I've only sprayed it three times and it's already a quarter finished! Like the majority of other perfumes made by singers is nothing really all too special. It's nice, yes, but it's not something that would have me rushing out to stores to pick up.

Would I buy? Compared to other perfumes out there it doesn't really make my top five.

Now for the Pièce de résistance of the box; the Cherub's blush lip and cheek tint from Mememe cosmetics. This is the only full sized sample in the box (which was disappointing, but the other products are a little more high end so I suppose we've still got our money's worth) coming in at only £5.50 per 12ml bottle. This is by far the best product in the box and I've been using it religiously this past week. I haven't actually used it on my cheeks as going by the colour in the second image, it is way too dark to be put straight onto my skin. I have quite dark lips anyway so this just brings out the colour a little and makes them pop. It's probably the only thing in the box that keeps in touch with the Dark Romance theme it supposedly has, unless you can count the dark tan! It's actually the first lip stain I've tried and I'm pretty happy with it. And it's also made me confident I can rock dark lips without looking too over done so expect some new lipstick posts in the near future!

Would I buy? Definitely would!

Overall verdict: 6/10

Mainly because I didn't think it was actually a 'Dark Romance' box. I didn't initially like the box at all but after trying out the products I was quite pleased. Hopefully you can do a little better on your contents next month though Glossybox!

Have a great weekend everyone xo.

Enrapture rollers review

After months of talking about them non-stop and looking at tutorial videos on youtube, I finally took the plunge and bought some of the beautiful Enrapture hair rollers! I was very excited about these especially seeing as the retail price is usually £74.99 and I managed to get them for only £32 here at Tesco Direct! They were out of stock for quite some time so I recommend snapping them up now while they're £42 cheaper.

So here they are :) 

The box comes with 10 larger sized rollers and 10 medium sized rollers. Apparently the new duo technology in these stops them from being too hot to touch, but me being the numpty I am decided not to read the instructions about turning them off after they've warmed up and managed to burn my hand.. only me. There's a little LED screen on the front panel that tells you when they're ready to use, heating up took probably about a minute and a half which is faster than my straighteners!

This is my hair before - quite limp and lifeless after being shoved up so it didn't get blown about to much in the horrible wind we're having here today.

This is me with the rollers in, looking great, I think this look may catch on you know! I did have some trouble with putting the rollers in, but this is the first time I've ever used them and expected a little bit of difficulty :) You start with the top in a 'mohawk' kind of strip as these will need the most time so they can create volume. I didn't really use a specific size for each bit, but the bigger ones I'd say are better for the top of your hair and medium for the underneath. You roll them all up and then leave them in 'til they get cool - probably about 20 minutes altogether.  I would say this is a lot harder to do when you have layers as the hair doesn't all stay together as you're rolling. I found it easier to twist the hair first then roll it up.

This is the final result!

So I feel like a Barbie doll. In a good way though :) It's created loads of volume and quite big waves and curls, although some parts could have done with being put in better. I ran my fingers through my hair and brushed the tops just to control them and stop them flicking all over the place.

The backs of my hair did fall out really quickly but I don't think I'd actually rolled them properly so only myself to blame! I then sprayed a bit of the Elnett supreme hold hair spray just to make sure they hold.

All in all I am extremely pleased with this purchase and definitely recommend them to anyone looking for some heated rollers. Well worth the extra money than you pay on normal cold velcro ones!