Birchbox: February 2014

Wow, Birchbox, you came early this month... Or maybe you just came really late in January, so it just seems like you're super early... Not that I'm complaining.

I especially liked this months box. It had pretty stars. I like pretty stars. Apparently this month was a collaboration with US News, although I'm not sure how that really affected my box this month. It pretty much is the same it always is.

 

FYI, Birchbox is a subscription box. It's generally one of the cheaper ones, along with Ipsy. It costs $10.00 a month. There's a waiting list, but I think I got off of it in about two to three weeks, so it wasn't a long wait.  They send you a variety of beauty/lifestyle products based on a profile you fill out on their website when you sign up. I'm not quite sure if their boxes really go with your profile because I've gotten some items, where I'm like WTF, but there's always a variety. It's more varied than some of the other subscription boxes. This one has makeup, hair products, skin products, makeup tools, hair tools, perfume samples, and there are 50 different boxes each month that you can get.

Here it is... Under the wrapper.

 

Sorin seemed especially interested in my birchbox this month.

The magical list.

At first glance. My first impression wasn't bad. I did see a bottle of liquid and for a minute thought it was a huge perfume sample and got pissy, but luckily it was not. I don't wear perfume and I loathe it when I get useless perfumes samples.

I actually think Birchbox did a decent job with my box this month... That's two decent boxes in a row, which is much better than all the random boxes I had gotten before. I think their New Year's Resolution was to really try to improve on their boxes, and January and February have been surprisingly not as sucky, as previous boxes.

Beauty Protector: Protect & Oil, a full-size retails for 25.95, and I got about 3/4th's of an ounce according to my high school math teacher fiance. That makes this worth about $5.00, again according to him. I've never tried hair oil. My hair is oily enough. It smells nice. It smells like vanilla. Since I live in Houston, the humidity capital of the world, and I spend a shit ton of time outside, at the pool, with my kindle, reading so bad they're good dark-hunter sex novels... I think this product could prove itself very useful in the hotter months. AND YAY IT'S NOT PERFUME!!!

Ruby Wing Color Changing Nailpolish in Kitten Heels. Full-size retails for $10.00, and this is literally half the size of full-size, so it's also worth $5.00. I've always liked color changing nailpolish. My parents would always bring me back that Costa Del Sol stuff whenever they went on a cruise, and I loved it. These colors are rather bright for me, but they're probably really good for a summer pedicure, especially when I can wear my cheap Target flip-flops 24/7. I would have preferred one of the glitter colors.... because glitter makes the world go round, but I'll take it :)

Coola Tinted Matte SPF 30 for Face. Full-size retails for $36.00. Mine is .17 ounces and worth $3.60. I happen to really like Coola products. Birchbox sent me their cucumber scented facial sunscreen in the summer, and it was a nice cooling relief that got me through a day at Schlitterbahn with barely a facial burn... My shoulders on the other hand... They were as red as a lobster. I don't think I would do a Tinted Sunscreen just because I don't like skin-color products. I don't wear foundation or cover-up or anything like that. So this isn't really for me, but it is a brand I do highly recommend for facial products with SPF.

On the left is the product squeezed out of the tube, and the right is it blended into my hand. It blends in well. It was a great match for my skin-tone. It's also sort of mousse-like, which is a nice and light fluffy texture. It's not oily at all. I'm not sure if I'd buy a product like this, just because it's not me, but it is a good product, and a great brand.

 

 Smashbox Full-Exposure Mascara in Jet Black. Full-size is $19.50. Mine is .14 oz, which is worth $7.08. I love me some mascara, especially black mascara. I have non-existent lashes, so mascara is my friend. I haven't tried it yet since I have TONS of mascara, but I will work into my rotation as soon as one of my tubes runs out. I have heard good things about this brand though. 

My lifestyle extra was a Smashbox Cosmetics Full Exposure Palette.

It's a sample of ten colors. The top are Crease-resistant, long-wearing shimmers. The bottom is velvety-smooth matte colors. I didn't swatch them or anything because the samples are so tiny. The top colors are more glittery than the bottom colors. The full-size is $49.00, I'll says these are like a tenth of the full product and round it up for $5.00, since it's hard to put a price on it. I do like that they're mostly nude colors, which gives me a lot of options for wearing them, since I tend to keep my makeup tame for school and such.

The math total is: $25.68, which is more then double the cost of my birchbox. So for just ten dollars, it's a pretty good deal.

I was very pleased with my Birchbox this month. I definitely think they're upping their game since 2013, and I'm eager to see what else awaits me.

 

 

Product Reviews

So... no new boxes lately although Birchbox notified me that they mailed my box, and my order from Shiro Cosmetics should me here pretty soon, as well, but I do have some product reviews from previous orders that I've blogged about here.

Now, I don't always have a use for all products that I receive, I don't like wasting things though, so some of the makeup colors that I plan to never use, usually the very bright red lipsticks or nailpolishes, and any sort of foundation makeup, get donated to my co-workers, and then some of the skin and not so girly products, I give to my fiance.

Disclaimer: I use my own hard-earned money from teaching to buy all my subscription boxes, I spend almost as much on those, as fiance spends on Magic the Gathering cards :P Nobody paid me to try any of these products, and my opinions are my own :)[or my fiances']

The Midnight Monarch hand lotion that I got, last month, in Birchbox has made its way to my fiance since I prefer the Julep hand lotion. It's been cold, for Texas, not really for me and my NJ roots, but for my students, and my fiance, and his skin has gotten dry and chapped. So I donated this to his cause. Fiance says he likes it. It's large sample, and it's been lasting him for awhile, which is nice, so it's good for more than one use. He says it's made a noticeable difference in his skin, his skin is far less dry, and the lotion makes it silky, so this hand lotion meets his stamp of approval. 

The Green Tea Facial Blotting Papers are great. Both fiance and I love them. We both have oily skin, especially within our T-Zones. These papers smell like green tea, which is nice. And they're very good at what they do. They're also great to use with makeup because I find that they don't disturb my makeup at all. 

The Double-Step Foot stuff came in the Diamond Mystery box that I got back in November. Fiance inherited that too since basically all I do is wear Uggs, no matter what the season is, and didn't really have a need for it. Fiance loves the stuff. He loves how it smells because he loves Peppermint. It's all he ever orders from Starbucks- Peppermint Mocha Frapachinos or Peppermint Mochas. He also tries to put peppermint in anything he attempts to bake, like those cookies he mailed me back when I lived in Jersey, which were delicious. And if he drinks tea, it's peppermint tea. He also tried to have a garden of mint since we moved in together, but every time he tried to garden, his plants died.  He also likes how smooth it makes his feet, and he says it keeps his feet clean and makes his feet feel fresh. So far, this is his favorite product, out of the unisex products that he's inherited. 

 The Quick Dry Drops that I got in my January Maven Box have also been used [by me, not my fiance]. I painted my nails yesterday with an undercoat of Stevie, which is a color I got in the holiday secret store, it's a bluish sparkly slate gray. I topped it with Geo, which is the holographic glitter nailpolish I received with the Diamond Mystery Box in November.  It's a purple glitter with huge holographic chunks. I used the quick-dry drops afterwards. They went easy, all you need it one or two drops. My nails were pretty dry about five minutes later. My nails then survived putting on and taking off both jeans and belt without any chipping,which is a first. I don't really like the smell. It's like a chemical lemongrass-ish smell, that lasts for a good hour or two after you use them, but by the morning, the scent was gone. These are my nails this afternoon:

They're pretty much the same as when I painted them, so the quick-dry drops give them a pretty good protective coat as well, since they lasted through an entire day of teaching pre-k. I'm very happy with these drops, and can even ignore the smell since they really do do what Julep says they do. Two thumbs up from me.

I dislike this Eye Glaze Fierce from Girlacktic Beauty.I tried wearing it. I think it goes on much to thick, and the color is very dark. I also really don't like how it smells. I wore it one night, and just wasn't impressed without how it looked. It felt heavy when I put it on, and I prefer my makeup to be light and/or weight-less. I also had trouble blending it with any other color. 

Magnetic Force Nailpolish from Color Club. I love it. The formula goes on really quickly, and I only needed one coat. It's a pretty magenta/purple color with swirls of silver in it, and I topped it with Aviva, which I got from the Julep Naughty & Nice box that I got in December. It had great staying power. It lasted on my nails for about a week with barely any chipping. I wish I had taken a picture of my nails when they were like that.

Vasanti Brighten Up! [enzymatic face rejuvenator]. I got a sample of this in my November birchbox. It's an exfoliate. I really like it. I can feel it exfoliating my skin as I put it on, and I've been using it for about a week, and my skin's been looking great. It's been much less red. This also didn't irritate my skin like most other facial products I've tried. The sample I got was also generous. I've been using it for two weeks now, and I still have some left. I'm contemplating ordering a full-size bottle of it, once the sample runs out. 

Coola Classic Face Sunscreen in Cucumber. I got this back in my first ever birchbox, which was in July 2013! I got the sample right before fiance and I went to Schlitterbahn in New Braufels for a before-school-starts vacation. It was a hot August day in Texas, and the sun was strong. I used this when we went to the park. My face didn't burn at all [although other parts of my body did, my poor shoulders], and it was cool and refreshing when I put it on, which felt great in that Texas summer heat. Once it gets to be summer, I'm totally buying a full-size bottle of this, especially since over the summer, I sit at the pool and read on my kindle and because fiance and I are so going back to Schlitterbahn.

And that's it, from me, for now. Back to my quest to evolve every Eevee. So far I've got Jolteon, Vaporeon, Flareon, Glaceon, and Sylveon. I'm trying to get an Umbreon, but I can only play my game after 8 pm for that to happen :P

I really want a caramel steamer from Starbucks.  I wonder if I can convince Mr. Fiance to bring me back one from work :P