Birchbox Breakdown: April 2015

Have you heard of Birchbox? It's a subscription service for makeup samples, you pay ten bucks a month (or less for a year's subscription) and each month they send you samples to try. They include various types of makeup, hair products, perfume and occasionally snacks or other goodies.

I first signed up when Rory was a baby because I was in desperate need of something grown up to look forward to and let me tell you, finding that box in the mail each month was just delightful. I ended up cancelling briefly because the products where not really tailored to what I wanted (I loathe perfume samples and no I don't want samples of dog treats!). However, I gave it one more try and was very careful while filling out the profile questions and the products I received after that were much more suited to me. Occasionally I've even gotten full size products or cool things like new headphones. Totally worth it to me now, and so much fun.

I know about 2 and a half people who are vaguely interested in it so I thought I'd write a bit about it.

So here is a breakdown of the box I received this month:

This month you could choose to receive the standard box or one of two Mad Men themed boxes (New York or California) and I chose California.

Anastasia Beverly Hills Clear Brow Gel:


I'm all about eyebrows and normally I fill mine in with pencil and then a Maybelline Brow Drama tinted gel, but that's been looking a little, well, dramatic lately and I want to lighten up for spring.  This stuff is awesome and holds everything in place so you look sleek but not distracting. There's a reason Anastasia Beverly Hills is known as THE brow brand.

Beauty Protector Protect and Oil:

Can't find a picture of this on the Birchbox site for whatever reason but picture, if you will, a tiny bottle of oil. There you go. I haven't tried this yet, and I have baby fine hair so any type of hair oil makes me twitchy, but this is recommended for after sun/swimming and that might be the one time I'm willing to try it since summer tends to wreak havoc on my hair. Would probably be wonderful for a thicker haired lady.

Cargo Swimmables Water Resistant Blush in Los Cabos:


This comes in this cute metal tin and looked very peachy pink. I applied it a little haphazardly (whoops) and was shocked by how highly pigmented it was. You need a teeny bit, and it goes on my fair skin with a much more orange tint than pink. This sample sized one they sent will probably last forever since you need such a small amount. With a light hand, this would be the perfect bronze pink color for summer.

Liz Earle Evebright Soothing Eye Lotion: 
 

This is billed as magical potion of botanicals that soothes eyes blah blah blah. At the ripe old age of 27 I'm already prone to wrinkles around my eyes when my skin gets dry. I take eye creams seriously. This is a very thin liquid and to me it was basically a glorified eye makeup remover. Not moisturizing or refreshing or whatever. One of the main ingredients is witch hazel and it made my skin dry and tight feeling. Gross. Will pass on this one.

Whish Shaving Cream in Blueberry:



So this stuff was strange. It has an amazing blueberry scent an feels really rich on your skin...at first. It took a ton of it to actually cover my skin (washes away very easily) and left it feeling somewhat dry. But seriously, the smell is like those blueberry scented markers from childhood that left you with blue dots all over your nose. So good. Probably not worth buying full size but will definitely bring you back to first grade art class.


Here is a link if you're interested in trying it out: Birchbox

All photos are from the Birchbox website.