Hi friends! Sorry for the lack of blog on Wednesday. Our blogging has taken a little hit recently, as Jill’s business was recently destroyed in part of the Baltimore/Ellicot City flood last weekend. You can read more about it here if you want but in the meantime, while she is hard at work getting her business back up and running, it’s just going to be me for a bit. So I will do my best to keep up our posting schedule, but there may be weeks (like this one!) where it just doesn’t get done! So I hope you are patient with us!
So now we are back to our regularly scheduled ridiculousness. I got mad at Birchbox last month when they communicated (poorly) to their subscribers about the updates to their subscription. You can read about it more here, but I was kind of upset about it because they are taking away the points we earn for writing reviews for products that translated into dollars in the store. That was a huge draw for me, even when the boxes weren’t that great, I knew I could earn some $$$ for future products. I was planning on cancelling after my July box, but then I saw the August sample choice and I was like, all right, what the hell. I’ll see if the boxes continue getting better!
For those of you who don’t know, here are the basics: Birchbox is $10/month and you receive a variety of makeup/skincare/haircare samples. Birchbox also has a store similar to Ulta/Sephora where you can buy the various luxury brands they feature in their boxes, plus a decent lifestyle/home section.
I was actually pretty impressed with what I got in my box!
Birchbox always includes a little card that tells you about the products. Also, I have to say that the box itself was super cute this month.
Beautiful Nutrition Fadeless Citrus Antioxidant Shampoo ($12) and Beautiful Nutrition Fadeless Citrus Antioxidant Shampoo ($12): These were OK. I liked them because they are good for color treated hair but like a lot of “good” shampoos now, there are no sulfates. I don’t love formulas with no sulfates because I do like that lather, even though it’s somewhat bad for my hair. But that said, this shampoo suds up pretty well! I did feel like I had to use a little more than usual, but I like my shampoo to be more sudsy when I am soaking wet with sweat. (Such is the life of doing spin.)
Burt’s Bees Tinted Lip Balm – Pink Blossom ($7): I have always liked the Burt’s Bees brand and their lip balms. This was the first time I have tried Pink Blossom and I really like it! It’s just a little pinker than my actual lips and is great for those no-makeup days.
Benefit Cosmetics They’re Real! Mascara ($24): I have been getting this mascara in boxes a lot lately. This is probably Benefit’s most popular mascara but it’s never been my favorite. It is OK but never gives me the results I think that it should. From Benefit’s mascaras, I love Roller Lash. Roller Lash claims to curl your lashes but I don’t care about that at all. Roller Lash gives me long, defined beautiful lashes that actually look really natural. That is the direction I would go if you were looking at Benefit’s mascaras!
Kiehl’s Hydro-Plumping Re-Texturizing Serum Concentrate ($58): I have to be honest that I haven’t had a chance to use this yet but I have always really loved Kiehl’s products so this will be going into my routine as soon as my skin clears up a little bit because it’s kind of a hot mess right now due to some medication + stress. (But it’s getting better, don’t worry. 🙂 )
Final Grade: A
All right, Birchbox. You are selling me. I am holding on for another month or two. They are finally sending me good products that I will actually use. Seriously, I will use every product they sent, and they also sent really nice, high-end brands.
If you are interested in subscribing to Birchbox, click here!
Purchased; All opinions are my own.
Post contains affiliate links.
laurenelectro
A self-proclaimed beauty junkie/hoarder with a serious Sephora problem. This blog is a total rationalization of that problem. Everything is TOTALLY fine. Her free time is a mixed combination of making fun of reality TV with her husband, hanging out with cats and finally trying to figure out how to do her hair.