Saturday, October 8, 2011

September 2011 Birchbox Review

Watch the video to see me opening the box: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sg0r9s1XXBc






Pangea Organics Facial Cream


I was pleasantly surprised with this product. With all the moisturizers out there, I really like this one. It reminded me a lot of the Bare Minerals Purely Nourishing Moisturizer for Combination skin which was the current face cream I was using at the time but I am using this more frequently now. It has the same herbal lavender smell and it has a non-oily consistency. The Bare Minerals moisturizer is thin and soaks in immediately and is hard to spread around, which I didn't like. The Pangea Organics has a creamier consistency and can be a bit runny at times but soaks into the skin nicely. It's yellow in color and is not drying to my skin at all. It was good for the end of summer and so far, it's still enough moisture for the fall. We'll see how it works for the winter. This is a great all around product. I like the way it makes my skin feel and seems to have a lot of natural ingredients that give good benefits. I would consider purchasing this in full size if I still love it when I use up the sample (a little goes a long way!).


Jouer Lip Enhancer


This sample is super tiny but it's a nice product. My favorite part about it is the way it makes your lips look. It has a frosted light pink sheen in the tube and it gives a great look to the lips while remaining natural-looking. It doesn't actually give a color it just makes my lips a little bit darker and moisturized-looking. It's not as glossy as a lip gloss and not drying like a lipstick. It's a lip balm that's slightly thicker than the C O Bigelow balm that I love. Plus this has no taste or scent. It says it's supposed to do multiple things and is a treatment for the lips, but mainly it just seems like a lip balm with a light pink color/sheen.


LIV GRN Earth Eau de Parfum




I was surprised by this unique scent right away and thought it smelled really good but it's not a fragrance I could wear every day. It's very fresh and green smelling with a strong sweetness to it like fresh watermelon. I think it's a nice perfume for summer if you like sweet and fresh scents but there's something about it that makes me sick of it immediately after I put it on. It kind of smells like Herbal Essence shampoo. It's very strong which usually I like, but I can smell it every time I breathe in which is why I'm so sick of it so soon I guess. I think I was so excited at first because it smelled unique in the bottle but on my skin, it just reminds me of shampoo.


Incoco Nail Polish Applique


I love the design of this nail strip. I love the bright color blue against the black and the dots of blue really do shimmer and sparkle when it catches light - pretty amazing. However, they started to peel and chip immediately after I put them on. It seems like the strips are not as adhesive as the Sally Hansen Salon Effects Real Nail Polish Strips cause it felt like they could peel right off. Also I always push down pretty hard on the strip to make sure they are stuck on and it started to make a fingerprint in the nail polish when I did that.  From watching the selection of these from the youtube videos, some of the designs seemed a bit gaudy, but that's what I thought about these at first too and I ended up loving how they look on my nails. Plus one other thing I prefer about the Salon Effects is that they come with a cuticle stick, mini file, and buffer - everything you need!


Bonus -Birchbox Friendship Bracelet


I thought this was a really cute idea at first with the Birchbox color (love that color pink) and logo charm and I like small thin bracelets like that because I don't like to feel heavy things on my wrist that get in my way and make noise. So I wore this one day and that was the last time I wore it. It fit great since it's adjustable but the leftover piece of string was really long and was getting in the way all day because it kept sticking out instead of staying in line with the rest of the bracelet. I know this would've been more time consuming but the end of the adjustable string piece should've been attached to the bracelet too then there wouldn't be a long piece of string hanging down and you could adjust and move 2 different knots at two different spots in the bracelet.


In conclusion, I really liked this month's box. I think this might be the first time I have used every single product!

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Yankee's October Scent

Autumn Wreath



This is a good one for fall. Someone in a Yankee store said this surpassed Harvest in popularity, which I find hard to believe and it's not THAT good, but it's a nice scent. "There's a cheerful fall welcome in the spicy warmth of autumn leaves and cinnamon apples."

St. Johnsbury Candle Review