October Birchbox Goop Box!

This post has been long delayed, but earlier in October, I received my personal favorite of all Birchboxes I’ve received! This was my 3rd subscription month and I was so pleasantly surprised when I cheated and looked at the website early to see what my October Goop Box contained!

This month, Birchbox teamed up with Goop.com to bring a collaboration box full of Goop beauty picks! In their monthly “Sneak Peek” video, they rumored that they would be having an Essie polish from their Fall Collection in some boxes. I was so lucky to have received one of the few boxes that had one from the beautiful collection in my box!

(meeeeep!) So super excited to use this new shade for the Fall!

Super fragrant and moisturizing, love this Kiehl’s body wash!

Beautiful Coral-Colored Lip Gloss!

Lastly, the lifestyle item for the month — a Luna Fiber Bar, a delicious White Chocolate Raspberry flavored! (People were really disappointed in this, but luckily, I’m a big Luna Bar fan!)

Overall, this was a pretty exciting box! It was definitely a Hit! in my Birchbox Hit or Miss decidernator. 🙂 I loved every single item in my box and have already been using all of them! Hopefully next month won’t be a disappointment. 😐 I just gotta wait!

If you’re excited about Birchbox, feel free to sign up for a luxurious box of curated samples. 🙂 If you sign up using my referral link I’ll be rewarded with points! Thanks in advance 🙂

And for all those who have been affected by Hurricane Sandy, you’ll be in my prayers. May you and your family have a speedy recovery! God bless.

xo<3
Felicia C.

Birchbox: My First Birchbox for August ’12!

Soooooo after waiting 4 weeks for my subscription information…and another 17 days for everything to be processed and shipped out…my first Birchbox is finally here! I was checking the shipping status all day at work and quickly rushed to my mailbox as soon as I got home, so eager to open it to see what goodies I got in my box! Birchbox is basically a subscription service that sends monthly samples of low – high end brands in a cute box. It’ll typically include 5-6 beauty products and 1 lifestyle product. The products will vary every month, and they have a promise to never re-send you the same sample. Basically, it’s a hit or a miss. You’ll either score some really good samples of full sized products, or even great sample sized ones, or you’ll basically be left with a box of stuff you don’t intend on using — a miss.

So when I was anticipating my box, I had a lot time to search and look through other blogs to see what I’d possibly get for my ‘Welcome Box’. I was pretty excited to the see the item-lineup on the site, when they had announced a sneak-peak at the products they were going to include in the sets of 30+ Birchboxes. I was really looking forward to the Shick Hydro Razor that was the lifestyle product intended for August, the Pixi Beauty Products, and other eye – mascara, liner products. For me, this box was a miss.  I know it’s my first box and all, but I’ll go into my detail below on what I’ll categorize my Birchboxes as a ‘miss.’

This month, Birchbox teamed up with Pencils of Promise, an organization that helps raise awareness as well as money to build schools for high-need countries and communities such as Laos, Nicaragua, and Guatemala. Through 8/31, Birchbox is donating 15% of all proceeds from the Birchbox Shop to this organization. This is probably one of the things I loved most about this box–that they were giving back to the community.

This months’ Birchbox theme was Beauty School, a beauty themed box for back to school month. On the back were descriptions of the “Supply Kit” – what each of my items were and what to use them for.

In each box, there’s one “wow” item, and for my Welcome Box, this DDF Brightening Cleanser was it. The full size 250ml retails for $38, and my sample size was a pretty big 133ml, more than half of the full sized product. Still, I’m not quick to use skincare items that aren’t acne-prevention because my skin is so sensitive and prone to breakouts. It’s too bad Birchbox only lets you add your Profile after you’ve ordered the first box; I feel I would have gotten products more fitting to my lifestyle/skin’s needs. So this cleanser, will probably be my emergency-go-to.

My second product, LiQWd’s Professional Volumizing Catalyst, descriptions on my little card say “Equipped with high-tech moisturizers, this weightless mist adds serious body to flat locks.” Unfortunately, another item I won’t be using much other than the rare occasions when my straight straight hair has been curled/needs to be curled.

This is probably the item I’m most excited to use! Dr. Jart +‘s Waterfuse BB Cream – “This four-in-one moisturizer, serum, sunscreen, and skin-perfecting tint is the beauty version of a Swiss Army Knife.” I’ve been searching for a really good BB Cream for my skin (even though they’re basically non-existent) and I’m hoping I’ll really like this. However, all the other bloggers/reviewers said there is so little product contained in this little jar, there wasn’t enough to be used during one full application. I’m hoping I lucked out of that!

My fourth beauty item, Juicy Couture’s Viva la Juicy La Fleur. I’m an in-between for Juicy fragrances, I’ll really like some of them, and others not so much. This scent is one of my more favorable ones. The description says  it’s a “feminine blend of wild berries, mandarin, and waterlily.”

And finally, my ‘Lifestyle Extra’ of the month, a Larabar uber. I’m so so so disappointed that I got this. I wanted the Schick Razor instead of this so badly. This was so tiny that I was literally able to finish the entire bar in 2 bites. It was really soft, chewy, and full of nuts and fruits, but still, I would never return and buy a pack of 5 of these for $9.00.

So how I’m determining whether each of my Birchboxes is a ‘Hit’ or a ‘Miss’ is by the  # of things I’ll put to use / # of things I won’t be using. This month, I was really only interested in 2/5 products, so I’m considering my Welcome Box, a ‘Miss.’ I was definitely anticipating so much more but it’s all good. I’ll give my subscription a few more months to determine whether or not I want to unsubscribe. I’d like to at least have a few “Hits” before then though!

Sorry for being so critical in this post! I just really wanted to get my thoughts out on this new curated make-up samples craze. But feel free to let me know if you’re having more luck on an alternate monthly curated makeup box samples subscription! I’d love to try new subscriptions to enjoy and to share with you all! Oh and for all those that have started/are starting school, have a wonderful school year!<3

Warm Regards,

Felicia.C<3