Birchbox and Ipsy August 2013

Hi everyone. So I’m late again with my Birchbox and Ipsy posts so I am combining them again this month.

Since I have a lot to share let’s just get started.

The theme for Birchbox this month was Finishing School, with the boxes this month giving you items to help you finish a look.

The first item is the Dr. Jart+ Premium BB Cream SPF 45+. Like all BB creams this is supposed to help even out your skintone, protect against the sun, and do other helpful skin beneficial things. First off this does not have that icky sunscreen smell! but this one size fits all color is a little too dark for my skin. It does blend out nicely and doesn’t look really obvious that I’m wearing something too dark for my skin tone. This does a decent job of evening out my skin tone but I still put my regular foundation on over it. I don’t think I would buy the full size but I will finish up the sample.

Full size: $39

As you can see, this is a little too dark for me. The pale pasty hand on the left is without the BB cream and the hand on the right has it on.

The next item is the Jasmine Seven Fresh Feet Wipes. These wipes are for quickly refreshing your feet. These smelled nice and pepperminty. I am a morning shower person so I think these are a great idea to use so I won’t but dirty feet in my bed.

Full size: $25.95

The next item is the ModelCo party Proof lipstick in Kitty. This is a semi-matte lipstick that is hydrating and long lasting. While I do agree that this is hydrating, I don’t think it is any longer lasting than other lipsticks. This has a nice fruity scent and goes on smoothly. Kitty is a great nude color for me. It gives a little bit of color and doesn’t wash out my lips.

Full size: set of three for $24

The next item is the Number 4 Super Comb Prep & Protect spray. This is a leave in conditioner that protects your hair from heat style and uv rays, and detangles. I was not that impressed with this. While it did a decent job detangling, it is not a good leave in conditioner.

Full size: $32

The last item in the box is the Miss Jessie’s Original Super Slip Sudsy Shampoo. This product is to help conquer tangles, dryness, and frizz. This shampoo has a really weird texture. One time I had a craft at work to make slime and that is what this shampoo feels like. This shampoo also does not get foamy or bubbly. Though it did get my hair clean. I like the fruity smell.

Full size: $14

Everything I got in my box.

On to Ipsy. Their theme for this month was Glamour Academy. Obviously school was on Birchbox and Ipsy’s brain for this month.

The bag for this month.

The first item in the bag was MICAbeauty Cosmetics Shimmer Powder in Bronze. I looked on MICAbeauty’s website to see what a shimmer powder is and this is listed under the eyeshadow, which is a good thing because that is how I was using it. This is mineral eyeshadow that is a pretty golden peach shadow. It went on very smoothly and stayed on until I washed it off.

Here is an eye look I did using the Shimmer Powder. It is on the lid, not sure what else I used. I should really make this post when I take these pictures or at least make notes somewhere.

The next item is the Pixi Lash Booster mascara in black. This is an okay mascara, nothing special about it.

The next item is the Chella Dazzling Dark brown eyebrow color. I prefer powder to fill in my brows so I wasn’t that thrilled to get the pencil. Also this is a little too dark and red toned for my brows. I can get it to work but I rather use something else that I don’t have to make work.

The next item is the Michael Todd Jojoba Charcoal facial scrub. This was my favorite thing in the bag. I have sensitive skin that becomes irritated with any scrub but this is gentle enough that I didn’t have any problems with it. The scrub bits are kinda spongey so while they scrub they are not too harsh. One suggestion I would make it to use this in your shower. The black charcoal part is kinda messy when removing it.

The last item is the Urban Decay Revolution Lipstick in Anarchy. This is super pigmented and long lasting.

Here is everything I got in my Ipsy bag.

So that is what I got in my boxes this month.

Nail of the Day: Seafoam Green Shimmer

I had two polishes on my hand that I thought were okay but nothing spectacular. Zoya Wednesday is nice but kinda dull, well dull for me as I like bright nails. I had seen pictures of Orly Sparkling Garbage and loved the color. I couldn’t find it in stores so I ordered it online. When I got I was disappointed that it wasn’t an opaque halo polish. I then noticed Zoya Wednesday and had an Ah Ha moment. I love the result and I think it brings out the best in both polishes.

So now what you were waiting for, some pictures.

The polishes used:

The nail look:

Sparkling Garbage by itself:

The pictures don’t do the halo aspect justice so you’ll just have to trust me how pretty this is. 😉

Empties

Some of my favorite videos to watch on Youtube is Empties videos. In case you haven’t seen one it is videos where the person shows you what they have used up and if they would buy it again. So I thought I would share with you some stuff that I have used up recently.

The first item is Aveeno Daily Moisturizing lotion. I really like that this is scent free and absorbs quickly so I can put it on and go. The thing I don’t like about it is I don’t think it is that great of a moisturizer. I’m trying some other things out right now, thank you various subscription boxes, but I tend to go back to this lotion. So I won’t repurchase this right now but probably in the future.

The next item is the Make eye makeup remover. I got this as a sample in one of my Birchbox boxes and liked it so much I bought a full size. I like that this removed eye makeup really quickly and didn’t make my eyes feel greasy.

The next item is the Josie Maran Aragon Oil. I got this in one my subscription boxes, Ipsy maybe. And this was a godsend this past winter. This was the only product that kept my skin from peeling. When I finished it I got a bottle of Julep Aragon oil that was on sale but it isn’t as good as the Josie Maran version. When I finish the Julep one I will definitely go back to the Josie Maran brand.

The next item is the Bare Minerals Prime Time eye lid primer. I got this in some Bare Escentuals kit I bought. I like the product and think it works really well but for what you get for the price I will not repurchase. Instead I will get the Too Faced Shadow Insurance. The two products work the same but the Too Faced version is cheaper and lasts longer because it is sold in bigger size than the Prime Time primer.

The next item is the Stila Stay All Day waterproof liquid eyeliner. I don’t remember the name of the color but it is the blue one. I HATED this product and the only thing I didn’t finish using in this post. I could never get the liner to work. Oh I guess I should explain that this one of those felt tip eye liners, but instead of the color being ready to go you had to shake the pen to activate the liner. No amount of shaking could get this to work. So I will definitely NOT repurchase this.

The next thing are the various cleansing wipes that I either bought, got in a subscription box, or in a kit. My favorite in the bunch is the Ole Henriksen truth to go wipes. The smelled really good, like orange sherbet, and were the only ones that actually made my face feel clean. Alas, these are just too expensive for me to buy. At $15 a pack that just doesn’t seem practical to spend every month. My next favorite were the Pacifica Coconut Water cleansing wipes. These smelled really good too, coconuty, but that was about it. The other two, La Fresh travel wipes and Yes to Cucumbers facial towelettes, were used only so I could get rid of them.

So that is some of the items that I have used recently. If you have tried any these items what did you think of them?

POPSUGAR Must Have Box August 2013

This August box marks POPSUGAR’s one year anniversary. And I think this is becoming one of my favorite boxes. So let me show you what I got.

Must Have Anniversary Gift: Gorjana Open Circle Necklace

This is a gift to the subscribers to celebrate their anniversary. While I think this necklace is cute and delicate I wish it was on a longer necklace. It is a checker on my neck, which is a no go for me.

Must Have Home: Bentgo

This is a bento box that comes with its own utensils. This is also microwave, dishwasher and freezer safe. Can’t wait to use this and as it will be prefect to bring lunch to work.

Must Have Beauty: Lulah Body Wash in Magnolia Fig

This is a shower gel. It smells really perfumey so I don’t know if I’ll be able to use this but the bottle is pretty.

Must Have Home: May Designs Weekly Agenda Notebook

This is a weekly to do notebook. I think this is so cute and is slim enough to throw in my purse. I went of this company’s website and they are a ton of cute designs that you can use to custom make your own notebook. If you are interested in checking it out yourself click here. Don’t worry, that link is not referral or affiliate link.

Must Have Home: Lunares Apple Bowl

It is a decorative apple bowl. I don’t know I just think this is so random. Though this can also be used for food and is oven safe. Not quite sure what I will be doing with this yet. I’m leaning towards giving this as a gift. It’s a shame I am not close to any teachers. Well, I have an uncle who teaches but I don’t think he would appreciate a decorative apple bowl.

Must Have Beauty: Dermalogica Precleanse and Special Cleansing Gel

This is a two part cleansing system. The Precleanse is an oil cleanser and takes off makeup and oil. After the Precleanse is rinsed off from the face you use the Special Cleansing Gel to take off any residue and deep clean your face. I’m really liking these two cleansers. The Precleanser completely replaces the need for eye makeup remover and cleaning cloths. These also work well on the eyes and don’t burn. This also isn’t too drying. The only down side is the smell. I’m not a fan of lavender and that is the predominate scent. The good thing is the scent doesn’t last too long.

Special Extra: Naturebox Granny Smith Apples

Naturebox is a monthly subscription box that is $20 a month and gives you 5 healthy snacks a month. I have a subscription to Naturebox and I love it. Everything, for the most part, has been really yummy. This is one of the few snacks I didn’t like. I usually love apple chips but these are spongey and chewy. No thanks.

So that is everything I got. If you are interested in your own Popsugar Box use REFER5 for $5 off your first box. If you would to help me out and use my referral codes for Popsugar or Naturebox send me an email and I will send you an email invite.

Julep Maven box August 2013 and Golden Mystery box

Time for another Julep box! August celebrates Julep’s 2nd anniversary of their Maven program. Since it was their anniversary they had a special mystery box in their Secret Store. If you don’t know, the Secret Store is available to people who got their Maven box and includes discounted items and special nail polish sets.

So enough chit chat let’s get into these boxes.

Inside the box.

The monthly quote.

The extra item for the month. I have a black thumb so I will probably not use these. Cute idea though since the monthly theme was Garden Party.

Since I forgot to say before, the box I got this month is Modern Beauty. This is the box that has two beauty products and no polish, which is a box I never thought I would have ever have gotten. I wasn’t a fan of any of the polishes this month enough to get one of the polish boxes and I really wanted to try the masks, which only came in this box or as a $15 upgrade. Just wanted to let you know I haven’t used anything in the box yet so this post is just to show you what I got.

So the first item is the DoubleStep foot treatment & friction stick. This similar to the Band-Aid brand version of their friction stick.

The next item is Moisture Mask Trio. This has 3 masks, one for nails, one for hands, and one for the feet. I can’t wait to use these as my hands, feet, and nails need all the moisture it can get.

Of course I couldn’t go a month without getting at least one nail polish so I added Sylvia to my box. The polish side of the picture is more accurate than the swatch side. This is a smoky purple polish that is perfect to go from summer to fall.

Now on to the Golden Mystery box. So this is how my box came. I was worried that the items would be damaged or missing things. Luckily everything was okay!

I believe this is box version #1. Here all the goodies.

First up are these super cute earrings.

The next item is the hand cream with SPF 30. This is a chemical sunscreen so I probably won’t be using this.

The next item is Oxygen Nail Treatment, which is a treatment to help with thin, weak, and nail prone to peeling. I have this and haven’t noticed any great change in my nails.

Now on to the polishes. I got four in this box and no repeats! This is the only box that didn’t have repeats for me so I really lucked out with this box.

So that’s what I got! When I get a chance to use the masks I’ll be sure to let you know how they work out.

First Impressions: beautybox 5 July 2013

Hi, everyone! I’m on a road trip but still wanted to post a blog so I’m writing this on my phone. So forgive any errors that you will most definitely come across.

So another beautybox 5 box and even though I got brands that have been in pretty much every box, I think this box is an improvement on the last few I’ve gotten. Yay! So let’s get into the box.

Every Beauty Foot Smoother

One thing I like about beautybox 5 is that they put in tools. This is a foot scrub that is pretty effective. My feet definitely looked better using this. I didn’t take any pictures because no one needs to see ugly feet pictures. You’re welcome. 😉 The only complaint is that I wish this was in an earlier box so I could have had nice looking heels at the beginning of the summer.

Full price: $8.99

Jean Pierre Cosmetics nail polish remover wipes

My nails are really gross and peeling right now so I’m taking a break from wearing nail polish. So I have not tried these yet. One thing I would say is that this company really needs to work on its packaging. Really boring and hard to tell what brand this even is.

Full price: $3.99 for 10 wipes

Be a Bombshell lip gloss in Hot Mess

A new brand and a lip gloss is really exciting until I realized that I already own this gloss. I got this in my December Ipsy bag. How disappointing! I only own 2 Be a Bombshell products and I still manage to get a repeat. This is a nice gloss that has great pigmentation. It is also not too sticky.

Full price: $14 for .11 oz

La Fresh Travel lite Antibacterial Wipes

After I took the picture of this product it went immediately into my purse. I like the wipes because not only can I disinfect my hands but anything I might be touching. I thought these were great but these have a very strong perfume scent. Not quite sure why they felt the need to perfume something only going on our hands.

Full price: $1.99 for 8 wipes

H2O Plus Face Oasis Hydrating Treatment

This is a product to keep your face looking fresh. Not quite sure what that means. If this is suppose to be a moisturizer it can only really be used on oily skin but normal or dry skin will definitely need to use moisturizer with this. I think this is a product that needs to be used long term to see any type of benefit. I can say that in my one time use I did not notice deep moisturization or visible plumping of deep wrinkles as the contain claims. Granted I don’t have deep wrinkles yet but still.

Full price: $36 for 1.7 oz

So that is my box for the month. Keep up the good work beautybox 5!

Nail of the Day: Blue and Glitter

Here is another addition of Nail of the Day. This nothing fancy but I wanted to show you. I started off with Butter London Keks. I hated how it looked. This was a difficult polish to work with, weirdly thick and applied very unevenly. After two coats the polish looked lumpy on my nails. It also dried to a weird half matte finish. That wasn’t too big of a deal because a shiny top coat can take care of that. But overall I just didn’t like how this color look. I needed to fix this and what better way to improve a polish you don’t like? That’s right, GLITTER!!! So I added Butter London Lovely Jubbly on the tips. Here is the final results.

Here are the colors I used.

So that’s my look. Once I added the glitter I liked the blue much better. Hope you like it too.

Julep Summer Days Mystery box

This is Julep’s mystery box for the month of July. They had three options, summer days, summer nights and combo of both for $15 more. I also got an additional Maven box. If you don’t remember I got the It Girl box, which doesn’t contain product. Well, I heard so many good things about the dry oil spray that I wanted to try for myself. For $2 more I got the Boho Glam box, which has the dry oil spray and the two polishes.

First up is the mystery box. As I said before this is the Summer Days box, version 1.

Here is what I got.

Not too great of a box for me. I already have the green polish and I certainly have no need for a nude polish.

The non polish product is the Lip Vernis in Peony. This is a nice lip gloss, not too sticky and adds a nice color to the lips.

Now for the polishes. Every box included two new glitter polishes, Monica and Kyla. Every polish has two coats on the swatch except for Gemma, which has three.

Now on to the Boho Glam box. These polishes are gorgeous and really enforces the silly decision I made in not just upgrading for the complete collection.

First up is the Beach Tonic dry body oil. I think the packaging is so cute. Anyway this spray is to be used right after you get out the shower before you dry off. I liked this and found it moisturizing but I do think this is little too much perfume in it for me. The scent doesn’t last too long so I have been able to use this.

Now for the polishes.

So that is what I got in my mystery box this month.

Birchbox and Ipsy July 2013

Since I was bad this month with writing blog posts. And it is already August I thought it would be best to combine Birchbox and Ipsy together in one posts.

First up is Birchbox. For the July box they had the USA Network show “Suits” help curate the box and everyone got a product picked by them.

So here is what I got in my box.

The first item is the Kérastase Fondant Chroma Captive. This product is to keep your dyed hair shiny and last longer. This is not a conditioner but something to use after you wash your hair. You put it in and rinse it out after 2-3 minutes. I do dye my hair but I haven’t used this yet.

Full size: $41 (I think this is crazy expensive for what is essentially a L’Oreal product.)

The next item is the ModelCo Fibre LASHXTEND Lengthening Mascara. This is a mascara with fibers in it to extend the length of your mascara. I gave this away as I have had bad experiences with fiber mascaras. I do think it is cool that the have a mirror on the bottle.

Full size: $24

The next item is theBalm cosmetics InStain Long-Wearing Powder Staining Blush in the shade Swiss Dot. This is a blush stain in powder form. This is definitely long lasting. I put it on at 8am and it was still there 12 hours later.

Full size: $22

I put in a large paper clip to show the size of the sample.

The next item and the Suits pick is Benta Berry G-1 Moisturizing Face cream. This is so full of perfume that I could barely wear this. This is also very matte and would be better for oily skin.

Full size: $22

The last item is Birchbox bobby pins. While I think these are really cute I feel that they are really big, at least for how I style my hair, and hard to put on.

Set of six, $5

So now on to the Ipsy bag.

The theme:

The bag:

The contents:

The first item is Big Sexy Hair Weather Proof Humidity Resistance Spray. This spray is used to protect your hair from humidity. Can’t say that I noticed any difference between using using this and not using it.

The next item is the Coola Mineral Sunscreen unscented with SPF 20. This is a physical sunscreen so no nasty sunscreen smell! Yay! This absorbs quickly and didn’t make my face greasy or effect my makeup. If this wasn’t so expensive, full size is $36 for 1.7 oz., I would definitely buy a full size.

The next item is the Nailtini polish in Mai Tai. Not a fan of the color, a tangerine orange, but it applied nicely on the swatch nail.

The next item is the Pop Beauty Pouty Pop crayon in Coral Crush. This applied nicely, feels more like a lip balm than a lipstick. I was surprised by how pink this was, more pink than coral.

The last item is the BH cosmetics California Collection eye palette. This is a collection of three eye shadows from their three California themed collections. The gold eyeshadow was the most pigmented and the purple color barely had any and was also hard to work with.

Here is a look I did using the palette.

Here is a look using the eye palette from the Ipsy bag and the blush from Birchbox.

So that is my two boxes for the month.