Being subscribed to Birchbox and being a beauty blogger in general I have found my sample stash rapidly growing. So on Sunday I decided I would treat my hair and body to only sample products I have in my stash.
These little beauties are for my hair, my face and my body. I was really keen to try out some new products for my hair because I want to grow it a bit longer, it is long already but I want it to be just a fraction longer but still look healthy. In my stash I have the John Freida Sheer Blonde Shampoo, I already adore John Freida Go Blonder and it's one I will always repurchase. Being blonde my hair is naturally very multi tonal so anything that enhances the colours makes me happy. Then to condition my hair I tried out the John Master Organics Detangler, the scent of this product is divine, it has a strong citrus scent but isn't over powering at all. In fact it reminded me of lemon curd, I just wanted to eat it. I really liked this product, made the ends of my hair feel very soft. Then just so finish it off I used 3 drops of the Beauty Protector Protect and Oil to my wet hair just to lock in a bit of moisture. Then next day my hair felt really well conditioned but I think I used a little too much, my hair is very fine, I just can't get away with many hair oils.
Moving onto my face I tried the Laura Mercier Flawless Skin Face Polish, and was actually really surprised how much I liked it. I thought it would be like many other facial scrubs, too harsh and too grainy for my skin. I found that the particles were actually incredibly fine and my face didn't look too red after. In fact my skin looked super fresh I almost didn't want to put anything else on it. Moving onto Ahava and their Purifying Mud Mask, I wish I could get this brand easy in the UK. I love this face mask. It's super gentle on the skin and you only leave it on for a few minutes so it isn't too hard to wash off.
And finally we have another Beauty Protector product it's their Beauty Wash body wash. I really love the scent of Beauty Protector products, it's like a mix between candy floss and flowers, it's lovely. This body wash is exactly the same and a really lovely product.
There we have some of my samples, I think it's good to hunt your sample stash every once in a while.
What are your recent favourite samples?
What a fun themed box for my birthday month, it's also Birchbox's Birthday too!
I must admit, when I opened it up I was really pleasantly surprised, I absolutely adore the design and that it says Happy Birchday, it's just a very cute box. If you saw my August Birchbox first impressions then you'll know that I wasn't that impressed with it, so this month I didn't have massive expectations. That being said when I lifted the lid I was actually really happy with it, so let's take a closer look into what I received.
This box is actually American themed so they are all American products, but the first thing I grabbed was the "Birchbrush" which is very similar to the Tangle Teezer and I was actually going to buy one so it's great that I can give this ago and decide whether to buy an actual Tangle Teezer. I like that it's small and I can just chuck it in my bag. Another hair related product I recieved was the John Masters Organics Detangler conditioner. This stuff smells utterly amazing, it's citrus and neroli so you know I'm gonna bloody love it!
Then we have another Birchbox fave which is a product from Beauty Protector, to be honest I have had a lot of their hair products and they are nice but I am thrilled that it is actually a body wash instead. It smells like all the other Beauty Protector products, it's quite a sweet scent but still really lovely. I also received a little Laura Mercier Facial Polish that I am looking forward to trying out because I actually haven't used that many Laura Mercier products. I normally hate facial scrubs but I'd definitely be willing to give this one a go.
Moving onto the beauty products, I have a Benefit POREfessional Licence to Blot, it's a nice product but I'm not a very oily person however I will be going on holiday soon so perhaps I'll use it a lot out there. Finally I received a Laqa & Co Cheeky Lip Pencil, I have received a product from this brand before but it was full on purple, I couldn't use it but I received a vibrant coral colour called Cray-Cray, I love the name. It's probably not one I would wear often but again, I'm going on holiday so it would be good to try it out there.
There we have my September Birchbox.
What did you receive in yours?
The Beauty Junkie Box, I must admit there wasn't a massive amount of hype surrounding this months Birchbox which is a good thing sometimes because then it makes it more of a surprise when it does arrive. That being said, I am pretty disappointed with this month's box.
Don't get me wrong we have some great brands in this box, but I was just a little underwhelmed, I think we've been spoiled with the recent great boxes. So shall we have a deeper look at what I actually receieved?
Firstly, I noticed that this month we got tiny little emoji stickers, which are pretty cute but honestly I'm never, ever, going to use them. I'm sure there will be a lot of people who like these stickers but my personal style isn't the cute pastel shades thing so these are probably going to go to my little goddaughter. Another item I'm not that thrilled about is the Huygens facial scrub, it has rice particles so it's a little gentler than other face scrubs but it just isn't something I've going to use. I can't use anything too abrasive on my face and this scrub definitely looks a little too gritty for my liking.
Speaking of scrubs I also received Rituals Fortune Scrub which is to be used on your body, this I can work with a little more, it smells really nice it has orange and cedar wood in it so I'm looking forward to trying this one out. In the gym bag it goes. A Birchbox brand favourite is Beauty Protector which is a hair care brand and I have tried out a lot of difference products because of Birchbox. This month I received the Protect and Oil hair oil, I actually received two little bottles which is quite generous because you only need 1-3 drops applied to your hair. The thing that annoys me about the brand, is that there is little information on how to use the product but maybe this is just on the samples? The thing I looooooove about this brand is all their products smell amazing!
Moving onto make up items, I have received the Laura Mercier Full Blown Volume Supreme Mascara which I am incredibly excited to try out as I haven't used any Laura Mercier make up products before, lets see what it does for my lashes. Next is the Lord & Berry blusher in Lotus, another one I'm actually pretty excited to give a go. I really like the shade of this blush it isn't too pink, just kinda add a bit of warmth to the cheeks as well as a nice flush of colour. It's a little hard to store because it's just one little disk but it'll be fine.
Lastly we have an item which is probably going to get the most use from me which is the L. Erickson hair band which is metal free so less damaging and it's quite chunky. My hair goes up when I go to the gym so I pretty much always have a hair band on my wrist but I kinda like that it looks a bit different from other hair brands, almost a little stylish.
So there we have August's Birchbox, it's nice but I'm not blown away by it.
What did you get in your Birchbox?
It's that time of the month again, a beautiful little Birchbox arrived at my door. This one is a collab with Tatler Magazine , you can buy a limited addition Tatler Birchbox for £25 I believe but this one is just the standard Birchbox.
Firstly, I just want to explain how much I love the look of this box, it is so bloody pretty!! It's got pink, it's got birds and it even had a touch of rose gold, what's not to love? It's a "Royally Good" box with a nod towards Royal Baby #2 and this box has 6 beauty samples to try out.
Now, I've gotta be a little honest here, I was a tad disappointed. There wasn't that wow factor for me, it's a nice box but I'm not blown away by it. This month we have a Laura Mercier eye pencil in the shade Violet which is a pretty strong blue/purple shade and I don't think I'm going to get a lot of use out of this.
There is also a Percy & Reed volumising No Oil Oil, which I know I'm going to struggle to use because my hair is quite thin so the more product I add to it the flatter and limp it looks and I have actually tried a volumising cream from this brand before and didn't really like it. We also have Bliss foaming face wash which I will try out but I'm going to be quite careful as I have a feeling this wash could dry out my face a little.
There is also Pommade Divine product which is a balm to apply on dry skin and kind of multi purpose product which I'm happy to give a go! Next is the Befine warming clay mask which I'm quite excited about, gotta love a face mask and this one has cardamon, arnica and pomegranate in it.
One product I'm actually pretty excited to try out is the Lola Barcelona nail polish in Born, this is an utterly gorgeous shimmery nude shade, I'll probably write a separate review about this one.
What do you think to this month's Birchbox?
I was very excited for this product to arrive because it cost me £2!!! Utter bargain right? This is the Laura Mercier Body and Bath in Fresh Fig and Honey. I have had my eye on it for ages because I bought it through Birchbox.
For those of you who don't know, Birchbox actually has a point scheme where you can earn points when you subscribe but you also get points when you give them feedback on their boxes per product.
I've been subscribed to Birchbox for a year now which has meant I've accumulated just over 300 points which was bloody amazing. I had a look at their shop and found this little beauty priced at £32 which I would never spend that much on essentially bubble bath. However when you use those 300 points it makes it just £2, which is amazing! Plus I had free postage.
The reason I went for this Laura Mercier Body and Bath product is because I absolutely love the smell of fig and honey, plus it's such a silky beautiful lilac colour, I just knew I had to try this product when I saw it. I also love the details of the little honey dipper to distribute the product into your bath. Otherwise I would just end up pouring it in and wasting a lot of product, but I just love the details.
The scent is really beautiful, it's describe on the box as "Celeste Figs mingle with a dewy Apricot Nectar and sensuous Ylang Ylang to create a rich, luxurious scent, unlike any other" I think this description is spot on, is such a beautifully unusual scent I don't think I would have been able to fully describe it, it's very soft and not over powering at all but also just very luxurious.
This is one that I'm going to use when I need that extra bit of indulgence. I actually think it's worth the £32 price tag because it is just so gorgeous and I'm so happy I was able to try this out for just £2. Seriously, I'm in love.
Have you tried any of the Laura Mercier bath products?
