Reminder: this box is £10 a month + £2.95 P+P.
First impressions:
First impressions:
Yellow bag! Noooooooooo! There was a 50/50 chance of me getting a colour I'd like and I got one I hate. It's dirty already from me taking photos of it. The material just absorbs dirt. The only way it'll stay clean is if I wash it endlessly. It's also much smaller than I thought it would be. The contents barely fit: the products info leaflet was folded up and squashed in amongst the samples. It has huge seams inside it that take up a lot of space. Can't say I'm a massive fan of the bag! I thought I'd be able to store lots of Birchbox goodies in it, but that's just not going to be the case. It's too small to fit most things in it. I'd much rather have had a box instead.
For the products themselves, I was a little disappointed by what I saw this time around. A hand sanitiser in a beauty box seems like they're scraping the barrel. At no point in my existence have I ever wished for a more luxurious hand sanitiser. It's just hand sanitiser. It sanitises your hands. That's it. I wasn't overly impressed by the scrub or the moisturiser either: both are samples of products that are cheap to buy in full size. Part of me thinks that that's great if I like the products because then it won't cost me a king's ransom to replace the samples, but the other part of me doesn't get this box for samples of £3.99 scrubs. I can buy that full size and try it and if I hate it it's only £3.99 and I can use it up and just not buy it again. That's not quite how I'd feel if I bought that Rituals scrub in full size and found I didn't like that. Higher end samples make the box worth getting, because the samples themselves are more expensive, but it also saves me money in the long run as I don't end up buying expensive things that I then try and don't like (remember we cannot return cosmetics in the UK if they don't work out). That will be lost if they send cheap samples. It doesn't feel like this boxbagthing is worth the money, and I've never felt like that after opening a Birchbox before. Maybe the products will prove me wrong. As for brands, I've heard of Philip Kingsley from a previous box and heard of English Laundry from YouTube but the rest are all new.
Here's what I got this month! As per Birchbox's competition instructions, I took my Birchbag to the beach for photos this time.
1/5
We got to choose the colour of the eyeliner that we got - brown or purple - and I was really happy that I got the colour I wanted. I really like brown eyeliners but I don't own many of them (I think I have two) so I was excited to have another one to test out, especially since none of the brown eyeliners that I have already are waterproof. Unfortunately, neither is this. I swatched it on my hand and then washed it off with water. It washed off in the shower without me even touching my eyes. It comes off with miscellar water when I'm cleansing my face. It doesn't stay put if my eyes water a lot on windy days. I could probably deal with that if it wasn't for the colour. It's brown, yes, but it's a shimmery brown. It's not a solid colour like I thought it would be from the preview. It's practically invisible on my waterline: I can only tell that it's there at all because my waterline has a faint bronze shimmer to it. There's no colour payoff at all. On my eyelid, it's impossible to get a smooth line. The shimmer isn't particularly consistent, and some strokes will dump a bit of darker pigment at random. Then there's a lot of back and forth to try and get that bit to blend in with the pencil strokes that were just pale and shimmery. It's weird, and it doesn't look good. The only use I have for this is the lower lash line. Because of the shimmer, it can be very subtle without the need for any smudging (if I smudged this it would just disappear anyway) so it's nice for some soft definition. I can fix any colour dumps with a cotton bud and it won't ruin whatever makeup I have on like it does when trying to fix it on the upper lash line. It took some serious eyeshadow surgery just to get the colour to be even on my eyelid, huge nope to trying that again. But on the lower lash line, it's nice. I do have to be careful with the outer corners because Marcelle's definition of "waterproof" is vastly different to mine, but it looks nice while it's there and it's subtle enough that it isn't very noticeable if my eyes do water enough to make it wander. It's pretty much useless for anything else though. I tried to sharpen it to see if that would improve it at all, but it just broke. I took the photo after this, and that's as sharp as it will go before it breaks. It's a shame because I really wanted to like it, but it just doesn't do what it's supposed to do.
We got to choose the colour of the eyeliner that we got - brown or purple - and I was really happy that I got the colour I wanted. I really like brown eyeliners but I don't own many of them (I think I have two) so I was excited to have another one to test out, especially since none of the brown eyeliners that I have already are waterproof. Unfortunately, neither is this. I swatched it on my hand and then washed it off with water. It washed off in the shower without me even touching my eyes. It comes off with miscellar water when I'm cleansing my face. It doesn't stay put if my eyes water a lot on windy days. I could probably deal with that if it wasn't for the colour. It's brown, yes, but it's a shimmery brown. It's not a solid colour like I thought it would be from the preview. It's practically invisible on my waterline: I can only tell that it's there at all because my waterline has a faint bronze shimmer to it. There's no colour payoff at all. On my eyelid, it's impossible to get a smooth line. The shimmer isn't particularly consistent, and some strokes will dump a bit of darker pigment at random. Then there's a lot of back and forth to try and get that bit to blend in with the pencil strokes that were just pale and shimmery. It's weird, and it doesn't look good. The only use I have for this is the lower lash line. Because of the shimmer, it can be very subtle without the need for any smudging (if I smudged this it would just disappear anyway) so it's nice for some soft definition. I can fix any colour dumps with a cotton bud and it won't ruin whatever makeup I have on like it does when trying to fix it on the upper lash line. It took some serious eyeshadow surgery just to get the colour to be even on my eyelid, huge nope to trying that again. But on the lower lash line, it's nice. I do have to be careful with the outer corners because Marcelle's definition of "waterproof" is vastly different to mine, but it looks nice while it's there and it's subtle enough that it isn't very noticeable if my eyes do water enough to make it wander. It's pretty much useless for anything else though. I tried to sharpen it to see if that would improve it at all, but it just broke. I took the photo after this, and that's as sharp as it will go before it breaks. It's a shame because I really wanted to like it, but it just doesn't do what it's supposed to do.
2) Philip Kingsley One More Day Dry Shampoo 50ml/1.7fl. oz - full size RRP £14.50
5/5
This is the first dry shampoo I've ever used, so I can't compare this to any other brands. Dry shampoo isn't something I'm really into (I'd rather just wash my hair if it's that much of a problem) so I've never had one before. I didn't really know what to expect. My hair is so dry that it doesn't really get greasy between washes. All that happens is that it goes from being a fluffy mess to being a bit smoother and more manageable. It's very, very rare that I would need to use something like this. So... for this review, I purposefully left my hair alone one day so I could try it. It wasn't greasy still, but it was as "one day more" as it was likely to get. I sprayed this through as per the instructions, brushed my hair... and it was like I'd just washed it. It definitely works. It doesn't really have a strong scent, which I thought was a little weird considering the product, but my hair stayed nice all day until I washed it in the evening. It didn't make my hair feel sticky or crunchy or weird and it definitely took what little "wash me please" feeling my hair gets away. I can certainly see it having its uses and since it was so good I will definitely consider buying it once it runs out, but as I said, it's not something I will use a lot so that may take a while. That's not the fault of the product though, that's just my routine. If you needed a decent dry shampoo, this is definitely that.
This is the first dry shampoo I've ever used, so I can't compare this to any other brands. Dry shampoo isn't something I'm really into (I'd rather just wash my hair if it's that much of a problem) so I've never had one before. I didn't really know what to expect. My hair is so dry that it doesn't really get greasy between washes. All that happens is that it goes from being a fluffy mess to being a bit smoother and more manageable. It's very, very rare that I would need to use something like this. So... for this review, I purposefully left my hair alone one day so I could try it. It wasn't greasy still, but it was as "one day more" as it was likely to get. I sprayed this through as per the instructions, brushed my hair... and it was like I'd just washed it. It definitely works. It doesn't really have a strong scent, which I thought was a little weird considering the product, but my hair stayed nice all day until I washed it in the evening. It didn't make my hair feel sticky or crunchy or weird and it definitely took what little "wash me please" feeling my hair gets away. I can certainly see it having its uses and since it was so good I will definitely consider buying it once it runs out, but as I said, it's not something I will use a lot so that may take a while. That's not the fault of the product though, that's just my routine. If you needed a decent dry shampoo, this is definitely that.
3) Amie Morning Dew Matte Finish Moisturiser 10ml/0.35fl. oz - full size RRP £4.95
0/5
I wanted to like this so badly. Partly because there had to be something in this box that I actually liked beyond the dry shampoo, and partly because a cheap matte moisturiser would be nice and save me a lot of money in the long run if I liked it enough to switch to it. But it wasn't to be. I applied this before doing a basic makeup look for a day out. I had a rare day off work and I wanted to go and wander around in the sun for a change. I always do my makeup last because my skin is so oily that the closest to me leaving the house it is, the better. But after I'd done my makeup I felt that jeans would maybe be too hot to wear outside, so I changed into shorts. In the time it took me to finish up my makeup and get changed, I decided to wash my face completely and start over without this moisturiser. My face was so oily it looked wet. That's not normal. It'd been maybe 15 minutes since I'd cleansed, plus I had powder on as part of my base. It shouldn't look or feel that oily already.
I wanted to like this so badly. Partly because there had to be something in this box that I actually liked beyond the dry shampoo, and partly because a cheap matte moisturiser would be nice and save me a lot of money in the long run if I liked it enough to switch to it. But it wasn't to be. I applied this before doing a basic makeup look for a day out. I had a rare day off work and I wanted to go and wander around in the sun for a change. I always do my makeup last because my skin is so oily that the closest to me leaving the house it is, the better. But after I'd done my makeup I felt that jeans would maybe be too hot to wear outside, so I changed into shorts. In the time it took me to finish up my makeup and get changed, I decided to wash my face completely and start over without this moisturiser. My face was so oily it looked wet. That's not normal. It'd been maybe 15 minutes since I'd cleansed, plus I had powder on as part of my base. It shouldn't look or feel that oily already.
The moisturiser itself was nice to put on. It spread out nicely, wasn't too thick, and did feel moisturising. It wasn't matte though. My skin looked dewy straight away. And then it didn't feel right. I knew I had to wash my face without even looking in a mirror and seeing how oily it was. It didn't feel right at all. It felt ridiculously sensitive and when I cleansed it it was a bit sore. I redid my face with the Caudalie sunscreen from the July box and just a lip balm and mascara - no BB cream or powder this time and nothing on my cheeks. My skin didn't feel okay. It looked fine, but something was off. Then came the horrific reaction. Reviews this month were delayed by one of the worst skin reactions I've ever had. My skin felt burned, it was sore to touch and it broke out with what I can only describe as clusters of blood blisters that burst when they felt inclined to. It was really, really bad. It's left me with some pretty severe scarring. Over three weeks later, it is still healing in the worst areas. My skin went from being near perfect to a complete mess and very painful. I thought it may have been one of two other products that I'd recently been using "full time" so when my skin improved, I tested those one by one. I'd been using the face scrub from Huygens very regularly in anticipation of buying the full size (it's now on the way here) so I waited until my skin was better, used up the rest of the sample and nope, wasn't that. That actually helped if anything. Next potential offender was the Bodyshop's face base. This is my go-to lazy product, which I will probably stop buying now unless I can find a way to make it stay matte for longer because it's really not for my skin type, but this is the third or fourth compact of it that I've had so it was unlikely to be this. I was right, it isn't. I've used it every day for the last week and my skin is fine. So, the sore face post use and immediate heavy oil production points to it being caused by this moisturiser. I am not going to try it again to double check. My face still hasn't properly finished bleeding, thank you very much. Once is quite enough.
I'm not sure which of the 39 ingredients was the problem child here. 39 seems like a lot of ingredients to me, but I don't know much if anything about ingredients to know if there's a definite "oh that'll be your problem" one in this. What I do know is that parfum is ingredient number 13. That seems like quite a high volume of parfum to me. I don't remember it being particularly perfumed, and I also don't think I've had something on my face where parfum wasn't the very bottom ingredient even on a long list, so that may be it. Two of the ingredients also have "alcohol" in their name (8th and 9th on the list), which seems like it'd be in direct conflict with the whole "moisturising" thing, but what do I know. I'm sure enough that it was this product that caused the reaction and that's good enough for me right now. I don't love covering up scars enough to want to test it out a second time. On the plus side, I got to put the few concealers I own through their paces. Thanks?
4) Anatomicals The Buff Stuff Citrus Body Scrub 50ml/1.6fl. oz - full size RRP £3.99
1/5
I approached this in pretty much the same way as the moisturiser. It would be great if I liked it because it wouldn't be expensive to replace, but I wasn't happy that I got a sample of something that was so inexpensive to begin with. I don't believe that there's always a correlation between price and quality when it comes to beauty products, I've had some fantastic things that weren't expensive and some truly awful things that were, but this is not quite why I buy these boxes. Still, I thought that maybe if Birchbox still saw fit to include it in boxes, then it must be good. Right? Nope. I assume the pumice in this is the "scrub" part, but apart from chunks of that the scrub itself just consists of a clear, thin gel. It contains parfum, which I don't mind in scrubs as they don't bother my skin (it's just my face that cares about things like that) and they add that extra bit of luxury, but this barely smells of anything. The Rituals scrub filled the whole bathroom with scent and I only used a small amount. There's no soaping or lather at all with this scrub, so you need a lot of it to do the same job as a fraction of the amount of the Rituals scrub. Yes, this is much cheaper, but if I'm going to use so much more of it and it isn't going to be a good scrub either then it's probably more cost effective to get the Rituals one anyway. Chunks of pumice in a thin gel are not very good at scrubbing, particularly when that thin gel is being used on wet skin. It's a miracle if it doesn't just slide off the skin straight away. I would rather get the Rituals scrub and have a body scrub that's amazing than bother with this.
5) Merci Handy Antibacterial Hand Cleansing Gel in New Wave 30ml/1fl. oz - RRP £2.90
4/5
I don't really know how to review this. It's a hand sanitiser. It smells nice, I didn't notice that I could taste it if I used it before eating, and I didn't notice it drying my hands out overly much. I guess that makes it worthy of praise. But it's still a hand sanitiser. The one thing I care about is something I can't test out: I'm not a scientist, I can't test its ability to sanitise hands. It doesn't have the usual claim on the packaging of how much bacteria it can kill, so I've no idea how effective it's meant to be because it doesn't claim to be effective at all. "Hand cleansing gel" is all that it tells you. It's a gel, you put it on your hands, I don't know about the cleansing part. My hands felt clean I guess? I ate food and didn't die? Seriously, how does one go about reviewing a hand sanitiser. Would I buy this from the Birchbox shop? No idea. I really don't see myself ordering a product like this online when I can get a different one in store that essentially does the same thing (or is supposed to, anyway). But if I was a few pounds short of the minimum spend for a coupon code? Sure, why not. It did smell nice, after all. And I'm not dead.
I don't really know how to review this. It's a hand sanitiser. It smells nice, I didn't notice that I could taste it if I used it before eating, and I didn't notice it drying my hands out overly much. I guess that makes it worthy of praise. But it's still a hand sanitiser. The one thing I care about is something I can't test out: I'm not a scientist, I can't test its ability to sanitise hands. It doesn't have the usual claim on the packaging of how much bacteria it can kill, so I've no idea how effective it's meant to be because it doesn't claim to be effective at all. "Hand cleansing gel" is all that it tells you. It's a gel, you put it on your hands, I don't know about the cleansing part. My hands felt clean I guess? I ate food and didn't die? Seriously, how does one go about reviewing a hand sanitiser. Would I buy this from the Birchbox shop? No idea. I really don't see myself ordering a product like this online when I can get a different one in store that essentially does the same thing (or is supposed to, anyway). But if I was a few pounds short of the minimum spend for a coupon code? Sure, why not. It did smell nice, after all. And I'm not dead.
6) English Laundry Notting Hill Eau de Parfum 2ml/0.07fl. oz - full size RRP £46
4/5
I actually really liked this perfume, to the point where this sample is now all gone. It wasn't heady or ridiculously strong, it was wearable. The only downside was that it didn't last very long. I would spray it on and then a couple of hours later it would be gone. It had to be constantly reapplied for the scent to remain, so the sample died very quickly. It's the first perfume sample that I've had from one of these boxes and until it ran out, it served me very well. I do like getting them for their size: it was absolutely perfect for taking out with me. I have a mini spray bottle to put perfumes in to make them more handbag friendly, but that tends to smell strongly of whatever the last perfume in it was. It's not really suited to someone who has a variety of perfumes and likes to switch them around. So, the size of this was really nice. I've never seen English Laundry perfumes for sale in the area, but I'd be very inclined to try some out if I did because this was very nice while it lasted. It was great for going out for a meal or something as it wasn't overwhelming. I could spray it without it making me cough. Sometimes subtle is nicer.
I actually really liked this perfume, to the point where this sample is now all gone. It wasn't heady or ridiculously strong, it was wearable. The only downside was that it didn't last very long. I would spray it on and then a couple of hours later it would be gone. It had to be constantly reapplied for the scent to remain, so the sample died very quickly. It's the first perfume sample that I've had from one of these boxes and until it ran out, it served me very well. I do like getting them for their size: it was absolutely perfect for taking out with me. I have a mini spray bottle to put perfumes in to make them more handbag friendly, but that tends to smell strongly of whatever the last perfume in it was. It's not really suited to someone who has a variety of perfumes and likes to switch them around. So, the size of this was really nice. I've never seen English Laundry perfumes for sale in the area, but I'd be very inclined to try some out if I did because this was very nice while it lasted. It was great for going out for a meal or something as it wasn't overwhelming. I could spray it without it making me cough. Sometimes subtle is nicer.
Overall Impression:
Oh, Birchbox. What are you doing. Why are you doing it. Kindly stop.
The full size of the body scrub is 200ml so the sample is only worth about £1. The moisturiser is 100ml so the sample is worth about 50p (seriously!!). The perfume sample was tiny, the hand sanitiser is small too and that's only £2.90... I don't think that this box was worth the money. At all. It felt like they put the dry shampoo and eyeliner in the boxes and the rest of the items are just cheap filler to make up the product numbers. It's not just about making the box worth the £10, it has to be worth the £10 with good products. If it has £10's worth of crap products in it then it still isn't worth the £10. After the other boxes that I've had this one feels like it came from a different company altogether. I might as well have not had this box and just bought the dry shampoo in full size. I don't really care that much about anything else in here.
As for the "box" this month... that bag is the worst makeup bag I think I've ever seen. When I say the inside seams are giant I mean it. As in they take up the space of two or so products. They have these for sale in the Birchbox shop for £8 - I sincerely hope that this bag isn't the reason that so many of the products are awful, because it definitely wasn't worth the sacrifice. I'd rather have average products sent to me in a bin bag. After the other boxes that I've had from Birchbox, I really wasn't expecting this. Glossybox have sent me two dud products, yes, but included in otherwise good boxes. This was just a box mostly full of the meh and the terrible.
The full size of the body scrub is 200ml so the sample is only worth about £1. The moisturiser is 100ml so the sample is worth about 50p (seriously!!). The perfume sample was tiny, the hand sanitiser is small too and that's only £2.90... I don't think that this box was worth the money. At all. It felt like they put the dry shampoo and eyeliner in the boxes and the rest of the items are just cheap filler to make up the product numbers. It's not just about making the box worth the £10, it has to be worth the £10 with good products. If it has £10's worth of crap products in it then it still isn't worth the £10. After the other boxes that I've had this one feels like it came from a different company altogether. I might as well have not had this box and just bought the dry shampoo in full size. I don't really care that much about anything else in here.
As for the "box" this month... that bag is the worst makeup bag I think I've ever seen. When I say the inside seams are giant I mean it. As in they take up the space of two or so products. They have these for sale in the Birchbox shop for £8 - I sincerely hope that this bag isn't the reason that so many of the products are awful, because it definitely wasn't worth the sacrifice. I'd rather have average products sent to me in a bin bag. After the other boxes that I've had from Birchbox, I really wasn't expecting this. Glossybox have sent me two dud products, yes, but included in otherwise good boxes. This was just a box mostly full of the meh and the terrible.
Box average: 2.5/5
Cumulative box average: 3.9/5
The spoiler on the squashed products leaflet is that if you have referred a friend to Birchbox, you get an ugly bracelet included in your box. I haven't, so thankfully I won't be getting the bracelet (I understand that some people were excited by this, but that bracelet is really not my thing). There was no other spoiler until nearer the end of the month when we got an email asking us to choose a Model Co. product: a highlighter trio or another lip and cheek tint. I opted for the highlighter trio as they're cream highlighters and if they work, they look like something I'd get more use out of. I already have a balmy lip and cheek tint from Jelly Pong Pong but I don't have much highlighter. Here's hoping that September's box is a return to the Birchbox standard that I've had in all my previous boxes. This month's was definitely a box I'd rather forget about.
No comments:
Post a Comment