My First Birchbox

As I’m now entering my late twenties, I am conscious that I need to look after myself, my skin and my body. I’m also aware that my make-up routine (and requirements) have changed since my teens and early-twenties. But keeping up with the best products on the market is tough and personally I get a bit lost.

I generally rely on my slightly more glamorous and clued-up friends to tell me what I should be using and what the best products are. However I feel I need to stand on my own two feet and work things out for myself. And then I came across Birchbox, which seemed to be the answer to all my naive beauty questions.

Birchbox is essentially a way of sampling products out there on the market, before you buy. It’s a great way to also try more expensive or unique products that you may not if you had to buy it outright. If you like it, you can then buy it online from Birchbox, but if you don’t, you’ve not lost out.

So how does it work? You complete a short questionnaire online about your skin type, hair  and product ranges you might be interested in etc. You pay a monthly fee of £10 plus P&P – which you can cancel at any time – and you receive 4-5 tester products per month, delivered to your door in a lovely little parcel :-).  The products are tailored to you, according to the answers you gave in the questionnaire. There is also the opportunity to feedback online to ensure you continue to get the right products for you.

So when I received this lovely little package a few days ago, I was very excited to open it up and see what delights were inside.

And here we go…

So inside we have:

Birchbox ‘Rock your nights, enjoy your days’ gel eye mask – you keep this mask in the fridge so it gets lovely and cool and apply to your eyelids when they’re feeling puffy and tired. Definitely something that I need as I suffer from hayfever and the occasional allergy which triggers itchy, red eyes. It feels so lovely to just lie-down on the couch, eyes closed and this soothing, cooling mask on. Definite thumbs-up from me!

‘Beautify  Me’ Vitamin Complex by Inner Me – This sample gives 2 weeks’ worth of tablets containing marine collagen for skin, hair and nails. You take 2 a day (they’re clearly labelled in this really nifty little package) and the ingredients help your skin “regain its natural tone and suppleness”. I’ll start these on Monday (I can’t start anything mid-week) and will report back!

Philip Kingsley ‘Elasticizer’ – which is an intensive pre-shampoo treatment for all hair types. It helps maintain the state of your scalp and hair, giving more elasticity, bounce and shine. As I regularly bleach my hair (I know! I’m not a natural blonde!), I’m really conscious of looking after it and not letting it dry-out or lose it’s gloss. So I’m hoping this will really help. There’s enough in the sample for 2 maybe 3 applications for my hair (which is very thick!).

Molton Brown Ylang-Ylang Body Wash – I already know and love Molton Brown products, so this is a lovely little luxurious addition to the Birchbox. Always a winner on quality and scent, I love their body washes and soaps. This will be used up in no time!

Gerda Spillmann Hydro Pearls – Now I’ve never heard of this brand and it’s fairly pricey in my books with their products upwards of £20 each. However, I am willing to spend more money on a product that I can feel and tell the difference with (I’m a MAC girl so don’t mind spending a bit of cash).  So I’m most intrigued to try this one out of the selection. This sample Birchbox has provided is a make-up primer offering moisture for the skin. It smells lovely and goes on really smoothly, is absorbed into the skin quickly and leaves a lovely texture and base for my make-up. I’ll definitely be using this as part of my daily routine for the next few weeks and I think it’s probably worth the investment! Good thing is, if you have normal or oily skin, you can use this in place of your daily moisturiser, so you could be saving some pennies there!

Skin Life ‘Energetic Cellular Cream’ – this sample looks the most clinical out of the selection I think and is essentially an anti-ageing face cream. Again, it smells lovely and refreshing and the texture is light and absorbent. It’s a little sticky afterwards, so I’d use this in the evening before bed, to give it plenty of time to absorb. I wouldn’t put make-up on top of this as the texture wouldn’t work.

Laqa & Co ‘Lil’ Lip’ – this moisturising lip pencil is gorgeous and goes on so smooth! I love the pink colour and it has a little shimmer to it, that’s not too over the top. Again, I hadn’t heard of this brand but like the branding and packaging – really cute (I’m a sucker for a bit of packaging). As it’s a pencil, you can use it sparingly or as much as you like, so I think it’ll last a good while. It doesn’t have the best staying power, but I wouldn’t expect it to. It’s the perfect thing to carry around in your handbag and apply as and when you need to. It could even go over a matt lip colour to build a gloss.  RRP £14 for the full size thing; I think this is pretty reasonable. I’d like to try the red as I love a bit of red lippy.

So that’s my first Birchbox reviewed and so far, so good! I’m not going to lie, a lot about this is the excitement of receiving a little package each month, a present to open and explore. Who doesn’t love that? If I can discover some cool products and tweak my beauty regime along the way, then that’s pretty awesome too!

The monthly delivery boxes are becoming popular these days…does anyone get any that they’d recommend? Let me know!

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