December Birchbox

Happy Holidays from Birchbox!

For the holiday, BB has changed up their usual pink package box to a cheery golden one with a cute bow and tag combo. I love it! Imagine getting this as a gift in your mailbox from someone- how happy would that make you?! I had planned to get my sister one of the 3 month gift subscriptions as one of her Christmas presents, but she liked my boxes so much, she went ahead and signed herself up in October! 

To continue with the holiday theme is the actual box that the Birchbox goodies are hiding in. 

Holiday 2013 is the theme for Decembers box (excuse the lip gloss, my 3 year snuck into my box and sampled a few things herself!). 

Inside we find an introduction card to Cynthia Rowley beauty exclusively at Birchbox. There is a launch collection that can save you quite a bit of money if you are a fan of Cynthia Rowley or if you are just in the market for some new eyeshadow/liner. I have to admit, the collection does look enticing and it was a little hard to keep myself from wanting to buy it. But, I refrained!

Next, there is a strange BB mobile promotion thingie that you peel and stick to your phone. I'm not sure I get the gist of it and it really only makes sense to me if I were actually an employee of Birchbox. 

However, once you sign up for BB mobile, you will be emailed a promo code for 20% off any full size purchase of $50 or more, so that is something to think about doing if you have a smart phone. 

The goodies! I was pretty excited since these were all things I wanted to try. 

 

Contents card ... again, swiped with the lip gloss!

Secret Agent Beauty Foreign Intelligent Flirt. The back of the card that houses the gloss shows the other products that Secret Gent Beauty makes. 

The Eslor skin care has little sample packets of each of the products they offer to hydrate, protect, and treat. I hadn't heard of this company before, but the products sound like something nice to try, especially since I have been more into skincare lately.

And that's it! What did you think? Do you subscribe to Birchbox? If so, did you get the same products or something completely different?

If you don't already subscribe, you can do so by clicking here. Subscription fees are $10 per month and that does include shipping! You can also choose to subscribe yearly.

Birchbox November

Yay! It's Birchbox time again and this month's theme is "More Good", which has to do with giving thanks and bringing more good into your life. The info card also states that a portion of proceeds from the BB Shop will go to the No Kid Hungry organization. 

Also included in the box is a Holiday booklet that has lots of great products that would be good to give or get this season. The booklet is super cute- I was going to take photos of the inside, but there's over 30 pages and that's just too many to include on here.

* Aloxxi Volumizing & Strengthening Shampoo

* Aloxxi Volumizing & Strengthening Conditioner

* Chella Ivory Lace Highlighter Pencil

* Color Club Nail Polish in Baldwin Blues

* Fatty Sundays Chocolate Covered Pretzels in Toffee Crunch

Try out Birchbox for yourself and see what goodies come in your own box by clicking here. Remember, it's only $10 per month-- The highlighter pencil in this month's box was full size and retails for $18! Well worth it!

New! mark Juice Gems

mark has just revamped their popular lip gloss line, Juice Gems... it claims to give a smooth, glassy appearance on lips and to leave lips feeling moist and conditioned. Juice Gems retail for $11 and they are 0.54 oz. Take a look!

The new Juice Gem comes in a longer, sleeker tube. It has a screw off tube and a plastic, angled applicator. The color shown here is Cherry Bomb. 

Cherry Bomb, a happy pink shade!

I am happy to report that this gloss is not at all sticky on the lips. Unfortunately, this shade really doesn't show up on my lips, it just gives them a nice shine. 

After I washed my hand from the picture above, that spot did feel as if I had applied lotion to it. Definitely moisturized! Maybe those claims aren't too far off. 

The new Juice Gems comes in four of their previous best selling flavors and four new flavors. 

These can be purchased from an AVON representative or online from www.avon.com

Ipsy November-Glam It Up!

As you can tell, this month's theme is Glam It Up and I must say, I am super excited about this month's bag!

We saw a lot of really great sneak peaks as to what we might be getting and also found out that EVERYONE would be getting a full size product from em (Michelle Phan's newly launched line), so yea, there was a lot of excitement leading up to this bag :)

Glam It Up card with the back stating to check out ipsy.com for offers from this months brands. Also, Ipsy is doing something really cool where you can enter for a chance to win a years worth of bags for yourself or a friend by taking a snazzy photo of your November Ipsy bag and share it on Instagram or Facebook with #ipsy. Seriously, get to sharing!!

em card from Michelle Phan with a little note from her on the back and a 30% off code. Her line looks fabulous btw. 

This month's bag is shiny and gold with a texture to it. Kind of has an 80's vibe to it. 

Six products this time!

* Be a Bombshell Cosmetics Lip Crayon in Hot Damn

* Starlooks Eye Pencil in Amythyst

* Nailtini nail lacquer in Caviar Cocktail

* HSI Professional Argan Oil 5ml

* Pixi Beauty Bronzer Subtly Suntouched

* em Lash Gallery Lengthening Mascara in Brown

I was really surprised and happy with  this month's bag- it is definitetly the best bag I've received from Ipsy since July!

Get in on the Ipsy fun by clicking here!

Ipsy October

October's Ipsy theme is the Art of Beauty

I definitely think this bag is WAY better than the last few we've gotten. The other side is blank so that you may put your own artwork on it.

 

However, I'm not excited with these contents at all. This is probably the third pack of the La Fresh wipes I've received between Ipsy and Birchbox.
* LA Fresh Oil Free Face Cleansing Wipes
* ZOYA Neve
* Big Sexy Volumizing Gel
* Wet 'N Wild Eye Palette in Desert Festival
* Coastal Scents Shadow Brush

Here is a pic Ipsy had sent showing all of the products you could have gotten in October. It's small & hard to read (I copied it off of my phone), but you get the idea of the different combinations that are possible.

Remember, the Ipsy the subscription service is only $10 a month to get beauty items such as these to your mailbox. Here's the link to subscribe if you are interested in joining.

Ipsy is also doing a points system for reviews similar to Birchbox. I started to type out Ipsy's reward system, but I actually think I might do a seperate post to compare the two subscription companies reward programs as there are a few differences.

M.I.A.

So, I have definitely been missing in action these past few days from beauty blogging... And I feel horrible about it!
I just found an Ipsy post from September that I had drafted and never published!

Lots have been going on around the home lately, even though I painted almost an entire floor of my house this summer, I am now finishing up on painting a bedroom. And since I haven't been working much at all lately, my youngest has finished her last days at daycare and is now home with me full time, so not much free time to myself!!

But, I have purchased some "new to me" products-- Benefit Gimme Brow, an Eco Tools brush set, Boscia Cleansing Oil, Tarte Smooth Operator Micronized Clay Finishing Powder, and the Tarte Thoughtful Treasures Best Seller Set from Sephora. Thoughts to come soon...

Ipsy September

I am sooooo late on this--- this is the second month in a row I've almost forgotten about posting on the contents of my Ipsy bag.

 

Anywho, September's theme was Classic Beauty and just by looking through my Ipsy Room, it seems like there were 14 different products you could have received in the September bag. There was a cute little card that had the classic beauty woman on one side, and this month's brands with their discounts listed on the other. And the bag this month was a mid-blue with a classic black pattern. Definitely a step up from last month's teeny bopper bag!

Here's what the contents of my bag looked like:

 

*Starlooks Obsidian Kohl Eye Pencil (everyone got this shade)

*Nyx Single Eye Shadow in shade Cryptonite

*Elizabeth Mott It's So Big Volumizing Mascara

*J.Catt Beauty Fantabulous Lipstick in shade HoneyCrisp (everyone got this shade)

*Freeman Beauty set of 3 Paper Facial Masks

 

I've had the time to try out a few of the products-- I was excited to get a kohl pencil, as I do not own one & thought they were supposed to be used for lining the waterline, but this was from Starlooks was a bust! The pencil does have a nice, dark color, but I can barely get it to transfer to my eyelid without multiple attempts, much less my waterline. The J.Catt lipstick is rather strange too. And, from what I've read, I'm not the only one who thinks so. The Honeycrisp shade that everyone received is supposed to be a nude color- it is, but it's so nude that it almost blends in completely with my skin. The biggest downfall though, is the lack of moisture it provides. Not long after applying this, my lips had just enough cracking in them to draw attention (in a bad way!).

 

Ipsy is a beauty subscription service that delivers a variety of products to your door for only $10 per month. Interested in signing up?