Salma Hayek Nuance Birchbox

I was excited today to find that my Nuance Birchbox by Salma Hayek had arrived in my mailbox. Earlier this month, Birchbox emailed me and said that based on my profile selections they thought I might be interested in trying some new products from this line. I was given the choice to ‘opt in’ and receive this box completely free, in addition to (not instead of!) my regular May Birchbox. How awesome is that?? I wasn’t sure I was going to get it, because they said opting in did not guarantee you a box, and that you should receive an email in mid May if you were going to get it. I never got an email, the box just arrived suddenly. It was larger than a regular Birchbox and definitely heavier, and this is what was inside.

There is a (full sized!) body cream, an anti-aging super cream, volumizing shampoo and conditioner, and a 3-1 eyeshadow, liner and highlighter. So far I’ve only tried the body cream but I’ll post a full review once I’ve tried everything. They also included a $2 off coupon for Nuance products from CVS. This box was awesome and I’m so impressed by the selection and the generous sizes. I even liked the box it came in, which could be reused to store something. Thank you Birchbox!! My birthday is in a week so this was a cool surprise. Don’t worry if you didn’t get selected to try this box, I’ve seen them offer an extra free box like this before (didn’t get the other one) so there’s always the chance to get one from another brand in the future.

Birchbox is a beauty subscription service that sends deluxe samples for $10 a month and has an awesome points reward system. To get your own Birchbox, click here.

Birchbox Preview: May 2013

More Birchbox

While checking to see if there were any more months of Birchbox reviews that I missed, I realized that I’m just about all caught up. I think I failed to post reviews for the December 2012 and January 2013 boxes, but since that was so long ago I am just going to write up a quick review to talk about my favorite and least favorite items from those two boxes. The things that were just okay, or not that memorable, I’ll skip for now.

Decembers Birchbox included Juice Beauty Cellular Repair CC Cream and ModelCo Shine Ultra Lipgloss, among other things. These two items were really the stand outs of that particular box. There was also a good sized lotion and some hair stuff, but they weren’t things I really loved and I don’t have much to say about them. The Juice Beauty CC cream was a neat little sample that I was excited to try. Juice Beauty uses organic ingredients and I’ve been happy with other products from them in the past. I liked this cc cream better than just about any bb cream I’ve tried. The day after I use it, my skin even looks better and clearer. My only problem with it is that the shade seems too light for me, and I’m not sure that it comes in very many colors. I really don’t want to spend the money and end up with another shade that doesn’t match properly, so I won’t be buying this for now, but I did think it was a good product. Full size is $39.

The ModelCo Shine Ultra Lipgloss that was included in this box remains to be one of my favorite Birchbox finds ever. This was a FULL sized lipgloss. The packaging is ideal; it comes in an elegant looking clear tube with a mirror on the side (why doesn’t anyone else do this??) The color I received is a very flattering berry pink shade that looks beautiful and not overdone. The gloss itself smells sweet, glides on without being overly sticky, and lasts a long time. This is my favorite lipgloss and I still wear it frequently. I would definitely purchase, and that’s saying alot for a $16 gloss.

Januarys Birchbox was full of products that included Amika Color pHerfection Shampoo, the Balm Hot Mama eyeshadow and blush all in one, and Deborah Lippmann Stripper To Go. I was most excited to try the Stripper to Go polish remover, because it comes in little packet that’s handy for travel. Inside the packet is one polish remover soaked finger sized mitt that you slide over each nail to remove your polish. This did not work out well for me at all. Immediately upon opening it, the package turned the wrong way and dumped excess polish remover all over my shirt. Once I began using it, I found that the mitt was dried out before all my polish was removed. Now, I realize that the extra bit of remover floating around in there probably would’ve been enough to get rid of the rest of the polish, but I would’ve been dipping the little mitt into the packet and really, why not just carry a sample sized bottle of Zoya remove with you if you’re going to do all that? The Stripper To Go is definitely less leak proof… until you open it, that is, but it was more trouble than it was worth for me.

The Amika products are pretty much always a winner in my book, and the color pHerfection shampoo was no exception. It smells good, works really well, and I don’t need to use alot of it for good results. It’s not for someone who likes alot of lather, and I’m not sure I would pay $22 for the full size, especially considering that I have long hair that I usually wash daily.

The Balm Hot Mama Eyeshadow and Blush all in one is another little magnetic closure sample. I love the packaging on these  samples because it makes them easy to carry with you, and this is a nice color as well. I love the idea that you can use it for eyeshadow and blush, so this comes in handy on minimal makeup days. I’m not sure that I would purchase the full size, but the sample is lasting me a long time. This would, however, encourage me to try more products from the Balm.

Well, I’m almost totally caught up on the Birchbox reviews that I fell behind on. I’ll try to get the April review posted this week and my May box just shipped out yesterday! I’ll have a preview of that up as soon as it arrives. Thanks for your patience with my not so timely reviews! To get your own Birchbox, click here!

I Love Earth Day

Here’s a look at what I bought from the Zoya Earth Day promo recently. (The Remove was a free gift).

The colors I bought (Not in the same order as the photo) are Rocky, Josie, Robyn, Maya, Neely, Lola, Piaf and Darcy. If I get any requests for it I’ll add some better pictures with the names properly underneath them.

Birchbox Review: (March 2013 – Late)

As usual, I am late with posting the Birchbox reviews. The May box will be here in a week or so, and I’m just now getting around to reviewing March! Sorry about that. But sometimes I just don’t get around to trying all of the products for quite a while. Anyway, not everyone gets the same box each month so these products could still turn up in other peoples’ boxes in the future, or someone might be contemplating buying the products off the Birchbox site. So, it seems reasonable to post this, even if it is late. ; )

Whish Shave Crave Shaving Cream - This shaving cream comes in several different scents, the one that I received was the blueberry. The packaging was nice and the sample size was generous. I liked the pleasant smell and it did seem very soothing and effective. It’s not designed to foam, and is apparently filled with natural and organic botanicals. It’s a nice product, but I can’t see myself spending $20 a bottle and having to order it online. That being said, a little goes a long way and I’d be really interested to hear from someone with a full sized bottle who could give an idea of how long it lasts. It definitely feels more indulgent than any other shaving products I’ve tried.

Madewell for Birchbox Emory Board – As I am always saying, I love useful extras in the boxes. And what girl doesn’t need another nail file? This has a pretty floral pattern on one side and light pink on the other. It  comes in it’s own little vinyl sleeve as you can see in the image. It was also sealed in plastic so I didn’t even notice the sleeve at first, I thought the writing was printed on the file itself. Is it the greatest nail file ever? No, and I wouldn’t purchase another for my own use. But it’s cute and I could see this as being something you would add into a gift basket of beauty items, especially considering the packaging. Not a bad idea to add to your Mothers Day gift, in fact.

MAKE Face Primer Spf 30 – This came in a small little tube, and both the primer and the eyeshadow sample were in a little MAKE plastic ziplock type bag. (Or either the bag was just included, I can’t recall). I was interested in the idea of a primer that included spf, but I kept forgetting about this product. When I finally tried it, I was not impressed. The primer itself is white, like lotion. It did not blend easily into my skin and it was a little difficult to get a thin, even layer of it. After I put it on, I noticed that my cheeks had gotten red, and my face remained red enough that since I was on my way out, I ended up skipping blush that night. The redness faded after a little while, but the next day I had some breakouts around my nose and cheeks. Sadly, this stuff just isn’t for me and I wouldn’t dare try the sample again, much less purchase it. If you are interested in this primer, please do check out some other reviews. I looked at other reviews of it on Birchbox.com and I didn’t notice anyone describing the reaction I had to it. Perhaps my skin is just more sensitive, so don’t take my experience with it to be the rule. Lastly, I wear mineral makeup and didn’t notice my makeup lasting any longer or looking any nicer as a result of this primer.

Nick Chavez Beverly Hills Color Saver Sulfate Free Shampoo – Many years ago I bought a set of Nick Chavez shampoo and conditioner from QVC. It was the kind that was available in different colors to enhance your hair color. Sadly, it didn’t work for me and I think the bottles wound up gathering dust under the sink for quite some time. Even so, when I saw this Color Saver shampoo in my box, I was excited to try it. (I love hair products!) Apparently, this brand of shampoo has come a long way. The shampoo has a pleasant scent, seems to make my hair softer, and works well with my regular conditioner. I saved this shampoo and didn’t use it until after I highlighted my hair. My highlights turned out brassier than expected and I was very unhappy with them initially. I used this shampoo afterwards for several days and all of the brassy tones are now gone from my hair, and I’m quite pleased with my highlights. Now, I can’t say that it was the shampoo that fixed them, or if the brassy tones just faded from washing, but I do think it at least helped. My highlights are now very subtle and natural looking. I am really tempted to use some Birchbox points and get the full size ($22) one of these days, and they also have a paraben free conditioner to go with it. However the conditioner is $24, and I really doubt I would ever use and repurchase both of these regularly simply due to the high price. Nice product, though.

MAKE Satin Finish Eyeshadow – This sample was adorable. It was a tiny little hinged compact with a  square of eyeshadow, about the size you’d find in a small palette. I really liked that they didn’t try to put a sample on a card like some of the shadow samples in the past have done. Get a small brush and you could throw this into even your smallest evening bag for touch ups. That’s a little beside the point though, because honestly, I didn’t like this eyeshadow much at all. My sample was a flat gray, and I just couldn’t get it to show up on me very well. Maybe it would’ve worked better with an eyeshadow primer, but I didn’t have one on hand. I ended up totally covering this eyeshadow with my Naked2 palette. Other than being unimpressed with the pigment, it did seem easy to blend, it was just too subtle for me. Then again, I am used to wearing more dramatic eye looks with sparkling shadows and winged eyeliner. The colors are $18 each and I just can’t see it being worth it.

Even though the MAKE products didn’t work out for me, I liked this box pretty well. I loved the shampoo, the shaving cream was nice, and the nail file was cool. I hope they’ll start including more makeup items in the boxes, I was excited about the eyeshadow even though it ultimately wasn’t something I’d use. My least favorite was the primer, did anyone else have issues with it? This box had 5 items to review so that’s 50 points back (100 points = $10 in the Birchbox shop) so I definitely feel I got my moneys worth this month between the items and the points.

Want your own Birchbox? You can have deluxe beauty samples delivered to your door for $10/month. Check it out here.

Nuance Salma Hayek Birchbox

If you’re a Birchbox subscriber, check your email closely the next few days. Over the weekend I received an email from Birchbox that said that based on my beauty profile, they thought I would enjoy a free collection of Nuance products from Salma Hayek’s line. (Yes, I would!) The email said that this box will include five samples and be sent in ADDITION to my regular Birchbox, not instead of, and be completely free. Awesome!! Do you see why I love Birchbox? The email gave the option to ‘opt in’ which I of course did, and it said that you must opt in before May 7. Since they mentioned that it was based on profiles, I am guessing that they are only offering this box to people who have selected certain profile options. I remember some people receiving a similar box from a different brand a while back. I have no idea if the length of time that you’ve been a subscriber has anything to do with whether or not you are selected for this offer. They also said that opting in does not guarantee you for the box, but if I get one, I will definitely post pictures. It should arrive in mid May.

As a side note, I did once try some of the Nuance shampoo and was not that impressed. I remember telling my friend that the scent reminded me a little bit of old people and some sort of spices, (who doesn’t want to smell like spicy old people?) However the shampoo in the email image looks slightly different, perhaps there are different scents or formulas – I can’t remember anything specific about the one that I tried. I’m hoping that it might work better when used with the conditioner, and I’m still interested in trying out other products from the line. I can’t really tell if all of the boxes will be the same, or if you may get different Nuance products. Either way, I’m excited to have the chance to try it since my experience with the brand was only a one time use.

I don’t think the invitations for these boxes went out all at once. I saw a blog post where someone had written about it several days before I got mine. As I said, I’m not sure how they selected who to offer these to. Generally, when a box is curated by a specific person like this, it is offered INSTEAD of that month’s Birchbox and you can opt in if you’d like. The other time that I’ve seen them do this was with some brand that started with a V, but I was not offered that box and cannot remember the brand. Did any of you guys get the email? If so, did anyone decide not to get it?

So just to clarify what you actually get when you subscribe to Birchbox, I’ll sum it up since I haven’t described it in detail recently. For $10 a month you receive 5-6 deluxe beauty samples, shipped for free and chosen based on a beauty profile that you fill out (though sometimes the samples are hit or miss). Occasionally your box might include a full sized item (yay!) or sometimes one of your items might be food related like a granola bar or a piece of chocolate. They are also really fond of perfume samples, which I don’t care for much. Your samples arrive in a small, reusable cardboard box and wrapped in tissue paper with a small card detailing what’s in the box and the prices for the full sizes. Sometimes they will include coupons, discounts, or even mp3 download links. You can then go to the website and review each item in your box through a quick multiple choice form. Each review that you fill out will earn you 10 points, and for every 100 points you accumulate you get $10 off a full sized item from the Birchbox store. You can also earn points from buying full sized items, and from referring friends. (Click here if you’d like to use my referral link. Thank you!!) These points add up quickly, and you can wind up getting products for free, as well as the fact that Birchbox often has coupon codes, special items on sale, or codes to earn bonus points or gifts if you spend a certain amount. For my one year anniversary as a subscriber, they sent me a free keychain, and they also send percent off codes to celebrate milestones for how long you’ve subscribed. Sometimes the boxes are sponsored by a magazine, website, designer or tv show and have products related to it. Otherwise, the boxes usually have a monthly theme, which I always forget to include in my reviews. I tend to talk alot about Birchbox because while I don’t love every product they send, I do always feel that I get my moneys’ worth or more. I have received products like a beauty blender (normally $15), a full sized lipgloss ($16), full sized Tarte Lipsurgence (around $22 I think?), full sized Eyeko eyeliner ($15), and a full sized Stila eyeliner ($24 or so?) just to name a few. I’ve used the points to buy many products for myself, and even to send gift subscriptions to others [you cannot pay for your own box with points, however]. For me, trying out all these new products and getting all the rewards back has been well worth the price, although I know a couple of people who don’t feel that way. It doesn’t work out for everyone, but it’s definitely worth looking into. Enjoy!

Earth Day, You Say?

As you may have noticed, I love Zoya nailpolish. Mainly because the formula and color selection is wonderful, as well as being free of the top 5 bad chemicals used in most polish [toluene, formaldehyde, DBP (phthalates) and camphor]. Another reason that I love them is because of their promotions. And speaking of promotions…

Zoya is having their Earth day promo right now. The idea is that you buy between 6 and 24 bottles of polish, and with the code ZOYAEARTH2013 you can get them for half price plus shipping. That’s $4 each! Then you can send back the same amount of old polish, and they will properly dispose of it for you. The great thing is that you don’t HAVE to send in old polish to get this deal, but it is a good way to get rid of old polish that you have lying around. As far as I know, the only polishes excluded from this deal are the Pixie Polishes. The polish exchange runs from April 19-26, so hurry!

Click here for full details. If you don’t have a Zoya account yet and want to score some Share The Love points, you can make your account using my referral link here. (When you use a referral link, both people get STL points. Thanks!)

Birchbox Preview: April 2013

Here’s a quick look at what I got in my April Birchbox. Check back later for the review. I’m trying not to take it personally that this box included alot of ‘anti aging’ products and my birthday is in a month. Real subtle, Birchbox!! ; )

*Birchbox is a subscription service that delivers deluxe beauty samples to your door for $10 per month and has a great points reward program. To get your own box, click here!

Review: Kiehls Ultra Facial Oil-Free Cleanser

Recently, I decided it was time for me to cash in some of my Birchbox points (which are awesome, by the way, and the best reward system of any of the monthly boxes). I knew I wanted to buy another Eyeko liquid eyeliner, which is now my favorite eyeliner, and I picked up a bottle of Zoya Remove as well. For my last item I wanted to get a new face cleanser because I was running out of Real Purity by Philosophy. To be honest, Purity is okay, but I’ve never been THAT impressed by it. I continued to use it because it worked well with my Clarisonic and I was able to get deluxe samples of it a few times with other purchases.

I knew that I wanted to try something different this time, and I was looking for a cleanser without alot of chemicals and gunk in it. Browsing around the Birchbox shop, I found the Kiehls cleanser and read the reviews. I checked out the reviews of it from other sites as well, and read alot of positive things about it. It’s sulfate free, paraben free, silicone free, oil free, and fragrance free so it sounded like exactly what I was looking for.

When I got this in the mail, things in my life were pretty crazy. I started using it sporadically without putting any thought into it at all. I noticed that it lathered really nicely and felt alot like washing my face with some kind of nice soap. After I had been using this for a while, I was putting on my makeup one day and thought, “wow, my skin looks clear… why does it look so good?” I started trying to think of what I was doing differently, and then I remembered that I had been occasionally using this cleanser, and it was the only new thing in my routine. I started to use it more often and continued to notice that when I use it my skin looks clearer, feels softer, more even, and overall just looks better. The best part is that you only need a tiny amount to get your whole face clean, and the lather is really soothing.

The only downside I’ve found so far to this cleanser, if it can even be called a downside, is that it can be a little drying if you use it alot. My skin gets pretty dry anyway though, so this might not be a problem for everyone. I feel like if I could use it more often, my skin would be even clearer, but I don’t want to overdo it so I often only use it at night or even skip a day or two from it. I’m hoping to try some of the other Kiehl’s products which might help with that. Birchbox, if you’re reading this, send me some more Kiehl’s items in my box! ; )

The Kiehl’s cleanser is available from the Birchbox shop for $19.50, and is also available on several other websites. I feel like this is a good value for the money since it’s a good size and you only need such a tiny amount, it will last a long time. This has on occasion burned my eyes a little, but I had the same issue with Purity – just be careful to keep it away from your eye area. Because of that, and the slight tendency to dry out my skin a bit, I would give it four and a half out of five stars. So far I think it’s the best cleanser I’ve ever used.

My Zoya Collection

I think I mentioned a while back, either here or on Twitter, that I was planning on buying an acrylic nail polish rack. I ended up buying it a couple of months ago, but the screws that came with it was a bit flimsy and cheap and I was afraid that it wouldn’t hold. It took me quite a while to get some proper hardware and to get someone to hang it for me since I’m not the least bit skilled in home improvement-y things.

The acrylic rack that I ended up buying came from Amazon, because I had seen them alot in other peoples’ YouTube videos and on beauty websites. I picked the one with the lowest shipping cost, and it came out to around $40. This particular rack came with an optional sign that said “polish station” which I thought was a little cheesy, so I just threw it out. My dad installed this for me, and he ended up drilling some extra holes due to the area I wanted it in and also possibly due to my frequent reminders that I wanted to make SURE it wouldn’t fall with my entire Zoya collection on it. ; ) You can see that there are some extra screws below it, just for even more stability. Remember, these racks are meant to hold about 100 bottles of polish, and that’s bound to get heavy, especially if you can’t drill into the stud because of wiring and whatnot.

Back to the rack itself; it took a couple of weeks to arrive, and once it did I was immediately disappointed with it. While I love the style and the overall look of it, attention to detail was practically nonexistant. There are scratches all over it, as well as huge visible glue streaks on every shelf. I’m posting a pic with the flash so you can get an idea of what I mean. (Note that the glue does not have a yellow tint as it appears in the photo, it’s white). If I had paid $15 for this, I wouldn’t be upset at the glue marks or the scratches. But spending nearly $40 for a DISPLAY shelf, you kind of want it to look nice, and new. I really wouldn’t say that this looked new.

Aside from the flaws, this really is a great nail polish rack. With the polish on it, the glue and scratches aren’t as noticeable. In fact, I doubt anyone would notice the scratches at all unless it was near a window with alot of natural light. The glue marks still bother me a little, but I’m happy to have it and I love having my polish organized. It looks so pretty hanging on the wall. Next time, however, I would purchase from a different seller I think.

I have some other brands of older nail polish, but I really liked the uniformity of having just Zoya bottles on this shelf. Plus I have far more Zoya than any other kind, I don’t usually buy other brands now. After the pic was taken, my OCD tendencies got the best of me and I slid the mini bottles to the center of the fourth row. Now I just need to buy some more Zoya!