birchbox

May 10, 2013

May Birchbox 2013 – unboxing

Posted by By Hilary Baumann

Posted in Hair, Makeup / Cosmetics, Skin Care, Subscription boxes

What’s in my May Birchbox:

Pilot Corporation of America Acroball PureWhite®
Sumita Color Contrast Eyeliner
Beauty Protector Protect & Detangle
Folle de Joie eau de parfum
COOLA Classic SPF 30 Cucumber Moisturizer for Face

Reviews & more detail for my May Birchbox:

Pilot Corporation of America Acroball PureWhite® – It’s a pen … oooo. Um yeah, I’m neither here nor there on this one. I have favorite pens yes, and pens I hate, and pens I use. This falls into the “pens I use” whatever category. It IS a pink ink pen which I didn’t realize at first (and it kinda fun.) But it’s still a pen so I’m knocking off one star.
Sumita Color Contrast Eyeliner – no ingredients … nada. I’m going to have to write another company for ingredients … sigh.
Beauty Protector Protect & Detangle – “Amodimethicone” ok so it’s not “dimethicone” specifically but it is a cone and it’s not one of the few water soluble cones either. Ranks well with the cosmetics database but likely to break me out. Pass. In case you’re wondering about its overall cosmetics database score, that would be a 6. It might be paraben free and sulfate-free but it’s not exactly on the healthy side of things still.
Folle de Joie eau de parfum – Since I can’t find any info on this on their website that says anything about organic or natural fragrance or anything I have to assume that this is a synthetic perfume. Too bad.
COOLA Classic SPF 30 Cucumber Moisturizer for Face – Excellent ingredient list. THIS one I’m excited to try. The info on CosmeticsDatabase must be old because the product no longer has “fragrance” added. Old report says it’s a 4. My custom report with the current ingredients shows that it’s only a 2 which is not bad at all for a sunscreen. The scent is all natural and light however if you don’t like it, it’s going to be on your face. I did look this up and they have an unscented version. Actually I want to try the unscented sport version for swimming this summer!

Box score overall: 9 stars out of a possible 25 is 1.44 stars. We’re headed back towards thinking “step it up Birchbox, it still costs me $10/month and you’re sending me sample sizes.”

HOWEVER we have one product in the box that’s a real winner. Since it would have cost me $32 to try a full size bottle of the sunscreen, I’m good though. So my May Birchbox is not a complete loss or completely annoying box. 🙂

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April 20, 2013

Birchbox April 2013 Unboxing & Reviews

Posted by By Hilary Baumann

Posted in Hair, Makeup / Cosmetics, Skin Care, Subscription boxes

In my Birchbox for April 2013:

Caudalie Divine Oil – “Fragrance“… otherwise the ingredients are good. I’ll have to try this for a day to see if I react to it. They have an excellent ethics policy on their website so I decided to check further and see if there was any chance that the “fragrance” was from essential oils – nope. Too bad. This is what their website says at the bottom of their FAQ page “What is the origin (natural or synthetic) of your fragrances? We prefer synthetic molecules for our face care products and Fresh Fragrances to prevent the risk of sensitization. Essential oils are indeed known for their photosensitizing and allergic risk.” I really disagree with this statement as it relates to allergies. Personally, I’m more likely to have an allergic sinus reaction to a synthetic fragrance than one from a natural ingredient. Synthetic cause allergic reactions as well and you could have an allergic reaction to the other ingredients + check out what the cosmetics database says about FRAGRANCE. I’ll probably try this since it doesn’t make my nose itch. I’m still going to dock it a star for synthetics fragrance when there’s just no need.
Juice Beauty Stem Cellular Repair CC Cream – Excellent ingredients. I’m REALLY excited to try this one. Hmm except “Warm Glow” is not a match to my color. I’m going to dock it a star for two reasons: 1) I still get to try it but I can’t go around looking like an oompa loompa so I can’t try it for a full day 2) The product only comes in two color options (“neutral glow” and “warm glow”) seems like it would make it less likely work for people. $39 is a bit of a hefty price to pay to check a shade so with only two colors they should have either sent two samples OR included with the single bigger sample one of those peel back shade numbers they tend to use in magazines with all shades. Just sayin’ – it’s not like lipgloss and the goal is to get me interested to buy a full size version right?
Hail Merry Macaroons – More excellent ingredients. Gluten Free. Non-GMO. Vegan (this last one I don’t care that much about.) Made with Coconut and Coconut Oil – Nom.
Ojon rare blend™ Deep Conditioner – Seriously? What have you done with my birchbox, ingredients look good on this one as well and I’ll be trying it! Use like conditioner at the end of your shower except leave it in for at least 2 minutes before rinsing it out. I went ahead and tried this and I’m in love with it. Soft lovely hair.
Supergoop!® Advanced SPF 37 Anti-Aging Eye Cream – Paraben, Fragrance,and Oxybenzone Free. BUT it has dimethicone listed as an ingredient (linked to ingredient list.) Without a doubt will break me out. :/ Ugh. So SO close but not for me. I am however giving it one star because it is so SO close and usually the ones that have dimethicone in them aren’t!
Elizabeth Arden – 3 samples in one: 0/5 stars for these next three.
- Visible Difference Skin Balancing Exfoliating Cleanser – Fragrance and Parabens. :/ There’s no dimethicone in this one but I’m not sure I’m going to try it out. I checked it on the cosmetics database with a custom report using the ingredients listed on Birchbox’s site and it came up a 5. It’s on the higher side for me but it’s also not the worst product out there (they go up to 10.) FRAGRANCE and PROPYLPARABEN are the ingredients that really affect this one’s score – it would probably be around a 3 and acceptable with healthier versions of these. I’m giving it one star because despite the score I’m tempted to try this one. I love exfoliators and it’s not horrendous (but I won’t try it if the smell makes my nose itch.)
- Visible Difference Optimizing Skin Serum – again with Fragrance and Parabens. Dimethicone means I won’t be trying this one. And when I ran it through the cosmetics database, the custom report generator based on the ingredients this one came up a 10. 10 is the worst score you can get.
- Visible Difference Skin Balancing Lotion – more fragrance and parabens but again the dimethicone is the killer for me. I ran it through the cosmetics database and it came up an 8 so it’s pretty bad for your health as well.

AND OH MY GOODNESS — NO CRAPPY PERFUME SAMPLES!!!! THANK YOU!!!! Now the brands could work a bit on the synthetic fragrance IN products side of things but that’s notsomething Birchbox can control.

If you tally my numbers above we have a little over 3 stars for this box. 🙂

Birchbox April 2013 is a good one for me.

I think the product I’m most excited about is the Ojon rare blend™ Deep Conditioner because my hair looks like this without using a curling iron or straightener.

What I used in my hair for this photo and video below:

Desert Essence Organics Fragrance Free Shampoo
Ojon Rare Blend Deep Conditioner – healthier, softer, nicer looking
Alba Botanica soft hold style cream – adds a bit of volume and a little control
Shea Moisture Organic Hold & Shine Hair Moisture Mist Coconut & Hibiscus – not really for hold, but acts more as a detangler for my hair because the Alba style cream seems to make it more tangle prone

Birchbox April 2013 Unboxing video below:

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Update May 16th: The Ojon has dimeticone in it -ARGH!!! I was trying to figure out what I had used recently that was breaking out my chin and I’ve used this a couple times the last few weeks. I thought maybe it was stress but then I reviewed the ingredients and there it was. ARGH!

March 12, 2013

March 2013 Birchbox

Posted by By Hilary Baumann

Posted in Hair, Makeup / Cosmetics, Skin Care, Subscription boxes

Alima Pure Luminous Shimmer Blush in Freja – This is a brand I’ve been wanting to try for awhile. The ingredients ARE all natural. My only disappointment in this sample is that I don’t really wear blush AND even if I did this shade pretty much disappears on my cheeks because it’s too close a match to what my cheeks already are. I’ll probably use it on my eyes for when I want a light pinky eyeshadow. For me I wish I had received a sample of the “Melon” color. Or the satin matte bronzer in Seychelles. IF you are pale or looking for a nice light blush and you aren’t naturally rosy, Freja IS an excellent color. Quality is there those so I will probably try some other products from this brand.
– 4 out of 5 stars

Macadamia Natural Oil Healing Oil Treatment – dimethicone …

Macadamia Natural Oil Deep Repair Mask – dimethicone ..

Stella Cadent Miss Me Discrete Eau de Toilette – stop sending me perfume, particularly scents that aren’t natural please!!!

Whish Shave Crave Shaving Cream (Blueberry) – The ingredient list looks good my only complaint would be the “fragrance” since but I’m going to give it the benefit of the doubt since all of the other ingredients look good and this will be going on my legs. It also doesn’t make my nose itch. UPDATE – tested. The bottle seemed to have a giant air pocket in it so there was just enough to use on my legs for shaving. I get a better shave using my everyday hair conditioner than this so I’m going to mark it down another star, I was just not wowed by this. I use a Schick Hydro Silk in case anyone is curious.
– 2 out of 5 stars

Madewell for Birchbox nail file – it’s a cute design and functional nail file. I’ll use it but I will not be replacing it for their $5 price tag. Sure it ships free but I can get my nail files at Sally Beauty for a much more reasonable price. Ok … one caveat. IF for some reason I was putting together a nail gift bag for someone, the floral pattern on this would be that extra cute little touch I might spend the money on.
– 4 out of 5 stars

Side note – I went to leave a review of the nail file and one of the questions was: “Did you use the $25 off $75+ Madewell offer? (emailed week of 3/11) *” and one of the options is “I haven’t received this offer yet” which has me suspect they are batch emailing this week. I haven’t received this offer yet but I wanted to mention it in case it gets caught by spam filters. I WILL probably use this coupon since I’ve wanted to buy some pants from them for awhile now to try.

Bottom line – another month with just enough products I’ll use. Not canceling just yet.

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February 18, 2013

February 2013 subscription boxes – Birchbox VS Ipsy

Posted by By Hilary Baumann

Posted in Beauty & Skin, Hair, Makeup / Cosmetics, Nail Polish, Skin Care, Subscription boxes

The last few months I’ve been very unimpressed with what I’ve received in my Birchbox. Worse is seeing other people get things that would have been perfect for me that THEY hate. EVEN worse was getting the January box and getting a headache because of the perfume … and I didn’t even open the perfume sample!!! Anyway, I had posted a photo over on instagram and had several recommendations to try ipsy.

Ipsy is comparable to Birchbox in that it’s $10/ month including shipping.
I looked over recent boxes and the contents looked better than what Birchbox has been sending me so I signed up. Birchbox finally redeemed itself a little this month though.

Bear with me now … this is going to be a long post.

Ispy:

Coastal Scents Shadow Palette Sample: This was the item I was most excited for and most disappointed in. Apparently Coastal Scents has a separate mineral makeup line but they also have a regular line – one with talc and mineral oil in the ingredients. I gave it a try anyway (it’s on my eyes and neither talc nor mineral oil breaks me out quickly) and was still disappointed. It applied like a cheap drugstore product – a lot of fallout for something that was pressed. In fact I’ve used a few drugstore products that were better quality (try L’oreal Hip if you’re not trying to stick to mineral makeups.) It was just such a disappointment on so many levels.
– 1 star

POP Smokey Lash Kapow Mascara: I prefer Waterproof mascara (mascara is the one thing I’ve given up going organic/natural on.) This is not a waterproof mascara however the brush on this is excellent so I’ll probably keep it on hand just in case.
– 3 stars

MicaBeauty Gel Eyeliner: Ok so I typically use my waterproof mascara as a liquid eyeliner – a trick I picked up trying to cut back on liquids for the airlines. This is definitely better both in quality of ingredients as well as speed of a good application. If I hadn’t already had a good liner brush I might have been disappointed because you can’t exactly apply this with a finger. Running a custom report on this with the cosmeticdatabase.com brings this up as a 2 AND it’s waterproof! It does have talc in it but that’s not too bad in this type of product’s case. I wish they would use this set of ingredients and make a mascara out of it! (I checked, their mascara ingredient list isn’t even close.) Full size is $30 and I think I would actually buy it – it should last awhile. Think MAC Fluidline but better, and healthier.
– 5 stars

Lash Card: I was interested in this one but in application I’m underwhelmed. Also I somehow thought this was a reusable plastic card. Instead it was a disposable cardstock (thick paper.) Makes sense though because this feels like it might be more useful to a makeup artist. I feel like this would be helpful if I were applying mascara to someone else but not that useful for me. Granted I like mascara that has a nice bristly brush so this might help more if you’re using a mascara brush that has those funky spiky rubbery brushes. So it’s not totally useless but I just can’t see the need for them personally.
– 2 stars

All products except primer (left eye makeup, right eye just powder foundation):

Pixi Flawless & Poreless Primer: I wasn’t jumping up and down over this one initially but when I read over the ingredients and there was no dimethicone I gave it a try and was fairly impressed. I don’t have a lot of experience with primers simply because so many have “cones” for ingredients. I was pleasantly surprised by this one. I don’t think I would wear it daily because I feel a bit more like I have more makeup on but I do think I’ll be using it for special events or situations where I’m more likely to have my photo taken. I’m giving it 4 stars because for a really matte look you would still need some sort of finishing powder.
– 4 stars

Birchbox:

Ghirardelli Milk & Caramel squares: who dislikes chocolate? (I’m sure there’s someone but please don’t respond if you’re that person.) They did not go wrong here. Is it the best chocolate ever? No but it’s pretty darn tasty and you could pick some up at the drugstore.
– 4 stars

Miss Jessie’s® Original Pillow Soft Curls: Fragrance was on the ingredients list but I was interested in this one because I didn’t see dimethicone. So I ran it through the cosmetics database and it came up a 6… and then I noticed it: “AMODIMETHICONE.” Ugh. Another “cone” so another I won’t be trying. In the process of looking up the ingredients list I felt a bit ripped off because you can get free samples directly from Miss Jessie’s website. Granted it’s not clear if they charge for shipping but I thought I should mention it for anyone interested in trying this product.
– No rating – Dimethicone causes breakouts for me.

Vasanti BrightenUp! Enzymatic Face Rejuvenator: I love a good exfoliator. When I looked over the ingredient list the one item that really stood out as something to avoid was “parfume.” I did a quick run through the cosmeticsdatabase.com and with the exact list of ingredients it gets a 5. A little higher than I like to go but it seems like scrubs and peels, even when they are more natural, tend to go a little higher because they contain ingredients that remove the top layer of skin and increasing skin sensitivity. Part of the reason “parfume” concerns me has to do with toxicity but the other part has to do with my allergies and it will sometimes rule out even trying a product. I sniffed the product and didn’t react so I decided to give it a go. On the one hand it IS being washed off afterwards, on the other hand you are abrading the skin increasing your ability to absorb toxins … so I’m definitely going to mark it down a star for the perfume. It’s an excellent exfoliator though and I would have given it a 4.5 if they had lost the added fragrance.
– 3.5 stars

Color Club Fiesta Collection in “Wild Cactus”: LOVE this color. It’s a wonderful emerald / kelly green which is something I’ve been looking for. Perfect shade, no sparkle, and a color I’ve been looking for. It’s hard to find a green that isn’t too muddy, too apple-y, too minty, or is just plain a shimmer or glitter nail polish. I like it with navy or hot pink in my outfit (a bit preppy) but it’s not something I expect to be able to wear all the time. Oh, and emerald is 2013’s Pantone color of the year. 🙂
– 5 stars

Lancôme LA BASE PRO primer:

Screen Shot 2013-02-17 at 6.13.00 PM

I was excited about this one because of some of the before and after photos I had seen online. Click on the image at the left to watch the HSN example. Until we get to the Ingredients: Cyclopentasiloxane, Dimethicone crosspolymer, F.I.L. (B26685/1) Since the tube didn’t have the info and I had a hard time finding them , here’s the source of the ingredient list: http://beautyreductionista.blogspot.com/2012/11/sample-month-day-17-lancome-la-base-pro.html
– No rating – Dimethicone causes breakouts for me so we’ll just leave this one at that.

Final verdict for the February Boxes?

Ipsy products overall average 3 stars
VS
Birchbox products overall average 2.5 stars

Birchbox gave me enough good stuff this month not to cancel. That little perk of points for product reviews means you can recoup half of your money to buy other products from their website, IF you remember to do the reviews on their site. 1 out of 4 boxes being decent isn’t going to cut it though Birchbox – you need to get your act together a bit more. I thought the initial survey was to understand our tastes and preferences and that seems to have been ignored. When you get 3 boxes (15 products) in a row with nothing you can use or even try, it starts becoming that thing in your mail that you dread. “How are they going to disappoint me this time.” “I’m paying $10 for this?”

AND, in case Birchbox is reading this, I also REALLY want an option to opt out of all perfumes since it’s clear I’m never going to get the organic/natural perfume samples. I’d rather not get a perfume headache like I did with the January box!!!

Ipsy gave me a complete package, baggy and all. Even though I was really dissappointed in the eyeshadow, I don’t expect 100% of the products to work out perfectly for me or always be to my tastes. Looking over their past boxes this one looks like they have had something each month I would be interested in. I’ll definitely be sticking with this one for awhile. VERY happy with my first month with them.

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January 19, 2013

Number 4 Clarifying Shampoo review

Posted by By Hilary Baumann

Posted in Hair

I was really underwhelmed by the Number 4 Clarifying Shampoo. It felt like it was coating my hair in something rather oddly when I was “rinse lather repeating” in the shower. Most clarifying shampoos feel like they’re pulling gunk and buildup OUT of your hair instead of depositing it. I continued and gave it a shot anyway.

The biggest thing that made me a little hesitant to try it was the fragrance. The other ingredients looked pretty good. The scent was also fairly strong but luckily it wasn’t affecting my allergies. I have tried shampoos that were so bad I had to get another shower because I knew I was going to be sick by the end of the day if I didn’t wash again with my regular shampoo.

Photos below are just after drying my hair with a hair dryer (pre curling iron.) It’s a bit frizzier than usual and it’s not nearly as shiny. No additional products. I take that back, I used a little of my own conditioner because I felt that if I didn’t my hair would be a complete mess.

After using the curling iron on my hair it looked a bit better but it was lacking volume and still wasn’t amazing looking. The shampoo I currently use daily does a better job than this does and at a fraction of the price.

Basically the fragrance and the lackluster performance are going to keep me from using this again. I had high hopes for it but it’s just not for me.

January 16, 2013

Birchbox January 2013

Posted by By Hilary Baumann

Posted in Beauty & Skin, Hair, Makeup / Cosmetics, Skin Care, Subscription boxes

My Birchbox January 2013

number4 clarifying shampoo – yay! Interested in trying this one
the balm hot mama – was excited about this until I read dimeticone on the ingredients – it breaks me out
fresh lotus youth face cream – dimethicone strikes again
lashem – my eyelashes are thick enough so no interest
harvey prince skinny chic – when are they going to stop sending me synthetic fragrances – I haven’t even opened it and the smell coming from it is giving me a headache. They need to stop sending me fragrances already. Particularly since they aren’t sending anything that’s natural.

Anyone want to swap? The only one I plan to try is the shampoo. And I also think I’m going to try ipsy.

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