Body Lotion

October 17, 2014

Birchbox October 2014 unboxing & ewg scores

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

Lord & Berry Paillettes Eye Pencil soooooo this was the item I picked out this month and somehow it wasn’t in my box. I posted a photo on instagram and did contact Birchbox customer service and they’re shipping one out to me but it will be 10 days before I might get it. So without having it in hand to review let’s look at why I chose it. It doesn’t have cones (I break out with cones) and some of the other nasties I normally see. However I missed the parabens when I was checking this out and choosing it. So lets see how this scores with the EWGEWG Environmental Working Group - an organization focused on research to make informed choices and live a healthy life in a healthy environment. skin deep cosmetics database scores it. OUCH. Wow. I did horribly in picking this out. It’s a solid 10 from the cosmetics database. On a scale from 0 to 10 with 0 being the healthiest. UGHHH! And I thought this was going to be maybe a 4 based on skimming through the ingredient list and was the product I was most looking forward to trying!

Harvey Prince Petaly Noir – nope. Just no. No synthetic fragrances for me. Worse, I can smell the Harvey Prince perfumes just by opening the box and they typically give me a headache without opening them. I REALLY really hope that Birchbox will give us the option to opt out of perfumes. I particularly dislike the Harvey Prince products they have been on a roll with sending me each month too. September I complained about this. August same complaint. You aren’t going to win me over. Headaches just make me mean. Stop it. Pretty please?

ModelCo Party Proof Lipstick in Kitty – well another I had high hopes for but it fails. No cones but there’s fragrance. Also one of the ingredients that isn’t harmful I tend to avoid and that’s mineral oil. So with the EWG cosmetics database rating of a 9 I don’t think I’ll be trying this one. Do you know how much lipstick/lipgloss you accidentally eat? Ew.

BeeKind™ Body Lotion – The website claims “The BeeKind™ Collection features Gilchrist & Soames’ Signature formulations, which contain no parabens, phthalates, petrol-derived ingredients, mineral oil, urea, DEA, TEA or propylene glycol.” The bad news for me is that it has dimethicone in it which rules it out for me. Since I couldn’t find the ingredient list online I typed it up from the back of the sample:

INGREDIENTS: water; ceteryl alcohol; cocos nucifera oil; glycerine; ceteareth 20; helianthus annuus seed oil; parfum; dimethicone; honey; trifolium pratense flower extract; calendula officinalis flower extract; chamomile recutita flower extract; Cymbopogon schoenanthus exctract; citric acid; glyceryl dilaurate; steric acid; benzyl alcohol; dehydroacetic acid; acrylates/ c10-30 alkyl acrylate crosspolymer; sodium hydroxide; tocopheryl acetate; citral; citronellol; geraniol; hexyl cinnamal; limonene; linalool

If they dropped the added fragrance that would do a lot to make this a healthier product. Despite all of the things it doesn’t have in it, it’s a 4 with the skin deep database. This is not terrible but it’s also not as healthy as they might be leading you to believe.

dr. brandt® Exclusive Clean Up Nice Kit – This is actually just “pores no more cleanser” as the sample. Paraben, paraben, paraben. If they just went with a healthier preservative this would be a healthier overall product. As it is right now it’s a 6 with the ewg cosmetics database.

So I’m a little underwhelmed with the products in this month’s box. Since Birchbox started giving us a choice of one product in our boxes I can’t believe I picked something that unhealthy out of what was available (and I can’t remember what the other options were.) Anyway…

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May 15, 2014

Birchbox unboxing May 2014

Posted by By Hilary Baumann

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

Caldrea Body Lotion – in Aloe Water Apricot

ewg skindeep cosmetics database score 4 Fragrance added (likely synthetic), no cones, could be healthier but not bad. This scores a 4 with the cosmetics database (0 is healthiest, 10 is worst.) The synthetic fragrance knocks that down a lot but it does have some other ingredients that are excellent for skin moisturizing so I’ll probably give this a try.

Caldrea Body Wash – in Aloe Water Apricot

ewg skindeep cosmetics database score 5 Fragrance added (likely synthetic), no cones, could be healthier but could also be worse. This scores a 5 with the cosmetics database. I’m not big on body washes anymore so I’m not sure yet if I’ll try this.

Marcelle New·Age 8 in 1 Power Serum

ewg skindeep cosmetics database score 4 Cones rule this one out for me personally. It has one ingredient to be a little concerned about which brings it’s ranking up to a 4 with the cosmetics database (0 is the healthiest, 10 is the worst.) Not bad, could be better but if it’s not something you are allergic to, I would give it a shot.

PIXI Beauty Shea Butter Lip Balm – in Pixi Pink

ewg skindeep cosmetics database score 3 Pretty good here. None of the usual nasties. No fragrances etc. This ranks a healthy 3 with the cosmetics database. Now lip balms are nice but I do lean towards glosses so I’m really not sure how much I will use this in particular.

This is going to sound a little odd but between the name, the color, and the tube itself, this reminds me of some sort of tinkerbell lipstick I had as a kid. The color is a fairly vibrant pink but it’s also still a lip balm so it’s sheer.

One thing to note – the twist tube on this seems to like to let the product fall back down into the tube. This is something Pixi Beauty needs to maybe work on. This is not a dollar store product (like I would wear anything from the dollar store to begin with – scary!) and it makes it a bit harder to put on.

PIXI Beauty Shea Butter Lip Balm in Pixi Pink

PIXI Beauty Shea Butter Lip Balm Pixi Pink swatch

PIXI Beauty Shea Butter Lip Balm in Pixi Pink on lips

PIXI Beauty Shea Butter Lip Balm in Pixi Pink closeup

Votivo Candle Travel Tin

Ok here’s where I’m going to get a little weird. Soy candles are supposed to be healthier than paraffin candles right? Well every time I’ve tried to go with healthier candles, I’ve ended up with a MASSIVE headache. Soy candles. Paraffin candles with natural scents. I’m not sure what goes on here that really messes with me. Basically the only candles that don’t give me a headache are synthetic (I know, bad) and paraffin. Best is a basic vanilla. I will give this one a shot even though it looks like it’s soy with synthetic fragrance so not entirely healthy. But I really have not figured out my deal with candles. Tim is the same way though … with some opposite allergies (he can’t handle lavendar for example) so it makes candle choosing VERY difficult and I opt for the “not healthy” candles because “not healthy” is better than a massive headache.

Out of the box the smell is decent. Lit might be another story completely. We’ll see.

Supergoop!® Everyday SPF 30 with Cellular Response Technology

ewg skindeep cosmetics database score 5 Another neither here nor there. See my comments on the sunscreen ipsy sent this month. This is also a 5 with the cosmetics database. With a little planning you can do better. Take a look at my previous post on natural / healthier sunscreens.

So the May 2014 Birchbox overall: some things I’m really excited to try and some things that aren’t my cup of tea. Still worth the $10/month to try some new products!

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March 13, 2014

Birchbox unboxing March 2014

Posted by By Hilary Baumann

Posted in Beauty & Skin, Hair, Skin Care, Subscription boxes

I’ll come back soon and do cosmetics database reports on all of the products anyway. Some items with cones may still be healthy. Cones just cause terrible breakouts for me.

Gilchrist & Soames London Collection Body Lotion – cones rule this one out for me.

theBalm® cosmetics How ‘Bout Them Apples?™ – cones rule this one out for me

Curly Hair Solutions™ Curl Keeper – no cones. But it does use synthetic fragrance AND I received this from Birchbox once already back in August. The scent was so strong and it gave me a headache so I had to throw it out. UPDATE: Birchbox apparently noticed my mention of a duplicate and gave me 100 birchbox points (value $10) so I believe if you don’t have a blog but received a duplicate, you may want to contact their customer support.

Screen Shot 2014-03-17 at 3.31.46 PM

Jurlique Herbal Recovery Eye Cream – no cones, fragrances are from essential oils, this one I’m excited to try BUT this is like the amount for one use (or least the packaging makes that likely) and I’m a bit disappointed since this is so thin and small.

Jurlique Herbal Recovery Night Cream – another that I’m excited to try. Good ingredients, no cones. This one is a more reasonable sample size.

Ghirardelli Intense Dark Cherry Tango – chocolate … nom. Fine as an extra.

Sooo a little disappointing on this one this month since one of the samples I can try is super small, the chocolate extra was three bites, and then I have some night cream.

I’m a little concerned that since I’m turning 35 this year I’m going to have to go back and lie about my age to continue to get better boxes. I do not care how old I am but I’ve heard rumors that if you’re over 35, Birchbox seems to think all you need is wrinkle cream. I hope I’m wrong.

Still not signed up for Birchbox?

http://birchbox.com?raf=3l3e7
{ yes it’s an affiliate link, I get 50 points which equals $5 credit – share the love! }