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November 18, 2012

ClothingCult’s Giveaway
Thanksgiving 2012 – Birchbox Samples

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

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This giveaway has ended – Winner: Julie

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EDITED – Since no one has entered any of the contests yet and I was going to end them tomorrow I’ve decided to consolidate them all into one prize. Winner takes all. New giveaway: This contest ends on: 11/28/2012 12:01am EST

ENTER AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST – Comment on the blog & entry in the giveaway form.

So I have all of these samples that have been unused and are just taking up space. Some I won’t use simply because they have dimethicone in them (cones break ME out but they might not break you out.) Others I haven’t used because they aren’t my cup of tea (synthetic perfumes.) BUT I know that many of you might be interested in having these samples.

SO I’m going to do a giveaway of Birchbox samples I haven’t even touched (ok, I’ve touched the packaging here but you get my point.)

Why is this a Thanksgiving givaway? Because I will be thankful for some extra storage space and you will be thankful to have some fun goodies. Yeah, I know, not entirely the theme of Thanksgiving (thankful for what you have) but I do really want to reclaim some storage space.

 

So here’s how it’s going to work: We have four boxes and thus four giveaways you can enter. Each person can enter all four giveaways once.

These contests start on: 11/19/2012 12:01am EST
These contests end on: 11/26/2012 12:01am EST

This contest ends on: 11/28/2012 12:01am EST
These contests are open to all residents of the continental United States (sorry Alaska & Hawaii! Shipping can get expensive!)

There are two things you have to do for an entry:

  1. You will need to leave a comment in the comment section below describing your favorite product ever. It can be hair care, moisturizer, lipstick, whatever floats your boat. Just leave a comment on what is your favorite item. One comment can be used for all four contests.
  2. You will need to follow the giveaway link and follow the directions to complete your entries.

The four boxes (now one giveaway) – all items are samples, not full size:

  1. The jouer & makeup box:
    1. Jouer Lip Enhancer Conditioning Lip Treatment
    2. Jouer Body Butter
    3. Jouer Luminizing Mosture Tint
    4. Stila All Over Liquid Luminizer in Rose Gold Shimmer
    5. Dr.Jart+ BB Beauty Balm Multi-action skin care + makeup
    6. Laura Geller Spackle tinted under make-up primer in bronze
    7. Chantecaille lip gloss
    8. Colorscience Pro Sunforgettable Mineral Powder
    9. Everyday Minerals Once & Again blush
    10. Everyday Minerals powder foundations in: Light Medium original glo, Medium in semi-matte, Medium Beige in semi-matte, Multi-taking Neutral in matte
  2. The hair care box:
    1. Ouidad Moisture Lock Leave-in Conditioner
    2. Oscar Blandi Protein Mist for Restyling Hair
    3. Mythic Oil treatment
    4. Orofluido treatment
    5. DermOrganic Argan Oil leave-in hair treatment
    6. Fekkai Advanced Essential Shea shampoo & conditioner
  3. The moisturizer box:
    1. Kiehl’s Creme de Corps
    2. Masqueology 7d moisturizer
    3. Masqueology masque cleanse
    4. Masqueology revitalizing eye gel
    5. Sarah McNamara Miracle Skin Transformer Face & Body SPF 20
    6. Ahava Mineral Hand Cream
    7. Scalisi Skincare Anti-aging Moisturizer
    8. Borghese Moisture Intensifier
    9. DDF Wrinkle Resist Plus Pore Minimizer
  4. The perfume box:
    1. Harvey Prince eau flirt sample
    2. MCMC Pheonix sample
    3. BVLGARI Mon Jasmin Noir sample
    4. Viva La Juicy La Fleur sample

 

I think that’s it! One winner takes all will be randomly chosen on November 28th 2012. Have fun and share it with your friends!

Enter here:

Thanksgiving 2012 giveaway – click here to enter

October 11, 2011

October 2011 Birchbox

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Posted in Skin Care, Subscription boxes

While still fun, I’m less excited about it this month.
Two words: dimethicone and fragrance.

Almost everything I got has dimethicone in it which makes me break out. Now you might be thinking “you don’t put hair product on your face” but trust me, anytime I put it on my hair, my hair touches my face and I again break out. I’m just over trying anything with dimethicone because even expensive products with this ingredient break me out. I keep watching hair tutorials with gorgeous silky hair and inevitably they use some serum with, yup, dimethicone (usually Frizz Ease.) The painful kind of zits, not just the ugly kind. I really wanted to try the Laura Geller bronzing primer too. 🙁 But I’ll pass.

As for fragrance … really do I need to cover this one? Allergies, toxins, overpowering scent. At least the Ahava hand cream was overpowering even in the tube.

The one item I’m looking forward to trying is the “Sunday Riley Modern Skincare Juno Transformative Lipid Serum.” Amazing ingredient list. Tried a little on my hand and it’s clearly good stuff but a little … hippie smelling. And natural products don’t need to smell … hippie. I really have no better word for it. No not patchouli hippie, it’s just not exactly bad but it’s not exactly good smelling either. I don’t want them to add fragrance, no way, but I’ll be spraying my homemade lavender spray on my face to see if that helps.

Serum INGREDIENTS: Acai seed oil, Argan oil, Black Cumin seed oil, Blackberry seed oil, Blueberry seed oil, Broccoli seed oil, Carrot seed oil, Chardonnay Grape seed oil, Cranberry seed oil, Marula oil, Meadowfoam seed oil, Pomegranate seed oil, Red Raspberry seed oil.

At $125 a pop (30 ml) I probably won’t be buying this puppy unless it also fixes me coffee in the morning but the 5ml sample might last awhile. Hey never say never. If I can suddenly get less redness, more even skintone and not need foundation I’d consider it.

It’s still exciting to get something fun to sort through and that serum sample alone is worth the price of the box. I guess I just wish this were a more natural selection of products that I could really dive into more.

 

September 15, 2011

My first Birchbox – September 2011

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Posted in Beauty & Skin, Subscription boxes

This is my first BirchBox and it’s also the first anniversary of the company.

In my box:

ColorScience Pro Sunforgettable Mineral Powder SPF 30 in Medium • Jouer Lip Enhancer Conditioning Lip Treatment • Julique Rose Hand Cream • Salvatore Ferragamo Parfums Attimo L'eau Florale • Incoco Nail Polish Applique zebra print • Birchbox Friendship Bracelet 1 year anniversary gift

Here’s a list of all the products they sent out:  http://www.birchbox.com/shop/september-box

2 products I got do not have their ingredients listed on the website: 

  • ColorScience Pro Sunforgettable SPF 30
    This didn’t have the ingredients listed so I had to email the company. It took extra effort to find their contact info but they were super fast to respond.
    Active Ingredients:  Micronized Titanium Dioxide (12%), Micronized Zinc Oxide (12%) Inactive Ingredients:  Mica, Dimethicone/Vinyldimethicone Crosspolymer, Corallina Officinalis, Calcium Silicate May Contain: Iron Oxides, Titanium Dioxide, Dimethicone.
    This ingredient list is actually pretty good and healthy. However I have noticed I break out more when I use anything with a “cone” in the name so Dimethicone is out for me personally. I’ll be using this in part of a bigger giveaway soon.
  • Salvatore Ferragamo Parfums Attimo L’eau FloraleIngredients: Alcohol Denat. (sd alcohol 39-C), Aqua (Water), Parfum (fragrance), Benzyl salicylate, Butylphenyl methylpropional, butyl methoxydibibenzoylmethan, ethylhexyl methoxycinnamate, limonene, hydroxycitronellal, ethylhexyl, linalool, isoeugenol, geraniol, citral benzyl alcohol, cinnamyl alcohol, benzyl benzoate.

    I think I typed all of that correctly. Here’s what I got from the cosmetics database for this (click to enlarge):

    Which makes me wish they had sent me the natural perfume that’s on the site (LIV GRN C2C) instead of the Ferragamo. I listed that I was interested in natural products so I’m really unsure how this trumped the natural perfume for my box.

And a couple of additional comments:

  • The Julique Rose Hand Cream feels wonderful … but rose usually makes me sneeze. Since I’ve worked a lot on my allergies it just now makes my nose curl (if that’s possible.) If you love rose this is something you should really try though.
  • And then the Jouer Lip Treatment has three kinds of Parabens: ISOPROPYLPARABEN, ISOBUTYLPARABEN, BUTYLPARABEN
    Le sigh.

So what am I left with? Well I sprayed the Ferragamo once despite the ingredients so I did try it. Wasn’t impressed at all. I did in fact try the Julique just because it’s been so long since I tried anything with rose in it that I was no longer sure if I wouldn’t be able to tolerate it. If it weren’t for the scent it would be awesome.Which leaves me with having tried and not liked two items, and there are two items I won’t be trying and then there are the nails. Probably not healthy but it’s a one off and I’m going to try them.

And OMG – the Incoco is three free! Does Incoco Contain Any Formaldehyde, DBP (Dibutyl Phthalate) Or Toluene? No, Incoco nail polish appliques are three-free!Ok now I want their: French manicure in champagne, and the french tips as well as Patterns in: “Suit Up”, “Crème de la Crème”, or “Ballerina Princess.” Let’s see how long this stuff lasts on my nails since I type a lot. I may be buying some more!

Will I get another BirchBox? Yup. It’s fun. And it’s worth the $10 to get to try a few things even if I’m not happy with the whole shabang. If however they start sending no natural items and natural items are listed regularly for that months box I’ll probably cancel because natural trumps everything else for me.

Oh great – I think the perfume is making my cat crazy – time to go wash that off before he attacks my arm.

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Quickly playing with the zebra incoco with zoya loredana and the birchbox bracelet (click to enlarge)