Birchbox Review October 2017

Holy crap, I received this box so long ago now that I actually had to revisit the app to remember what items I received this month. For those of you not in the know, Birchbox is a $10 a month subscription service that sends 5 sample sized beauty, skincare and hair care items right to your mailbox. Subscribers have the option to choose one item in their box a month, not take any action and let all 5 items be a surprise, or choose a curated box where all items are revealed prior to selection. If you have any interest in subscribing to Birchbox, I urge you to Google some coupons or simply visit My Subscription Addiction because they always have coupon codes or gifts-with-subscription affiliate codes available.

This month I received:
Balance Me Wonder Eye Cream - $13.53
Estée Lauder Pure Color Envy Sculpting Lipstick - bonus card sample
Lavanilla The Healthy Fragrance Vanilla Coconut Eau de Parfum - $1.13
[comfort zone] Hydramemory Cream Gel - $7.61
Ouai Rose Hair & Body Oil - $2.99 Cruelty Free
The Beauty Crop Glow Milk Liquid Highlighter - $9.75

I just realized as I was typing this that my Balance Me Wonder Eye Cream sample is half the full sized item. Holy crap, way to go, Birchbox. This is a pretty dumb item to get excited about but it certainly made up for my lackluster eye cream I received in my Ipsy bag this month (review to come tomorrow). My excitement more than tripled when I realized the value of this sample size. The ingredients are quality ingredients including witch-hazel, cetearyl alcohol, coconut oil, all of which are the first three ingredients after water and glycerin. I don't have any issues yet with puffiness, dark circles or fine lines around my eyes but that's no reason to eschew eye creams and treatments as a preventative measure.

I don't want to call Estée Lauder Pure Color Envy Sculpting Lipstick useless, so I won't. This card sample was included as a bonus. It actually applied really nicely however I don't use lip brushes to apply bullet lipsticks so I cannot get a good feel for how much I will like applying this product. I can say that when applied with a brush this lipstick was very creamy, extremely opaque and had a satin-leaning-glossy finish. The shade that I received, Envious, is a true red that did my skin tone zero favors, but hey, the formula was nice.

I don't think I've ever said "Oh my dear God Christ WHY!?" to a perfume before so my reaction to Lavanilla The Healthy Fragrance Vanilla Coconut Eau de Parfum is a first for me. If you mix the smell of rubbing alcohol with 99₵ store sugar cookies, a little bit of playdough, and artificial candle vanilla scent, you might be able to replicate the scent of this perfume. Maybe it's just preggo nose but holy shit it's nauseating. I feel bad talking this much crap about the fragrance though because I'm pretty positive my friend would absolutely love this. She adores smelling like vanilla sugar cookies and winter wonderland Starbucks. On the bright side I did appreciate the spray nozzle the tube had.

[comfort zone] Hydramemory Cream Gel has the type of texture and moisture I enjoy in my moisturizers lately. It wasn't too heavy on my skin and absorbed quite quickly. The website boasts using moringa oil and hylauronic acid as two important ingredients but those two ingredients are like 12th and 17th down on the ingredients list, respectively, after water and glycerin, making me want to call bullshit on their efficacy. That being said, I do enjoy this as a basic moisturizer, I just don't expect any magical healing properties out of it. It also has a very fresh, almost soapy fragrance to it. Absolutely not worth $60 for a full size though. Unfortunately I will have to shelve this until I finish my other gel moisturizers I have already queued up in my skincare drawer.

Ouai Rose Hair & Body Oil ended up being my favorite item of this month's box. I chose this sample after shrugging my shoulders and asking "why the hell not" but oh my god! It's the first dry oil I've ever used and I'm loving it on my stomach in my attempt to minimize any inevitable stretchmarks. It smells like rose but not offensively so and I love how the oil absorbs but doesn't coat my skin. My stomach feels so soft after using this and I can see myself purchasing a full size as I will be hitting this a lot in the next several months, especially since winter is coming. I haven't even wasted my time using this in my hair or even the kids hair for that matter because it seems so lightweight that I doubt it will make much of an impact.

Another highlighter. I cannot say I enjoyed The Beauty Crop Glow Milk Liquid Highlighter but I will probably get some use out of this if I want to get a bit of a body glow going. This little bottle looks like a tiny nail polish, complete with brush applicator. The highlighter itself is a beautiful champagne color but I really dislike the brush applicator (it just seems so unsanitary to me) and the highlight itself is a little clumpy and crazy intimidating. I can see myself applying this to my collar bones or a body lotion for some extra radiance, especially when summer rolls back through.

Swatched below: Estée Lauder lipstick in Envious (right), The Beauty Crop Glow Milk highligher (center and blended on the right).

With fading natural daylight

With flash

Yes, I realize my highlighter placement can use some help. In the photos below I'm wearing the Estée Lauder lipstick (which looks far less offensive in pictures) and the Beauty Crop highlighter (flash in the left photo, shitty bathroom lighting on the right).

The more I typed tonight the more I realized I received an amazing box this month. The total value of this month's box was $35.01, higher than many of the boxes I've received over the months. Of the items I definitely see myself using, my box can be valued at $24.13, still a net win. I would pay $10 for just the Ouai rose oil, the eye cream and hell, even the gel moisturizer. Do I think the samples were worth their listed value? Absolutely not, with the exception of the Ouai oil. Perfumes are often a "throw away" sample just in terms of actual value and this is the first one I've received that I just outright didn't like but I can always gift it to my Barista friend and nobody likes a card sample, I imagine but I got to try a formula for an overpriced item I would never buy.