September Birchbox Review

It’s that time again! I’ve had chance to use everything in my Birchbox now and get a better idea of which products work for me and which don’t.

Agave Healing Oil Treatment

As I said when I got my Birchbox, I’m not really looking for a new hair oil, but I did give this a couple of tries. This is described as a lightweight oil to smooth hair, build resiliency and boost shine and colour. I don’t think I used it enough to say about my hair becoming more resilient, by which I think they mean strong, however it did leave my hair smooth and shiny. My main issue with this is that it smells of coconut. I know I’m in a minority with this but I don’t like coconut. Even excluding the smell, I don’t think this is as good as my current argan oil, or the hair oil I got in my Glossybox this month (more on that soon!). This is a 4ml sample and a full sized product starts from £16 for a 60ml bottle. I won’t be purchasing this.

Benefit It’s Potent Eye Cream

What can I say about this? Well, not much because unfortunately I had quite a bad reaction to it and had to take it off within minutes of applying it! I didn’t use it again, because I honestly haven’t had anywhere as bad a reaction with something as I did with this in year. It burned my skin, leaving it red and puffy. Even the next morning, the skin under my eyes was still really tender and red. I gave this sample away to my mum to try, but she didn’t seem to want to after hearing how badly I reacted! I have to say I am really really shocked that Benefit hasn’t made sure that their skin care range is hypoallergenic and it’s definitely put me off trying other products from it. If you’re interesting in giving it a go, a full sized jar is 14.2g and retails for £25.50.

Premae Mild Dermabrasion Face & Body Scrub

I’ve only tried this out as a face scrub, and I wasn’t too impressed with it. It didn’t get rid of as much dry skin as my current face scrub does so I’ll be sticking with what I know, especially as a 100ml tub retails for £25. I only paid £5 for the one I have at the moment, which just goes to show that sometimes, cheaper really is better. This definitely won’t be a repurchase, but I’ll use it up in once use as a body scrub because the sample isn’t really that big.

ModelCo Lip Laquer in Viva

I actually really liked this! The colour is perfect, it does last really well and it smells slightly of strawberries mmm…. This is definitely a high quality gloss that I’ll wear a lot and the shade is perfect for everyday wear. My only complaint is that it’s described as a non-sticky gloss, when it is. It’s not the stickiest gloss going, but I don’t know of any products that give this much shine that aren’t a bit sticky. However, I wouldn’t complain about that if they hadn’t made the claim. It is however really hydrating and pigmented. A full sized 3ml gloss is £15, quite a lot for a gloss but I would consider buying one, as it’s not as much as premium brands like Bobbi Brown.

Beauty Blender & Blender Cleanser

I was really excited about getting this, but I haven’t actually used it as much as I thought I would. It does give a lightweight, smooth finish when rubbing in product, but you’re meant to stipple it on, which I haven’t tried yet. Stippling is essentially pressing it onto the face like you would if you were to use a sponge to create a picture with paint. Is that a bad analogy? Oh well. When using the beauty blender, I had to use a lot more product that usual because it absorbs so much of it, despite wetting the sponge to counter this beforehand. However, I do really love the narrow tip for blending my concealer into my foundation, that’s made a big difference for me. The cleanser is what makes my sponge smell like lavender by the way. I cleaned the sponge when I was in a rush to go to work so didn’t manage to get all the foundation off. Definitely a product I need to keep testing. This sells for £26.

Urban Fruit Perfect Pineapple Snack Pack

These are really nice, but I still don’t think they’re going to be an everyday product when they sell a multipack of 6 in three flavours for £13.20.

So that’s everything I got apart from the photo clip. Overall, I am a bit disappointed by the products once I actually got to use them, although it was nice to receive some samples of pricier products than I would usually go for.

I used a promo code to get my first box for just £10! Normally, a box is £10 per month plus £2.95 P+P. I’ve worked out that my box is worth around £46 which is great value for money! Obviously future boxes can’t always be this good, as the beauty blender has really boosted the value of this box, but I really can’t complain about that.

The code I used for my first box is still active, so you can get your first Birchbox for only £10.00 by entering NEW14 at checkout. Birchbox also operates a points based rewards system, so if you sign up using my unique link then we both receive £5 worth of rewards points, which can be used on their online shop! Click here to sign up, or use this link:

http://birchbox.co.uk/?raf=56142

Do you get a Birchbox? What do you think of them?