This blog post is long, long overdue (2 months now?) but I'm still going to post it and hopefully catch up with all my Birchbox reviews in the next couple of weeks.
I've been subscribed to Birchbox for over a year now and one of the main reasons I've stuck with it is because there is always at least 1 product I really love and it is always worth the £10 (+ £2.95 P&P) fee - if you sign up for a year of boxes you only pay £100 (+ P&P per box) which is 2 free boxes in the year!
August's "Dive In" Birchbox (or Birchbag rather?) had a very summery feel and the Birchbag will come in useful for makeup or nail polish when travelling, mine came with a neon yellow ('Yellowtail') zip. The contents were: an eyeliner, dry shampoo, skin serum, body scrub, hand cleansing gel and a perfume sample.
This was the product I got to choose the shade of prior to the box being sent out. The choice was between 'Espresso', a deep brown shade, and 'Mulberry', a deep purple shade. I went with my go-to eyeliner colour, brown, and I was happy with my choice. The eyeliner goes on smoothly without dragging the skin and can be blended/smudged to style. I'm usually very selective with eyeliners as I've only ever found that the Avon Glimmerstick ones do not run during the day for me, however, during the short time I wore this eyeliner it seemed to stay put so I will give it a longer test at some point.
I'm not going to lie, I do often use dry shampoo when I've been too lazy or simply haven't had time to wash, dry and style my hair. I normally rely on Batiste's dark brown dry shampoo so that it doesn't make my hair look chalky like some others I've tried. I haven't tried the Philip Kingsley dry shampoo yet but it smells amazing and the packaging says it is meant to be refreshing and soothing for the scalp. It's an ideal size to take with you in an overnight/weekend bag and I'm sure it'll come in useful once I've ran out of my Batiste sprays.
I haven't tried this properly yet as I've been using a mix of products already and didn't want to upset them, but I will use it eventually. The serum has a herby, medicinal scent which is down to the chamomile, aloe vera and lavender included - I'm not quite certain whether I like it or not. The serum's formula is very light and soaks into the skin easily, I can't comment on if it helps with "congested skin" yet though.
Something a bit more budget-friendly, this body scrub smells really refreshing and fruity (grapefruit to be exact) and includes beads which should help to exfoliate. I haven't tried this product yet either (I have a stock-pile of body washes and scrubs to get through already) so can't comment on how well it works just yet.
Merci Handy Antibacterial Hand Cleansing Gel in Flower Power (FULL SIZE), RRP £2.90
I've used various hand gels before and some leave your skin feeling drier than others, this one so far has actually made my hands feel smoother and slightly more moisturised. It has a pretty, slightly floral scent that masks the usual alcohol hand gel smell and it looks quite funky in the bottle too - plus it's a great size to pop into your bag whenever you're going out.
English Laundry Signature for Her EDP Sample, RRP £60
The little extra this month was a sample of English Laundry's Signature for Her. The perfume has some grown-up floral notes mixed with a musky undertone. It's actually the type of perfume I would wear, especially for special occasions and events. Very nice.
Overall I was impressed with the products in this month's box, I will use all of the samples. Not sure if I will go on to buy any of them at full size though, except maybe the hand gel if I use up this one!
Do any of you subscribe to Birchbox? What are your thoughts on the recent boxes?
