Birchbox Unboxing and Review: October 2013

October brings us crisp air, colorful leaves, pumpkins and new beauty discoveries. This month Birchbox is all about promoting the products that generated a lot of beauty buzz.

“We’ll be the first to admit that the word “obsessed” gets thrown around a lot at Birchbox HQ. But can you blame us? We spend our days researching ingredients and trends, reading your product feedback, and generally geeking out about beauty. This month we’re putting all that intel to good use, with a Birchbox devoted to award winners, celeb favorites, up-and-comers—and all the other products we can’t stop talking about.”

HOW IT WORKS
Birchbox is a subscription service that delivers a box of luxury samples to your doorstep every month. Each box is customized to match your beauty profile to ensure you get the samples you want. You will usually get 4-6 samples and sometimes even full-sized products! The samples vary from make-up and skincare, to food and beauty accessories, and each box is carefully hand-wrapped. At $10/month Birchbox is one of the cheapest monthly beauty subscriptions out there, the value of each box usually ranges from at least $15 and can be as high as $60. They also have a nice rewards program, where for each product survey you complete you get 10 points, every 100 points earns you $10 in Birchbox credits which you can redeem in their online store for full-sized products. 
If you would like to use my referral link then click here to join Birchbox. Thank you!

POP Beauty Aqua Lacquer in Floating Rose
In real life the color looks nothing like the picture on the Birchbox website, it’s more like a strawberry-raspberry smoothie with very fine golden microglitter. I don’t plan on using this lip gloss because it contains mineral oil. Being a terrible lip licker I tend to eat whatever it is on my lips at the moment, so it’s not a good thing if I end up consuming petroleum byproducts. This shade looks very versatile and universally appealing, so that’s another stocking stuffer I don’t have to buy this year. I swear, these subscriptions are actually saving me a lot of money! 🙂

Liz Earle Cleanse & Polish Hot Cloth Cleanser Starter Kit
Before I even begin to talk about the product, I want to say a couple things about the presentation: this kit comes in a very lovely tiffany blue box packaging, which looks very impressive for a sample. You can actually order these kits from Liz Earle website for just $9, and they would make very cute stocking stuffers for Xmas, and if I didn’t already have a box full of stuffers I would definitely get a few for my cousins. I got totally sidetracked, let’s get back to the cleanser now 🙂 This two-step system actually won over 90 different beauty awards and has a pretty major cult following, which includes celebrities and beauty gurus. The idea of using a washcloth is not new, even our grandmas used them for gentle exfoliation and more thorough cleansing. The cleanser itself didn’t really impress me all that much, I would say it’s just “okay”. Two main ingredients that make the whole formula work are eucalyptus oil and cocoa butter. The first one helps purify and detoxify the skin, while the second one helps dissolve waterproof makeup while softening and moisturizing the skin.

Miss Jessie’s Original Crème de la Crème Conditioner
Lesson learned: just because it’s a foil packet, doesn’t mean it’s not a generous sample. One pouch of this conditioner packs an entire ounce of product, which will actually last me at least three uses. I tried other Miss Jessie’s products, and even though my hair is stick straight, they worked very well to help manage frizz, so I’m excited to try this one next time I need some deep conditioning.

Folle de Joie Eau de Parfum
I wanted to try this perfume for a very long time, because almost everyone who ever received it, is obsessed with it. Also, despite its fairly high price tag, this happens to be the most selling fragrance in Birchbox shop, so Birchbox included it in their customer favorites promo last month. I would have totally bought a bottle with my points and a discount if I had a chance to sample it earlier. So now that I finally know what it’s like, I understand what the buzz was all about. This fragrance is fresh and warm and the same time, and it also stays for a long time, so a little will go a long way. I admit, I’m already riding the Joie bandwagon 🙂

ChapStick Hydration Lock
I’m actually not a fan of Chapstick, mainly because they use too many chemical ingredients and very few natural oils. As I mentioned before, I have a bad habit of licking my lips, and I don’t want to ingest all of these parabens, silicones and pertolatum. I think there are so many cheap all-natural lip balms on the market, that it would make no sense to keep applying this poison in the name of beauty.

THE VERDICT
After checking out other people’s boxes, I think October was a great month for most subscribers. I’m really glad that I got to try out Joie fragrance and Liz Earle cleansing duo, finally I know what the buzz was all about. Although the cleanser wasn’t as mind-blowing as I’d hoped, I did like the washcloth a lot and will continue using it with my other products. And sign me up to the list of people saving up Birchbox points to buy (or partially cover) a bottle of Folle de Joie, I think it’s a wonderful fragrance for all seasons 🙂

Are you a Birchbox subscriber? What do you think of this month’s box?