Birchbox October 2013 Review

Ok, last October review! About a month ago, Birchbox had a coupon code plus a couple promos going on that I decided to take advantage of. Birchbox was actually the first subscription I signed up for well over a year ago, but after about 11 months, I decided I didn't really like it anymore compared to some of the newer ones popping up, so I cancelled. I always wanted more makeup (although, I just looked through the records of my old boxes and it appears this was the sub that gave me my generous sample of Blue Copper 5 cream that I use daily now!). However, when a deal came up to get 15% off your subscription plus a free sample pack plus a free mini hair drier, I decided to give it another shot. I signed up for a year, which is normally $110 (basically one month free), which went down to $93.50 (almost 3 months free!) with the discount (I don't think it's active anymore but it was "glamlatina15").

So, Birchbox, just in case you don't know, is one of the lower priced subscriptions where for $10 a month (or less if you subscribe for a year), you get 4-6 sample products (though looking through my history, I have a box of 8 in there!). They're usually of the smaller variety, given that this is only a $10 sub, but there's occasionally a full sized item thrown in too. I do remember getting a few foil packets, but I mostly remember little tubes, so it's not too bad. When you sign up, you fill out a profile (basic stuff - skin type, hair color/type, what basic kinds of products you like, etc) and there are I think 50 possible box combinations each month that you can get, which is, I suppose, somewhat based on your profile. You can also review your items each month, which doesn't have any impact on your future boxes, but does give you points - 10 points per review (100 points = $10) which you can ultimately use in their pretty large shop, which sells full size products.

Anyway, my extras all arrived first, since my first box wasn't set to ship till the middle of the month last month. As expected, the mini Amika hair dryer ($36, but it was free with the promo) was adorable! It's perfect for sticking into my bag to bring with us to Emily's swim lessons. I think I'm the only one who dries her kid's hair before we leave. Even if I know she's just going to get a bath later on, it just looks so uncomfortable to have it stay wet! Besides, she's got my fine hair so it takes like 2 minutes to dry it. It's a tad loud and doesn't have a heat setting, but many of the minis don't. The one I used to bring (the one we keep in her bathroom) doesn't either. It does come with a handy carrying case and 2 attachments, though!

Amika hair dryer

Inside the case

Holding it to show size

In addition to the hair dryer promo, I also added a Mystery Sample Pack, which was free with any $35+ order. I got a pick 2 sample pack.

Mystery Sample Pack

The first item was a Rev Up Volumist spray ($10.99), which is supposed to give you bouncier fuller curls. It seems to get mixed reviews on Amazon and on the Birchbox page, but if I ever decide to start wearing my hair curly again, I'll give it a try. I haven't worn my hair curly in about 4 years though, so it may be sitting around a while. My hair's just too long now, which weighs down my curls, I think even with this. The top ends up flat and straight, while the back frizzes up. It's ugly. So I wear it straight or up.

Rev Up! Volumist spray

The second item was a Pixi Large Lash Mascara in black ($18). From the reviews, this sounds like a more natural look mascara, which isn't really my thing, but I'll give it a try. Or, I do have a mascara or 2 that I really love the visual results of, but have kind of a sticky finish, so maybe I'll just try layering this on top to get rid of the stickiness. I do have to say, for a free mystery pack (or something you can pay $10 for if you don't have $35 in your cart, a $29 value isn't bad. Next time I make a purchase (soon - my Birchbox points from the start of my original sub are expiring since they only stay in your account a year, which I somehow didn't realize till recently), I'll definitely add on another mystery pack!

Pixi Large Lash Mascara

Onto October's box! I have to be honest. I don't remember if there are themes or not, but my little note card said "Beauty Buzz", so that's either the theme this month, or every month just has a beauty buzz card.

Info card

Info card back

As my note shows, I got 4 products and a "Birchbox find", which is usually a well known product that they give everyone as an extra. My first real product is a sample size of Benefit Fake Up concealer in the color light ($3.43). I actually already have the full size one of these and love it. It's a good undereye concealer that isn't too thick because the color is surrounded by a big moisturizing bit in the tube. It applies easily, too. I do really like it, but I still have a ton left of my full size, so I didn't actually open this one fully up because I'm not sure whether I'm keeping this or adding it to the gift pile. It was really nice that my first item was a good size makeup sample though! Promising! :)

Benefit Fake Up

Mini tube! (that's just the top half sticking out)

Next up was a sample size of Evologie Stay Clear Cream ($20.46). Expensive sample! Unfortunately, I have 2 from Glossybox already. Oddly enough, the ones from Glossybox were only .17g samples, whereas this one was a .33g sample. The first Glossybox sample I got came in a box set with their Intensive Blemish serum of the same size, so that made up for the difference there, but the second time Glossybox sent it to me, it was just the single .17g sample, which is pretty small for a single sample from Glossybox and made me think they just had a few left over sets that they broke up and called it good enough to send to people. Anyway, I'm sure this is fine, but I've been lucky to always have fairly clear skin, so I haven't even tried the ones from Glossybox let alone needed another one here.

Evologie Stay Clear Cream

My next product was a full size Pop Beauty Aqua Lacquer in the color Flowering Fuchsia ($14). I knew this was too bright from the start and I gave it a try since so many lip products have surprised me lately. Alas, this time I was right. Too bright. It also had a weird applicator. I opened it expecting a typical slanted top that you squeeze the product out of and smear on your lips, but it had a wand. And not a typical doe foot wand. A weird flat plastic thing. It was hard to apply and I wasn't a fan at all. Yay for full sized makeup, though. Were I a lip girl, I'm sure I would've been happy with this.

Pop Beauty Aqua Lacquer in Flowering Fuchsia

Weird applicator

Swatch of Pop Beauty Aqua Lacquer in Flowering Fuchsia

My last product was a full size Ruffian Nail Lacquer in the color Hedge Fund ($10). This line is Ruffian's first line of polish and it was made specifically for Birchbox. I love polish, so I was happy to see it! It's even a fairly unique color for me (a medium green with a yellow sheen from goldish microglitter, I guess. Kind of the color of money, which I'm sure they were going for with the name of the polish.) and probably the one I would have chosen if given the choice! The formula seems good, too. The only thing I didn't like was the bottle top. It's super cute, but makes it hard to hold the wand to apply it. I don't think it's removable like Julep tops.

Ruffian Nail Lacquer in Hedge Fund

Swatch of Ruffian Hedge Fund (this looks a bit darker in real life)

Our Birchbox Find of the month, in its own little Birchbox baggie, was a full size ChapStick Hydration Lock (2.74 on Amazon, I'm sure you could find it in less than a 12-count pack at any drug or grocery store though). It applies like every other ChapStick and it's supposed to give 8 hours of hydration and make your lips smoother and fuller looking. I love ChapStick, so I certainly don't mind having another. I think maybe it does make lips smoother, but I'm definitely not seeing 8 hours of hydration or any added fullness. That's ok though. It still feels and smells nice (vanilla cream!) on. It also came with a coupon for $1.00 off another ChapStick Hydration Lock, which I'll probably use.

Birchbox Find baggie with ChapStick Hydration Lock and coupon

October 2013 Birchbox

Considering how I cancelled this sub back in February because I wasn't enjoying the contents anymore, I'm pretty surprised at how good I think this box is. Even if it wasn't exactly right, I did get 2 makeup products, a nail polish, and a good extra (and a zit cream I don't really care for, but we can ignore that). And it all had a value of $50.63, which is pretty great for a $10 box! So, I'm pleased with my first box back with Birchbox. Hopefully this will keep up.

If you get Birchbox, what did you get for October? I know there are quite a lot of variations (I got variation number 23). That Liz Earle set with the cleanser and muslin cloths looked so cool. I really wish I had gotten to try that out. If you don't already get Birchbox and are interested in signing up, please use my link! When I logged out, it looked like the normal month to month sign up had a 2 week wait list, which isn't really that bad, but maybe being invited would help skip that wait.


(And just a disclaimer: I was not compensated for this review in any way. All opinions are my own. I have included referral links.)

Friday iPhone Dump

Ok, I know it's not Friday, it's Sunday. I'm super late on this, but I really wanted to put up my pictures and continue with this link up with Jen over at Ramblings of a Suburban Mom for Friday iPhone Dump!

Ok, so my first 2 are awful. My iPhone takes terrible nighttime pictures (is that how they all are or do I need to have mine looked at? It's a 4S.), so they're blurry and dark. I lightened one so you could at least see it. Anyway, they're from Emily's Trunk or Treat at school. I volunteered to hand out candy and decorate my trunk as part of it and managed to forget to take a picture of that, but I did a spider theme, since Emily's so enamored with our front yard spider decorations. Emily dressed up as Woody (in a dress) like she did when we went to Disney's Not So Scary Halloween Party a month ago.

Enjoying a piece of candy with daddy. I know, it's terribly blurry. This was with a flash.

Dancing to the music! She had a blast dancing! This was the one I lightened.

The next day, we were up bright and early to go to the pumpkin patch since we got there too late last weekend and it was backed up 3 miles with a projected 2 hour wait to get into the place. Thankfully, crowds weren't too bad this time and Emily had a blast! She gets so much more out of the pumpkin patch each time we go. This time, she was big enough to do quite a few more things - she did a pony ride, fed some goats, panned for "gemstones", went down a roller slide with both of us, jumped for quite a while on the bouncy air pillows, rode the cow train, rode the real train, rode the carousel, and picked a few small pumpkins! It was a really fun day and I'm so glad we got to go. A few of these upcoming pics aren't iPhone pics (they're from a real camera), but I thought I'd include them anyway.

At the farm!

Feeding the goats

Jumping high with Daddy (she also jumped on her own)

Drink break! (Oh, and the wardrobe change was due to the heat - it was nice, but got warmer)

With some pumpkins!

Next up, my nails of the first part of last week! I got the idea off Pinterest while trying to find ideas for my new chevron stickers! Later in the week, I did a more Halloweeny look with a dark orange and a gold/orange/black glitter accent.

Nails!

This next picture is a typical bedtime:

Animal friends all over the bed and daddy reading books.

Taken in the dark, but this is what I found one day this week during naptime:

Poor kid.

This one may look familiar! She wanted another picture with her beloved spiders. There have been 2 more pictures since.

I hate to take them down!

My cat staring at me creepily from downstairs.

I'm waiting...

An idea I totally stole from Jen at Ramblings of a Suburban Mom, this is my first attempt at a muffin tin meal for Emily! It has olives, bologna cut into animal shapes, toast cut into animal shapes, grapes, a cookie, and a fun size Crunch bar. Naturally, the chocolate was eaten first.

She liked it!

And finally, Emily changed her mind on what she wanted to dress up as for her school party on Halloween and for that night. She ended up dressing up like a kitty!

Getting home after her school party

Trick or treat! She totally filled up that bucket!

That's it for this week!

Erin Condren Planners - Coupons and Tips!

This post is going to be another example of something going around on the blogosphere as something everyone seems to want! I know there's at least a few other people writing about this item, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to add my own post.

So, in a effort to get myself more organized next year, I'm going to take the plunge and order myself an Erin Condren Life Planner! Everything I've read about them says that they're adorable, well made, and really useful. There are tons of design options in the Classic section, as well as a few luxurious options in the Gold Edition section. They also have a nice amount of customization and accessories to make it feel like yours. You can add pictures to the cover and/or back of many designs, picture stickers, personalized labels, etc. Basically, the creator's idea was that you get more organized through writing things out yourself rather than putting stuff on your phone and the cuter and more personalized your planner is, the more likely you are to keep using it. Sounds good to me. The sticking point for me, and I'm sure a lot of other people, is the price tag. Yes, it's well made and customized, but $50 is a lot for a personal calender/notebook.

This is the style I think I'm picking!

So, what I've learned over the past few weeks is that there are a few things you can do to get yours a bit cheaper!

First, use a referral link to sign up and get yourself $10 off your first order! Here's mine to get you started! Once you sign up, within 15 minutes or so, you should get an email with your unique $10 off code. Use that code to buy yourself any accessories you want for your planner - a set of elastic bands to hold the planner closed, some fun pens and an adhesive pen holder for your book, etc. Hold off on the actual planner for now because after you've made your first order, there are a few more options that open up!

If you have some friends who are interested and want their own $10 off codes, share your referral link with them to earn yourself some $10 referral bonuses as well (they get emailed to you after your friend's order ships), which you can apply to your account and use all at once on your planner to reduce the cost.

In addition, regardless of whether or not you gather any referral bonuses, after you've made your first order (and only after), you can now use the code gift20 to get $20 off your purchase until the end of the year! Without referrals, that brings you down to $30 plus shipping for the planner! With referrals, you're looking at even less! I know I'm impatient and hate to break up my order because I just want it all now, but holding off a bit in this situation leads to saving some money!

I've already made my first purchase and I'm just trying to finalize my decisions and upload some pictures for some of those picture stickers before I order my Erin Condren planner! I can't wait!

(And just a disclaimer: I was not compensated for this post in any way. All opinions are my own. I have included referral links.)

Graze October 2013 Review

I'm part of a few subscription box groups on Facebook and it seemed for a while there that everyone wanted a Graze code so they could get the Graze subscription. You need an invitation code to get it, otherwise you have to join the waiting list - I'm not sure how long the wait it. Graze is a snack service that is either monthly or biweekly, depending on how often you want it, and for $6 a box you get 4 one-serving healthy snacks. I figured it had such high demand and good recommendations, I had to at least try it. And bonus! With the invitation codes, you get your 1st and 5th box free! So, it really didn't hurt to try at least one box.

You don't get to pick your snacks with this box like you do with Naturebox, but you can rate everything on their list (over 90 snack choices) as Trash (you'll never get it), Try (happy to try), Like (send occasionally), and Love (send regularly), so you do get at least some customization to your tastes. I quickly went through and gave everything a preliminary rating based on how good I thought it looked - asian snacks and plain nuts got trashed, a lot of things got tried or liked, and a few things got loved because they looked amazing.

So, my first box arrived and honestly, was slightly smaller than I expected, but they're healthy snacks, so healthy portions as well.

The box

Opening the box

Info card - not really on the foods, just a welcome note and a note about the referrals. They also included a sheet with nutrition information that I forgot to take a picture of.

I was eager to see what I got! From my initial ratings, I got I think 2 loves, a like, and a try:

• Toffee Apple - dried apple pieces with a toffee dip. OH MY GOSH! This was, like, one of the best things ever. That dip. I wish I could buy a vat of it. SO GOOD. If I could pick my snacks, I'd order a box full of these. This was initially rated love because I thought it looked good and it did not disappoint at all. It remains a love rating. I do sort of wish it were a bigger serving, but again - healthy serving size.
• Boston Baguettes - This I marked as try initially. It looked a little weird, but I was willing to at least try it. I'm glad I did! It was interesting but good. It's tomato breadsticks with a BBQ relish. My relish was a little chunky and I thought that was good. I'm going to keep it a try rating just because there are so many other things I'd like to try. 

Graze Toffee Apple and Boston Baguettes (I may take a picture after opening as well next time)

• Raspberry and Coconut Muffin - This was I think initially marked a love because I knew I'd like the little amaretti drops (I love that flavor!). It's basically a trail mix with coconut, raspberry infused cranberries, almond slices, and amaretti drops (little cookie things with an almond extracty kind of flavor). I did love the amaretti drops as expected, but I noticed I ended up eating all the "extra stuff" and saving the amaretti drops to savor last. I liked it, but didn't love it, as a whole snack, so I bumped it down to "like". 
• Cinnamon Pretzels - I had this marked as like because I thought it looked nice and sweet. It's a mix of poppyseed pretzels and cinnamon honey almonds. I loved the cinnamon honey almonds - really tasty! On the other hand, the poppyseed pretzels were a bit of a letdown. I don't love the little baggies of pretzels you get on airplanes, and these don't taste appreciably different from them. The poppyseeds are barely noticeable. So, I bumped this one down to a try. Make me a mix of amaretti drops and cinnamon honey almonds and now we're talking! 

Graze Raspberry & Coconut Muffin and Cinnamon Pretzels

I was pretty happy with this. None of it was bad, some of it was really (really really!) good and I'm happily looking forward to my next box. I also swapped it from monthly to biweekly now that I know I like it, so I can try a bit more.

If you'd like to sign up, I do have 4 invite codes I can give out, but I want to make sure whoever gets them will use it (because there's only 4), so if you'd like one, please just leave me a reply here and I'll email it to you! And again, my code will get you your 1st and 5th box free!


(And just a disclaimer: I bought this box myself and was not compensated for this review in any way. All opinions are my own.)

Starlooks October 2013 Review

It's near the end of the month (ok, it was when I started this post!), and as always, my Starlooks Starbox, arrived! For $17.68 per month ($15 for the box, $2.68 for shipping), you get 3-4 full sized items of makeup and usually a smaller bonus item or sample. I love that we get full size items from Starlooks and there's usually at least one item I really like in each box. Sometimes the whole box is awesome. September's theme was "Alice", I guess in Wonderland?

Back to the usual box

Info card

The bonus this month was a $50 discount for Rivet & Sway, an online eyeglasses service - basically they send you 3 frames to try on, you pick one, send them all back and they put your prescription into the one you chose. I know I've gotten an offer like this once before from a sub box, but I can't remember which one. Anyway, I do wear contacts and I do need a new pair of glasses (for nighttime and days I don't go out) and they seem like nice glasses, but I really need to sit in a physical place and try on loads of pairs. Not 3. And I intend to use my insurance to get at least a discount of some sort, which I'm not sure is taken with this site. So, here's the offer if you want the code. I don't think it's unique, so should be useable for more than one person. Honestly, I don't really like these discount "bonuses". You have to pay something to use them. That's not a bonus. I'd rather get a sample of something by Starlooks that's unreleased or something like that.

Rivet & Sway offer

The first product we got this month was a Gem Eye Pencil (used to be called Diamondline Eye Pencil, not sure why the name change) in Mirage ($14). At first when I saw this, I thought it was a color I already had so I was a little bummed, but when I went to go look at the one I had, I realized I have Deja Vu, a light silver, whereas this is Mirage, a darker bluish gray. So, yay! Now I have 5 of these and I love them all!

Starlooks Gem Eye Pencil in Mirage

Next up was a lipstick, or so I thought. It's actually a Tendergloss in the color Puzzy ($13). Because I thought it was a lipstick, I was initially a little bummed again (I should've learned from the first time not to judge right away!), but then I saw that the color looked pretty tame. And then I swatched it and realized it's sheer and sparkly and wonderful!! Tenderglosses are described as a combination of lipstick (pigment of a sheer lipstick) and lipgloss (moisturizing and shiny). I really love this! I'm tempted to try another, but looking at the shades, with no swatches (bah!), I wonder if I got the best shade already, so I may just wait and see if they ever send out another. Thinking about it now, I think I may actually have one other shade from a previous month this year that I didn't like. I think it was a frosty bronze one.

Starlooks Tendergloss in Puzzy

Our final product this month was a really nice 3 Shade Blush Palette in 3B1 ($46!). It looks like they make these in 7 varieties based on skin tone, so I wonder if they were customized to our skin tone or if everyone got 3B1. Luckily, 3B1 is perfect for me. I love the colors - a nice pink pink, a peachier pink, and a darker mauvey pink. They're very pigmented, which is great since you don't have to use a lot, but it does mean you have to go easy with the brush. I also like that they're not shiny. I know some are to give a "dewy" or "glowing" look, but on me, I feel like it just looks shiny, so I'm happy these aren't.

Starlooks 3 Shade Blush Palette

Closeup

Swatches L to R: Tendergloss (it's sheer so a bit hard to see - it's the shiny bit on the left), Blush Palette (in same order as the palette pictured above)

Swatches of all the Gem Eye Pencils I have - the bottom is Mirage, the one included in this box. The rest, bottom to top after Mirage: Deja Vu, Myth, Fancy, and Roseate.

October 2013 Starlooks Starbox

I'm really happy with this box! A new Gem Eye Pencil for my lovely growing collection, an awesome new lip product that I actually like, and some great new blushes to try! What's not to like there? And a $73 value that I only paid $17.68 for! I wonder if I stick around with them long enough if I'll basically get the whole collection? I don't see myself cancelling anytime soon, so for now, I keep collecting! AND! With this box came 2 exciting other notes:

Coupon!

This is the first note! 50% off is a big deal! I don't think this is a unique code and I'm pretty sure you can use it without being a subscriber, so go for it! I just don't think it works for new subscriptions. I have to admit I've already used it to order the remaining 3 Gem Eye Pencils I didn't have and a few Kohl Eye Pencils! 50% off is awesome! I also have to say, I contacted them to ask about some of the Kohl Eye Pencil colors, since the colors really aren't clear on the website, and they got back to me within a few hours with swatches of just the ones I asked for (6 colors), in the order I asked for - they had gotten some out and swatched them out just for me! Awesome customer service! I do kind of wish they'd just put the swatches on the site, but it's nice that they're quick to help. And they have been every time I've contacted them.

Super December hint!!

This is the second note! Last December, I actually signed up because of a similar hint. We got an amazing $99 palette just like this is talking about. And I emailed them to ask about it and they confirmed it will be one of the ones on their site and it WILL NOT be the same as last year's selection (I didn't want 2 of the same one after all!). I think we got the Birthday Party palette (the second picture) last year. December was an awesome box last year and it will be again this year! So if you're interested at all in this sub, really, now's the time to sign up! You can do a gift sub like the note talks about if you just want December (I think - I don't see anything about it renewing, but I'm not 100% sure. That's just how most gift subs work.), or you can sign up for their regular sub. If you sign up for the regular sub before Nov 10, you'll get November first (no hints up yet), or after the 10th, you'll get December first.

 (And just a disclaimer: I bought this box myself and was not compensated for this review in any way. All opinions are my own. The final link is a referral link, but I also included a non-referral link at the top.)