Annual Birchbox Subscription

I treated myself to one year Birchbox Subscription.  I received a 20% of discount so it comes out to $7.33 per box.  Less then the price of two lattes a month.

My first box that came was the November 2015 box (they must of had old boxes laying around) since it was January 4th when I received this box.  The packaging is a little bit of a waste but the boxes are much nicer then other subscription boxes.  That little bit of tissue paper makes a big difference.

Sorry the video is a little shaky since I no longer have my camerawoman on staff.  My favorite item in this box was actually the Juliette Has a Gun Not a Perfume. I normally dislike perfume samples (or Not a perfume) but this one smelled wonderful.  The scent is Cetalox, which I never heard of before but is in a lot of perfumes.  This will be a great way to cover up after stinky runs!!!  At a $100 for 50 ml it's a small luxury.

Are we back for 2016?

Someone might be subscribing to a subscription box or two!! More to come.  Happy New Year!!

February 2015 Blush Mystery Beauty Box

Here's a quick rundown of the last year with the Blush Mystery Beauty Box, formerly the best mystery beauty box:

In 2014, the Blush Mystery Beauty Box started sucking in mysterious and confusing ways:

• They sent out more shampoo than you can shake a stick at.
• They sent repeat items frequently, sometimes only a month or two after the first time.
• They sent expired products and it seemed like they were clearing out extra inventory rather than thoughtfully putting together a collection of products.

I kept hoping it would get better, but it only got worse, so finally in November I canceled my subscription.

Then! The December box came out and it looked great, so I resubscribed. I was very happy.

Then! The featured item for January was an item that we'd received in December, and another item was one we'd received a couple months before that. The internet was SO MAD. I think Blush included that product in December's box by mistake and only meant for it to be in January's but maybe the Blush Mystery Beauty Box is put together by robots who don't notice things like that. But whatever. Blush sent out a shitty coupon apologizing for the duplicate items. I decided to hold on another month but if they sent more duplicates or shampoo I'd unsubscribe again.

This month is February. Here's my review for this month, along with a subjective and illogical rating system.

February 2015 Blush Mystery Beauty Box

Alterna Bamboo Smooth Kendi Pure Treatment Oil - This is stuff for your hair. I've used it a couple times. It smells nice and my hair seems to like it. +10 points
 
100 Percent Pure Creamy Nail Polish in Kiss - I don't like the color (reddish pink) but we haven't gotten fingernail polish in a long time and getting fingernail polish from the Blush Mystery Beauty Box changed my life. I'll give this away because I don't wear pinkish red fingernail polish but I approve of this. +5 points
 
Cargo Liquid Liner in Black - Blush sends Cargo products frequently but they haven't sent much eyeliner lately. I probably won't wear this but if I wore eyeliner I would. +5 points
 
Neostrata Skin Active Antioxidant Defense Serum - We get a lot of these "antioxidant" "defense" "serums" and I don't know if there's any difference between any of them but I'll use this and don't mind it. It's a small sample so if I don't like it I won't have to deal with it for long. +5 points
 
TOCCA Hand Cream in Stella - This is the featured item this month and you got one of three flavors. I got blood orange. Yum! Delicious! This is nice stuff! +10 points
 
TOCCA Eau de Parfum in Stella - Small sample of perfume. Normally I'm not into perfume, but this is the same flavor as the hand cream, and it seems like they matched the flavors for everyone. And that's nice! That brings the points for this up from 5 points to +15 points
 
Juliette Has a Gun Perfume - Oh, another small sample of perfume. I'm impressed by the thoughtfulness of the TOCCA perfume/hand cream, but this... it's French, but mostly I'm confused about the name. She has a gun? Good for her. Does she smell good? Does her gun smell good? What does a gun have to do with this? -10 points

Vichy Idealia Life Serum - Oh, another "serum". That's a -10, but it's French, so +0 points
 
Sarah Potempa The Wrap Up - A thing to put your hair into fancy buns that look like bagels. This won't work for people who don't have bun hair, but it's a unique item. I'm a little freaked out by perfect buns but luckily for me (or unluckily) my hair still looks like a pile of straw and not a bagel. +10 points

Total points out of a possible one million: +50 points

No, wait, I really like that hand cream, it's worth another 10 points. So, all together, +60 points!

I won't unsubscribe after this month but Blush is still on shaky grounds. I'm not trying to be a jerk but it really hasn't been happy times lately for subscribers of the Blush Mystery Beauty Box. BMBB4eva? I don't know.

Will Blush send shampoo next month? Will they send another tube of TOCCA Hand Cream? If they did would I be upset about the duplicate or would I be happy to get another tube of super great hand cream? Tune in next month to find out!

Beauty Box 5 October 2014 - Extend your Beauty Cosmetic Tool

I haven't  been blogging much because I'm only receiving Beauty Box 5 right now and they haven't  been all that exciting.  Mostly chapsticks, nail polish, eye liner or face or hair product samples.  This month though  I received  a mini SPATULA!!!  This product is hilarious.  It allows you to scrap the sides of tiny bottles to get every last drop of a product.  I guess if you buy $100 eye creams or Fekkai Glossy shampoo you would need this tool. 

September Blush Mystery Beauty Box, and very important updates

Hi! You haven't heard from me in months. That's because the summer was too hot for blogging, not because I wasn't getting any beauty boxes.

Yesterday my SEPTEMBER BLUSH MYSTERY BEAUTY BOX arrived.

Here's what I got this month: fancy bronzer stick (won't use), pigment corrector (not sure how this is supposed to work), Klorane dry shampoo (love!), hair goop (these never work well for me), sensitive touch cleansing wipes (which I will not use on my hoohaw but which would have been useful in the summer for armpits and feet), and more lip gloss. The last thing I need is any more of any of this stuff but it's so exciting! I put on the lip gloss last night and it smells like some gross powdery sports drink but looks fabulous.

Blush Mystery Beauty Box! Still the best mystery beauty box!

Now, here are some important updates:

I unsubscribed from Julep! :( x 100. Was it the worst mistake I've ever made in my life? I don't know. I liked Julep, it just got ridiculous. I own so many fingernail polishes now. I have been mostly bite-free since last October, though, and I will always think fondly of Julep.

I'm still subscribed to Birchbox but am going to cancel after this month. Birchbox is fine, it's only ten bucks, I just can't deal with the slow shipping. Also, apparently, the main draw for Birchbox is the points you get when you review the products you get every month. Points = $$, and when you accrue enough points you can get free stuff. I don't need any more stuff, and I don't have the time or patience to review products, so I'm not taking advantage of this point system and might as well quit. Birchbox has been nice. I signed up for it because everyone on the internet complained about it so much, and I've been pretty happy with it.

I got a Memebox Superbox! It was the aloe one, full of Korean beauty products containing aloe. It was awesome. I'm not going to say anything more about it, just that it was awesome, really awesome. Memebox puts together really neat boxes and I wish I could order more.

I also just ordered a Beauteque Beauty Bag! I don't know why I did it. I saw someone's review of theirs and was filled with longing, so, click, I got one. This month's contains something made of snail slime, I believe, which I guess must be super great for your skin. Beauteque, it seems, doesn't do a subscription - like Memebox you order the boxes one at a time. So I'll get this one and then no more, for real. Then I will go back to being a fine lady who receives only one beauty box per month.

That's it. Thank you for reading.

2014 Spring/Summer Allure Beauty Box Unboxing Video

May 2014 Blush Mystery Beauty Box

I can't really believe it's taken me until the end of the month to post about the Blush Mystery Beauty Box. There are a couple reasons, one being that I've been stupid busy with my stupidly stupid job, and the other being that I'm apparently a little underwhelmed by the Blush Mystery Beauty Box. It's not the Blush Mystery Beauty Box's fault, I think, but rather that you can only get beauty boxes for so long before you stop needing them and freaking out about them.

This month's theme was "Instant Refresher" which doesn't really mean anything but it's supposed to make you think nice things about it. Okay.

This month's featured curator is the CEO of Beauty Bus Foundation. Beauty Bus provides in-home beauty services for people who are sick. For every 10 Blush Mystery Beauty Boxes sold this month, Blush donated one box to Beauty Bus. That's nice. It is nice.

The curator's pick was the glo minerals Blush Duo in Bare/Hibiscus. It's full-sized but pretty small, which is fine, because no one wants to have blush last for two decades. I've been using this and it's fine.

We also got Bioxidea Miracle24 Hand Mask. This is from the same people who gave us the hockey face mask with diamond dust, which I used and which was fine, if slightly cold and hockeyish. I haven't used the hand mask yet because it hasn't fit into my fingernail plans for the month so far, but I will use it someday and I'm sure it will be nice.

We also got Oilless Oil by Peter Thomas Roth. It's moisturizer for your face and whatever else needs moisturizing. I've been using this at night and I quite like it. They make a big deal out of the process they use to make this - it's from sugar cane or whatever, and they do a lot of fancy stuff to it, apparently. This seems to work nicely, and my face and I like it.

They also sent pūr~lisse pūr-moist hydra-balance moisturizer. This is the cousin of the stuff that my chin apparently hated last fall and I'm scared to try this. Also goddammit, why does the name have to be so complicated? I'm inclined to dislike it pūr~ly because of the name.

And we got Laura Geller Beauty Cool Lids Cream Eyeshadow in Silver Sands. Silvery liquid eyeshadow. I don't wear eyeshadow but this is the bombdiggity, if you will. I really like this stuff. You just use a tiny, tiny dot, and suddenly you look very, very fancy. Me gusta, Laura Geller.

And the last item. Miracle Skin Transformer Face. They sent this exact thing in October. But the tube I got in October expires in a year and a half, and the tube they sent this month expired in March. This is super weird. Weird that they're sending something they've already sent, and weird that they're sending out expired products. I could have contacted them and gotten a replacement, but I don't want a replacement, so eh.

I really like three of the products that came this month, I will probably like one product, I'm scared to use one product, and one product is stupid. Overall this was a successful box for me, but I'm still feeling underwhelmed. Why? I don't know. Maybe it's because I'm on the internet and eventually everyone has to turn into a whiner. I still think the Blush Mystery Beauty Box is the best beauty box. It's nice that this month they donated products to the Beauty Bus Foundation. The blush, eyeshadow, and oilless oil are probably among the top products I've received and I'll continue to use them for all my livelong days. Bleh.

Maybe I'm cranky because I only liked one product last month.

Maybe I need to take a nap.