April 2014 Birchbox

Birchbox is a monthly subscription box service. For $10 a month, they will send you 4-5 'Beauty and Lifestyle' samples. 

They also have a points system, which is the best I've seen. 100 points = $10 to spend in the Birchbox shop. Earn 1 point for every dollar you spend (monthly boxes don't count, except for the first one) and they offer a lot of promo codes to get extra points. You can also earn 10 points for each review of your monthly samples. That's like getting $4-5 back each month! You also get 50 points for each person who signs up through your referral. If you would like to try Birchbox, please consider using my link: https://www.birchbox.com/invite/pdwbx

This month's theme: Rainy Days

Each box contained a card of things to do on a rainy day. Mine was a little pointless. I don't have plants, especially fake ones.

Here's what I got this month:

Beauty Protector Protect and Detangle: ($21.95 for 8oz) I actually got this in my first March Birchbox. They say they never give you the same sample twice, but there was some confusion with that month's box that you can read about here. Likewise, you can read my original review here. But here's my new thoughts: This stuff is awesome. It smells really good and makes your hair feel super soft. I generally blow dry my hair every day because when I air dry, it gets a little frizzy and just lays funny. This past weekend I put this in my hair after showering, and just pinned back my bangs. We were going to a late movie and I didn't need to look great. After my hair dried, it looked great! Even when I took out the bobby pins, I didn't have those dumb creases. I'm so glad I got another sample of this. Maybe when I'm done with both, I will finally be convinced to buy a full size.

Anastasia Beverly Hills Clear Brow Gel: ($22 for 0.28 oz) As far as I can tell, this is a full-size product. Or very close to. I have started to pay attention to my brows a bit more, but that's because I'm using Benefit's Gimme Brow because it's color and gel in one. I don't take a pencil to my brows, so I don't really need a clear gel like this. But I guess it's good for taming my brows very quickly.

Supergoop! Daily Correct CC Cream: ($32 for 1.6 oz I think) I have a friend who got this sample a few months ago and had to buy the full size. She loves it. I'm so excited to try it! The sample is teeny-tiny (quarter for scale) but it feels full, unlike last month's products. I really like the coverage of this. It's very natural and not heavy. Not sure how well it helped with the oil. I am a little disappointed though: when I first used this, I thought "Wow, my face looks great. I'm probably going to buy this" but by the end of the day I noticed a some tiny zits popping up on a generally clear face. It was too many just to be a bad face day. I went a few days without it, trying other primers and sunblocks I had instead and nothing else happened. Then I tried this CC cream again and the same thing happened, but a little less this time. And I really liked it too :( Glad I didn't just take my friend's word and buy the full-size. 

Color Club Gala's Gems Collection in "Breakfast At...": ($13 for the 4-color pack) Beautiful color. Super smooth. Needs 2 coats (only one coat shown here). Definitely an Easter color. I've been really into the mint greens lately so I love this. I have an Essie color that's close but is a solid flat color and I put them on together after I took that picture.

                       

Kind Healthy Grain Bars: ($11.88 for a box of 15) This was a "Find" this month (it comes in addition to your 4-5 samples.) It made me nervous to see pictures of people's boxes and all of them had a Kind bar in it. We have Kind bars at work, but they're the ones with the fruit in them and I just don't like that sort of thing. I was really excited to see this flavor though! I really like pumpkin seeds. It also has sunflower seeds, oats, millet, quinoa, buckwheat, maple syrup, and sea salt. It was a great sweet and salty treat this morning on my way to work. I will definitely be buying a box of these. It's perfect to throw in my purse for a quick snack.