April Birchbox

Birchbox 

This month's Birchbox is a lovely floral-themed box in collaboration with Rifle Paper Co, and has some great products in! 

You could upgrade your box this month by paying £4 extra to get the Moss Garden Notebook set from the Rifle Paper Co (worth £12), and seeing as I love notebooks I thought I'd get them. They're amazing quality and are really beautiful designs. 

The actual products are a great selection too - two makeup, one skincare, one haircare and one body product. 

I've already tried the Balance me tinted wonder eye cream as I was so excited to give it a go. It's basically an eye cream and under eye concealer in one and I'm really impressed with it! It basically cuts out a step in my makeup routine so will be perfect for days when I'm in a rush! 

Another new makeup product is the Benefit Dew The Hoola which is a liquid bronzer. I haven't tried this yet, but I like the powder hoola so I'm excited to try it out. 

I also got a Parlor leave-in conditioner, which is a bit weird as I've been looking for a new leave in conditioner for a while but there doesn't seem to be many available at the moment (they literally didn't have any in my local boots and superdrug!) so of course I was really pleased to get this in my Birchbox this month. 

The two least-exciting samples for me were the Cynthia Rowley eyeliner (which I will use but I already have a few black pencils) and the Foot care cream (but I probably should start attending to my feet ready for sandal season!!)

I really do enjoy my Birchbox subscription, and I'd definitely recommend it if you're not already subscribed! 

March Birchbox

March Birchbox

Another month, another Birchbox. I really like Birchbox (as I've said loads of time) so I thought I'd share what I got in mine this month! 

This Works Deep Sleep Pillow Spray - I've tried this and used it before and I really like it. It's great if you struggle to get to sleep as it's a relaxing scent. I also like it if I'm feeling a bit ill. 

Arrow Boost Color Enhancing lip balm - I love trying out new lip balms and this is a full size sample worth £11. It has a lovely mint scent and feels really moisturising on the lips. I like this for natural makeup days.

Model Co More Brows - I really like using brow mascaras and normally just stick to the maybelline one so I'm excited to try out something different. This is also full size too - worth £13!  I have the lightest shade which is perfect for me - make sure you do set your preferences if you sign up to Birchbox so that you get the right shades in products! 

Hydraluron moisture boosting mask - I've never tried anything from Hydraluron even though they're a pretty popular brand in the blogging world. I'm excited to give this a go next time I'm having a bit of a relax! 

Number 4 Blow dry lotion - I've tried products from number 4 before and have really liked them so I'm excited to try this blow dry lotion. I'm also a big fan of leave-in treatments so was happy to get this in my box! 

Amika Nourishing mask - A sample of an intense hair mask t help with split ends, dryness and repair damage. This sounds amazing to me as I have quite dry hair (although it's in a lot better condition than it was!) 

So that's everything in my Birchbox this month - I do think it's really good value and a good way to try new products. I'm also saving some of the minis now for my holiday! 

February Birchbox

February Birchbox

I've decided to do this month's Birchbox post a little bit different, I have a video going up tomorrow on my Youtube channel where I unbox the Birchbox and give you my thoughts on some of the products I've tried so far, and in this post you can see the products more close-up and I'll link everything that I got below. 

I'm really impressed with this month's box, and I think the product selection is great! I was especially excited to see the Spectrum makeup brush in my box, as I've been wanting to try their brushes for a while! Also, this month's box sees the launch of Birchbox's own makeup line - Love of Colour and I got a gold eyeshadow crayon! 

Here's everything I got

LOC Perfect Cents shadow stick

Spectrum tapered finishing brush

The Balm FratBoy blush 

Derm Eyes makeup remover wipe

Cochine water hyacinth and lime body lotion 

Ole Henriksen Collagen booster serum

Don't forget to subscribe to my Youtube channel so that you don't miss tomorrow's unboxing video! 

Five Favourite Face Brushes

Finding the perfect makeup brushes can be a confusing and lengthy process, an I thought that some of you may be looking for new brushes, or might just be starting to build up your collection, so I decided to do a little edit of my five favourite brushes for base products: foundation, concealer, blush, highlight, contour and bronzer. 

Real Techniques Buffing Brush

I think just about every blogger has this brush, and I'll be honest, I have 3. I like to use a clean foundation brush every day, and having 3 (and other brushes) means I don't have to constantly wash brushes! The shape of the buffing brush is unique, I've not found any others like it, and it just applies foundation and concealer perfectly. I've used it with loads of different base products, all varying in consistency, coverage and finish, and it's never let me down. 

Real Techniques Contour Brush 

Day to day, I'll just blend in my concealer with the buffing brush, but when I'm taking a bit more time, or have used my hands to apply my base products, I'll use this little brush for concealer. I find it to be the perfect size: not too big, not too small, and it just applies concealer really well. It does also work well for contouring, it's intended use, but I personally prefer something else for that. 

Real Techniques Powder Brush

This one's good for both powder and bronzer. It's good for loose or pressed powders too. I use it for my everyday powder, but in summer I sometimes use it for bronzer too, to add an all over glow. It's a really soft brush too. 

Charlotte Tilbury Powder and Sculpt brush 

I bought this to use with my Filmstar bronze and glow from Charlotte Tilbury, and it's just the best contour brush I've ever used. It's the perfect size, picks up the right amount of product, and the application is really natural. That's also down to her bronze and highlight duo, but I do love the brush with other products too. It's also great for highlighter! 

MAC 168 brush 

This was one of the first brushes I ever owned. I remember going to MAC in Selfridges and buying a bronzer, mineralise skin finish and this brush in my first year at uni. I absolutely loved it then, and still love it now! I use it for blush too, which it also works really well for! 

So that's my little edit of face brushes, if you'd like me to do a similar edit with other brushes, just let me know! 

Hope you're all having a lovely day! x

January Birchbox

As January is the month of new year's resolutions, with the majority of them being health and fitness relate, Birchbox this month have teamed up with Women's health magazine, and this month's box is all health themes!

Of course, if you've been here for a while, you'll already know I love Birchbox. But if you're new (hey! so pleased to have you!) you might not already know this. This month has a great selection of products, including a Stila lip glaze, which is a product I already love, but thankfully didn't already have this particular shade! It also contains a Heal Gel, which is a fantastic little healing balm. I had a really sore abscess on my face over the weekend (tmi I know), but this gel really helped to soothe and heal it, so I'm already really impressed with that. It also contains Caudalie Vinoperfect serum, which I've tried before and really liked, Philip Kingsley Body building conditioner, which I'm excited to try, Activbod cooling finish body lotion, which I think I'll be using in summer, when hopefully I'll have time to get back to the gym, and a sample of matcha powder, which I've always wanted to try. I really want to get into eating a bit healthier, so am going to look for some smoothie recipes or something to use this in.

The box also came with a pilates band, which is useful for at home workouts, which I will probably test out when I'm not either working, blogging or exhausted!

Overall, I'm really impressed with this month's box, and it's a great theme for January, so well done Birchbox, another great month.

You can get the products here, or click the banner below.

In other good news, my wifi is back, which means that my blogging schedule is unaffected! yayy! :) x  

*This post is not sponsored but may contain Affiliate links.

The Origins Wonder duo

If you've been watching my YouTube channel, it's probably no surprise that these two origins products have made their way into a blog post. I've used them in multiple videos, each time raving about how much I love them. I've also been recommending them on the beauty chats on twitter, so if you follow me there, chances are you've heard me mention these!

So what's so good about them? I'll start with the Origins Ginzing eye cream. This is a little gem, and I use it in the mornings to wake up tired eyes. I have to get up early monday - friday, which is definitely not one of my favourite things to do, and I usually have some form of puffy eyes or dark circles! This eye cream somehow manages to get rid of all that, and leaves my under eye area feeling moisturised and awake. The other thing I love is that it makes the perfect base for concealer. As it's so hydrating, the concealer applies beautifully, and I get a finish which makes my skin look healthy and radiant. It is expensive, but I know that I'll just have to repurchase it when this one runs out!

Onto the Origins Vitazing moisturiser, this is a tinted moisturiser, which isn't something I've used much of. I find a lot of moisturisers can leave my skin looking and feeling greasy, and making my foundation loose about half of its longevity. This moisturiser doesn't have any effect on that, and just leaves my skin with the perfect healthy glow, and a great base for foundation or BB cream. I've used it every single day since I got it, and am so obsessed with it now! Again, it's not cheap, but I know that I'll definitely be repurchasing it, as I haven't found anything this good!

Another thing to mention perhaps is that I have sensitive  combination skin, with both oily and dry patches, and neither of these products have caused any skin irritations or break outs.

Thumbs up from me!
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Benefit Watts Up!

You might remember me mentioning the Benefit Watts Up highlighter when I bought it way back in July. Purchasing the Charlotte Tilbury film star bronze and glow at the same time meant that this little gem never got opened, until a few weeks ago, when I remembered I still hadn't tried it. 

Well, I tried it once, and the rest is history. I love this thing! I'm not normally a huge fan of cream products, but this one is great. It applies easily over foundation (and powder), looks beautiful on the skin, and lasts all day! I'm so impressed with it that I just had to tell you all about it. 

The packaging is beautiful too. Benefit packaging is a bit hit and miss for me. I like it usually, but the cardboard packaging gets messy so quickly. This is great as it's not cardboard! The product is in a twist up stick formula too, which I find way easier to use (and keep clean!) than a cream highlighter compact. There is a little sponge on the other end of the product, which I haven't used, as personally, I think this highlighter blends beautifully with fingers. 

I know I'll be loving this product even more in Summer, as it's perfect for a bronzy glow too, as it's gold-tinted. 

It's not cheap, but I would really recommend it! 

x