As a budget beauty blogger I rarely review the more luxury brands that are out there. So when Birchbox released this years CEW boxes I of course snatched them up as fast as I could. For those unfamiliar, CEW is the Cosmetic Executive Women Insider' Choice Awards, so basically the best products for a given category. This box is all the prestige headliners, so the luxury brands and high end products we all drool over but can't always afford. The actual box was $18, which I think is a fair price for the items that I received. Let's dig into my goodies shall we?
This box came with those paper string confetti to help keep everything secure, which was a nice and fancy touch I thought. My son promptly ran off with them to who know where, so one point for Birchbox already I guess. There are seven items in this box, though one of them is a foil bonus sample I think. But 6 items is still a great box, and almost everything was a great size. If this was my regular Birchbox I'd be the happiest beauty blogger out there.
First up is an item I've been dying to try since it was first released, Benefit's new push up liner. I'm a major winged eyeliner fan so this product appealed to me in that sense. Now I'm sure some of you have done some online dating where you see the perfect person online but when you meet in person they are so awful you're afraid they want to make a person suit out of you. That's my opinion of this product.
First, it was tiny. Like I've had pretzel sticks bigger than this. And instead of being a click or twist up you have to squeeze the product up through the rubber tip, which has to be the worst way EVER to get an eyeliner product out. And to ass insult to injury once you did manage to get the product warmed up enough to squish it out, there's only enough to use it for two days. Two clumpy, thick, messy days. I'm beginning to think Benefit just hates doing deluxe sized samples and gives you the shittiest, smallest ones they can legally make. At this point I am so done with Benefit I will never buy one of their products EVER, thanks to how awful all the minis that I've tried are. So good job there product marketing team.
I was actually surprised to see Coola in this box, I don't really consider them a prestige brand at all. I prefer Supergoop to them, and had hated the only Coola product I had tried in the past. This is just their regular sunscreen, nothing really special about it. It did smell nice, sort of mangoesque I guess. And I didn't get sunburned while wearing it, but I found it a bit greasy feeling for my taste, so I'll stick with my Supergoop next time I need to buy sunscreen.
I apparently only took product still in boxes pictures for some reason, but this is a decent sized glass phial of a Marula facial oil. I've started really loving face oils lately (thanks Jouer!) so I was super excited to try this one out. It has an unusual smell that I can't quite describe, but I like it. My only problem is the opening to the bottle is super small so getting even a drop out is frustrating. I'm going to have my husband pop the lid thingy off of it for me so I can continue to use this oil, but first impression is that I like it. And for those going "why would I want to put oil on my face", this puts good oil and moisture back into your skin, which makes it not produce the bad oil we all know and loathe.
You probably can't see the label on this since it's black on black, but this is a lip and cheek crayon by NudeStix. Now Nudestix is one of those new to me brands I've been super curious about, so this is one of the reasons I got the box. Again, for some stupid reason I only did the bare minimum for pictures but this is an actual wooden pencil (like a giant color pencil) and the shade is exactly like the color shown on the outside. I was worried it would be really drying but it is nice and creamy and I never noticed any drying of my lips. The shade on me at least was a nice neutral nude color, perfect to wear to work or on days I want just really simple makeup. It is a jumbo sized pencil so I'll need to pick up a new sharpener for it. But I'm super pleased with it and would be comfortable investing in another product from this company.
I'm sure most of you have heard of GlamGlow by now, but if now it is an overpriced mud mask that has taken the beauty world by storm. I say overpriced because an actual jar is $69 for 1.7 ounces! Is that not ridiculous? So this sample right here more than paid for the box. I actually haven't tried this yet, my skin is reacting strangely to the chemo so I'm being very careful with how much new stuff I test out at a time. I tried a itsy bitsy sample of their new foaming cleanser a few months ago and I wasn't impressed at all, so I'm expecting this to be like every other mud mask I've tried.
The foil bonus sample was one of GlamGlow's other mud masks, and again I haven't tried it yet but I doubt it will wow me enough to justify a $69 price tag.
My last item came all gift wrapped, which was exciting! It was like a present from Birchbox to me....that I paid for. Ok, that sounded better in my head. I let the kiddo open it because I'm awesome like that (and I can't resist the puppy dog eyes).
This is actually a super cool product. It is a hair perfume/shine spray/frizz fighting spray by Fekkai, a high end hair care company. I've tried some of their shampoo and conditioners and was never impressed, but this item has totally won me over. It is Creme Vanilla and it smells amazing! I've used it almost every single day since it arrived. I do notice less frizz than normal this time of year, but I don't know if my hair is shinier than usual. It looks like there are two other scents as well, a citrus mint one and a rose one as well. I really like this and I know it's not a necessity and who really needs hair perfume but I like it and may buy the set of them and then feel guilty forever because of it. While my hair smells pretty.
While this wasn't a complete hit with me, I did really enjoy the box and I loved getting to try all these fancy and expensive products out. Will I purchase any of them? No (well...maybe the hair perfume), but half the fun of subscription boxes like Birchbox is getting to try things I would never buy for myself. If you got this box what was your favorite item in it?
Ha, I actually laughed twice while reading this! Great review. I also want to try the push up liner, but after reading so many poor reviews of that itty bitty sample, I almost hope I don't get it in one of my boxes! And the Thirsty Mud isn't actually mud - it's the only one I've tried, and it's more of a gel that you leave on for a while and then rinse off. Kind of weird. I hope you like it!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you enjoyed my post, it was pretty fun to write. And I did not know it was a gel, I really need to use those. Thanks for stopping by!
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