An Interview With Glow Cosmetics

*I received these products free for testing/reviewing purposes. All opinions are my own*

So often we hear about how lazy and unmotivated "kids these days" are, which is a stereotype I find to be completely unfair and untrue. In my job I get to meet kids every day who are involved in sports, student government, helping their community, and now running their own businesses. Hillsboro School District has a new program called IGNITE, which stands for Inspiring Growth Now In Teacher Education. This year IGNITE is partnering up with Tuesday Market to allow high school students a chance to create and run their own businesses, and I have had the pleasure of interviewing a pair of girls who have created their own skin care line.

Glow Cosmetics is an all natural, hand made line of scrubs and masks created by Becca McInally and Ruth Teklu. Each and every item is crafted with the utmost care, and have been designed to pamper and soothe your skin. The focus of the company is to use the most natural products possible, free of perfumes, parabens, and preservatives. They want your skin to glow and thrive, like a sunflower reaching for the warmth of the sun, which is why you'll find a sunflower on all of their labels. Though this is the first time either girls has run a business, they are handling it like pros and I was very impressed with their professional attitude and smart decision making. Currently their products are only available at their booth in the Tuesday Market, but eventually they would like to expand to an online market if this summer goes well.

They were kind enough to give me a sample of each of their products, so I've been able to test out the entire line. Currently they offer two different lip scrubs, a bath fizzy, a charcoal clay mask, a face/body scrub, and a body scrub. All of these items minus the body scrub are vegan, and as I mentioned earlier are hand made and cruelty free. Each product is designed to combat a specific problem while giving your skin the boost it needs. And all of the products have cute and clever names that reflect what is in them, which I really appreciated.

There are two lip scrubs in the line, a mint one called "Minty Fresh", and a licorice one called "Lick-o-rice". Both are completely edible, so once you have scrubbed your lips you can just lick the scrub off instead of rinsing it off. And the flavors are tasty enough you'll want to for sure. The Minty Fresh is my favorite out of the two, with a light spearmint flavor. The scent, flavor, and lovely light green shade remind me of a candy I use to love as a child. The Lick-o-rice one is a pale pink and is not overpowering in it's licorice flavor at all. It smells just like the old fashion licorice whips you find in good candy shops. Each container retails for $2.50, making these very affordable. And each lip scrub has a shelf life of three months, since it is free of preservatives.

The bath fizzy is a light sky blue shade and is the size of a tennis ball. The relaxing smell of lavender is strong enough to smell through the packaging, I could sniff it all day. I actually haven't tried this yet, my son fell in love with it the moment he saw it so I promised him I'd wait till his next bath to use it. The lavender essential oils in it will make for the perfect wind down bath, and the actual bath fizzy is large enough you could cut it in half to get two uses out of it. Each ball retails for $6.50, and as I mentioned are tennis ball sized so you get quite a bit for the price.

The only non-vegan item in the line is the Lemon Bar, a citrus based sugar scrub for your body. Containing fresh lemon zest, honey, lemon and orange essential oils, baking soda, and sugar, this is the perfect scrub to use in the morning to perk you up while scrubbing you down. The scent can best be described as a lemon starburst, I've probably spent an hour total just smelling it. And it left my leg feeling so soft afterwards, the dual exfoliating agents (sugar and baking soda) really do their job. The citrus oils help brighten your skin while the anti-microbial and healing properties of the honey will help heal your skin. I really enjoyed this one, the combination of the ingredients plus the smell just made me feel great. A jar of the scrub retails for $7.50 and has a shelf life of about 3 months.

My favorite thing in the whole world is coffee, so when they gave me a jar of the Daily Grind, a coffee based face and body scrub, I was ecstatic. Coffee is excellent for the skin and has been know to help diminish the appearance of cellulite, so with swimsuit season right around the corner I have a feeling this will be a popular one. While this is a courser scrub than I prefer for my face, I loved it on my legs. The difference in size between the sugar and the coffee grinds really helped in scrubbing and buffing away the dry skin I've been battling since my camping trip. And coffee grinds plus hot shower equals my whole bathroom smelling like a coffee shop, so I was in heaven. This scrub also retails for $7.50 and has a 3 month shelf life. I will be purchasing another jar of this scrub for sure before the summer ends.

I saved the best for last, a product that if you had told me was from a top skin care line I would have believed it hands down. The Diamond In The Rough charcoal clay mask, which was the first recipe they created for their line, is designed to pull all the impurities out of your skin. The bentonite clay based mask also contains aloe vera to soothe your skin, and tea tree oil to help combat acne, with the crown jewel being the charcoal, which acts like a little vacuum to pull everything out of your pores. There's a bit of a rough texture to this mask, so I scrubbed a bit as I applied this to my whole face, then I scrubbed again as I rinsed it off after it had completely dried. The grit exfoliated my face perfectly without overdoing it, and the aloe helped prevent any redness I may have caused. The mask dried up the little cluster of acne I had forming on my forehead and completely sucked up all the excess oil and gunk from my face. I would hand down purchase another container of this, this is a really great mask. The mask retails for $7.95, which I think is a steal, and also has a 3 month shelf life.

I am incredibly impressed by Glow Cosmetics and all the products they currently offer. I would love to see them be successful and grow, adding new products to their line. The fact that this whole business was designed and is ran by two girls not even out of high school yet blows my mind, I see good things in the future for Becca and Ruth. If you are interested in following the story of Glow Cosmetics you can find them at the Tuesday Market in downtown Hillsboro all Summer and you can also find them on Twitter. I wish them all the luck in their business and I can't wait to see what they come up with next.

Jojoba Oil, Can I Pronounce You Correctly Today?

*I received this product free for testing and reviewing purposes. All opinions are my own*

In the beauty world, there are a lot of ingredients that are great for you but hard to pronounce. One of the one's I have to constantly think about before I say is Jojoba Oil, which is pronounced like ha ho baa. You've probably seen this ingredient pop up in plenty of your skin care and hair care products, but have you ever tried it all by itself? Foxbrim was kind enough to send me a bottle of their 100% Pure Certified Organic Jojoba Oil to test out and review for you guys.

For those who don't know, Jojoba Oil is full of essential fatty acids, antioxidants, and Vitamin E and B Complex. What this means is this is a powerhouse moisturizer for your skin that has anti-fungal, anti-bacterial, and anti-inflammatory properties. You can use this in your hair, on your skin, to remove makeup (though I personally don't like oil for removing makeup), and as a carrier oil in homemade spa treatments. Many many years ago I had a wonderful lip balm gel that was mainly Jojoba Oil, maybe I'll have to see if I can recreate it. The oil itself is a light golden color and smells vaguely like peanuts to me. While not sticky this is a very thick oil so a little goes a long way. Don't dump out a whole dropper full onto your hands like I did. Oops.

I've been mainly using this on my hands, my camping trip left them dried out and cracked, and I've noticed a significant improvement in my cuticles and nails. And I've also been massaging it into my feet to both ease soreness and to rehydrate my beach dried feet. This product really does have a dozen uses, and I can't wait to create some new DIY projects with it. Foxbrim is also a company I like quite a bit, so that helps. They do not test on animals and are located here in the United States. I really like this product and think if you are looking for Jojoba Oil this is a great one to get. If you would like to purchase a bottle you can here for $16.95 with free Prime Shipping.

Adore Me, Love Me, Tell Me I'm Pretty

Hello my lovely readers, do I have a treat for you today! Today I am teaming up with Adore Me, an online lingerie company, to bring you a lovely makeup look tutorial inspired by one of their fun new retro bikini sets. There is nothing sexier than just the right set of lingerie, whether it is fun and flirty or sexy and sultry. And sometimes we want to be sexy outside of the bedroom, like at the beach or a pool party. So strap yourselves, and let me show you how to do a fun and flirty retro makeup look to perfectly compliment this. And as a (hopefully unnecessary) side note, there are no pictures of me in lingerie in this post and any comments asking for ones will be instantly deleted. Please be respectful of me and the other people who read this blog.

Isn't this piece fabulous? I was instantly drawn to the fun retro pattern and bright color accent colors. Better yet, I had the perfect shade of lipstick sitting in my drawer, so creating a look based off of this. And this gave me the perfect excuse to finally do a full makeup tutorial, which is something I've been thinking about doing for about a month now.

Start with a freshly cleaned face. I always tie my hair up before I do my makeup, but I have crazy long hair so it gets everywhere. I also always start with my eyes first, so I can clean up any fall out before I do my face stuff.

Prime your eyes from lid up to your brow bone. I used the Smashbox 24 Hour Photo Finish Shadow Primer.

Take a light colored matte shade, apply it from your crease up to about the halfway point between the crease and your brows. I used the light matte pink shade from my Revealed 2 palette.

Now take a shimmery peach shade and apply it over your entire lid, making sure to blend any harsh lines that may form. I used the third from the left on the top row of my Revealed 2 palette, a nice peachy pink shade.

Now take a shimmery mocha shade and lightly apply it to your crease and the outer corners of your eyes. Blend, blend, blend, you want no harsh lines at all. Once the crease is where you want it apply a bit more shadow to the outer corner of your eye to increase the intensity of the look. I used the fourth from the left on the bottom row of my Revealed 2 palette, which is a purplish mocha shade.

Lastly, apply a highlighting shade along your brow bone and to the inner corners of your eyes. I used a shimmery light gold shade from the Revealed 2 palette.

Now you are going to lightly apply a brown pencil liner along your bottom lashes for some added sultry intensity. Don't go to heavy here, just enough to make your lower lashes look fuller. I used a Pacifica pencil.

And now for that retro flare, apply a nice winged eyeliner. I find it easiest to do a thin line along my lid, then draw my wing from the tip in (lining the angle up with my bottom lash line). Next I draw from the tip into my top lash line, which I will then thicken up a bit to match the wing. I prefer felt tip pen style liquid eyeliners, like the Eyeko Skinny Liquid Liner, but use whatever you are most comfortable using. Remember, winged eyeliner takes practice and patience, so don't get frustrated if it doesn't come out just right.

Apply your falsies if you wear them (I don't), then top with your favorite black mascara. I did 2 coats of Smashbox Full Exposure on both my top and bottom lashes.

The next step is optional, but I feel that a well done brow can really elevate a look up. Wax and powder topped with a brow gel is my current favorite way to do my lashes, using the ELF eyebrow kit and the Anastasia Beverly Hills clear brow gel.

Face primer is next, and I'm a firm believer in a really good primer to help smooth out your pores and help your foundation apply smoothly. I'm currently testing out the Smashbox Photo Finish primer.

Dot your concealer of choice under your eyes, over your brows, and onto any blemishes or spots. I prefer a brush to smooth my concealer out, and your goal is to clean up any mess under your eyes (and dark circles) and even up any mistakes along the tops of your brows. This can also help hide any brow hairs you may have outside of your brow shape.

Now your foundation and/or powder of choice. I applied a Maybelline BB Cream with a Blender sponge then my Rimmel Stay Matte powder with a large, dense, brush and buffed it all in to give my skin an airbrushed look.

Our color theme is coral, so apply a nice coral colored blush to the apples of your cheeks lightly, blending out along your cheek bone. If you like to do some contouring, do some light powder contouring here. I used an ELF Contouring Blush and Bronzer combo called St Lucia. Then highlight along your cheek bones, nose, cupid's bow, and forehead (lightly, no disco balls please). I used another ELF product, this time the baked highlighter in the shade Moonlight Pearl.

Lastly is the cherry on my makeup sundae, a bright and flirty coral shade by NYX called Rose.

Add some sexy hair, slip into your new bikini, and you are ready to light that party up! I hope you guys enjoyed this tutorial as much as I enjoyed creating it for you. If you want to purchase the bikini that inspired this look, you can find it here. And stay tuned for some more Adore Me collaborations over the next week or so.

Thursday Thoughts

Last Thursday of the month, whoohoo! End of the months are always my favorite because that means pay day is right around the corner, as well as Birchbox spoilers. But mainly pay day. As per my usual I'm joining Jen of Ramblings of a Suburban Mom for her weekly Thursday Thoughts link up!

Firstly, I have something exciting planned for this Sunday so make sure you pop on over if you aren't a regular reader. Since I moved Tutorial Tuesdays over to my YouTube channel (working on it I promise) I've been working on a new weekly feature to replace it and I've decided to do Small Business Sundays. I'd like to use my blog to help promote woman owned small businesses in the beauty, makeup, and fashion industry. I've got my first one all ready to go up this Sunday and my second one is in the process of working out the details. I'm very excited for this project and I hope you guys are too.

Speaking of my blog, I made some nifty new business cards (and stickers) for it! I've actually been fiddling with these for months and months, so to have them printed and in my hand is a big deal for me. Now to finally decide on a logo and maybe make some spiffy stuff. Would anybody be interested in Best Beauty for my Buck branded stuff?

My giant Birchbox haul arrived on Friday, can you believe I got all of this stuff for just under $15?!?! I'll have reviews of everything up sometime in the next week or so, still testing and playing with things. I love that Birchbox included another set of Mighty Tea as a bonus, they are seriously delicious but a bit expensive for my budget.

Multi-Tasking Markers Make Everything More Colorful

*I received this product free for testing/reviewing purposes. All opinions are my own*

You may not know this about me, but I'm a bit of an organization freak. You also would not know that looking at my house, but I have a very specific order to my chaos. One of the things I really like are labels, but I get bored of the same thing after a while. If you've ever tried to peel up a sticker label you know my pain. And most washable markers are anything but, as any parent can tell you. I was recently given the opportunity to try out some chalk markers, and they have filled a void that has long plagued me.

For those who have never heard of a chalk marker, it is basically liquid chalk in a felt tip pen format. You can use them pretty much anything that is non-porous, and they wipe away with just a damp cloth. The set I received is from Kitchen Supreme (available here for $23.84 with free Prime Shipping), and came with 10 different brightly colored markers and come fun chalk board stickers that I'm saving for when I replace my kitchen canisters next year. All of my markers are nice and opaque, so very different from your standard felt tip pens. Each pen came with a dual ended felt tip, so you can either have a chisel tip (my personal favorite), or a standard round tip. There were even a few extra ones included, which was much appreciated.

As you've probably notices, I only have 9 pens featured in my pictures. My bright pink pen has been absconded with by my son, who has hidden it somewhere in my house. These are great for practicing letters and numbers since they clean up so easily, so much better than regular markers or even sticks of chalk that get powder everywhere. If you have a little one I really recommend these for writing practice, the larger size of the pens also makes it easier for small hands to hold.

I've been using these to label things like my makeup storage containers and to leave myself notes on my mirrors or bedroom windows, but I see these as being something I use all the time. I may even bring them to work with me one day and redo our information board so it looks really nice. I really like these and I'm so glad I received them. If you are ever in the market for chalk markers or a new way to label things, give these a try. They are affordable, effective, and really fun.

Mani Monday...er I mean Tuesday

Hi everybody, my name is V and I'm a complete idiot sometimes. For those living in the States you know we had a three day weekend with Monday being Memorial Day. Memorial Day meant no work for myself or my husband, so basically an extra Sunday. Which means I forgot yesterday was actually Monday and today is Tuesday. I don't actually remember most of this weekend, which I'm going to blame on my new medication and some personal stuff that's been occupying my time. So long story short, here's my Mani Monday, just a day late. For this week's manicure I did something pretty easy since it was a holiday weekend, a snazzy take on the french manicure.

To do this manicure you will need:

• A base color. I'm using my favorite champagne shade by ELF cosmetics, called Blush
• A contrast color. I'm really feeling purples lately so I'm using another ELF cosmetics polish, this time called Purple Drea
• A glitter polish. I wanted it to match my contrast color so I used the ELF cosmetics polish in the shade Gina Girl
• A clear top coat. I used my favorite Ulta brand one
• Nail polish remover and q-tips to clean up your edges

Step one, as almost always, is to apply your base coat. I did three layers since this is a rather translucent polish and my nails look extra crummy after my camping trip. Let them dry completely before moving onto the next step.

You can do this step several ways, just depending on the amount of time and effort you want to spend on it. Your goal is to get a stripe of color across the tip of each nail. The easiest and fastest way to to just use the brush that actually goes with the polish and just paint across the tip of your nail carefully. I do this often enough I never worry about it looking terrible, but I know if you don't have steady handy they can be a bit....messy. For those who don't mind spending a bit more time, you can use a thin brush to carefully paint in your line. If I'm doing someone else's nails OR this is step one in a complicated manicure I'll do this. And for those who NEED a perfectly straight line you can lay down some tape to cover everything but the tip of your nails and paint it that way. Let this dry completely before you move onto step three.

Now you care going to go over the contrast color with your glitter polish of choice. I wanted a subtle amount of sparkle so I don't did one pass, but you can do as many as you want. Let this dry completely before doing anything else.

Now top with the clear top coat and clean up your edges if you got any polish on your skin. A nice and easy but totally snazzy french manicure with a twist. Thanks for stopping by and I'll see you tomorrow (which is Wednesday) for a colorful review of a new item I'm excited for, unless my spawn runs off with it again. We shall see.

Liquid Gold for my Hair

Sometimes I find a line of products where everything is amazing and the company can do no wrong in my book. The Beauty Protector line, which is exclusive to Birchbox, is one of those companies. I swear by their detangling spray and have loved the body wash and lotion (I reviewed everything here), so its no surprise that I wanted to try everything from the line. Last month I got a sample size of their Protect and Oil and loved it so much I ordered a full sized one, which just arrived of Friday so I thought I would do a more in depth review of it for you guys.

The Protect and Oil is an Argan Oil based hair oil you can use either on dry or wet hair (I prefer wet). It's suppose to tame frizziness, increase shine and softness, and help protect the hair from the harmful effects of UV rays and heat damage. The oil itself is lightweight, non-sticky, and have the heavenly smell that all of Beauty Protector's products have. Seriously, they need to come out with a perfume or body spray like right now. I would buy it by the gallon, it smells like cupcake heaven with extra sprinkles. Each matte black bottle is 4 oz, and retails for $25.95, but since the little vial I received in my Birchbox lasted me about a month I figure the full sized will last me about a year.

To use it, you rub between 1-3 drops into the palms of your hands then smooth it through your hair. If I use it with dry hair I apply a few drops to the tips of my hair and then use whatever is left on my hands to smooth down any frizzies I might be experiencing that day. When my hair is wet, I like to apply 3 drops throughout all of my hair before I brush it out. My hair is tons shinier, seems to dry faster, and is much more manageable on the days I use this oil in it.

I've tried lots of different oils in my hair and this is the best one hands down, and the one I will keep coming back to over and over and over again. When people ask me how I keep my hair so soft and looking so nice, I point to this whole line of products and say take your pick. I highly recommend everything in this line and especially the Protect and Oil, which might be my favorite out of the whole line now. If you want a bottle of you own, you can only find it here at Birchbox.

A Current Favorite, Pixi Beauty Bronzer

You ever use a product so much you suddenly realize you must in fact love it? That realization hit me the other day when I hit pan on my Pixi bronzer, I love this product! And what do beauty bloggers do when they love something? We blog about it of course! So consider this my love letter to the bronzer that made me like bronzers.

Pixi is a relatively affordable brand that is making it's way into more and more locations, such as Target, and into subscription boxes such as Ipsy. Most of their products are in the $10-$20 range, so perfect for people like me who are on a budget. They recently started carrying a line of skincare products, so it'll be interesting to see what they put out in the next few years. Though the line has been out for about 10 years, I've only really heard of them over the last year or so, mainly because of their Target launch.

As you can probably tell, mine is rather well loved. I use to keep it in my makeup bag but now it's my everyday bronzer for some light contouring. I seem to think they have a new design for the front of this bronzer but when I checked online it looked basically the same so I may be wrong there. There is 0.11 oz of product in it, so a pretty decent sized bronzer. You can buy this on their website or at Target for $18 for the bronzer and a little kabuki brush. I wish you could buy just the bronzer, not really feeling the brush, I think most people won't use it so it's just an extra expense.

I recently hit pan on this, as you can see, but I've been using it off and on for about a year now. I figure with my level of usage now I'll be done with it by Christmas time, which is pretty good I think. This is not matte, but I wouldn't consider it a shimmer either. More of a light frost or highlight, so a lot more usable than some other bronzers on the market in my opinion. I personally hate the really glittery bronzers, they just make me look like a brown disco ball. The frost on this is enough to give me a warm, glowing completion without entering disco ball range.

This is not the most pigmented bronzer on the market, but it is nicely buildable and very blendable for me at least. As I mentioned earlier I use it mainly for some light contouring, though on occasion I'll apply it with a big, fluffy brush for an allover glow. If I had to name one complaint it would be the lasting power, this definitely fades a lot quicker than I'd like. But other than that I love this product and will have to explore the rest of the Pixi line next time I'm cosmetic shopping at Target.

A Box Full of Huh? May 2015 Birchbox

I've been a subscriber to Birchbox since September, and while I love and adore it every once in a while I get a box that has me scratching my head. Theoretically your box should always be tailored to your specific likes and wants based off of both your beauty profile and the reviews you have done of previous boxes. But sometimes I'm pretty sure they ignore all those wonderful points of data and just throw random things into your box. My May box if definitely one of those types of boxes, and while it isn't a horrible box it just wasn't a good fit for me or my profile.

For those who don't know, Birchbox is a subscription service that sends you 4-5 deluxe (with the occasional full sized) beauty products each month for the amazing price of only $10 a month. Some months I have received boxes worth quadruple what I paid, so they are a great value. You also get points for reviewing items (and for buying items from their shop) that translate into gift cards you can use in their shop. So if you really loved an item in your box you can easily and quickly purchase it without having to track it down like some companies make you (like Ipsy). I love the points system and actually just cashed in $70 worth of points and a 20% off coupon to get a large order of goodies for me for less than a lunch out would cost me. Birchbox tends to lean towards the higher end items, so for someone like me who is on a serious budget its my only chance to try and use some of those $80 skin creams.

Each month has a theme, though I don't think the stuff in my box actually matches the theme. This month Birchbox was doing a collaboration with Emily of Cupcakes and Cashmere, so she picked out some of the products we received this month I believe. I'm actually not familiar with that blog at all, but I guess it's super popular and most people were pretty excited about it. As you can see, the box was pretty this month, though I still like the Rifle and Co box the best. Birchbox has yet to announce why we need to save our boxes, but I save and use mine anyways so it doesn't bug me.

This month I did not receive a full sized item, which is always a bit of a bummer. I did get two makeup items, a skin care item, a hair care item, and a fragrance, so a decent variety of stuff this month. But to be truthful I was really only excited for two of them, which quickly became one when I actually tried things out. I think this is some one's ideal box but for me it just really hit flat. I HATE Dr Jart+, don't like perfume, and a lotion is kind of boring.

Let's start with one of the items I was excited for, the Lollibalm by Benefit Cosmetics. I've tried the Lollitint before, and really hated the color as a blush (I'm to warm toned to pull off orchid colored blush) but as a tinted lip balm I can totally rock that. Benefit is a big name (aka expensive and out of my budget range) in the makeup world so I'm excited to receive something of theirs to try out. The packaging on this is pretty cute, though it is pretty small, with only 0.05 oz of product in it. I feel like Benefit always does itsy bitsy "deluxe" samples.

Once I swatched it on my hand my excitement quickly vanished. There is almost no color payoff at all, which would be fine for a $5 product but a full size (0.10 oz) is $18! For that price I expect a lot more than that. And can we talk about the scent for a minute? Do you remember that awful little girl perfume from the early 90's? That is exactly what this smells like. And the actual product sweats, which you may be able to see in the photo above. Sweating lip products that haven't been in a hot pocket for a few hours is a pretty good sign of a sub-par product. I'm actually really disappointed in this product, I expected a heck of a lot more from Benefit than something I'd expect to find in a play makeup set. My little sample came to a value of $9, which is ridiculous.

The second item I was excited for is actually brand new (as of last month) to Birchbox and the world if I remember correctly. Parlor is a hair care line by Jeff Chastain, a NYC Stylist, and is currently exclusive to Birchbox. I'm a big fan of sea salt sprays, so this was actually a great pick for me. This gives you softer beachy hair than your typical sea salt sprays, and leaves your hair hydrated and looking great. While it didn't give me as defined beach waves as other sprays I've tried my hair didn't feel like I had dumped a bunch of hair spray in it so I'll call that a win. And did I mention it smells AMAZING? Because it does. Like a fruity cocktail you'd sip at the beach. A full sized bottle is 4.9 fluid oz and retails for $24, making my 1 fluid oz sample about $4.90.

Some people love getting lotion in their box, but I find it pretty boring to be truthful. I own so much lotion I could probably fill my bath tub, so getting even more to slug through really doesn't appeal to me. This is a candlenut body creme by Juara, and it's suppose to seriously rehydrate your skin and repair any damage while smelling like Bali. It's nice and thick, soaked it well, and did moisturize my hands, so I don't hate it. The smell is kind of spicy and floral, perfect for the summer without being overbearing. I like it and will use it, but I won't be buying a full sized tube at $38 for 7.5 oz, that's way outside of my budget. My cute little tube is 0.34 oz, so a value of $1.72.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I really don't like getting perfume in my Birchbox. I'm crazy picky about the scents that I wear, so I'm never going to be happy with anything they send me. And who wants a tiny little spray vial that is barely halfway filled anyways? I could get this for free pretty much anywhere. In case you can't read the tiny print on the bottle, this is Harvey Price Sincerely, which is described as being a musky floral scent. This is the second Harvey Prince perfume I've received from Birchbox, the first was Noir or something like that. All I remember is it smelled awful. This doesn't smell terrible and I'll actually wear and use it up, but I just don't like it enough to want a full sized bottle. This is a bit strong for my taste, and much to floral for my preferences. I wish they'd send me the Hello perfume instead, citrus is much more my style than these flower power scents. A full sized bottle is 50 mL and retails for $55, making my little vial worth about a buck, the actual size is to faded and tiny to actually read and calculate out.

And last we have the item that convinces me nobody bothered to read my profile while making my box. If you've been reading my blog for a while, you know I HATE Dr Jart+. I've tried two other foundations/BB Creams from him and they were awful. I may have eyerolled and then said some rather rude things once I saw I was receiving yet another Dr Jart+ product. This is a tinted moisturizer specifically formulated for people with dry skin (aka not me) who have a yellow undertone (also not me). I've worn it once, so I can't really tell you a whole lot about the wearability other than it make my powder look really cakey and it smells like a medicine cabinet.

The spot on the left is it straight out of the tube, to the right is it blended out. Way to yellow for me, you could really tell I was wearing it before I put my powder on. It did actually set into a non-greasy mess, which puts it above anything else I've tried from the line, and it seemed to hold up pretty well. So if you are a dry skinned, yellow undertones individual with no sense of smell this would be perfect for you. I kind of wish I hadn't even tried it so I could trade it away, my mistake there. I'll use it up just because I hate waste, but I will not be buying a full sized one obviously. Speaking of a full sized, they are $48 (ouch) for 50 mL, making my 5 mL tube worth $4.80.

I'll use everything in this box just because I hate to waste stuff I paid for, but it was an almost complete miss for me this month. Really hoping June will be a spectacular box to make up for this one, and from the sneak peeks I've seen it probably will be. My total value for this box came to $21.42, so a little over double what I paid. And I received 60 points (50 for reviewing, 10 for sharing on Twitter) from it, so that takes some of the sting out of it. Not every box can be a winner, but to be this far off makes me wonder who is actually designing the boxes.