June 2015 Birchbox

I consider my monthly Birchbox my little monthly present. Sometimes it's awesome like the presents I give myself, and other times it's truly awful like that sweater your Aunt gave you one Christmas. How did June's Birchbox rank on the present scale this month? Let's just dive right in and see what I got. But first I need to apologize for my terrible pictures this month, the lamp I use for lighting is not working anymore. Thought the bulb was dead, stuck a new one in and now it works but gets crazy hot. Pretty sure if I continue to use it I'll set my living room on fire. Which would be exciting I guess, but I really don't have the time to deal with that level of mess right now.

My first look was really good, I love seeing a full box. I know some people complained about the bonus hair item this month but I loved getting that hair clip. And seriously, why complain about a free extra item? It doesn't count as a sample so you still got 5 beauty samples. The theme this month is adventuring, and the inclusion of certain items definetly fit the "adventurous" theme for me at least.

SO this month I got another perfume sample, the Supergoop sunscreen sample I requested, a chemical peel, a eyeliner that isn't the fat Eyeko pen I was promised, a BB Cream, and the hair clip. This, minus the perfume, is a great box in theory for me. Some makeup, some skin care, and a nice bonus for my hair. I like well rounded boxes, where there's a bit of everything in it. More chance of finding something I like this way.

Let's start with the BB Cream. This is Marcelle's BB Cream in Golden Glow, and is your standard BB Cream with a bit of fine glitter in it. The shade isn't great for my skin, but mixed with my normal foundation it works just fine for a summer color.

This wasn't a bad product, I may have liked it more if it had been one shade lighter. It just wasn't quite what I wanted. a little to heavy for a BB Cream. But I wouldn't call this a total fail, and I am using it. A full sized is 1.6 oz and retails for $27, making my 0.24 oz tube worth $4.22. That's almost half the value of the box right there, off to a pretty good start.

This is not the Eyeko fat eyeliner we were promised. No matter how much I like or don't like this I'll still be upset that I didn't get that eyeliner. Rumor is we'll get it in a box later this summer, but I'm pretty grumpy about that to be truthful. This Marcelle liner is nice, don't get me wrong, but it isn't what I wanted. Ok, enough whining. This is a hypo-allergenic, perfume free, waterproof pencil liner, which is pretty awesome. I received the shade Indigo, which is less cool. I'd have loved the purple or even the green one they gave out, but no Miss Brown Eyes gets the blue one. Pretty sure someone at Birchbox wasn't thinking that through.

The color is lovely, don't get me wrong, I just don't wear blue anything typically. It took me about a week to actually wear the eyeliner and I don't hate it, but it really isn't my cup of tea. It has great lasting power, and applied smoothly to my eye, but I just can't get past the blue color. Maybe I need to experiment with colors more, be adventurous in that regard. This only comes in a travel pack with 3 other colors, so figuring out the price is a little tricky. I'm giving my liner a value of $4.50, which is a good valued again.

I keep getting perfumes from Birchbox, even though I specifically said I hate perfume in my profile. These literally get tested once then go straight to a friend every time. I wish they'd quite sending them to me, I'd rather have a foil packet of shampoo instead. This is the Folle De Joie perfume, and it smells like flowers squared. Not much else to say about it, I hate it and want it to go away. My little vial is worth $1.73, so it really doesn't effect the value of the box.

I selected this as my sample for the month, so if I didn't like it that would be my fault. I really love the Supergoop City  Serum Sunscreen, but I wanted to try this one to see how they compared. This is the Everyday Sunscreen, SPF 50, and is just a good whenever or where ever sunscreen. It didn't leave me greasy, didn't break me out, and I didn't get sunburned. Those are the three things I ask of every sunscreen I use. Do I like this better than the City Serum one? No, but only because the City Serum one mattifies your skin a bit, which I really liked, and has anti-aging properties. I would get a bottle of this though, I'm liking it so far. A full sized bottle is 18 oz and retails for $48, making my little tube worth 90 cents. Not a high value item at all, but I like it so that's what matters.

This is a chemical peel for your face, let that sink in for  minute. This is a chemical lotion designed to melt the dead skin from my face. That scares me quite a bit, enough that I haven't even opened the box yet. I really want to try this, but I'm way to much of a weenie to actually do it. I know it won't melt my face off, or anything like that, but I keep running that scene from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade through my head. If I ever try it I will discuss it during a Thursday Thoughts. Or Instagram my face melting off. This single use tube has a value of $4.80, which is a decent value again.

And lastly we have my bonus item, a plastic hair clip by Sarahpotempa. This is great for holding my hair back while I do my makeup or a face mask, and even handles my Rapunzel length hair just fine. A set of two is $9.99, so I'm almost tempted to get another set ($16 for a set of 4). If these were metal instead of plastic I'd order them in a heart beat. In case you were wondering, these are almost 4 inches long. Mine is worth $4.99, and is worth every penny.

Overall my box was a miss, but not enough of a miss for me to be grumpy. I feel like Birchbox needs to look at what we are answering on our surveys and maybe quite giving us perfume or oddly colored items. And to follow through on your promises. That would be nice. The total for my box came to $21.14, so not an expensive box but I at least got my money's worth out of it. And I got 60 points for reviewing it, so not a total loss at all. I'll continue to subscribe to Birchbox just because I love them, but I'm hoping my next box makes up for this.