Every month I look forward to my beauty boxes landing on my door step, but there is a few months that I look forward to more. February is one of those months. From past experiences with my beauty boxes, valentines month is usually a month where you get better goodies in your box. Either more full sized products or brands that are more well known. Let me share with you wants inside both boxes and we shall see which box, I think wins for February.
Birchbox
Box theme : Express yourself
This month Birchbox have collaborated with the British stationary brand Papier. Papier designed two box's for this month, we had the opportunity to select which one we wanted if we were quick enough. Unfortunately I was very bad with checking my emails this month, so I missed the date for selecting my box. Luckily the one that landed on my doorstep was the box design I would have chosen. Both have a very pretty leaf design; one is green, blue and white, the other is blue, red and pink. Both were very pretty but I much preferred the blue, red and pink box. I knew it would look amazing on my dressing table.
This month the box and all its contents are aimed at helping you to express yourself.....
This was the sneak peak product last month, which had me very excited for this box. I love spectrum brushes, I already own one face brush from their original line and the siren eye brush set. These brushes are crafted from the highest quality synthetic hair, making these brushes some of the softest I've used. This brand is also cruelty free and vegan free too. The brush I received is a C06, which is a contour eye brush that's perfect for blending, smudging and defining.
This brush is full sized and costs £5.99
A perfect trio of eye-shadows to create that smokey eye. I swatched these shadows and found them to be silky soft and highly pigmented. The colours are perfect for valentines with them being shades of pink and purple. But of course they will be perfect to use all year round too. This goes perfectly with the eye brush we received and it fits in well with the box theme. You can apply these eye-shadows any way you wish, to express yourself and your style. When I saw we had eye shadows I wasn't that bothered about them at first. This is because I often find any eye-shadows I receive get tossed to one side, as I have palettes I reach for constantly. But once I opened this up, saw the shades and swatched them. I fell in love with the colours and cant wait to use this little trio.
The shades I received are called champagne mocha, usually they would come in a set of eight instead of a trio.
The full palette would cost £15.50 for eight shades, the value of this trio is £5.81
This shaving cream is supposed to give you a close shave without stripping your legs of moisture. Its a non-foaming formula and uses kind-to-skin ingredients to nourish the skin. The scent I received is acai grapefruit, which smells really nice. To be quite honest this product does not excite me. I don't really get excited about shaving creams, they all do the same kind of thing really. I wont be trying this out in a hurry, but I know it will come in handy for when I travel. At home I tend to use the razors that have an inbuilt shaving bar, which ensure a close shave and nourished skin. So you can see why this product isn't much use to me at the moment.
The full sized product would cost £14.80 for 150ml, the sample I received is 22ml and has a value of £2.17
This is both a detangler and a hydrator! Its formulates with a blend of organic herbal extracts that work to nourish dry hair, protect against breakage and reduce frizz and fly-aways. It does all this without weighing hair down. The brand was launched in Germany and the range of products are based on natural formulations and scientific research. I've never heard of this brand before, but the fact that the products are based on scientific research excites me. I'm hopeful that this product will deliver what it says it should. It also smells amazing!! I was not expecting that with it containing herbal extracts.
This costs £11.50 for 150ml, the sample is decent 50ml with a value of £3.83
This is a Korean brand, Korean beauty products are taking the world by storm at the moment. Korea are said to be seven years ahead of the rest of the world in terms of beauty innovation, so its an exciting product to try. This brand was designed with one aim, which is to be a 100% natural to not only us, but also the environment too. This is a highly concentrated serum that is enriched in Bulgarian rose damascena oil and aloe Vera. Which all aim to soothe, brighten, hydrate and refine the complexion.
For a 130ml this costs £28, I received a very nice 20ml sample with the value of £4.31
Box Price : £12.95 (including p+p)
Box Value : £22.11
Full Sized Products : 1/5
Products Excited To Try: 4/5
Overall Thoughts : I'm not sure about the box staying as close to its theme as they did last month, but that doesn't really matter so much when the product are this good. The box is balanced really nicely with beauty, skincare and haircare products. Although there is only one full sized product, I'm impressed with the other sample sizes. I think you can really try the product out thoroughly, ensuring a better decision on whether to buy a full sized version or not. I'm looking forward to trying the product ASAP.
Glossy Box
Box theme : Valentines
Last month we got a sneak peak at the box design. You can always count on a beautifully designed box by Glossybox for valentines. The box design sets you up for the box theme, which with it being February is valentines. All the products inside are aimed at getting you ready for your valentines date, whoever that may be.
A delicately modern reinvention of a rose fragrance. This perfume combines the classic rose scent with dreamy,elegant crisp notes. To me there is nothing modern about this rose scent. I feel that it still smells of old lady, but perfume is a very personal thing. Including a perfume in a beauty box is a very brave thing to do and it doesn't pay off for me. I can totally see why they have included this though, as it 100% fits with the valentines theme. But I don't like it and I wont be getting any use out of this.
This is a full size product and costs £20.
This is a face scrub that uses mineral-rich volcanic paste to cleanse and purify skin. Its enriched with anti-ageing ingredients, it also plumps and smooths the skin. On the packaging this claims to be a purifying youth potion. If that doesn't do it for you then maybe the fact that its paraben and silicone free, vegan and 90% natural. This is the perfect product to get skin prepped and ready for the big day. A new brand to me and one I'm excited to try, French skincare is usually pretty darn good.
Another full sized product costing £26.
This hair mask promises to hydrate the hair leaving it nourished and glossy. Garnier is a well known brand that usually deliver what they promise. So I'm sure that this will be a great product. I already use hair masks weekly, so this will be a good edition to try out.
A full sized mask would set your back £4.49 for 300ml, this sample is 20ml and has a value of £0.30
Ciate London is a well known nail polish brand that deliver a professional salon quality formula. The formula is highly pigmented and long wearing, The bottles are chic and the brush allows for a quick application. The shade I received is called iced frappé, which is a coffee nude.
A full sized product, costing £9.
A golden highlighter that reminds me of a cheaper version of the Benefit sun beam. This can be used to highlight cheek bones, or be mixed in with foundation to create that dewy glow. Its nice to find a product that could be a cheaper version of a high end product. I prefer golden highlighters to frosty pink ones so I'm happy to have this to try out.
This is also full sized and costs £7.25.
Box Price : £13.25 (including p+p)
Box Value : £62.55
Full Sized Products : 4/5
Products Excited To Try : 3/5
Overall Thoughts : This box stayed 100% true to its valentines theme. Four out of the five products were full sized, which gave this box an incredible box value. Again there was a nice variety of products, we have skincare, haircare, make-up and perfume in this box. The box design took a step up from last months boring normal box. Most of the product I cant wait to start trying out, especially the scrub and highlighter. I'm also going to have to find a spare 5 minutes, to paint my nails in that gorgeous nude shade.
February Box Winner
Birchbox!
With Glossybox having an over £60 box value, you may have thought I would have gone with them. But just because they had more full sized products and better value products doesn't make that the best box. I loved everything about Birchbox this month, the box design was one of the pretties in a long time, the product excited me and even though there was only one full sized product the samples were decent sizes.
What was your favourite box this month?
Don't forget to check back next month, to see what March has to offer.
SNEAK PEAK
Birchbox : Benefit - They're real double the lip.
Glossybox : Sleek - Eye and cheek palette
If you want to check out past Birchbox V's Glossybox then check out the links below
ReRe
Follow me on twitter @makeupbyrere and on bloglovin, to keep up to date with new blog posts. I post every Monday and Friday,so be sure to check back then. Want to see what I've been snapping this week, then check out my Instagram.
0 comments:
Post a Comment