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I’m a little late here… I got the February Birchbox just in time to pack it away and move, only now to re-discover. Whoops!

February’s Birchbox was “Red Carpet Ready” themed in honor of film awards season. Mine included a mini Catwalk Your Highness Root Boost Spray, Dr. Jart BB cream, Couture La La fragrance, TheBalm Hot Mama!, and a Ghirardelli chocolate square with caramel filling.

First, the chocolate was a delicious and much needed snack while packing. Catwalk Your Highness did provide some root lift for me, but nothing more than light teasing would do. It might be better suited to very thin hair. The Dr. Jart BB cream was about 4 shades too dark but otherwise I thought the texture was nice. I love Hot Mama, which is a peachy coral blush with gold shimmer. It looks similar to NARS Orgasm in the pan but in reality is much less pink. I love these small blushes because they’re great for travel or a makeup bag in your purse.

March’s box was “March Madness” themed in honor of the basketball series (I’m kind of sad with sports and honestly I wouldn’t have known that apart from all the guys at my office talking about their brackets non-stop). The box included Miss Jessie’s Super Slip Sudsy Shampoo and Creme de la Creme Conditioner, Sumita eyeliner in bright aqua, Vasanti Brighten Up! Enzymatic Face Rejuvenator, Whish Shave Crave Shaving Cream, and a Madewell nail file.

Interestingly enough, the Madewell nail file was my favorite item in this box. I love the pattern and the quality of the file was great. We’ll see how it holds up after a few more uses. Otherwise I found the box pretty unremarkable. I’m apprehensive about applying anything “enzymatic” to my face from an unknown brand, I typically can’t use scented shaving creams, I see very little use for an aqua eyeliner in my life, and I’m pretty happy with my current haircare products. In other words, like the real March Madness, this Birchbox left me underwhelmed.

Hoping for a better surprise next month!

This month’s Birchbox was themed around the new year and included a fold-out poster with self-improvement tips, which I mostly ignored (the other side of the poster was actually pretty cute! See below).

Inside I had 5 samples, of which I have only actually tested 4, because I take forever to try new hair products.

• Number 4 Clarifying Shampoo: see above shameful admission
• Caudalie Vinexpert Radiance Day Cream SPF 15: this was nice but nothing stellar, I don’t normally wear day cream so this isn’t something I would purchase.
• Eyeko Skinny Liquid Eyeliner: Eyeko used to have a similarly packaged eyeliner that I used and loved despite the dysfunctional packaging. Pleased to see that the packaging has been improved and the eyeliner is just as good, if not better. See original review here.
• Aerie Shimmer Fragrance: I thought this was a tiny wrapped chocolate at first and was annoyed to see it was another fragrance sample. The most common complaint I hear about beauty sample boxes is that they contain too many fragrance samples and there’s basically no way to stop them. I wish someone would make this an option! Oh, and I wasn’t in love with the perfume, I thought it smelled mature in a bad way.
• Deborah Lippmann the Stripper To Go: this single-serve packet contained a tiny finger mitt pre-soaked with polish remover. It did a great job of removing polish (as good or better than my beloved Zoya Remove+), but I was concerned about soaking my index finger with remover for several minutes while I worked on the other nails. Probably wouldn’t purchase, but it is a good product.

tips poster

front of poster

Despite several types of illness floating around (my poor baby nephew got the flu!), we managed to have Christmas as a family and I got some wonderful gifts. My sister got me a 6-month subscription to Birchbox! I’ve heard that this is the creme de la creme of sample subscription services so I’m very excited to see what comes along. Here’s what was in my first box:

Amika Obliphica Nourishing Hair Mask

• Haven’t had a chance to try this one yet, will report back when I do.

Color Club Put A Pin In It

• This is gorgeous! It’s a slightly pinkish silver foil polish  that shines like a mirror. I haven’t tried this polish brand before so it was a great introduction – more pics tomorrow.

Harvey Prince Yogini

• I’m pretty meh about fragrance in general so this didn’t really do anything for me.

theBalm Mary Lou-Manizer

• This has been on my wishlist for a long time and I was so pleased to see it in my sample box! I’d never get through a full size, so this is perfect. It’s a beautiful metallic white gold highlighter that has plenty of sheen but no big glitter.

twistband hair tie

• I’ve used this a few times and I like that it holds my hair without leaving a telltale bump. Downside is that it doesn’t grip as well as my regular hair ties and it tends to slip in my hair (which is very slippery on its own). Might work best on curly or coarse hair types.

tili bag (this was my ‘lifestyle extra’)

• A plastic baggie with a very cute pattern… I’m sure I will find a use for it, but I would never purchase them on my own because they’re about $1 each. Target brand baggies work just fine for much less!

Birchbox lets you set preferences for which types of products you want to receive (I didn’t get to set mine this time because it was a surprise!) … I went and filled out my online profile with them so I think the next box will fit my preferences a little better. Still, there were at least 2 items I really loved in this box and that’s plenty to get excited about!

I’m all typed out so I’ll do a separate post about how Birchbox works later this week. Have a good one!