Sephora Play! September 2016 Review

My #SephoraPlay for September was a hit including the coveted Kat Von D. Tatoo eyeliner (think waterproof eyeliner and Living Proof night cap overnight protector (think serum for your hair!).

Other treats in the bag this month were the Ole Henriksen sheer transformation, Anastasia clear brow gel, Sephora rouge shine lipstick in #14 Love Spell, and a fragrance vial of Atalier Cologne's Sud Magnolia. 

The brow gel is a true and tried favorite of mine so glad to have a backup! The Sephora brand lipstick actually is a no radiation to my collection. I found myself using it more than I though. Formula is good and I can see myself trying different colors. 

Looking forward to my October #sephoraPlay! Review coming soon!

Pampered Mommy Box September

September's Pampered Mommy Box had a nice mix of mom essentials- snacks, pampering plus accessories! I enjoyed crunching on the Sea Salt Caramel popcorn clusters by Funky Chunky and wearing my Starfish Project beaded necklace. The green is perfect to add to my neutral wardrobe and provide a rich jewel tone to my outfits. When I get a few extra minutes to myself, the 100% Pure shower gel feels luxurious with the exfoliating mitt! I haven't tried the hair mask yet but I am due for a hair mask very soon. In the meantime, I use argan oil to keep my tips moisturized! (Pro beauty tip!)

All in all, another win for Pampered Mommy Box! 

Birchbox September 2016 Review

My September Birchbox is here!! This one of my favorites as they celebrate their 5 year anniversary it marks another anniversary for me getting Birchbox. I also love the confetti-design box as it screams party and fun! Ok onto the contents...

I chose the MILK makeup Lip + Cheek sample.. gorgeous pink tint that can be used as a blush or lip colour.. I am liking it more for my cheerks though. I also received the Beautiful Nutrition Lemon Rinse, R+Co Cleansing Foam Conditioner, Elizabeth Mott Volumizing Mascara and a Bioderma Sebium H2O (aka makeup remover) sample.  

My favorites of this box is definitely the MILK makeup sample as this is the perfect color to bring me rosy cheeks and the R+Co conditioner..never tried a foam formula before and it is amazingly easy to use. I think I can get used to this!

Pampered Mommy Box August 2016 Review

A new-to-me subscription box called Pampered Mommy offers a life-style box to all women (moms or not) who want an extra something in their life. We all want to be pampered and have cute accessories right?? This month, we got spoiled with a Juice Beauty cleanser, nail polish, eye mask filled with lavender, notecards to send a hello to those we haven't chatted with in a while and eye glass wipes. 

Check out pamperedmommybox.com today to sign up! Each month is $29.99

March Birchbox reveal

Happy April! I'll start this month with revealing last month's Birchbox! It was a well-rounded beauty box that had items from skincare, haircare to makeup. 

Skincare:

Juara's radiance exfoliant scrub

WilmaSchumann's collagen eye pads

Haircare:

No.4 shampoo & conditioner

Makeup:

TreStiQue color and smudge eye pencil

Smashbox primer oil

Excited to see my April Birchbox!

February Vegan Cuts Beauty Box Review

VeganCuts Beauty Box is an amazing monthly subscription service that introduces you to new brands and products that will help update and make your makeup/skincare/haircare more natural. In February, new subscribers got a bonus goody of the nail polish.

Each month they give spoilers and 2 of them were the 100% Pure double eyeshadow sticks and the Wonder Seed facial cream.  Totally got me hooked as I'm a huge fan of the of 100% Pure! 

The WonderSeed Facial cream is amazing, just as amazing as their hand cream!

GoodBeing Limited Edition beauty box Review

GoodBeing, a natural beauty subscription box company recently launched in February a limited edition special box. New to their services, I decided to treat myself to this indulgent box full of natural and amazing goodies.

The two items that initially caught my eye were the Vitamin C body oil from One Love Organics- one of my favorite brands and the most adorable set of fashionable totes! 

After receiving the box, I fell in love with all the other goodies:

-AILA nail polish - the perfect deep red hue for Valentine's Day and any other day !

-Osmia lip treatment provided an intense moisturizer for my lips

-lilikoi living serum

-MeToWe Necklace

Also included was a 2 month subscription gift to their regular monthly boxes! 

Holiday Series: Holiday meals

It's time for some home cooking for the holidays! (Or there's always take-out too if you don't have time.) But for those that enjoy time spent in the kitchen, you have to check out RawSpiceBar. This monthly subscription provides a monthly theme along w/ 3 spices and recipes that would go along with the supplied spice packets. 

November's theme was Ethiopian

Sample recipes for the spices

Spices included the pumpkin pie spice, Berbere and Ethiopian motmots. I haven't heard of the last two before but this is definitely interesting and really "spices" up your holiday meals. 

The subscription is less than $10 a month and adds a nice "flavor" to your meals. 

(Note: RawSpiceBar provided the November subscription so I could review and share my thoughts with my readers. All opinions are my own.) 

 

November Birchbox review

This month's curated Birchbox was with Tati from GlamLifeGuru on YouTube! I adored the picks that came in this box with lots of great essentials for the winter (even though it is around 70s in SoCal!)

Here's what I got:

The dry shampoo is now a staple in my #mommylife and excited to try this from Living Proof. Other essentials to keep looking revitalized from the sleepless nights is the Shiseido eye concentrate (goodbye bags!), Jouer lip enhancer (hello moisturized lips!) and the Avene hydrating serum (hello beautiful skin!). I honest feel like this box was made for me and couldn't have come at a better time!

Also excited to get the shadow stick from LOC-Birchbox's own line of Beauty products! It's a shimmery golden colour that is perfect for the night out and to instantly "glam" your look. 

November is all about giving thanks and all those warm fuzzy feelings! While I'm particularly loving this box, I still can't wait to see what's in store for next month's!

August Birchbox review

August has come and gone, but I am still loving my end of the summer goodies from my Birchbox. I chose the curated box with Nicole Ritchie and loved it!

The nail polish I can still transition to and wear in the Fall.

Fashion box: Sunshine Crate review

In case you didn't know already, I am a HUGE fan of subscription boxes, especially ones that provide value and great products. What I love about subscription "boxes" is its surprise factor. Based on a style profile, you can try products that they think would tailor to suit your personal needs.  

I'm already a subscriber to beauty boxes, so the concept transitioning over to fashion is appealing! There's already a few fashion ones but I love scouting new ones. The newest one I have learned is called Sunshine Crate, which provides a new "crate" of apparel to your doorstep. Depending on the size of your crate (either 3 or 5 pieces of apparel plus 1 additional accessory) you can choose a "chosen" item (or 2 if you get the 6-piece crate) from their select pool. The rest of the crate are surprises! These change about every 3 weeks so you can get new clothes pretty much monthly, without ruining your budget. 

Here is the latest July 4- piece crate which includes 3 apparel + 1 accessory... My chosen item is this sleeveless button down top from Potter's Pot. I love the plaid and sheer pattern. It's sleeveless - perfect for the hot summer weather and is longer in the back which I love!!

The rest of the crate comes with 2 other "surprise" items. I requested more button downs and generous giving tops and I got 'em! The baseball tee and raglan shirt looks are so cute and I love these tops!! They are super comfortable and casual to  wear on the weekend so I'm glad these were in my sunshine crate!

Here's my accessory- a simple bracelet to wear. 

If you're interested in learning more, check out sunshinecrate.com! They have clearance bags for cheap (surprise selection of clothes) as well as an accessory crate if you just want that!

Save the date!!

The next crate selection is Tuesday, August 18 @ 9 AM PST ! You can choose from the below 5 items:

I'm loving the striped nautical inspired dress and the yellow striped sweater even though it is 80 degrees where I am.

Here are the crates available:

4 piece -3 apparel + 1 accessory

6 piece- 5 apparel + 1 accessory 

Price ranges from $50-85 with about ~$5 shipping depending where you live

Check out sunshinecrate.com today!

July Birchbox- Bright & Beachy box

It's time to get Bright & Beachy this month! Birchbox's curated box contains the following items to get you equipped for your summer, beachy vacays:

Stila's stay all day liquid lipstick- this bright pink shade gives you the POP of color to get someone's attention. If it's too bright, mix it with a nude color to tone it down a bit. 

Juara's Radiance Enzyme scrub- to get your skin glowing, you gotta exfoliate first. This scrub is amazing and smells great too!

oribe Après Beach spray- made my hair actually feel "beachy" with just the right amount of shine and glow.

balm desert bronzer- love this brand and this bronzer is very wearable as a contour as well.

supergoop serum- allergic to this so couldn't try it :(

June Birchbox and Ipsy Reveals

In June I enjoyed my Birchbox and Ipsy box/bag due to the variety of products received. My favorites from Birchbox include the skyn Iceland eye gel pads.. helps reduce the bags I have been getting for my lack of sleep and the Emi Jay hair tie extra!

From my Ipsy bag in June, themed Swim into Beauty, I loved the vanilla scented Body Butter from Lavanila and eyeshadow stick from Trestique.

My July goodies are coming just around the corner. Can't wait! I already saw a sneak peek of my July Ipsy bag and can't wait to get them in person!

April Birchbox Review

This month, Birchbox teamed up with Rifle Paper Co. to create these beautiful boxes and special add-on products (in which I didn't purchase.) The 2 curated boxes were in partnership with the show Mad Men (which I didn't get also.)

Instead I got these 2 boxes below which I'm not too crazy about since there's dupes! (The Beaver shampoo/conditioner)

My favorites from both boxes are:

Jouer lip and cheek tint!

Cynthia Rowley's Brightening Illuminator 

LAQA & CO's Lip Lube

Definitely going to select a sample choice next month! Haven't joined Birchbox yet? Join today! 

As always, each review of your product will earn you 10 points that you can accumulate to use in the Birchbox shop (50 points per month= $5!)

March Ipsy Glam bag Review

March is Floral Fantasy month for Ipsy! The bag I love and got some great new additions to my stash! Here's what I got:

- Boo-Boo Coverup Concealer (very tone specific but found this to work ok) will use this for covering any redness or dark spots

- Dr. Brandt Pores no More Anti-Aging mattifying lotion - as it gets hotter, I'm finding this mattifying lotion absolutely essential. No more oilies!

- Pur-lisse Soymilk Cleanser and Makeup Remover- this was gentle to use, but I like using more clarifying cleansers when it's hot.

- NYX butter lipstick- whoa purple! This violet is outside my norm for sure, but it is something different to add to my routine

- Vintage by Jessica Liebeskind illuminating highlighter- a smaller sample than I thought, but it makes a nice rosy highlighter for the Spring! 

Excited to see what April will bring!! (hopefully not showers!)

Join Ipsy today!! 

March Birchbox Review

The Beauty Solutions box from Birchbox this month had the perfect mix of beauty and skincare products I was looking for. It also contained one of my fave skincare brands DermaE and was excited to try their brightening day crew with SPF15.

Here's what else I got:

-Dear Clark Volumizing Tonic to get your limp hair extra oomph

-Whish body butter in almomd

-SuperGoop eye cream (sample was too small though)

-Laura Geller beauty baked mineral blush

For $10 a month and the opportunity to get $5 back to use in the Birchbox shop, this is a steal! Love their points/reward program and these travel samples to bring with on a weekend getaway or in my purse! 

Check out birchbox.com today and join!!

Beauty Box 5- February Review

It's the three-year anniversary of Beauty Box 5 and their box is filled with celabratory beauty goodies. I was excited to see which variations of the samples/colors I was going to receive after I saw others post their #BB5FAVE boxes already on social media.

Here's what I got!

- Freeman shower scrub sample

- Marsk mineral eyeshadow

- revlon colorstay nail polish

- Absolute lip gloss in Strawberry

- Avon eyeshadow stick

What do you think about this month's box? Compared to the previous two I've gotten, so far this is my fave! 

January Ipsy Glam bag review

January's Ipsy bag came a lot later than usual, but I did get a BONUS item! The Benefit Fake Up sample. I actually redeemed my Ipsy points for the first time to get this so I'm super pleased to see that it arrived safe and sound. 

It looks like January was full of items all about the eyes! It included two eyeshadows- bellaPierre and Pacifica, one eyeshadow brush, and Nourish Organic eye cream! I also got a Malin+Goetz mojito lip balm. Excited to see what February's bag will bring! So far the spoilers have been a mix of lip products.. :)

Learn more about ipsy.com and their amazing glam bags!!

February Birchbox with Rent the Runway

This month, I chose the specially curated Birchbox with Rent the Runway. I haven't received these items before, except another shade of Sumita eyeliner, so I was excited to try these products! 

Here's what I got:

- Fekkai Blowout dry shampoo

- Derma E anti-wrinkle glycolic scrub

- Sumita eyeliner in navy

- theBalm lip gloss

- Soap Radio bodywash

Get your very own Birchbox for $10/month here today!

January Birchbox review

My January Birchbox came with 5 awesome products. Themed, "Let's Do This!", January is all about getting you in the right track for the new year. 2015 is going to be full of fun and surprises. :) All the products I got this month were to keep my skin, lips and hair moisturized for this winter month.

My chosen item was the Tocca hand cream in Cleopatra which I am loving! The grapefruit and cucumber combo smells great and feels super luxurious.. 

Other goodies in the box included:

- Balance Me Wonder Eye Cream- made of 99% natural ingredients.. feels light and creamy

- It's a 10® Miracle Leave-In Product Plus Keratin- haven't  used this yet

- MyChelle Advanced Argan Oil- love argan oil as a facial moisturizer

- Manna Kadar Lip Locked - smallest sample ever!! The color is a perfect rose colour for everyday and keeps my lips feeling moisurized. 

Want your own Birchbox? Get yours today here!