April 2014 Birchbox Review

Felicia (F.M.) already reviewed her mom's Birchbox, but luckily mine is almost completely different! So I can still share with you a review of my box this month!  Birchbox is $10 a month, and features a variety of beauty items.

I debated about whether or not to get a box, and I think that's why it ended up being so late in the month that I got mine. The last two have appeared a lot sooner!

Every box came with "bright ideas for a rainy day," and of course mine was to create a playlist! Totally, Birchbox, it's like you know me.

You know the drill. Breakfast.

The next thing I got was this Cynthia Rowley eyeliner, and it is niiiiice. My eyeliner that I've had for a few years is Rimmel, and although it's dark enough, it wears off pretty quickly (my eyes water for no reason). So I drew a line of this on my hand and not only is it dark, but it didn't wash off completely in the bath. Maybe that says something about my bathing standards, but I'm gonna hope it says more about the product.

The other thing that was in the little envelope was this cc cream by Supergoup! I'm really not an expert in face-type stuffs, but it seems to normalize my skin tone and add a faint color. Also, and my favorite part is, it's very lightweight and you can't really tell you're wearing it. The way foundation feels sticky and gross is what's been driving me away from foundations all my life. Well, that and the fact that I have relatively even skin and don't want to ruin it with cloggers (of pores, not the dancers).

This stuff was great. I was running bath water when I got my box because my hair looked too greasy, and after spraying this stuff on, I really could have pretended to be clean already. Baths are a good idea too though. I guess.

Haven't tried this yet. It's supposed to conquer blackheads and redness, but I'm not feeling poorly enough about myself to say which part of my face deserves this treatment.

I really liked this month's box! It's pretty much all stuff that will work for me in one way or the other. I really feel like this box was custom-tailored to me! So far, Birchbox is 2 for 3, and I've signed up for another month, so I'm curious to see how the score continues.

How did you like this month's Birchbox? Did you get anything cool in yours?

-E.S.

April 2014 Taste For Sweets Review

I got my second month of Taste For Sweets, so let's see where this relatively new subscription box is going.

Taste for Sweets is $16 a month and features a variety of sweets and snacks from around the world. I was disappointed to find that there was no information card this month to tell me where stuff came from. Apparently it was just a shipping mishap with a few of the boxes, but it was still missing, so I'm going to have to make educated guesses.

I'm assuming these are Japanese? They're little cone-shaped biscuits covered in chocolate at the end, and I wolfed them down pretty quickly.

This is like an Aero bar inside a mock ice-cream cone. It was really good (and I'm guessing also from Japan.

These are probably Turkish. They're a wafer stick filled with chocolate hazelnut cream. I was very excited to find that they're vegetarian and have no eggs! They also taste amazing. The hazelnut tastes almost fruity, but in a really good way.

This is definitely Japanese. It's a very thin biscuit with green tea cream in the middle. It definitely had eggs in it, but I definitely ate it anyway. Sorry factory farm chickens! The bottom half almost tasted like a meringue, but the green tea flavor is too faint for my liking. Still, very good.

I've had these before a few times. They're an Indian biscuit that's popular in a few middle-eastern countries. If my memory serves me, they aren't super sweet, but still pretty decent (especially with tea).

Oh man, I ate this without remembering the flavor too well. It's either Russian or Ukrainian (I think!), and I think it was a wafers and chocolate kind of thing. They seem to send a lot of that type of stuff.

I thought this was a repeat from last month, but it isn't. It was a really cool hazelnut chocolate. Very hazelnutty. I believe this is from Turkey.

I know this is Japanese and I remember it being good but I've got to stop eating these things blindly.

Now this was great. Like a mounds bar with milk chocolate and chocolate inside with the coconut. It's another Elvan candy from Turkey.

This was kind of meh. It's from Taiwan. It wasn't bad, but I didn't taste the taro. Is taro really that flavorless? Either way, I'm please with it because it's labeled "suitable for lacto vegetarian"! That's so cool that they do that! I don't think I've ever seen lacto or ovo vegetarian labeled stuff until this box.

I should really start taking pictures of the inner items too. This isn't a chocolate chip cookie, it's what it says. It's a chocolate cookie with chocolate chips in it. Neat! I believe this is another Japanese product.

This is an English hard candy with no artificial colors. It was pretty good! Really flavorful.

I haven't tried this yet because I suspect gelatin but can't find a thing about it online. I'll save myself the worry and just give it to my dad. It's raspberry and from Turkey, so I wish I knew the ingredients!

I really like this box (although last month was better). And it looks like they're getting ready to add a feature onto it next month, so that will be exciting!

Have you tried this box yet? Why not?

-E.S.

April 2014 Q Box Mystery Box Review

                                 

I was so excited about the Q Box mystery box!!! With shipping this box was about $30. Q box is a Japanese/Korean lifestyle box, I've been watching the reviews for this box for awhile thinking and thinking if $40 a month is worth it to subscribe and I'm still not sure. 

                                

Here's the shipping box. 

Here's the first look!

                                       

First things first, a snack! I like Welch's fruit snacks, I mean who doesn't like fruit snacks, but I didn't expect it to be in this box. 

                                      

Here's the thank you card. We couldn't figure out what the two small chains were, but we found out late that they are rings! Well my fingers are too fat for these so they will go back in the bag! 

                                     

These are doodle's by Emi Jay, which are hair ties. I have a couple of packages of these type of hair ties and my hair is too thick to put it all up in these small ties, but they are so pretty!

                                    

I had a real hard time getting a good picture of this tape! It's pretty cute but I'm not sure what I'd use it for, it has a British theme to it.

                                    

This is pomegranate raspberry green tea one of my favorites! Again I didn't expect tea in the box but I'm happy with it, and if I'm lucky mom will share with me!

                                   

Theses are beautiful flower note cards. Again I'm not sure exactly what these will get used for but they are cute!!

                                   

I was excited to find out what these are! Look how cute they are!! They are actually molds to make adorable bento boxes!! You put sticky rice in the molds so that it takes the shape and then you decorate it and make it adorable!! 

                                    

Of course all the instructions are in Japanese!!

                                    

Last is a Laundry net for your bras, my mom and I are thinking that this is to fold your bras in and wash them so that they don't tangle up or get damaged. It's so cute!! It did take us awhile to figure out what this was sadly, my mom said she's going to use it for packing as well as washing!

Did you guys get a mystery Q Box? What did you get?? I'm still trying to decide if I want to subscribe to this box, they have such beautiful products. I'm sure one day I'll get one!!!

-F.M.

April 2014 "Free for All" Special Edition Birchbox Review

                          

Emma (E.S.) is gonna have some fun catching up with my reviews after I get all these loaded up!! This is the special edition Birchbox! After shipping this box was around $50. The regular Birchbox subscription is $10 a month with free shipping. This special box theme was Free For All, which means all products are ingredient conscious! 

Here's the box, it's different from their usual brown box.

                                         

Here's the first look when you open the box up. 

                                         

Here's the card explaining that this box has products that are all naturally and free from parabens, GMO's and everything bad for you! 

                                        

The first product is Shave With Benifits in mint and eucalyptus which is shaving cream (of course!) This cream helps with razor burn and red bumps and is perfect for people with sensitive skin! For a 5 ounce bottle this is around $19. 

                                     

Next is Karma Naturals nail polish remover, this stuff smells so good!! I hate the way nail polish remover smells, it's so harsh and makes everything smell!! For a 4 ounce bottle this is $12. 

                                     

This is such a cute little box! It's eyeliner by W3ll People, it's an actuall pencil rather than a gel, (which is what I prefer). 

                                    

I love the back of the box, as well as saying their product is free from certain chemicals, they call them nasties, which I don't really know why but I think it's cute!!! This is about $19 a pencil. 

Tea is something that I think I get in 95% of my subscription boxes and I'm totally ok with that! This tea is Lov Organic tea, you get 4 different tea bags in this box, Lov is Beautiful, Lov is Zen, Lov is Pure and Lov is Good. Lov is beautiful is a blend of green tea, white tea and rooibos with mango, apricot and pineapple (yummy!) Lov is Zen is rooibos, lemon, apple pieces, blackberry leaves, and orange and caramel flavors, Lov is Good is aniseed, fennel, liquorice, cardamom, ginger, cinnamon, pepper and cloves, Lov is Pure is green tea, apples, green mate, and natural citrus flavors. Lov is Good is the only flavor that I wouldn't think I'd enjoy drinking. This tea comes in a 4 ounce metal tin for about $17.  

                                        

This is radiance serum by Jurlique. This serum does all kinds of great stuff for your skin! It helps reduce redness and dark spots, and makes your skin firm. For a 1 ounce bottle of Jurlique it is $58. 

                                        

This is Alima Pure lip tint. My mom really likes this, she said it's very soft. The color is rhubarb and it is $12 a bottle. 

And of course the most important thing is the makeup bag!! It is a burlap make up bag with FEED on it, I really like that they donated 10 school meals with the purchase of this special box!!

This is such a cool box! It's nice to try out products that you wouldn't go out and buy, I love samples! 

How did you guys like this special Birchbox? Let us know! 

-F.M.