October 2015 Birchbox

Hey all!

I can’t believe it’s already October… Halloween and midterms are just around the corner. This month’s Birchbox was Positive Force, and it was a great theme, especially because Birchbox was donating money to support breast cancer. The box was a super pretty pink marble look.

The goodies:

Eyeko Black Magic mascara

Too Cool For School Pearl Bay Invasion illuminator in Baby Pink Clam

Jane Iredale Hand Drink hand cream

Parlor shampoo and conditioner

Harvey Prince Yogini perfume

The mascara:

I’ve never seen a mascara in a squeeze tube before, and don’t know what to make of that. It’s got a curved brush. When I first applied it on one eye, my lashes ended up in about four clumps, so I had to go in and break those up, but my other eye was fine. The mascara seemed to disappear over the course of the day, leaving my lower lashes and some of the tips on my upper lashes looking bare. I might need more coats of mascara.

The illuminator:

I received two things from this brand in the From Korea, With Love box from Birchbox. I like the vibe this brand has with packaging. Pearl Bay is a fictional place from a TV show, though, so the name confused me. Pearl Invasion seems like it makes more sense. This is a liquid illuminator, the first time I’ve ever used one. It’s a gold-hued pink. This stuff spreads easily, so I squeezed a pea-sized amount onto my fingertip, dabbed half of it on my face, blended it out with a brush, and then went over it with a second layer. I’m not sure how this compares to other liquid illuminators, but it gave me a decent highlight under all of my powders and blush and lasted all day.

The hand cream:

I don’t think I’ve ever owned a cream solely for my hands before. I usually use Nivea cream or body butter. It’s a strong perfume scent, which I’m not crazy over. I may use this – who knows?

The shampoo and conditioner:

Month number three of Birchbox sending me hair products I actually use! It’s another sulfate-free shampoo, this time in a travel bottle, with a matching conditioner packet. I get multiple uses out of this shampoo, and now have a portable size for traveling. The shampoo was nice – after just one use it seemed okay but not spectacular. The scent wasn’t very powerful. The conditioner, though. At first, it wouldn’t come out, then when I got the amount of conditioner I normally use in my hand and went to put it in my hair, it seemed to disappear. I had to use some of my normal conditioner. It also smelled a little odd – partly a clean, fresh scent and partly more of the organic shampoo scent gone awry. I felt like the shampoo should have smelled similar, but didn’t really get a good sense of it after just one use, especially because it was so light.

The perfume:

This was a dud. It reminds me of perfume that my grandmother uses, only a little worse. It’s not my style or age-appropriate. From having two Harvey Prince scents in a row, I’m going to generalize and say that I don’t like this brand’s scents.

Overall:

It wasn’t quite so good this month. The mascara, illuminator, and shampoo all seemed good or okay, but the conditioner, hand cream, and perfume were bad.