Beauty | Birchbox Free Your Mind

Hello Lovelies! This Month's Birchbox review is a little later than usual because I've had the busiest month, pack filled with exams but here I am finally sharing my thoughts on it with you. The first thing that I have to say about Birchbox's Free Your Mind Box* is that I am in love with the concept. How cool is it that they give you coloured pencils so that you can colour it in? It made me feel like a child again, and must be one of my all time favourite designs of theirs. 

Now down to the actual box, here are my thoughts on the contents: 

NUMBER 4 LUMIERE D'HIVER RECONSTRUCTING MASQUE (£36.00 FULL SIZE)

WHAT: TRANSFORM YOUR TRESSES FROM LACKLUSTRE TO LUSCIOUS WITH THIS MOISTURISING TREATMENT. SOY PROTEINS, SHEA BUTTER, SUNFLOWER SEED AND JOJOBA SEED OILS (PHEW!) LEAVE HAIR SMOOTH, STRENGTHENED AND SHINY.

HOW: SHAMPOO HAIR FIRST THEN EVENLY DISTRIBUTE THE FULL AMOUNT ONTO WET HAIR, FROM TIPS TO SCALP. LEAVE FOR 2-5 MINUTES AND RINSE.

I was so happy when I saw that there was a hair mask in this month's box, because I have never tried one but have always wanted to. On the packaging, there's a sort of poem/story that I thought was quite nice and a cute little touch. First thoughts is it smells amazing, as the description above shows, it is packed filled with ingredients that give it such a unique and lovely smell. After using this my hair felt amazing, but I'd say that the effects of this were pretty short-lived as after a day or so my hair felt normal again - so perhaps you have to use it a few times to have a real lasting effect? Either way it was lovely to pamper my hair a bit. 

PARLOR BY JEFF CHASTIN MOISTURISING SEA SALT SPRAY (FULL SIZE £17.00)

WHAT: SALTY SEA AIR IN A BOTTLE! SWEET ALMOND OIL AND VITAMIN-RICH ALGAE COMBINE TO ADD TEXTURE APLENTY, WHILE LEAVING YORU SCALP NOURISHED. BONUS: IT SMELLS OF RIPE PEACHES AND FRESHLY CUT GRASS.

HOW: SPRAY EVENLY ONTO DAMP OR DRY HAIR AND STYLE WITH YOUR FINGERS FOR A TOUSLED FINISH.

As a girl with curly/frizzy hair I'm not really the biggest fan of sea salt sprays as they don't tend to do me any favours (I have enough texture in my hair!). Although I will say this has a lovely smell, just not the product for me. 

MIRENESSE MATTFINITY LIP ROUGE IN NEW YORK, PARIS, SYDNEY (FULL SIZE £21.00)

WHAT: DO MATTE FORMULAS OFTEN LEAVE YOUR LIPS FEELING LIKE THE SAHARA DESERT? WE FEEL YOU! IT'S TIME TO ROCK A MATTE-YET-MOISTURISED LIP THANKS TO THIS HYDRATING, ULTRA-PIGMENTED LIP COLOUR. DREAMY.

HOW: SWEEP THE WAND OVER LIPS FOR AN EVEN WASH OF CREAMY COLOUR. MWAH!

Matt lip glosses are something I really love, so I was super happy to try this out. It has a lovely velvety matte texture with a slight sheen as well and smells like berries to me haha. Bad thing is that it does transfer a little despite being matte, so you'd need to keep reapplying it. Still, I love the colour. 

CAUDALIE VINOPERFECT RADIANCE TINTED MOISTURISER IN LIGHT (£27.00)

WHAT: IF THERE'S ANYTHING WE LOVE MORE THAN SKINCARE, IT'S SKINCARE WITH EXTRA BENEFITS! THIS LIGHTWEIGHT MOISTURISER IS A TRUE MULTI-TASKER : BOTH TREATING AND BRIGHTENING THE SKIN WHILE ADDING A LITTLE LIGHT COVERAGE.

HOW: FOR NORMAL SKIN, SMOOTH ONTO CLEAN, DRY SKIN IN PLACE OF YOUR USUAL MOISTURISER. FOR DRY SKIN, USE YOUR USUAL MOISTURISER FIRST AND THEN ENHANCE WITH CAUDALIE ON TOP. 

I'm not a big fan of tinted moisturisers because I feel like it's so hard to find one that moisturises well as well as being a good coverage. First impressions were I'm not a big fan of the smell. I think some people would love it but it just doesn't agree with me. However it does do a decent coverage, and is moisturising, but it's not really enough on it's own especially if you have problem skin like me (damn spots). 

RMK POINT MAKE-UP REMOVER (FULL SIZE £20.00)

WHAT: SWEEP AWAY THAT WATERPROOF MASCARA AND HEAVY DUTY EYE MAKE-UP WITHOUT THE ELBOW GREASE THANKS TO THIS DOUBLE-LAYERED, SQUALANE INFUSED FORMULA; AKA A MOISTURISING MAKE-UP REMOVER!

HOW: GIVE IT A GOOD SHAKE, THEN APPLY TO A COTTON PAD AND GENTLY WIPE OVER EYES, FACE AND LIPS. 

This makeup remover really works a dream. I used it to remove my makeup a couple of times, including a really stubborn red lipstick and it came right off after only two sweeps which I find really impressive. I'm not sure I've noticed it moisturising me in any way, but it's a great remover. 

WAH LONDON PRESS ON NAILS (FULL SIZE £9.00) 

For this month's box birchboxers were allowed to make the choice between a nail polish, nail art pern or press on nails - but because I'm sent these for free I didn't get the choice. If I'd had the choice I never would have chosen press on nails, because although I love having long nails, fake ones have never been my cup of tea. That said, I actually really enjoyed trying these out because they did end up looking amazing (even if I didn't bother to file my nails down - a nail file is included in the box!). The downside of these is that I could hardly do a thing with them on. Typing and pretty much everything was impossible, so I ended up taking them off after about a day - but you can also cut them down to make things easier. Applying them is a bit fiddly but can be done super easily as they include these little glue gel pad things (in different sizes) that you can apply to your nails. When you take them off, it's super easy and they don't damage your nails at all. So overall, even though these are something I wouldn't choose myself, they were a lot of fun and with a worth of £9.00 it definitely makes the £10.00 birchbox value for money!

All in all I was very pleased with this month's box, even if there were a couple of products that didn't really suit me. Thank you for reading lovelies! Are you subscribed to Birchbox or any other subscription box? Let me know in the comment section below!

You can subscribe to Birchbox for £10.00 a month (+ £2.95 post and packaging). Find out more here

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