March Birchbox

This is the much anticipated Lulu Guinness March Birchbox.  The box came covered in a black & white striped wrap.  Inside are 5 products and the usual lifestyle extra.  For those of you not familliar with Lulu Guiness, she's a bag & accessories designer, and black & white stripes are her signature design/pattern.  Here's what was in my box in a bit more detail:

Benefit - Stay don't stray - full size price £20.50 (picked by Lulu)

This is benefits' eye shadow primer, it's a 2.5ml sample, so pretty small, but with eye shadow primer you tend to only need a little bit so it's not a big deal.

Dr Brandt - Pores no more - full size price £39

This is a face primer (seems to be a bit of a theme here!) - they say it's a sheer formula that minimises pores and absorbs oil.

Molton Brown - Rhubarb & Rose hand cream - full size price £10

Described as a 'fast-absorbing deeply nourishing lotion that leaves soft and smelling sweet' - I have to admit, that sounds pretty awesome :)  I really like getting hand cream samples in beauty boxes, I keep them on my desk in work where I tend to moisturise the most!

English Laundry - No.7 for her - full size price £47

Described with notes of pear and jasmine, with gardenia, vanilla and sandlewood.  I'm really not a fan of getting perfume samples in beauty boxes, mainly because 9 times out of 10, you could walk into a department store and get the same for free. 

Aroma works - Nurture body oil - full size price £32.50

This you apply after getting out of the bath or shower.  I haven't really used body oils before, but given this one is described as having coconut oil in it, which I love, I'll give it a go, lets hope I don't like it too much though, I don't fancy having to fork out over £30 for a full size one!

LIFESTYLE EXTRA - Candy Rock - stick of rock (picked by Lulu)

In Lulu colours, she picked this out as it represents the traditional sweet shops that inspire her.

For me, some of this box is a hit (Benefit primer, Molton Brown hand cream, body oil), the rest I could happily leave.  This box was really hyped as being the 'Lulu Guinness box' - but she only picked 2 products in it, the eye shadow primer, and the lifestyle extra... that's not really a Lulu box as far as I'm concerned.  I'd have liked to have seen a Lulu keyring or mirror or even a Lulu nail file in here, something that's hers, either that, or her picking out everything in it, to make it products she can't live without, or her favs etc.

This box has left me seriously thinking about cancelling my Birchbox subscription, I feel like I'm disappointed nearly every month recently, which is a shame since I've been a subscriber since the first UK box.

On a more positive note, in the Birchbox store they do free delivery on products from that months' box, which means, you can buy the Benefit Stay don't Stray without paying any postage :)  Every star has a silver lining :)

This months Biggest-Pixi3 advertiser is the lovely Ash from A Beauty Moment

 

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NARS eyeshadow - Ashes to Ashes

NARS single eyeshadow £18 from counters and online

Back at Christmas the lovely Laura and I (from A Scottish Lass) organised a beauty blogger secret santa, as is our tradition every year we swapped with each other.  Well,  Laura clearly blew the budget as she bought me a NARS single eyeshadow, lucky me!

The shade she chose is 'Ashes to Ashes' - it's a near-matte brown (it has a subtle silk sheen) which is a gorgeous soft, gentle brown.  It works beautifully all over the lid for a simple look, or as a base for a neutral or smokey-neutral look, and it works well as a transition shade.  It's lasting power is fantastic, if you plonk it on top of some primer, and a creme eyeshadow it'll last all day.  

My favourite way to wear this is by itself (as in, with no other eyeshadows), I team it up with my classic Chanel liquid liner and some decent mascara and voila, my makeup is done!  I have been wearing a lot less makeup recently, I've hardly worn foundation in weeks, instead I opt for brows and eyes with some lip balm for a simple wearable day look - I could do a post on my morning makeup routine for work if you like?

What's your favourite NARS single eyeshadow? 

This months Biggest-Pixi3 advertiser is the lovely Ash from A Beauty Moment

 

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Homeware wishlist #1

1 | 2 | 3 | 4

We're in the process of re-furnishing our lounge, not fully, but we've bought a new sofa (super excited!) from DFS (pic below) and we're going to be moving the computer desk back downstairs into the lounge, and getting rid of our armchair.  In it's place we'll be putting in a bookcase, and in front of that I'm thinking about putting a bean bag for an extra seat.

Our... end tables?  Or whatever you want to call them - they sit either side of the sofa and we put our cups on them... anyway, they're really light wood, they're the IKEA lack tables, they won't go with the new sofa as they're too light, so we need some new ones.  All of this has resulted in me drooling over a lot of home furnishings online and making a bit of a wish list :)

1.  Cotton chair bean bag £59.99 from greatbeanbags.com - it's nice, neutral and would go great in my lounge with the new sofa :)

2.  Stanton tall dark shelves £275 from Next.co.uk.  Perfect for going next to the new sofa to house lots of our books that we'll be moving down from the spare room - plus with a cupboard at the bottom.

3.  Barlow nest of tables £125 from Next.co.uk - these would be perfect for either side of the sofa for us to put our cups on etc.

4.  Grey and red union jack bean bag £49.99 from rucomfybeanbags.co.uk, I think this would add a lovely splash of colour to the room

So that's my first homewares wishlist, what do you think?  Would you buy any of these?

This months Biggest-Pixi3 advertiser is the lovely Ash from A Beauty Moment

 

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