Sample Summary #13

1) Shiseido | Express Soothing Eye Mask and Wrinkle Resist 24 Eye Contour Cream

Full size: £59.00 for the eye mask / £54.00 for the eye cream

Rating: 2.5/5

This was a lovely little set of samples containing one application of a stick-on undereye mask, as well as a sachet of eye cream which lasted me a good week or so. The mask was an absolute pleasure to use and felt very cooling and hydrating while I let it work. Afterwards my eyes seemed a bit perkier and depuffed, but the effect had vanished the following morning. The eye cream was incredibly rich and left a greasy film under my eyes, so I could only use it at night. Otherwise my concealer would literally just slip straight off my skin. While they were both nice products, I don't think that the exorbitant price tag is by any means justified, hence the low rating.

2) Clarins | Moisture Rich Body Lotion

Full size: £30.00

Rating: 3/5

This was really lovely and moisturising without being sticky or greasy at all. While I personally prefer my body lotions to be scented, this might hold a certain appeal to those who don't like their body products to overpower their perfume - or those who simply have a sensitive nose. Just like with the Shiseido sample above, my only problem with this is the price tag. I just wouldn't be able to justify spending £30 on a tube of this when I can get great body lotions or butters for a tenth of the price.

3) Estee Lauder | Advanced Night Repair

Full size: £48.00

Rating: 5/5

Every time I get a sample of this somewhere my eyes immediately light up. This serum is simply magical. It never looks better than when I apply this before my moisturiser every night. It's smoother, softer and skintone is more even. I swear that one day I'll invest in a full size of this, but till then I will relish every last drop of my sample.

4) Neal & Wolf | Super Shine Spray

Full size: £9.50

Rating: 4/5

I wouldn't necessarily call this an essential, but it's a nice little product to have on special occasions. It's shiny without being glittery or sparkly and has an amazing fruity scent that lingers on the hair for a fair bit after application. It doesn't weigh hair down or make it greasy as long as you're not overly generous. I'm not sure I'd purchase the full size, as it's not a product that's missing from my beauty routine, but I'll thoroughly enjoy using up the sample I've got.

5) Redken | Colour Extend Conditioner

Full size: £13.75

Rating: 4.5/5

This was such a joy to use! It instantly restored my damaged, bleached hair and made it incredibly soft. I'd even say my hair felt stronger and a bit thicker after using this, I'm absolutely amazed. I'd say it's probably a touch too intense for daily application, but if used every other wash it works a treat. This is one I want to get my hands on for the full size.

6) Suti | Cleanse Balm, Purity Balm and Foot Balm

Full size: £28 for the Cleanse Balm, £23 for the Purity Balm and £16.50 for the Foot Balm

Rating: 4/5

I didn't expect to be quite as impressed with these little balms as I am, as the samples were quite small. The Cleanse Balm only lasted for four applications, but was coincidentally also my favourite out of the bunch. It dissolved make-up in a flash and left it feeling simultaneously cleansed, soothed and nourished. This is one I'll definitely be looking into purchasing a full size of! The Purity Balm works really great to deeply moisturise the skin. I apply it on my face at night and I'm not going to lie: It turns my face into an oil slick! Come morning, however, everything has been absorbed and my skin is wonderfully plumped and softened, but as it's so rich, one application every 2-3 days is usually enough.

The foot balm is my least favourite, as it takes a little bit of effort to work it in, but it's still a really, really lovely product!

Love Me Beauty Box May 14

Just like last month, Love Me Beauty's menu choices for May didn't get me particularly excited, either. But seeing as I did end up positively surprised last time around, I opted against skipping the month and chose the third Edition, as I found that one the most appealing. I'll be honest from the start and say that there was no element of positive surprise when I opened this box and for the first time since the very start of my subscription (almost a year ago!) I feel disappointed with the contents of my box.

1) Nail Girls | Nail Polish in "Nude Pink"

Full size: £13.50

This is probably my favourite product in this month's box. After getting rid of all the polishes in my collection that had become crusty and/or separated, I was left with a gaping hole in the "soft pinks" compartment, which this nail polish will fill nicely. I've never heard of the brand Nail Girls before, but I'm more than happy to give them a go. The brush is nice and wide and upon first inspection the polish seems to be nice and thick and non streaky. This product was featured in all three Editions.

2) Raw Skincare | Natural Lip balm in "Rescue Me"

Full size: £2.98

I didn't really fancy the mint or the ginger lip balm that was available in the other Editions (they're both tastes and smells that I don't really like), so I went for the deeply moisturising option instead. I always manage to lose my lip balms, so I'm happy to have another one to keep me going for a bit, especially seeing as Raw Skincare is yet another brand that's completely new to me. It has that typical natural lip balm texture, which is a little waxy and grainy, though it's fine once you've had a little bit of time to get used to it. I like that it's non-greasy, but I'm not sure it would really manage to rescue my lips if they were as dry as they get in winter, as it doesn't really feel all that moisturising.

3) GO Stationery | Pocket Notebook Set in "Meadow Bird"

Full size: £5.00

This product has actually genuinely annoyed me this month. While it's a nice design and I'm sure I'll find a way of using all three of the little notebooks, they just do not belong in a beauty box. I've always said that I like it when subscription services think outside the box a little bit, like when they included vitamin supplements for skin and hair, but this is just a step too far. If I wanted a notebook I'd go to WH Smith or Paperchase and I'd get myself a notebook. It's got nothing to do with beauty and is just a completely random space filler in this month's box.

4) Suti | Trial Pack in Cleanse Balm, Purity Balm and Fabulous Foot Balm

Half a trial pack / Value: £3.25

On to the next disappointment. I was really looking forward to trying this pack of three balms, but my excitement diminished when I saw the size of the samples. They're just so tiny! I reckon I'll get about 2-3 applications out of each, which isn't really enough to judge a product's efficacy. Suti actually sell this trial pack on their website, but on there it comes with two face oils and a moisturiser as well, so I feel a little cheated out of half of the products, especially as it's advertised as being the full trial pack on the card that came with my box. To be honest with you, I probably would have preferred to just have one larger sample than those three tiny little ones.

5) Tea Pigs | Tea in "Super Fruit"

3 Tea Envelopes / Value: £1.95

This is another product I'm really annoyed with this month. It's not the first time I've seen tea in beauty boxes and while I can see the connection if you're going for a "health and beauty from within" angle, it's okay if it pops up as an extra - but not if it's considered to be one of my beauty samples! Granted, I've wanted to try some Teapigs tea for a while, so I'm happy to finally have some to try, but I would have much preferred to have another cosmetic product in my box instead.

Total value: £26.68

This month's box gets a big fat, thumbs down from me. I can deal with the minuscule balm samples, but having not one but two products in my box that are completely unrelated to beauty has really annoyed me. Thankfully I'm really looking forward to using the nail polish once my nails have healed up a little bit, so that alone has made this box worth it for me. I guess we've been really spoilt with Love Me Beauty boxes over the last year. Every month there would be three to four full sized products and almost all of them were absolute hits, so it was only a matter of time before they started to not live up to their high standards. Box value has also been steadily decreasing over time and while I'm not one to only demand super high-end samples (not that I could afford to buy the products anyway), I do feel like I'm getting less bang for my buck lately. I really hope that Love Me Beauty will be back on form again next month.

Sample Summary #8

1) Clinique, Repairwear Uplifting Cream

Full size: £50 for 50ml

I love it when brands give you proper sized samples of their products that you can squeeze more than one and a half applications out of. Even more so when they’re tailored to my skin type. Hello, combination skin, that’s me! I have to admit that for a cream that’s aimed at combination skin, this was very thick and quite rich, though. And my usual tactic of using it as a night cream couldn’t be applied, as it’s a cream with SPF, so it would only be wasted on a night.

Apart from that it’s a lovely moisturiser which keeps my face nice and hydrated. The richness can be balanced out with the use of the right products, but it’s not something I’m raring to go out and buy.

2) La Sultane De Saba, Body Lotion With Argan Oil

Full size: £26.50 for 200ml

I knew I wouldn’t like this as soon as I saw it in my Birchbox and reality hasn’t been far off my expectations. The oriental scent of this body lotion is just not up my street at all. To top it off it comes out sticky and runny, though to be fair once I let the lotion absorb into my skin properly it made it wonderfully soft.

Nevertheless, I have no time for body lotions that make me dance about naked in the bathroom in the hopes that it will sink in sometime today. And try to squeeze out thick body lotion out of a tiny tub made of hard plastic while your hands are all greasy and oily. The sample went flying, bounced off every single wall leaving behind a sticky trail of destruction, before being thrown in the bin. So much for that.

3) RMK, Cleansing Balm

Full size: £29 for 100g

Can a beauty product ever be life changing? I believe this one can. Before this sample, I’d never tried a cleansing balm before, but boy am I smitten. The delicious rose scent sends me off into a heavenly dream land, the texture melts on my skin like silk and removes every last little scrap of dirt and make-up. I actually WANT to clean my skin, even after a late (/early) night out, which is something that’s never happened before.

Oh and my skin absolutely loves this. So much so that I can even skip the foundation most days. I’ve still got a few other cleansers on the go right now, but once they run out, this is a definite, DEFINITE repurchase.

4) Sanctuary, 30 Day Thermal Clay Mask

Full size: £27.50 for 75ml and 50ml respectively

The sachet size of this sample is fairly deceiving. I expected one or two applications out of these, but ended up with five. Not bad. The two-step process had me applying a serum all over my face first and then topping it off with the clay mask.

The mask heated up on my skin, which was a very pleasant sensation and came off easily and without any off the mess associated with clay masks. As for the dramatic skin transformation promised on the description card, I honestly have to say I didn’t see any of it. Yeah, my skin felt nice after it, but no better or worse than after just washing my face in the evenings. Maybe it would work better for other skin types, but for me it was something I’ll leave on the shelf.

5) Yu-Be, Moisturizing Skin Cream

Full size: £19.50 for 70g

Looks like we’re a bit Birchbox heavy with the sample reviews this time around, eh? I used this cream as a lip balm first, as I loved the instant hit of moisture that it gives, without leaving any sticky feeling, so that I could still apply lipstick over the top without sacrificing colour intensity. Turns out that it didn’t work that well in the long term, as after a week or so, it started giving my lips a scary white cast which made me look positively dead. I also found that my lips got sort of addicted to it and I had to slather it on more and more, or else they would dry out very fast.

Nevertheless, this cream really did come into its own when I caught a nasty cold and my entire nose went red, scaly and irritated. Heaven, I tell you, heaven! It soothed my chapped skin instantly without running or greasing my face up like some other creams do. There was no stinging or burning and it just felt like a god send. Would I repurchase? Maybe for the winter months, to calm skin that’s so dry it’s painful or when I tend to get the sniffles a lot more often. For the summer, however, I think I’ll just stick to regular moisturiser and lip balm.

Birchbox March 2013

Lookey, lookey, it's another beauty box review. I haven't done one of these in months, as quite frankly, I'd gone off the beauty box craze and felt that there were better ways to spend my hard earned money. But as soon as I heard that Birchbox, the mother of all beauty boxes, was coming to the UK, I've been toying with the idea of subscribing again and finally I took the plunge again at the beginning of the month.

Birchbox are the people who started this whole thing about beauty sample services over in the USA and have now taken over from Joliebox, who originally took over from Boudoir Prive (still following?). The box is housed in a bright pink outer carton, so I instantly knew when my Birchbox had arrived. Inside, there's a Birchbox magazine, which I'm more than happy to read when I get a few minutes, as well as the actual box itself.

In the actual Birchbox you'll find a card with descriptions of all the products, as well as a drawstring bag housing all of the samples. To be honest, I'm not a massive fan of the packaging. The box is a bit plain and unlike all of my Glossyboxes I cannot see myself reusing it. The drawstring bag is also rather pointless and is only going to end up as more landfill.
Included this time were five samples (one of them a full sized product), one beauty extra and one lifestyle extra.

1) Laura Geller | Inkwell Waterproof Gel Liner

Full size: £24.50 / Sample value: £24.50

I'm not entirely sure where I've heard of Laura Geller before; while it's not a brand I've never heard of before I'm not familiar with any of their products. Liquid and gel liners are both products that I never manage to finish before they go off or dry out, so I was happy to receive a full size of this as I'm sure I'll be able to get plenty of use out of it.

The shade I got is black, which is a nice and safe option, though I wouldn't have minded to get a different colour. I also love the little pop-out brush hidden in the lid of the product, which means I can actually chuck this into my handbag for on-the-go touch-ups. The only thing that puts me off a little is the price. £24.50 for a tiny pot of eye liner? It better be amazing!

2) Molton Brown | Valbonne Fragrance

Full size: £65 / Sample value: Approx. £3.25

I've said it loads of times before and I'll say it again: I don't believe these little perfume samples should be made part of a sample box - ever. Having said that, there was a total of six products in this month's box as well as the lifestyle extra, so they shall be let off.

As for the fragrance, it is said to contain bergamot, orange flower, rose, vetiver and leather. It opens up with the floral notes which smell absolutely divine, and then settles into this deep, quite masculine leather scent. It smells pretty amazing, but the leather isn't quite "me", so I doubt I'll treat myself to a full size of this.

3) RMK | Cleansing Balm

Full size: £29 / Sample value: £7.25

Ooooh, this one's exciting. I've heard lots of good things about this product, yet I've never tried anything from RMK before. I've never used a cleansing balm either, even though they seem to be all the rage when it comes to skin cleansing right now, so I'm beyond excited to give this one a go. It smells very strongly of roses, which reminds me of a particular summer holiday in France. It's also a fairly generous sample size, so I think I'll get quite a bit of use out of it.

4) La Sultane De Saba | Body Lotion With Argan Oil

Full size: £26.50 / Sample value: £5.30

This is one that made me wrinkle my forehead quite a bit. It's a brand I have never, ever heard of and the label looks a bit, well, DIY... The scent is very distinctively oriental, which is not something I'm a fan of (I prefer light smells to heavy, oud like scents), but I like the fact that it contains argan oil to soften skin.

What really annoys me, however, is the packaging of this sample. I have no idea how I'm going to get more than a pea-sized blob out of the hard plastic case and I can just see a lot of this ending up in the bin, which would be a shame, really.

5) Yu-Be | Moisturizing Skin Cream

Full size: £19.50 / Sample value: £0.84

When I saw the size of this sample my thoughts went something like: "You're 'avin a ****ing laugh!?". The tube is tiny. Teeeensy, teensy, tiny. It's a cream for dry or very dry skin, which I don't get a lot of, but as my lips were stinging and burning as I read through the leaflet, I squeezed out a little blob there and then and dabbed it onto my lips. And, well... it's pretty good. It sunk in within seconds without leaving any grease on my lips, but still provided instant relief and moisturisation. I can see this being a brilliant product to use on my lips when they're dry and I want to wear a bright lipstick, as it won't make the colour slip and slide off. Nevertheless, I still think they could have been a bit more generous with the size, this is a little bit on the ridiculous side.

Beauty Extra: Sanctuary | 30 Day Thermal Transformation Mask

Full size: £27.50 / Sample value: £2.31

I luuurve a face mask as a great way to destress and give my skin just a little bit of extra pampering, so these will come in handy on my next day off work. Not sure they're going to make me look any younger, but the two step process sounds quite exciting and is definitely something I look forward to trying out. The sachets are quite large, so I wonder if I can maybe squeeze two applications out of them.

Lifestyle Extra: Lindt | Lindor Heart Tin Filled With Chocolate Truffles

Full size: £2.99 / Sample value: £2.99

Lindt chocolates.

They didn't survive the writing of this post.

Enough said.

So, what's the overall verdict on this month's (and my first ever) Birchbox? The total value of the box comes to £46.44 - a good amount, though I don't want to judge a beauty box just by the sample values. After all, what good is it if I fall in love with a 20ml sample of a £200 cream if I will most likely never be able to afford it, anyway? There was a good mix of items, ranging between make-up, skin and body care, though it would have been nice to see some haircare included as well.

It's nice to see a full sized product and chocolates are always much appreciated, though I'm a little bit disappointed with the size of the samples, as I don't find they're really "luxury sized" samples.

Are you subscribed to any beauty boxes?