My favourite beauty treats from my 6 months of Birchbox

From July to December last year I had a 6 month subscription to the beauty box, Birchbox. You may know this if you have read my blog before but I wrote about it on a post (click here) and also did a few reviews for the boxes each month. Overall I really enjoyed getting this for a few months and really liked not knowing what beauty treats I would get. I was very happy with nearly all my items and today I thought I would share my favourites from over the 6 months...

Photos of sample sized products (some photos not my own)

 1.Protect & Detangle Beauty Protector - £14.00 -  This is a leave in conditioner that you use when you hair is wet and blow dry it in or leave to dry naturally and oh my gosh it makes your hair so soft and for me is sometimes a lazy way to conditioner my hair after washing, oh and it smells so good! 

2. Vasanti Brighten Up Enzymatic Face Rejuvenator - £26.00  - I had never used a face scrub before but when I tried this I really wish I had becuase this was amazing! It was a really fine scrub so it wasn't harsh on your face and my face felt really soft afterwards.

3. Montezuma Smooth Milk Chocolate - £2.99  -  I liked that Birchbox didn't just always put beauty treats in and I sometimes got a food sample and who doesn't like getting chocolate! I had never tried this brand before but I really liked it and I found that its not too sweet and just really good quality chocolate.

4. Benefit High Beam Highlighter - £19.50 - I had been wanting to try this for ages and when a sample came it my last box I was so happy! The sample size was so cute and the product was so good and now I really want to get a full size one.

5. Soigne Pomegranate Nail Lacquer - £11.00 -  I will admit that I am obsessed with nail polish and when I got this in my first box and it was full size I was so excited because it looked so fancy (that fancy I couldn't pronounce the name and had to look it up!) but it is definitely one of the best ones I own because it lasts for days without chipping and the colour is so pretty! I did a review on it a while ago (click here).

 The prices mentioned are for full size versions and they are available on the Birchbox online shop (click here)

Beauty and Clothing Wish List January 2015

Recently I have been wanting a few clothing and beauty items after looking in the sales on line and also items I have come across while shopping and watching you tube videos so I thought I would share them with you...

Kelly Brook Blue Lace trim Longline Bra - New Look - £16.99 -  I always look at the Kelly Brook range on the New Look website because I love them and I like to look at the new designs they have. I really like longline bras but it is really hard to find ones for the bigger bust so when I saw this I fell in love with it and now really want to get it!

Kelly Brook Blue Contrast Lace Overlay High Waisted Briefs - New Look - £7.99 - Obviously I want these so they match the bra as I'm really into wearing matching sets because they are so pretty and these high waisted ones are a bit different.

Real Techniques Bold Metals Ccollection Brushes - From £10 - £25 - As soon as I saw these were been released I wanted them, what make up obsessed girl wouldn't! They are so nice and I love the rose gold ones especially. I am going to get some of these for my birthday next month so I don't have long to wait now so excited!! 

MUA Undress Your Skin Highlighting Powder - Superdrug - £3 - I saw this last week when I went shopping with some friends. My friends had mentioned this to me before so I wanted to go and swatch it and its amazing! Its such a beautiful colour and I want to try it as I currently don't own a powder highlighter. I wish I had got it now but at the time I had spent to much for one day so I decided not to but I will definitely get it next time.

Benefit Rockateur Blush - Feel Unique - £23.50 -  I have been looking for a new blush and when I had seen this a few times on you tube it looks like such a nice colour just the kind of pink I was looking a for and also you can't beat benefit boxed blushers because the packaging is so nice.

Make Up Revolution Blush Palette in Hot Spice - £6 - When looking for blushers I had seen this mentioned quite a lot on the blogs I read and it also looked really pretty. I like that there is different colours in one palette so you have choice and if its anything like their other products I know it will be good.

Black Zip Side Block Heeled Ankle Boots -  New Look - £24.99 - I never have any going out shoes in autumn and winter so I really want some kind of black heeled boots. These ones I found on New Look are exactly what I'm looking for so I hope they are in store next time I go in.

Grey High Neck Long Sleeve Jumper - New Look - £14.99 - Recently while shopping I noticed there was a lot of polo necks and high necked garments. I especially liked the high neck jumpers not quite as high as a polo neck jumper I think they would be perfect for this weather and I really want to try one on next time I go shopping but I'm not sure they will look nice on me as I have quite a large bust and I feel like it will make me look even bigger but we will see. This one from New Look is really nice and I like the shade of grey it is.

Stila In The Moment Palette Review

I bought the Stila In The Moment palette as a christmas present to myself but it only came recently as there was problems with deliveries. The Stila palette was £25 but I ordered mine from the Birchbox online shop as I had collected £20 worth of points since having a birchbox subscription and earning points for reviewing products. This meant that I only had to pay £5 and then £2.95 for P&P which I was so happy about! (Click here to got to the Birchbox website to find out more)

There are quite a few Stila palettes but I chose this one as I really like all the colours and there is a nice mixture of neutral and darks. The dark colours I especially liked as they are very purpley which I love! The pigmentation of them is also very good and you can definitely tell the high end quality. 

The packaging is also very pretty and the palette also comes with a waterproof smudge stick in the colour tetra which says it is an exclusive to the palette. It also comes with a little booklet of make up ideas and how to use the colours together which is very helpful although I like experimenting.

Swatches in order seen in palette above from left to right top to bottom they are called instinct, impulse, glance, improvise, catalyst and then the second row is desire, wonder, spontaneous, whim and captivate. The swatch at the end is the smudge stick which is actually not showing the true colour it is a purpley brown.

I would definitely recommend if you are addicted to eye shadow like me and want another palette to add to your collection!

It can be bought for the Stila website, Birchbox online store and Feel Unique just to name a few.

Mac Diva Lipstick Review

I have wanted this lipstick since the autumn when I was really loving the look of dark fall shades include deep reds and dark pinky purples. I put it on my christmas list and my parents bought me it even if they did think it was expensive. I would describe Mac's Diva lipstick as a deep wine colour and is the darkest lipstick I own but I think it really suits me.

It is priced at £15.50 and is available from the Mac website, Debenhams or Fenwicks. It is a matte formula which I didn't actually realise and it can be a bit hard to apply but using a brush makes in easier and using a lip liner will make it last so much better. I love it so much it is such a pretty colour and the formula means it does last quite a while even on its own.

The lip liner I bought to go with it is from Boots and it is a Barry M one which matches perfectly. It is in the shade 7 and is called wine. This was £2.99 which is very reasonable as I didn't want to spend loads. The swatches above show them both (lip liner on the left and lipstick on the right.)

Rimmel Wonderfull Mascara Review

I had been wanting to try this mascara for a while after I saw an advert and saw that it was a mascara with argan oil in it. I discovered I really liked argan oil after buying some lip balm and shower gel from The Body Shop's argan oil range and I wanted to know what it would be like in a mascara. The product description says;

 'The Secret Weapon to full volume without clumps. The new formula with Argan Oil feels incredibly lightweight, soft and flexible for Wonder’Full volume that won’t weigh you down. Lashes feel conditioned, soft and flexible, with zero clumps and a feather-light volume.

Ultra Flex brush with ultra-soft bristles also hugs lashes defining them from root to tip. The result all lashes revealed with full, perfectly smooth, clump-free volume'.

When I went to buy this I saw that there was both black and extreme black so I decided to get extreme black as I can't stand it when mascara isn't really black. My overall thoughts are that it is a very nice separating mascara but not so much volume. As the product description says it is clump free which I really like as I hate clumpy looking lashes. I also feel like it does condition the lashes because of the argan oil. The wand is plastic with quite fine bristles and is very easy to use as it isn't too big. I do really like it but it definitely doesn't beat the Bourjois 1 Seconde Volume mascara (click here to read my review) so I probably won't repurchase. 

The left one is with no mascara and the right on one is with mascara.

It can be bought from Boots (click here) and is currently on offer for £5.99 instead of £7.99