Birchbox July 2014 Review

After a busy and tiring week I was so excited to see my second Birchbox (July2014) on my doormat. I was slightly more excited by the June 2014 spoilers (the Beautyblender and Caudalíe products) than the July spoilers (Balance Me Eye Cream and LAQA and Co. Sheer Lip Lube Pencil).. Mainly as I was dreading potentially receiving a coral lip colour – it just doesn’t suit my skin tone!

However, when I received my box I was even happier with my July box than my June box! I received:

• LAQA and Co. Lip Lube… in PURPLE – I was so pleased to receive this colour
• Benefit’s Porefessional
• Model’s Own ‘Sparkler’ nail varnish
• Whish’s body butter in lavender
• Balance me’s wonder eye cream
• Filosofille nail file as my lifestyle extra

Just as I imagined the Lip Lube looks fantastic on, is long lasting, hydrating and also really wearable (don’t be scared – honestly this product is fantastic!). This colour looked especially good with pale matt skin and dramatic eyes – when this sample runs out I will definitely buy it again in the future, the product is priced at £14 and will definitely become a staple in my handbag.

Talking of dramatic eyes… I wasn’t so keen on Balance Me’s eye cream. Obviously it takes a while and a few weeks continuous use to determine whether an eye cream is really for you, but I was surprised to see that the eye cream actually irritated my skin, especially as this product is 99% natural – the irritation didn’t last long (just a slight sting upon application) and left my skin feeling soft but I think I would need to trial the product longer to give a definitive answer as to whether this product is for me (first impressions suggest not).

Next comes Models Own Nail Varnish ‘Sparkler’ – I was really pleased to receive a nail varnish firstly as I have given up with gel nails and secondly because of the product being clear with silver sparkles it can be used over any other nail varnish and is therefore ideal to create a feature nail.

Now if you didn’t know already I absolutely love Benefit, (especially after visiting their world cup pop-up pub Gabbi’s Head – see my review here)! Therefore I was so pleased to see I had Porefessional in my box – even if I do already have samples of this product and I use it every day, it certainly saves me buying another, plus the sample size is generous (7.5mL) especially as this product lasts forever.  I find that Porefessional is a fantastic primer allowing makeup to stay on the skin for longer and also reduces the need for as much make up. As a little tip – if you get lines in your makeup either side of your upper lip from smiling, use Porefessional before applying your concealer and this issue will be minimised.

Finally my last sample – a nail file from Filosofille. This sample was so much better than last month’s lifestyle extra the flip flop keyring – the nail file has four uses: filing, buffing, polishing and shining! It also looks really cute – I used this product before using my models own nail varnish – I was so pleased with the result that I even considered not using nail varnish as the product gave lovely natural looking healthy nails.

So what do you think of my box this month? How did yours vary? Were you pleased with your box?

L x