BIRCHBOX May 2017 – Low Effort High Impact

Low Effort, High Impact is Birchbox‘s theme for their May box selections. Mine contained mostly skin care products—perfect for the upcoming warmer months.

Products this month are all geared towards developing a beauty routine with summer in mind, now.

And, I was happy to see it noted: it’s important to wear sunscreen every single day! SO true!! If you are not already in this habit, it’s the SINGLE best thing you can do to make sure your skin retains a youthful resiliency as long as possible. I highly recommend it! (This is the case NO MATTER how much time you plan on spending outdoors each day.) I’m looking out of you. 🙂

Onto the samples—these are the beauty products I received:

• derma e — Microdermabrasion Scrub in the small white tub

Created to improve skin’s appearance with an exclusive ‘crystal’ blend that includes Dead Sea Salt & Volcanic Sand (exfoliatiaters) plus lemon and lime peel (astringents) and grape seed & Vitamin E (antioxidants). Once applied, to wet skin, rub this scrub gently in circles to exfoliate – in only 3 minutes. Then pat dry.

It’s 100% vegan, does not absorb into the skin due to its large molecular structure, and smells mildly of lime.

• Lord & Berry — Ultimate Lip Liner in Romantic Rose #3040

Romantic Rose is a lovely warm, medium, plummy pink color. This lip liner is made in Milan by Lord & Berry. They sell two kinds of lip liner: Silhouette (invisible) to fill lines and treat lips, and Ultimate which is blend-able color, waterproof, contains a skin loving LXB complex that includes Macadamia oil and waterlily extracts. It comes in 13 colors (from bright pink to deep plum). The Romantic Rose that I received is one of their Ultimate lip liners. This is my full-size product of the month.

Of course this liner can be used to line lips, but it also works great to fill in lips and top with a coat of gloss for all over lip color.  As a full lip color, the liner is a bit too dry on its own without gloss. Here, I’ve used it with just some Ulta lipgloss:

• MAC — Strobe Cream in Silverlite

Each month I can either choose one of the product samples I will receive or leave it all to Birchbox. I think this is a great feature, and usually I like to choose one sample. They send me an email alert when it is time to do this each month. Strobe Cream is the one sample I chose! I’d always been wanting to try this product.

Strobe Cream is a non-greasy, moisturizing face cream with the benefit of brightening iridescent particles. It gives a boosting sheen to skin that is sallow, tired or dull, best when worn under foundation or blended into foundation or your SPF (Sun Protection Factor) layer. Helps skin look fresh and dewy no matter if you are in the sunshine or indoor light. Plus, it contains vitamins and a big dose of green tea antioxidants.

Although my sample is not labeled by color, I think this one is Silverlite. If you buy a full-size product, it comes also comes in: Pinklite (the original hue), Goldlite, Peachlite or Redline.

And, btw – I have seen some complaints about the full size bottle not being made of the most flexible material and therefore making it difficult to squeeze and get the last bit of the product out. (MAC – love you, but this may need to be amended in the future, if you are listening).

• Oribe — Apres Beach Wave and Shine Spray

This spray is a very nice, light, non-sticky texture spray, for summer waves and shine. The aerosol mist comes out super fine, making it easy to evenly distribute. It also works to give style a bit of hold.

Although my straight hair does not get wavy, Apres Beach does give it some texture.

This product does not weigh hair down, and is in fact so light that hair feels fine even for a 2nd day between washes, without any of the salty stiffness of some beach sprays. And, it has a very nice, faintly floral scent. Ingredients like safflower oil, calendula extract, watermelon extract, pro vitamin B5 and amber resin extract care for strands–without parabens or sodium chloride.

I’ll be bringing this along in my beach bag for summer weekend road trips.

• TOCCA – Esfoliante da Corpo, Nourishing Body Scrub in the scent Bianca

With warmer weather, skin tends to need more moisture as well as exfoliation. Tocca’s sugar-based scrubs are gentle and kind to skin that is already subject to hot weather stressors. Sugar as well as crushed olive granules work of slough off dead skin cells, while ingredients like grape seed oil, olive oil, safflower oil moisturize.
I’ve only used this on my hands so far, but it did leave them feeling soooo soft.

Bianca is the subtle scent of fresh lemons and green tea–calming and refreshing. Tocca offers this scrub in a variety of lovely scents: Cleopatra (grapefruit & cucumber), Florence (bergamot & gardenia), Giulietta (pink tulip & green apple) and Stella (Italian blood orange).

Well, that’s it for the contents of my Birchbox this month! If you subscribe to this beauty box service (or a different one) I would love to hear if you received any new products that you adore. Feel free to reply in comments.

Have a gorgeous week!

xoxo,

Jen

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