MY FIRST BIRCHBOX REVIEW! (FEBRUARY BIRCHBOX)

I was super excited to receive my first BIRCHBOX!

The box itself was lovely! I loved the design and that the quote "Shine bright like a diamond" was printed in shiny, silver colour. 

Inside the box was an information booklet which contained information about the products and a small bag with the products inside. (The bag could probably be reused for holding shower gels, shampoos etc. - I think it'd be great to take travel-sized samples away with you on holidays). 

The BIRCHBOX subscription service is a £10.00 monthly payment and you receive 5 products in each box (you can also pay for a 6-month/12-month subscription where you can save money). You can read more about BIRCHBOX here and browse their website.

DOUX ME Face mask and Exfoliating
Scrub - £18.00.

The first product I came to in the box was a sample-sized version of the DOUX ME Comforting Face Mask & Exfoliator which retails for £18.00 on the BIRCHBOX website. First of all, I've not heard of this brand before but I really like the sound it from doing a little research - they're environment-focussed and try to use natural, organic ingredients (listing them all clearly in a way that anyone can understand). 
It contains ingredients such apricot oil, cammomile and marshmallow extracts (can't say I've heard of a product containing marshmallow before). It can either be applied as a mask by using a thin layer which you wash off after 7-10 minutes or as an exfoliating scrub by applying in circular motions.

NUMBER 4 Prep and Protect Spray - £20.00.

I've not tried it on my face yet but on the back of my hand the exfoliation doesn't seem to harsh and it left my skin feeling smooth and soft! It doesn't have much of a scent which is better than a bad scent - I'm very much looking forward to trying this out.

The second product in the box was a sample-sized NUMBER 4 Lumiere d'hiver Super Comb Prep & Protect spray which retails for £20.00 on the BIRCHBOX website. You apply this to towel-dried hair by spraying and then combing through before styling as normal. It claims to strengthen and repair hair strands as well as detangling and taming flyaways.
Although this is a sample-sized product I think it's quite a generous size and I'll get quite a few uses out of it! 

SPECTRUM COLLECTIONS Tapered Powder
Brush - £7.99

The next product I got in the box is one of my two favourites -  A SPECTRUM COLLECTIONS Tapered Powder Brush which was (obviously) full-size and retails for £7.99 on the BIRCHBOX website. 
First of all - how BEAUTIFUL is this brush!? It's extremely soft (I can't stop feeling it at the moment!) and I love the design of these - definitely my favourite brush design I've seen (apart from the REAL TECHNIQUES Bold Metals collection) with it's pale pink handle and ombre blue to purple bristles.
The tapered end means you can be really precise with the brush and I'm really happy to receive this as I haven't got a smaller powder brush. Make-up brushes are definitely one of my favourite things to receive - very impressed with this product!

COHINE Hand & Body Lotion - £19.00.

The next product was a sample-sized COCHINE Water Hyacinth & Lime Blossom Hand & Body Lotion which retails for £19.00 on the BIRCHBOX website. The packaging for this product is really nice as it feels like you're using a luxury brand product; you also get quite a lot of product for a sample-size (I'll be using my sample as a hand cream). The scent is also really nice - quite subtle with a hint of lime. I like receiving hand/body creams in sample sizes as I very rarely get through a full-sized version of this type of product anyway! This was a nice little addition to the box.

The second of my favourite products (and final one) in the box was a full-sized, LOC (Love Of Colour) One and Done Shadow Stick in the shade "Champagne Problems" which retails for £8.00 on the BIRCHBOX website. 
Each subscribers got to choose between two different shades - I chose "Champagne Problems" as it was definitely my favourite type of shade, a champagne-gold with silvery undertones. The other shade was "Perfect Cents" which I believe was more of an orangey-gold (it looked like a lovely colour, just not what I usually go for). 

I am extremely impressed with this product! It has such a creamy formula which is so easy to blend out and I think they definitely need to produce more shades of this! It claims that it is waterproof and that it can last up to 11 hours without creasing - I haven't tested it for that long yet but I've had it on my wrist for nearly 2 hours now and it hasn't changed one bit from when I applied it.

I'd love to try out more shades from this product and other products from the LOC brand as I'm so impressed with this.

Overall I am so pleased with my first box from BIRCHBOX - there isn't one product that I'm not looking forward to trying out or that I disliked. I love that they supplied a range of brands, to try out some of which I'd never heard before, and their sample sizes were generous! I also like the fact that the two best products (in my opinion) were the full-sized products in the box. I am extremely excited to receive next month's box now and I urge you to check out their website and subscription service!

If you are at all interested in signing up for a monthly subscription (which you are able to cancel at any time), I'd really appreciate it if you did so through my personal link!
Thank you for reading,

Holly Amber X

Note: Today I reached 5000 views on my blog which made me so happy - thank you to every single person who takes 2 minutes out of their day to read a post, I appreciate it so much, it's so encouraging! I was always so nervous about starting something like this until I took the leap and had a bit of faith in myself - 5000 may not seem a lot to some people but to me it represents a lot of time and effort on my half and love and encouragement from your half :)

"And suddenly you just know its time to start something new & trust the magic of beginnings"