She Said Beauty Box - November

Happy November! I can't believe it's only 43 days until Christmas. I really do need to start my Christmas shopping and as usual don't know where to begin.

Festive panic aside, I was very pleased to discover a mid-week treat at the Post Office in the form of my November She Said Beauty box:

You can tell from the ripped tissue paper that I was extra keen this month. After last month's slightly disappointing offering I was curious to see whether or not this one was any better.

Let's take a look inside:

 

1) So...? Brit Body Spray - I remember the So? series from my days at school where we were all gassing each other in the girls' toilets with aerosols, Impulse anyone? This can be snapped up at a bargainous £1.99 in most high street drugstores. The scent itself is quite hard to describe, but I'll cut it short at fresh, floral and light. This sample is an excellent size for the handbag.

2) Redken Smooth Lock Shampoo & Conditioner -This looks to be the revamped 'Smooth Down' range which I've already tried and loved as a fan of smooth, sleek manageable hair. I do like Redken products and think that they're great for when you want to spend a little more on giving your hair a treat. That said I'm very much looking forward to using these. The full size bottles cost £11.85 and £13.40 respectively and can be found in salons nationwide.

3) Murrays Manicure Matchbook Nail Files - Well these are very cute aren't they? There's not much you can say about minature nail files really! These will also be finding their way into my handbag.

4) Weleda Wild Rose Smoothing Night Cream - This cream contains oil from organically grown Rosa mosqueta seeds which apparently aids the regeneration of the outermost layer of the skin overnight and helps soften fine lines. Rose can be a bit of a Marmite smell (love it or hate it), but I've always been a fan even if it does remind me a little of my Grandma. I've not tried any products from Weleda so I'm looking forward to giving this a try. The full size (30ml) is available for £14.95.

5) Makebelieve Enhance Sunbeam Bronzer and Blush - Now this is definitely the product that stands out this month due to its sheer size! I'm pleased that this is a shade that compliments my skin tone and it gives me a subtle glow which is much appreciated on these cold winter days. The coupling with the kabuki brush is a nice touch, but I prefer my MAC kabuki as it's slightly denser. The one offputting thing about this bronzer is the bulkiness of the packaging. It's so cumbersome that I'm going to depot it into a palette or other container as soon as I can in order to make it more portable. This is the full sized product and retails for £15. This more than made up for the cost of the whole beauty box!

6) Yardley Royal English Daisy Eau de Toilette - Ahh, the obligatory perfume sample. This is a fresh, floral fragrance that actually does smell of sunshine, I love it. I do think it's more of a spring/summer scent though and would be more inclined to use it when I can get out there and enjoy the actual sunshine! 50ml of this fragrance retails for £9.99 and 125ml at £14.99 which isn't bad at all.
 

Overall, I am very impressed with this month's offering. A full size product worth more than the box itself and not a sachet in sight. Keep it up SSB and you'll have some very happy subscribers!


Did you receive this box or a variation of it this month? What did you think?

She Said Beauty Box - October

Hello! I hope you're all settling into Autumn and are keeping warm as the nights are drawing in. Oh I can't wait until both of my commutes to work are in the dark. SAD here I come...

Without further ado let's delve into this month's She Said Beauty box!

 

I was rather impatient this month and couldn't resist having a snoop at a few other bloggers' reviews of this box and was surprised at the number of negative ones. Ok I suppose I wasn't that enthusiastic to be greeted with several sachets when I ripped open the tissue paper and as far as samples go I think they could be a little more substantial, but I'm still willing to give the products a fair trial.

1) Cellnique Advanced Bio Renewal Masque - This is probably the smallest pot I have ever seen! It contains a mask that claims to exfoliate and cleanse with the aid of fresh fruit enzymes and acids. Acids!? Anyhow it does smell fruity and I as mentioned in my previous SSB blog I do like an excuse to scare the boyfriend, even if I only get to once with this tiny sample of product. A full size version is $51 from their US-based site.

2) B.liv Off With Those Heads - The image of the sample on the product information card was a little misleading and instead of a mini pump bottle as you can see I got a little tube. This gel has been formulated to help remove black/whiteheads and prevent further breakouts. Unfortunately I don't think I'll have much of a use for this product as I don't suffer from blemishes that often. I might keep it handy though just in case! 

3) Herbacin Wuta Kamille Hand Cream - Hooray a full size product! I can honestly say that I've never seen a hand-specific cream come in a Vaselinesque tin before (I should write my own dictionary shouldn't I?) This is an all-natural product which I hope will help me keep my hands nice and soft in the coming winter months. I can see the tin being a little messy and perhaps a tube might be a little more convenient, but nonetheless I'm looking forward to trying this.

4) Biao Beauty Rejuvenating Night Cream - Time to broach the subject of the pesky sachets. They both contain the same product, a pretty bog standard sounding night cream promising to soothe, moisturise and protect against premature ageing. Again I wish I had more of this product as I like to try skincare for a period of time significant enough to tell whether it suits me and benefits my skin. A full size of this product will cost you $24.50 from Biao's website.

5) Palmer's Cocoa Butter Formula - Now this I was pleased to see. I've always wanted to try a Palmers moisturiser, but I've just never got round to it. Plus I have a slight love for cocoa butter (complete chocoholic)...It smells like a milkshake and let's face it although it's a travel size sample I'm not going to wait until a holiday to use it! This will be ideal for keeping my skin hydrated in the cooler temperatures. 50ml of this product costs £1.19 and 250ml a bargainous £3.85. This will be avaliable anywhere you see Palmer's on the shelves!

6) BONUS - myvitamins Chromium tablets (30) - Well I never once imagined that I'd be receiving pills in a beauty box, but these were an intriguing surprise! If I'm perfectly honest I had to Google the benefits of Chromium supplements and discovered that it is an essential trace element that can be taken to enhance the effects of insulin and lower glucose levels - thanks WebMD! I need to keep reminding myself that taking these will not excuse eating an excessive number of Wispa bars.

Overall I'm neither here nor there with this box. There's a good range of products and I'm looking forward to using the samples, but I'm a little disappointed at the small sample sizes. Let's wait and see what next month has in store!

She Said Beauty Box - September

Whoops, it seems like it's been rather a long time since my last post...I apologise. I was abroad for half of August and have been spending the remainder catching up with life. I seem to have timed my return well for the delivery of the She Said Beauty boxes. As you can see, mine is below:

  

There seems to have been a little drama at their end this month as the wrong names got printed onto the wrong address labels. I have had only positive experiences with their customer service department and I knew that they would handle this mishap well. They let their customers know about the mistake well ahead of time and it seems like no harm has been done. In fact I quite enjoyed my five minutes of being Maddison.

There's the visual overview, so what exactly can subscribers look forward to sampling this month? It's definitely an exciting selection!

1. Collection 2000 Fix Me Up Long Lasting Make-Up Fixer - I've always felt a little 'meh' about Collection 2000 and I've never really been that inspired to try their products. However I'm not one to say no to samples! This and the primer detailed below are full size products and retail for £5.99 each so I can't complain really. This product claims to, well, keep make-up in place throughout the day. I'll definitely be giving this a try while the weather is still behaving and my make-up risks going a little south!

2. Popchips Original - Well a food product isn't exactly something you'd expect in a beauty box, but I'm going to roll with it. There's only 46 calories in this bag which should keep me feeling virtuous.

3. Amie Spring Clean Cooling Clay Mask - A brand that is new to me. This is a deep cleansing mask which claims to get rid of dirt and impurities, soak up excess oil and prevent blemishes. It is free from parabens, sulphates, mineral oils, GMO and animal extracts. This sounds perfect for a pampering day where I fancy scaring the living daylights out of the boyfriend. This retails for £4.95 full size.

4. DHC Deep Cleansing Oil - Another full size product, oh She Said Beauty you are really spoiling us this month! This is designed to remove make-up and generally cleanse your skin. You dispense it into dry hands and massage it on to a dry face where it can work its magic. I have little experience using cleansing oils apart from those specifically meant for removing eye make-up so I'm really looking forward to trying this. In the shops it is available in three different size bottles (this one is perfect for travelling!)

5. Ginvera Green Tea Whitening Marvel Gel - Ooh another product from Ginvera. I really really liked the BB cream that they sent out in a previous beauty box and have been scouting their website for the a couple of other products to try so this is a nice suprise. This is an exfoliater which claims to stimulate the skin's metabolism, refine pores, fade pigmentation and scars, regulate and balance oil secretion, even out skin tone and aids the absorption of other skincare products. Wow. Let's see if that's the case! I'd hope so as the full size version of this product is a significant £22.

6. Collection 2000 Primed & Ready Smoothing Make-Up Primer - Finally another product from Collection 2000 and this time it's a primer. I'll be looking into using a primer more often as we sink deeper and deeper into the cooler months so this seems like as good as any to try! I'm not too sure about the packaging of the two products here from this range. It screams Comic Sans a little bit.

Well there we have it, no huge names but a generous selection of a range of products. Do let me know what you think of these products if you have also received them this month. I hope to let you know my opinions as I use them. Be sure to follow me on Twitter to make sure you keep up to date with my ramblings :)

She Said Beauty Box - July

It's that time of the month again! This week I found my second She Said Beauty box on my doorstep (well not actually, I had to go and pick it up from the Post Office).

I do love the colour of the boxes...

Anyway this month I opened it to discover the following awaiting me:

1. Miners Cosmetics Sunblushed Bronzer and Blush Blend - At last a make up product in a beauty box that I feel I could actually make use of. It's not too browny or orangy as some blushes can be, this seems like a nice mixture of a pale rose pink and a light shimmering brown. I can definitely see myself using this seeing as I have a rather pale complexion. Lovely.

2. Murad Time Release Blemish Cleanser - This looks familiar! I received an identical sample of this in one of my previous Glossyboxes. I've heard great things about Murad skincare products and I'm slightly gutted that I won't be able to use this. I have normal skin that's prone to dry patches and have never suffered greatly from blemishes or acne so I don't really have any use for this. I'll probably pass this on to a friend!

3. Stylefile - No doubt familiar to those of you who watch The Apprentice (UK). This is a product that has been invented by a previous winner of the series, Tom Pellereau. The S-shape of the file is designed to follow the natural contour of the nail, making filing easier. Apparently he got the idea from watching his sister filing her nails...aww.

4. Freeze 24-7 Ice Crystals Anti-Aging Prep & Polish - This is a mini-sample of an exfoliator. That's about it really! I'll give it a go when I'm having a dry face day. A full size tube of this retails for £33 so I have high expectations.

5. The Vintage Cosmetic Company Eyelash Curler - Well this is an eyelash curler. It came at just the right time as my MAC ones decided to ping apart the other day :(

6. Debenhams Beauty Club Reward Card - Basically a card like the Boots Advantage Card/Tesco Clubcard, but for Debenhams. Not something I'd thought about getting previously, but  I'll put this in my purse and no doubt it'll come in handy next time I make a purchase from there (if I remember I have it in there!)

Overall I'm pleased with this box and am looking forward to trying the products. I do however have a slight niggle. That is the fact that these beauty box companies obviously send out a variety of products to their subscribers and sometimes the cards in the boxes don't exactly match up to what's actually in the box. It'd be nice if they could do this so a little blurb of all the possible products is there to prevent the need for uneccesary Googling!

More on this in my next post... :)

She Said Beauty Box - June

If any of you have been reading my tweets, you may have noticed that I got rather frustrated at last month's Glossybox. The yellow eyeliner was the last straw for me and unfortunately I felt I had to unsuscribe. Too many perfume samples and products that I just wouldn't use made me wonder if my money could be better spent elsewhere. Introducing my first She Said Beauty Box:

Ok, that's not a terribly exciting or informative picture, but I like the colour of the box for starters. I failed at taking a picture of the Glossybox-esque presentation on opening the box (tissue paper tied with a ribbon and sticker).

First impressions were excellent. I actually said "oooh" when I saw that the box contained products from both Elemis AND St Tropez. Yes please! Here's a closer look at exactly what I received:

1. Balance Me Super Moisturising Hand Cream - another hand cream to add to the collection, but a great size for popping in your handbag. The little sticker on the tube states that this cream was a Beauty Insider's Choice winner.

2. St Tropez Gradual Tan Everyday Body Moisturiser - now this couldn't have come at a better time! I have a wedding to go to next Saturday and this (if it works) will make me look less like a Cullen in the photos. I'm very impressed with the size of this sample.

3. Ginvera Green Tea Nude Cover BB Cream - a little magazine sized sample but one I'll be trying. This claims to do so many things; if it does them all it really will be a wonderful product.

4. Let's Go lashes - finally some lashes that look vaguely wearable. I'm really not a fan of those thick lashes that make you look like a giraffe so given the right occassion these shall definitely be gracing my eyelids.

5. Yardley London Royal Diamond Eau de Toilette - a perfume sample yes, but from a brand I recognise and one with a Royal endorsement no less. This fragrance has been created in celebration of the Queen's jubilee and on first smell seems to be a light, pretty scent which could be perfect for summer.

6. Elemis Tranquil Touch Indulgent Bath Elixir - although this is essentially bubble bath, I will always be very keen to use products by Elemis. My local spa uses and sells this brand and I haven't been disappointed yet. This is something that'll make a bathroom look more sophisticated as well - a bonus!

On first glance the St Tropez gradual tanner seems to be the stand-out product of this box (in my opinion anyway):

Overall, I am really impressed with this box and I look forward to seeing what's inside next month. I'll be sure to review these products as I use them!

If you'd like to subscribe to the She Said Beauty box, just click on the link below, sign up and I'll give you a hug :)

https://www.shesaidbeauty.com/invite/XONWT

It is currently £9.00 plus postage and packaging and there are subscription packages for one month at a time, 3 months, 6 months and 1 year.

Let me know what you think of the products if you have received this box :)