It feels like forever since I did a Birchbox review! I still get my box every month, but I’ve been nowhere near organised enough to take pics and review the contents. One of my aims this year was to go back to some of my older blog posts for inspiration. One thing I want to do more of again is beauty reviews and going back to regularly reviewing my Birchbox seems like a great place to start.
Birchbox is a monthly beauty subscription box, packed with high-end surprise beauty products which arrive at your door once a month. I’ve been subscribed for a few years now and always love getting my surprise package through the post.
There are always a few products that I love in each Birchbox, but often a couple that I know I won’t really use. This months box is a perfect one for me, as I was pretty impressed with all the products. The box itself is also really pretty. I like to reuse them to store my vintage jewellery in, so a lovely looking box is always a bonus.
This month’s box was a collaboration with cute lifestyle brand Ohh Deer, who sell quirky stationary, homewares and clothing with lovely graphics.
The box included a lovely set of Ohh Deer stickers. There was also a 20% discount code to use on the website, which is awesome.
The first product I tried was the Paul and Joe Beauty Moisturising Foundation Primer. I’ve admired the gorgeous packaging from this beauty range for years. I love the vintage look and think it would look amazing on a vintage dressing table. Somehow I’ve managed to never have tried any of the products though. I had high hopes for this one and it didn’t disappoint. This lovely primer makes a perfect base for under makeup. It’s super moisturising and very smoothing. It has a slight shimmer which makes my skin look fresh and glowing. The full sized version of this costs £24.
Next I tried the Lord and Berry Blusher Crayon in the shade Camelia. I’ve never used a blusher crayon before, so I was intrigued to see how well it worked. I love other make up in crayon form, I have lots of eye, lip and highlighting products that come as crayons. This one was pretty good. It was easy to apply and blended well. The colour was surprisingly subtle, but is quite buildable. The RRP for this is £15.
Probably my favourite product from the box is the Thermaliv Night Cream, mostly because I’m a big skincare geek. I’m always on the lookout for good night creams to try. This one is packed with awesome ingredients and made my skin feel really good. It’s surprisingly light for a night cream, but sits nicely on the skin. If I wasn’t completely loyal to my Elemis night cream, this is definitely one I’d consider purchasing. It’s also far more affordable at just £15.75 for the full sized product, so I may repurchase when I need a budget friendly product.
Next up was the Marcelle Waterproof Eyeliner in the shade Charcoal. Recently I’ve been wearing less liquid liner and going for more subtle make-up for everyday. This is a nice addition to my make-up bag and something I will definitely get a lot of use out of. This eyeliner is super soft and glides on effortlessly. It’s also waterproof and stays put all day. The colour is really nice and a softer alternative to black. The RRP for this is £10.99.
The last product is one I’ve not heard of before. Afterspa is a special magic cloth, designed to take off all your make up without using any products. It lasts up to 1000 washes. I tested this on all kinds of make up, including lipstick foundation, mascara and eyeliner. The only one it struggled with was my liquid liner, which is pretty hard to take off anyway. On the whole this works really well and feels really nice to use. Its very handy to have in my gym bag for quickly taking my make-up off before I work out. I was happily surprised by how good this one was. These usually cost £5.50.
What did you think of the contents of this months box?
If you’d like to receive a monthly Birchbox too, I have a refer a friend link which gives you your first box half price.
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I thought it would be fun to share some of my favourite cups and mugs on here. I already owned a lot, but my friends and family know we far too well and bought me lots of new ones for my birthday and Christmas, so the collection has grown a lot recently. In fact I’ve even been given two new ones this week, which I will have to include in a future post!
Two recent additions to my mug collection, are my 
Rob chose this two because London and Bath are my two favourite cities. The Bath one was quite hard to find as it is a limited addition and only available from No1 Royal Crescent in Bath, so he gets extra points for effort in getting this one for me!
My next choice was a birthday present from my mum. The 
You may have seen quite a lot of my 
Last year I collected lots of things that were cream and gold. I got this huge 
My Mickey and Minnie mugs are from Disney World, I bought them when we went to Florida a few years ago. They remind me of an amazing family holiday. I don’t use these very often, but they live in a special cupboard with all my other Disney mugs.
When everyone went crazy for the cute Chip mugs in Primark, I missed out on getting my hands on one. Luckily when they restocked I managed to pick up two of them. Beauty and the Beast is my favourite Disney film, so I love these a lot!
As you probably know I’m a but obsessed with the 
Another two of my most precious mugs are these two from Cath Kidston. These were gifts from the girls for my last two mothers days. I’m hoping to get another one this year! I love the pretty designs.
Last these stacking Cath Kidston Mickey Mouse mugs were a birthday gift from my friend Holly. This was one of my all time favourite prints and I’m just go sad they didn’t do a dress in this design. At least I can enjoy a tea in these lovely mugs though!
Which is your favourite mug from my collection. Do you have lots of different ones?
This year I want to put lots of time into my Etsy shop and selling vintage again. I enjoy this so much and I enjoy finding nice things to sell, cleaning and repairing them and sending them off to their new homes.
This year I’ve done a lot more listening to Audible rather than picking up a physical book. This is partly because I’ve been super busy and listening on the go is super handy. It’s also because my eyes haven’t been very happy this year due to my Intercranial Hypertension (more on that maybe one day). Anyway on to last years reads…
I re-read a couple of Jane Austen’s books. I’ve read them all so many times I lose count! Having watched Decline and Fall on TV I decided to read a couple of Evelyn Waugh Books. I’ve read a couple of his books before, but not Brideshead or Decline and Fall. I really enjoyed both of them.
Long term readers will know I love biographies of interesting women so Coco Chanel – The Legend and The Life was a great choice for me. I wrote a review of this one for the blog, which I haven’t got round to publishing yet. I’ll try total some pics and get that up this week. I also re-read Take Six Girls, a book about the Mitford sisters that I read last year. It’s a really good read and absolutely fascinating.
Having read about the Mitford sisters I had to then re-read some of my favourite Nancy Mitford novels. I lover her writing so much, I can’t help going back to these a lot!
My favourite book of the year would have to be Lucy Worsley’s Jane Austen At Home. This is about as good as biography gets I just couldn’t put this one down. It’s a well researched, beautifully written look at one of my favourite authors and I couldn’t recommend it enough.
Another highlight of the year was The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry, this unusual and mysterious novel was one I really enjoyed. I also re-read Murder on The Orient Express rather than watching the new film! I finished the year with some festive chick lit and a very interesting book about the OJ Simpson trial by prosecutor Marcia Clark.