A N   O D E   T O   B I R C H B O X

I remember when I first started blogging (back in 2012), beauty boxes were The Thing To Blog About. As a then-newbie lifestyle blogger in a UK market populated by beauty and fashion blogs, I never felt like these monthly beauty subscription boxes (GlossyBox, and the like) were something that I should really go out of my way to cover.

Not to mention the fact that back then I had absolutely ZERO interest in beauty as a whole, and wouldn’t have been able to muster up the faintest scrap of enthusiasm for the concept!

However, my 2016 self is a very different person. Being part of the blogging industry for almost four years (FOUR! That’s madness…) has given me a real love for all things beauty and skincare related, and whilst I still consider myself a total dunce on the subject, I’m always so interested in testing new products, finding myself the perfect skincare routine, and perfecting the art of creating a beautiful day-to-day makeup look.

Over the past year or so I’ve come to know Birchbox pretty well (after having been to a couple of their always-chic and well put together events), and have been lucky enough to have their beauty boxes arrive on my doorstep for the past few months.

I realised the other day that it was probably about time I wrote a little review here about how much I’ve come to enjoy these lovely boxes, after I realised that I now owe half the products in my beauty and skincare regime to discoveries made thanks to Birchbox!

This month’s box is a collaboration between Birchbox and the Rifle Paper Co, which has resulted in the prettiest floral print box that I just know I’ll be keeping hold of in the interests of storage and organisation.

The products featured are a lovely teatree-scented foot cream, Benefit’s Dew the Hoola (a new liquid form of their classic bronzer- I cannot WAIT to test this out!), a moisturising under-eye concealer, detangling spray (always a Godsend for me), and an eyeliner than looks to be 1000x creamier and more pigmented than the L’Oreal one I’m currently using up.

I tend not to test all the products in one go, and instead usually pop them all into the ‘samples’ draw of my desk in the front bedroom (a.k.a. the nursery-to-be, eeek!) and then dip into it whenever I’m in need of a new moisturiser/face mask/hair smoothing spray/etc. etc.

So many of the products I use on a daily basis now have come via these boxes- Benefit’s Roller Lash (the BEST mascara I’ve ever used), Embryolisse Lait-Creme Concentre moisturiser, Penhaligon’s Iris Prima perfume (I wore this on my wedding day, and just adore it), ModelCo brow gel, and so many more besides.

Even Jason’s fallen in love with This Work’s Deep Sleep plus spray, and recently treated himself to the full size version!

So, whilst I might be four years late on the whole idea of giving monthly subsciption boxes some airtime, please consider Birchbox officially ‘shouted out’ here on CwR!

Oh, and I feel like I need to make a little disclaimer here that though the boxes I receive are sent to me as a press sample, I’m in no way being asked or incentivised to write about Birchbox on my blog! Enthusiasm for all things beauty-by-post 100% author’s own…