The 90’s Birchbox! (Feb 2018)

Everybody must have one of those days where nothing seems to go as planned – Saturday was that day for me!

I had wanted to use my anchor hair scarf from Collectif all week (as Saturday was my one day off), but due to re-organising our spare room, I could not for the life of me find my hairspray, comb, or anything I needed, it seemed! But I did what I could, so please excuse my ‘unpolished’ look!

So, I received my Birchbox this week! There was a choice of decade themed boxes – 70’s, 80’s or 90’s. As my favourite decades are the 40s and 50’s, I chose the 90’s box, as I am a 90’s baby! I wanted to use all the products to test them out and give my opinions, while creating a vintage inspired look (not from the 1990’s, may I add!).

This months box for me included –

• Luseta ‘Coconut Milk Hair Mask’
• Balance Me ‘Wonder Eye Cream’
• Percy and Reed ‘Quite Frankly Flawless Finishing Polish’
• The Beauty Crop eyeshadow trio in ‘Love You So Latte’
• Pixi shea butter lip balm in ‘Pixi Pink’
• A voucher for 10 free retro photo prints from ‘Cheerz’

The first product I tried earlier in the week, was the coconut milk hair mask. It has a delicate coconut scent, which I really liked, and as my hair has been in more of a drier state recently, the mask was welcomed! I used my usual Aussie Miracle Shine shampoo (although of course the mask recommends the accompanying coconut milk shampoo!), and as instructed, smoothed the product through the mid to tip part of my hair and left for 5 minutes. My hair did feel softer and nourished, so this product is a win for me! I do love a good hair mask in my routine.

I believe I have tried the Balance Me ‘Wonder Eye Cream’ previously, but it clearly didn’t leave a lasting memory! I find eye creams a bit hit and miss as I would like them to clear my dark circles and depuff the bags, but I think that is perhaps a lot to ask for! Also, eye creams need more than a weeks worth of testing in my opinion, as this cream tells us it addresses ‘dark shadows, firm skin and reduces puffiness’. I obviously can’t tell you if this has happened after only a couple of applications, but it was lightweight and hydrating. But hey, I will keep trying it, maybe miracles can happen!

Onto the eyeshadows, I have to say I was a little disappointed. The trio has a golden shimmer shade, a more brown/bronzed shimmer and a matte coffee brown colour. The shimmers worked ok when applied with your finger, but I found they didn’t wear well on the eyelid, even though I had primed them. The matte colour was not very pigmented and didn’t build as well as I had hoped. I think I made it work as a soft daytime look, but it wasn’t as intense as I had wanted. I may well pick up the golden shade again in the future, but I do have better eyeshadows in my collection.

The lip balm is as advertised – a lip balm! Probably the one item I actually used in the 90’s, it is a lovely vibrant pink that offers hydration and buildable colour. My lips are rather chapped at the moment (please excuse the pictures), so a lip balm was much needed, but I do reach for my Dr PawPaw original balm to really hydrate my lips (also from a previous birchbox). The Pixi lip balm wasn’t wowing and is something I will probably keep in my handbag for when I want to add some colour on the go, but that isn’t very often!

Finally, I used the Percy and Reed polish to finish my pony tail. My hair do was the bit that did not go as planned – I wanted a big swoop in the front of my hair and a high pony tail. I had to try and tease with a round brush, as all other brushes had gone AWOL and my hairspray is also nowhere to be seen. I had to use my Suavecita groming spray to give some hold instead, and it did do a little bit! The finishing polish, according to the Birchbox booklet, would ‘smooth and add shine’ because as you may remember, the 90’s were all about sleek, high pony tails. It also says the polish contacts horse chestnut to ‘keep your do in place without leaving it stiff or greasy’ and sunflower wax for a ‘gentle injection of moisture’. Sadly, all this polish did, was make my hair the tiniest bit softer. I ran it through the ponytail and the teased front section of my hair, but nothing happened. At all. It was a definitely a flop. But a positive I suppose, is that I didn’t leave a residue in my hair, in fact it was as if there was no product in my hair at all! And so the layers in my hair decided to flick out, how I wished I had straightened or curled it, or found any of them items I had needed in the first place!

This is my final look and as I’m sure you can see, the smile is quite forced. I thought if I tried looked happy and confident, it will make the look work… I will let you decide if that is the case!

Did you receive a Birchbox this month? Or have you tried these products? I’d love to hear how they worked for you!