April Birchbox - In bloom

A tiny bit late with this one as we're now in May but thought I'd do a little review of April's In Bloom Birchbox that I kindly received at the Brighton Blogger Meet recently. I had a little foray (just googled foray and that's not the right word), a little journey into the world of beauty boxes last year with Glossybox and Carmine, but felt that the products weren't really suited well to me. 
Birchbox is the reworked version of Joliebox and each month provides 4-5 medium to high-end beauty samples to your door for £12.95. I was excited to take a look into the Birchbox drawstring bag to see what goodies beauty boxes have to offer twelve months on from when I subscribed, here are my thoughts:

First off, I really like the idea of having a drawstring bag as well as a box, it's really useful and I think a much better way of containing the products than lots of tissue or paper shavings. I will definitely be getting use out of the bag and actual box as its a handy little size.

Paname Paris Mirror £7.50- This mirror has such a cute little design and is the perfect make up bag size, I like that it isn't a compact so you don't have to have a quick fiddle before checking out your face. Not sure that I would pay full price for it but I will definitely be using it nonetheless.

Weleda Skin Food £5.95- Weleda's products are all 100% natural and this is a very emolient balmy type salve that has a sweet orangey rosemary-y smell. Because it's so thick I'm not sure Id use this on my face but it will make a great hand cream and will be perfect for my dried out knees!

Gerda Spillmann Renaissance Age Serum £69- Honestly, this is the kind of product I dread from beauty boxes- its very very expensive so if I do love it I will never own it, and its anti aging which isn't really suited to my 21 year old skin. It contains edelwiess, smells nice and sinks in easily with it's liquid gel texture. I will try it out, but I might end up giving it to my mum.

Natio Gentle Foaming Facial Cleanser £6.80- Now this is more within my price range, my heart did sink a bit when I couldn't find the price on the Birchbox website and I was thinking more £168 or something daft, but £6.80? and available from Tesco? Tell me more! Natio is an Australian brand and this cleanser contains shea butter, sandalwood and rosewood with a neutral ph to avoid upsetting the skin. Tesco brands Natio as being pure and natural but looking at the ingredients, I'm pretty sure Propylene Glycol, Methylparaben and Potassium Hydroxide dont grow on trees so maybe they just meant the fragrant extracts? This product has a herby smell that reminds me a bit of Savlon but that I quite like. I'm looking forward to trying out this pearlescent cream cleanser as my skin has been a bit irritated recently.

La Societe Parisienne de Savons Savon a L'origan £8.50- The smell of this soap was the first thing that hit me when I opened the Birchbox and it has a nice clean scent, more complex than you get from a cheapy hand soap. It's presented in nice retro style packaging with a little blurb about Oregano and it's mythology as Aphrodite's love potion. I usually buy Simple bar soap which is about £2.50 for 4 but gets the job done so it will be interesting to try out a luxurious soap and see whether my hands are anything more than, well.. clean!

Mirenesse Glossy Kiss in Perfect Kiss £17.50- This lip crayon is a medium pinky red shot through with gold glitter and can be built up from sheer to bold. It feels quite balmy on the lips but has the added bonus of also being a cheek product (you know how much I like putting lip products on my cheeks!) and is easy to blend out. The packaging says it has 'self renewing shine' and I'm not quite sure what that means but I've worn it a few times already and it is quite long lasting. This isn't a shade I'd normally go for but I do like the formula so far, so have been coaxed out of my current light pink phase. Be warned though, blended out this is very glittery!

Well, this did make a change to my normal reviews, and with it not being as gushy as usual it might seem like I got out of the wrong side of the bed this morning! I think beauty boxes will always be a bit hit and miss- without being able to pick out your own products there's bound to be things you would never have chosen for yourself. With that said, I will definitely use all of the products from April's Birchbox but whether I'll purchase the full sizes is yet to be seen.

I'm not sure whether this box has convinced me to subscribe to a beauty box again, I'm still undecided, but I do like the look of the products in the May box.... hmm.....!