Another day, another Birchbox roundup. Or something.
I've been really bad about actually trying out the samples in my Birchbox lately [although I've gotten quite excellent at letting them collect dust on my dresser...], so it'll be interesting to see how much commentary I have to drum up on the different items, haha. I'm working on being better at actually using beauty products and samples, since my tendency is to hoard them out of fear of something running out, but considering how low maintenance my daily routine has been lately given my increased working hours, I'm not likely to reach for a fancy face product or new hair thing on an average day; I'm barely likely to even slightly blowdry my hair at night before crawling in bed. I also can't wear fragrance at the hospital/clinic, so it's a little unfortunate that I've been receiving so many fragrance samples recently - I do love trying and wearing perfume, but it's not likely to happen on the one day I haven't been at the hospital each week.
So. That was quite a Debbie Downer worthy paragraph, wasn't it? Let's move on.
MAY
This is the second time I've received a sample of COOLA sunscreen, I think; I packed both little tubes on vacation with me and wore it all over Málaga. I love the scent, and I appreciate how lightweight it feels when actually on my face. My skin doesn't like wearing a lot of sunscreen for multiple days in a row - it tends to get really bumpy and annoyed with me - and I really didn't have too many issues when on vacation this time. All around thumbs up. I've tried using this salt spray in my hair a couple of times and haven't noticed a huge difference, but I'm mostly still a novice when it comes to texturizing sprays like this so I probably need to refine my technique before offering a final opinion. I remember trying on that lip lacquer at least once after opening this box and having an overall favorable reaction, but I don't recall a lot of specifics; it surprised me a little, I think, by being more liquid lipstick-ish and less gloss-like than I had been expecting.
JUNE
I have been using this shampoo + mask combo probably once a week, I think, since receiving it and like it pretty well overall. I can't claim there's a huge difference compared to my normal shampoo, but it does leave my hair feeling clean and that's what really matters overall. I've used this Real Chemistry peel on my face before but the fact that this product is specifically labeled BODY makes me curious as to if there's a major difference. The scent of this Helmut Lang perfume is a bit interesting - it either grows on you or it doesn't. That's all there is to it. The big hoopla for this month's Birchbox was the release of all these new Benefit brow products. I don't fuss much with my brows normally, beyond trying to keep bushy crazy mess tamed into 2 distinct brows, so the prospect of this brow gel wasn't something I was super stoked over. I did try it out once and thought it worked decently well. I'm not going to be a brow product convert, but I will happily experiment with using this sample.
JULY
I've heard a lot of good chatter about Cargo cosmetics, so if I ever manage to bother putting on blush and/or bronzer [two things I've never used in my life], I'm curious to see how these samples will hold up to the hype. I own and love this Clinique face soap, so that was a nice surprise to find in my box this month. I've also tried a sample of this dr. brandt face scrub before, thanks to Sephora, so that's another something I know I'll put to good use - I might be kind of more than a little addicted to face scrubs. Maybe.